Atlas Cover, two versions

2020-09-24

Here comes the first take on the Atlas cover. I made two versions, one more colorful and one more minimalistic. I want to hear your thoughts and then create the pdf's

Atlas Legend, 2nd try...

2020-09-19

Worked on the Legend today, done a couple of prints, adjusted and printed again. Here is a new version that I think will work.

Full quality JPG here:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/h8nb8a93blyd0n6/Legend-3.jpg?dl=0

I've made the border and travel parts a bit larger, and increased the size of the borders and roads t make them a bit bigger.

I made a PDF of each of the pages so you can try and print one to see if they look good.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/alxss8agjr2ni40/Legend-3%20left.pdf?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/wbje54dbbfkq4ee/Legend-3%20right.pdf?dl=0

Thanks again for your input making this project better!

Atlas Legend first look..

2020-09-16

The Atlas work continues and here comes a look at the legend, please take a look at it and tell me what you think should be changed!

I opted for a "expansive" legend covering two pages, including a quick guide to how to read the index location info. I'm not sure it's needed or the right way to do it, but there was room for it so I added it. Anything missing that should be there?

I will also make a blank page that can be used to print a filler page, for note taking or as a base for your own custom page. 

Atlas 576 CY - Master Index

2020-09-14

Here is the Atlas Master Index, and it is thanks to amazing job by Duane Costa it was possible to compile a list of all the names with their location on the maps this quickly. The index fills 28 pages each 11 x 17 with two columns on each page.

You can find PDF and JPG versions in the Atlas Dropbox Folder:
https://bit.ly/GH-Flanaess-Atlas576CY-2020REV2  

Next up is index and credits!

576 CY Atlas Overview Maps

2020-09-10

Here comes the overview maps for the Atlas of the Flanaess 576 CY, they come in the standard "satellite" and political, each of the with or without the map layout squares.

You can get them and all the other Atlas maps here: https://bit.ly/GH-Flanaess-Atlas576CY-2020REV2 

This should have been ready a week ago, but there have been an unusual amount of "real life events" making life a bit more difficult around here lately, temperatures above 115F, two large fires within 20 miles with massive amounts of smoke causing power outages and the still ongoing pandemic. Thankfully the temperatures are now back below 100F and power is stable again, one have to try and stay positive 🙂

The index is now ready for formatting and page design, so I'll work on that as well as legend, credits and covers next. After that it's time for the appendices, heraldry and module locations.

I hope you are all safe and thank you again so much for making it possible for me to work on this, in times like this that means extra much!!

Symbols will get some love...

2020-08-31

 

An essential but often overlooked part of mapping are symbols, the little bits of art that are put on maps to convey all sorts of information. The symbols I use on my Greyhawk maps are over two decades old now it was one of the first things I did when I set out to map the Greyhawk setting.

More detailed maps would need way more symbols and also more variation, to indicate various aspects of the feature the symbol indicated. My design was based on the symbols of the Darlene map, with a lot of additions and a few tweaks. I shill like them and thing they work, for the most part, but my design skills and the tools I used back then where not much to brag about, so an update is needed.

The Atlas will mark the end of a generation of maps made using Illustration tools like Corel Draw and then the last ten years Adobe Illustrator. Future maps will be made using GIS, various 3D software and still some Illustrator, so a solid set of symbols is needed. Several sets in fact, my intention is to give my existing set of symbols a work over making sure they are less scruffy and look well even in large sizes.

Two new symbol sets, at least, will be needed. Larger scale maps that will move in closer and showing much more detail will need and new set of symbols for things like urban areas, city walls and more. All the symbols I've used so far have been very useful for reference maps mainly used by the DM to who what the world actually looks like. Traditional RPG maps are more of the type of map the characters would use to navigate the world, handout maps. These maps need a whole new set of symbols to depict things like towns and cities, of a more illustrative tradition found on fantasy maps.

Getting all this done is a long term project that will take a year or two to get done, but the first step is to the existing symbols ready for a round of edits to get improve them. I did most of the symbols on an early version of Corel Draw back in the 90's and then imported them into Illustrator and added some more. There a number of inconsistencies that become painfully visible when you enlarge them, but its a necessary step to see what can be kept and what needs to be redone from scratch.

So I have enlarged all my exiting symbols and saved them as PNG's with a transparent background to make it easier to use them as a reference image. They are all available here: http://bit.ly/GH-Symbols-Folder

Future symbols sets will be available here as well when they are ready.

Atlas Overview Map test

2020-08-26

Here is a first Overview Map test. The page size gives a format that is not the best for showing the Flanaess in its entirety, so I'm trying here to compensate by cropping a bit at the top and bottom. The landmass is a bit skewed to the left, which is unavoidable when no landmass is available to the west. This is a compromise that I hope is acceptable.

The other issue is image resolution and detail level. When you reduce the size of an image there are inevitable loss of quality, but how to best deal with it and is the result good enough.  

For this test I have removed all the text and settlements symbols for things smaller that metropolises and capitals. Only major roads and national borders are shown and heraldry are removed as well.

Please download the full quality image here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/etg7nnnh95w88qo/Overview%20test%201.jpg?dl=0

Flanaess 576 CY Atlas Index RC1

2020-08-25

Thanks to the hard work of Duane Costa we now have a raw form of the Master Index to go with the Atlas. Here is a first version of it in Excel format: https://www.dropbox.com/s/2dyh4kts0e1jcrx/Master%20Index%20RC1.xlsx?dl=0

Take a look at it and please report any issues to me using my contact page. The final formatting of the Index will start next week, so it can be added to the final Atlas in October.

Next to do on the atlas are the overview and political maps.

Atlas progress report!

2020-08-15

I'm proud to report that all the 50 area maps are now ready, on time even!

You can find them here: https://bit.ly/GH-Flanaess-Atlas576CY-2020REV2

This doesn't mean that the 576 CY Atlas project is done, far from it, but it is an important milestone.  There are crucial parts left to do, the index needs to be finalized, covers, overview map, political map, legend and heraldry appendix needs to be made as well. The plan is to have it all ready for Virtual Greyhawk Con, October 2nd.

Some of this work is already well under way. Thanks to Duane Costa's hard work on indexing that he has done in parallel, a master index will be ready soon. As a part of weeding out errors a raw version of it will be coming soon, so those who want to help can verify spelling and data so we can make it as good as possible for the release. 

In the meantime I will work on the covers, legend, political and overview maps, and finally the the appendix. So far I have only the heraldry appendix planned, but I'm open for more ideas. The appendixes might not be fully done and ready for the VGHC, the priority is to have the main atlas ready. 

Now I'm going to take a few days off from the Atlas and delve into Oerth Climate, my Shield Lands Campaign and QGIS.

Thank you so much everyone for making this possible!!! 🙂

Atlas and Shield Lands progress report.

2020-08-09

I hope you are all staying safe and get some time to plan and play some Greyhawk games!

My 576 CY Atlas work is progressing with 43 out of the 50 areas mapped, an I hope to have all 50 done next week. Then it's time to do overview maps, political maps, index, covers and a few other extras to make it into a complete atlas. 

My Shield Lands Campaign map is in the tedious phase of water system design. This is a very important feature to make a map "realistic", logical, and rich in detail, and often overlooked. It is not only finished maps that are missing detailed water ways, I have so far only used one terrain creation tool that have at least a token support for this and that is ancient Wilbur. All modern tools that have come along afterwards have no, or very little support for draining the terrain properly. There is a lot of talk about this feature in the road map of almost all the terrain tools, but to my dismay it seems to almost always be in the future.

This means that I have to manually program and edit all rivers using World Machine, which takes longer that the rest of the terrain creation combined. The image below is a screenshot of the 30 mile area of the southern Shield Lands that will be the starting area for my next campaign. 

The colors are a combination of elevation colors, flat mask rivers and flow lines that I use for this type of work. The tiny little blue streaks are the flow lines and they indicate where tiny rivers and creeks can be. I will manually mask them in Photoshop afterwards along with the rivers. The rivers and lakes that are on the map are the whole river beds, which means that this is the are the tend to fill at maximum flow. Most times a smaller flow is meandering through the river bed.

It is almost ready for rendering, only a few gitech here and there that I need to fix. Then it is time for proper texturing and vegetation. Below is a map showing the area I'm working on, the red square is the area of interest. This will take me about two months to map, but with proper tools and more experience I think I can bring that down to around two weeks. 

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