The inaugural project is done, thank you all for making it possible! Now its time to see how it went and what can be done to improve things in the future. The goal for this project was to get to grips with Patron and how it works, set map quality standards and create a base for future projects. I choose the theme in order to limit the complexity of the map, meaning no water or vegetation quite literary just the bare rock. So how did it go? Here I of course need your input but here are my views.
The Crater map is both some of my best work so far but also probably my most useless map ever. Technically I overcame a lot of limitations that I have struggled with until now, like vertical resolution and modularity. Most projects I've done so far have been huge areas that had to be mapped in a for the task very short time span. This required lots of cheating in the form of editing images afterwards rather than building the world properly. This project was 30 miles across and could be done in a month, which hopefully means that when no new major features have to be developed a much larger area can be mapped in the same time. The next project I'll try and make it at least 4 times the size.
Final quality is where I hoped it would be with an extremely detailed map at 10 per pixel. Just a bunch of desert dust and rocks but highly detailed desert! I'm most happy with how well the isometric perspective turned out, and that I could use Vue to create it. A bit of inconsistency in the 3D renderings, using different atmospheres and haphazard camera views which don't help determine size and scale. This is another of my criticisms of this project, no proper sense of scale. I need to figure out a better way than just a simple distance marker to indicate scale. Scale presentation in 3D is high on my list on things to improve on for future projects.
Project updates, on commissioned work things are normally secret until launch so I need to better live up to the fack that I'm working for you guys. So the question is daily tidbits and rants of what I'm up to at the moment or a bit less frequent but more thought through reports, or both. Please let me know!
A major thing that I where not prepared enough for was the amount of interest in the Cartography Pledge Level. I'm VERY grateful for all of you who have pledge at this level, and I'm also not happy with how I have treated you so far. The main thing missing is video presentation. Most of the stuff I'm working with are hard to grasp, and I'm not a vary skilled writer (there are are reasons you do maps instead of adventure writing). Video presentation on how to do things are essential, and they will be part of all future projects. Maybe even interactive Google hangouts or something like that too if there are interest in that.
The next project will be Islands and be in two different parts. Part one will be to use an island or group of islands to introduce water, vegetation and hopefully even basic roads and settlements. It will also be bi enough to have to be rendered in parts and then stitched back together again. This so we can make sure it it possible to map large areas and then reassemble them. The second part will be Lendore Isle, which will be mapped under the guidance of Lenard Lakofka.
Here are a few screen shots of my work with lakes, rivers and forests. They don't look like much yet, but I got the features working, and they are well integrated into the work flow. To make them look pretty is actually the easier part of the equation.
Next post will be a presentation of Egos, my technical world that will be used for all the generic maps to develop things. Sounds a bit boring, but I think it can be quite the place in the future. It will have some of most impressive features ever mapped in 3D for any fantasy world. When we have it working in Egos, the same techniques can and will be used to map those iconic locations well cherish in our game worlds. And you can also use the locations in egos for your own campaign there of the name!
