One of the many projects planned this year is to a yearly update to my existing Flanaess map. I've done this the past three years since it was first published in its entirety. This years make over I'm planning for some more drastic alterations I've wanted to do for a long time. 

The terrain has been untouched since it was finished and the style was established back in the 90's when I started working on it. My skills, taste and sense of what works best have evolved a lot since those early days, and this is especially obvious in the Flanaess terrain. Work on an new terrain have already begun, but will take a long time before it can replace the existing map, so as a intermediate solution I'm going to improve it. 

My main caveat is the overly blue oceans and rivers and slightly general over-saturation, so this is where I will concentrate my efforts. The goal is to make new parts, when ready, to fit in more seamlessly with the old bits. Labeling is another of my main issues so if I have time I'll go over some of the worst looking labels and give them a better look. This is something that will continue over the coming years as a way to improve the presentation for version 2.

My list of issues to look into have currently 336 items, and is still growing, so this is a bit of an undertaking. I will work on this on and off when I have time and as a way to develop my Illustrator skills. It will be ready sometime later this year, and I'll keep you guys updated and I will come back for more advice of how you think it should look.

With that said what do you think about the new look of the waters of the Flanaess, and please keep in mind that this is a just a quick test and not a finished look!

I started my Fantasy Cartography career 20 years ago when I started my efforts to map the world of Greyhawk. Since the earliest days its been and still is constant strive to try and get better, to learn more, acquire better tools and find a better approach. Working on a single huge map also forced me to be consistent both in technique and style, so when I had found something that worked for me I stuck with it until my Flanaess map was done. 

This meant the technology used to created are from the mid 90's and ancient by todays standards, and some of my stylistic choices also feel ancient to me now too. Despite all its shortcomings, it is a work of love and I'm still very proud of my Flanaess map. But the time has come to go back and start over again, this time not from the beginning, this time with two decades of fantasy mapping experience, new tools but with the same love of the mission and the setting.

I've not only mapped for two decades I've also read hundreds of pages of text and run hundreds of hours of games in Greyhawk and most importantly I have now a large group of friends equally dedicated to the setting that can guide me even more than last time. With this said its time to go back to the Flanaess, time for my Flanaess 2 adventure!

Last time it took me over a decade thanks to lack of skills, tools and time. This time I'm better prepared so hopefully it can be done in about half the time, but I'm still looking at this as a five years plus project. It will be up to home much time I can devote to my passion, and also how I can overcome some of the hurdles and quagmires I know are lurking on the way, and the many others I'm not yet aware of. Just like last time I have to take a leap of faith, work hard and hope for the best. The known hurdles are many, from the cartographic like how to reverse engineer the Oerth and best place the Flanaess to how to best organize the project.  

The first steps where taken last night and captured in the images in this post. Its not much to brag about yet but it is the first important steps on a long journey. The first encounter on this is the realization that my Patreon setup is in dire need of a rethink. I will give it a few days of consideration while I'm off a few days of travel. I will present my ideas on how to better go forward for discussion next week.

Thank you all for your support and I hope you want to come with me on this quest to map a Game Setting all over again! 

Time to give our first Co-Creator Darlene some ideas on what to do for her first project. So on with the thinking caps and spawn some project ideas you would like her to dig into. The limits are that is should be something than can be done in about a months time, and something she can apply one of her many talents!

On Friday I will bring all the suggestions along with my own to her and let her pick the top ones that will then be put to a Patreon Poll. 

Here comes the 2nd part of how to texture things in World Machine. You can find part 1 here: https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=4WTabiD7K1U 

You can grab the World Machine file I'm using here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ib8qw54mckcjl6m/Presentation-%20Texturing%20Advanced%20finished.tmd?dl=0 

and the grass1.tif texture here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/asb34wxv9ntbjou/grass1.tif?dl=0 

and the furuondy goodlands cool green3.tif here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/84cd6x0dxsdajrx/foryondy%20goodlands%20cool%20green3.tif?dl=0 

You can see my World Machine Texturing Part 1 video here:

https://youtu.be/4WTabiD7K1U

and you can find my World Machine Introduction video here:
https://youtu.be/EMaQr-Ox_uI

 Most of you have seen that I'm not much of the typist and it distracts a lot from what I'm doing, but voice and screen share much less so. I'm not really sure but that is how my mind works.  

My plan is to start some form of video streaming/conference in the not too distance future for you guys, to be able to show what I'm doing, and answer questions.

But in the mean time, with this in mind don't hesitate to reach out and connect with me on Skype, Discord or Facebook. I spend long hours working and don't mind answering some questions or show how I solve tricky things in the tools I use, now and then.

So if you have questions please send your info as a Patreon message or to anna@ghmaps.net so we can connect. I live in California, so my time zone is PST.

Here is the link to the full resolution of my Flanaess terrain file:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/8bmweqqu1in5udq/2013-11-01.psb?dl=0

This version have never been shared with anyone, until now!

It is in Photoshop's, Large Document Format PSB.  Its size 69, 607 x 60,459 pixels and weighs in at 15.3GB, so download managers are needed to bring home this beast.

I've added Altitude, Texture and Bump maps of the four small islands to the Final Cartography Folder.

This will make it a little easier to work with only a single small island at a time.

Here is the link to the fold with Cartographer Content:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/lbet04acuglsu4y/AADZxppuRAe_H7REX8cL5j4Pa?dl=0

Here you find Elevation Data, Masks, Texture, World Machine file and Vue file.