Therafim

UPDATE (finally)

Well, it certainly took me long enough (far too long) to update this map. Not even the holidays or my part time job starting up again can really justify how long it’s taken me to get this far; all I can say is that it hasn’t been easy. Campaign Cartographer was difficult enough to get a handle on, and it has quickly become my single most disliked software at least in regards to cartography. That being said, I think I can be reasonably proud of how this map is turning out, and I’m optimistic about finishing it up. So – here’s what I’ve managed to get done so far, with a close-up shot of one of the most recently finished sections to show the resolution of the final image. Note that the full world map image is at the full resolution and as such is a significantly large image (600 dpi, ~11″ x ~7″).

Full map, at full 600 dpi resolution; very large file, may load slowly

 

Therafim Update

*NOTE: THIS IMAGE FILE IS EXTREMELY LARGE*
(I’ve posted such a large image file in order to send the highest resolution file I have to the commissioner.)

This is another map commission I took several months ago that has, unfortunately, taken far too long to really get underway. This is, in part, due to my lack of experience with CC3 (Campaign Cartographer 3), and partly due to my regular inability to overcome any failure I experience when using the program. It’s also frustrating that I have to place symbols “front to back” and it’s exceptionally difficult to select and send anything behind something else; there isn’t even an option to bring something forward! The lack of (good) documentation is also a serious problem for me, although the video tutorials on YouTube have been pretty helpful.

Setting aside that little rant, I have, fortunately, managed to reach a point where work on this map is going fairly smoothly, if a little slowly. In the interest of ensuring nothing is just slap-dash-edly placed in an effort to get things down “somewhere”, I confess to spending a fair amount of time laying down symbols and then deleting all or most and starting over again once I get the general layout and placement the way I want it.

So far no labels, but the entire northern ‘pole’ (“Rimevast”) is complete, and as you can see I’ve added in a single city on the northeastern-most continent (“Autumn Land”); it’s supposed to be due south from the city just north on Rimevast, so I thought I’d drop it in now.

Next step is Autumn Land, followed by … whatever continent/landmass I take a shine to after that. Labels will be added last since most of them are actually fairly easy to remember.

 

Eventful Summer

Of a sort, really. Although I confess I don’t have much in the way of artistic or cartographic updates, this is primarily because I spent the summer looking for a job. I suppose I’ll finally have to accept that a bachelor’s, especially in English, really isn’t enough any more. At least not for any of the work I’d like to do long-term.

Anyway, I am still working on 2 commissions I received way back in late April/early May from 2 wonderfully understanding people, and I do have a rough map for one of those ready to share.

This is a top-down view of the buildings as laid out in Google SketchUp 8 over top of a rough sketch the client sent. The Royal Palace (which was described as being similar to the inner bailey of a castle) is missing, as is the prison gatehouse near the center of the map. I’m not sure how to create the correct terrain for this map in SketchUp, but since the final map style is supposed to be sort of 17th century aerial/bird’s eye view I’m actually thinking of just pulling the buildings up to get the vertical lines, setting the camera to parallel projection, and then printing out a screenshot to ‘trace’ over.

The other map commission I’m working on, the client has requested I use CC3; at the moment, I don’t have any exported images to put here, but I’m planning on having something up sometime this weekend. I’m currently working on placing the terrain symbols, working north to south (and roughly east to west).

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Finally, I’m also working on a map for a friend’s Warhammer 40k game. The maps can be found HERE; I’ll be uploading updates as I complete them, probably once a week or so for a while since they’re playing Saturdays.