Fantasy Cartography: Just Add Something Blotchy

Fantasy Cartography: Just Add Something Blotchy(rolltop-indigo.blogspot.com)

100 points by polm23 4 years ago | 13 comments

My favorite example of food texture is the fried chicken explosion: https://i.imgur.com/UhAODHB.gif

Folcon 4 years ago |

Finding good fantasy mapping blogs is hard, I don't know too many, to anyone else interested in this Here Dragons Abound[0] is really good resource.

Any others people really like?

-[0]: https://heredragonsabound.blogspot.com/

tmjdev 4 years ago | |

I really like them as well. I enjoy them as a digital art form.

From what I understand, Scott Turner (Here Dragons Abound) got his inspiration from Martin O'Leary[0]. Lots of interesting reading on his site.

Another one in current development but as far as I know doesn't have a devlog quite like Scott Turner's is Azgaar's Fantasy Map Generator[1]. He did keep a devlog until 2018 sometime though[2].

Watabou's Medieval Fantasy Map Generator[3] is really good.

I'm sure I've seen more over the years but these are the ones I can remember.

[0]: http://mewo2.com/notes/terrain/

[1]: https://github.com/Azgaar/Fantasy-Map-Generator

[2]: https://azgaar.wordpress.com/

[3]: https://watabou.itch.io/medieval-fantasy-city-generator/devl...

Folcon 4 years ago | | |

Thanks for the suggestions :)...

Going to dig into these!

Kaibeezy 4 years ago |

Now, as a metaphorical example, this has much wider application.

- What sound texture can I add to my ambient tracks?

- What flavor texture can I add to my cock-a-leekie?

- What philosophical texture can I add to my pitch deck?

elipsey 4 years ago |

Interestingly, I think I recognize the background tile on the page as a member (or slight modification of a member) of my favorite wallpaper package propaganda-debian. In any case, author is clearly a connoisseur of textures.

hoseja 4 years ago |

Nothing to do with cartography specifically, just "parchment" effect.

Grakel 4 years ago |

That's a lot of words for an entry level Photoshop tutorial.

_Microft 4 years ago | |

On the one hand, you are not wrong. On the other hand, the idea to use a texture like that of a pizza to modify a completely different image, like a fantasy map, might not have occurred to everyone. The value of the blog post might be rather in telling others about this idea than the actual steps how to implement it.

SeriousM 4 years ago | | |

Context is king. A tutorial is just a steps-to-reproduce guide, but the story helps you to remember it. Except for food recipes...

ValentinPearce 4 years ago | | |

As a fervent fan of the author, I can confirm that definitely was the idea.

Cthulhu_ 4 years ago | |

Knowing how to use Photoshop is one thing. Knowing what tricks you can use to make effects work is another.

How many high level Photoshop tutorials have you been publishing recently? Do share.

Zanni 4 years ago | |

Yeah, but it's on an RPG blog, not a Photoshop blog, so think of it as a fantasy map tutorial with an unfamiliar tool.