I wasn't happy with the original map I started making last week because there were a few things that didn't turn out right.
So, I decided to start over.
For this section, I blacked out one layer and started roughly colouring the different territories on another layer.
After finishing that, I made a brush that looks like a star and filled out the different planets and points of interest.
150 pixels was the size of the planet, and 75 pixels was the size for colonies, moons, space stations and things like that.
I sized the star brush down to 30 pixels, locked all of my layers, and created a new one where I placed a bunch of stars, then copy and pasted it throughout the galaxy.
For the first layer, I went heavy, then used the eraser at 40% opacity to remove and fade some of the heaviness.
For Layer two, I increased the size of these stars to 40 pixels and did the same thing.
For layer 3, I put only a few sporadic stars in a cluster and copied and pasted those around, and then merged the layer into one and turned the opacity down to about 65%
I created 1 layer of highlights at 30 pixels, and dropped stars down throughout, then lowered the opacity to 65%
Then, I created a second layer and did the same thing, but set the opacity to 75%
For the third layer, I did the same thing, but raised the size of the star slightly, and set the opacity to 90%
You can see how it pops. I adjusted the opacity and size between layers to give depth, and I think I achieved that.
This was a fun section.
I lassoed the lines of the original territory block-out layer and filled each section with different colours to signify the different territories.
I'm not too happy with the dark region, as I feel like there are too many jagged edges due to the magnetic lasso tool, so I think I would like to work on that and clean it up a bit.
The Confederation - Red
Free Space - Blue
Marauder Territory (Working Title) - Green
Outer World Collective - Turquoise
Uncharted Space - White
Dark Space - Black
I wanted to leave a good chunk of the map uncharted, because there may well be more stories to tell, revolving around the discovery of new races, cultures, or empires beyond the borders of the known galaxy.
I don't know if I like the jagged edges of the sections, but then again, maybe it makes the map look a bit more natural.
So far, so good.
I noticed in the last one I made that the quality wasn't there, and everything was pixelated upon zooming in. It was set to 1000 x 1000 pixels.
This one, however, is set to 6000 x 9000 pixels and it is much better.
