# Mapmaking Discussion & Philosophy (WIP/Critique) > Town/City Mapping >  Waterdeep - the city of splendors

## Caliginis

Hi folks,

I've been lurking here for quite a while now and thougt that I should post my first attempt at making a map. I always liked the big postermaps from TSR and thought that it is time to make my own. Therefor I started to map the city of Waterdeep from the Forgotten Realms.

Right now i'm in the middle of placing all the houses, so there's not so much to see at the moment. But it'll grow soon.

I hope you like it.

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## Viriatha

What software are you using? That is ALOT of houses lol

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## Caliginis

I'm working with Photoshop CS4, fortunatly it has a file format specifically for large images.
And unfortunatly there are still even more houses to come. I have about a third of all houses placed, so there is still a lot to do.

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## torstan

How are you doing your houses? This looks really good.

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## Caliginis

They are done with an inner bevel and a double texture overlay; one for the details on the roofs and another one to get their color less uniform.

If you're interested I can post my layer style with the texture settings.

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## farvardin

It's awesome, I love it!

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## torstan

Actually I was wondering how you were laying down the bases. Is it a brush? However, the layer styles would certainly be a useful reference.

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## Caliginis

I wish there was a brush for what I'm doing. I use an old map of the city as a reference for the layout of the houses and streets and then every house is placed individually by hand.
A lot of work but the result is worth it, I think.

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## tilt

it looks really good. Would love a wooden texture on the roofs though, but that's just me  :Wink:    ... nice job, and patient with all those houses  :Smile:

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## torstan

!

Okay, that really is a labour of love. Well done.

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## Djekspek

wow, that is a lot of work, but indeed the result is looking very promising! (hehe secretly i was hoping you found the anwser to the 1-million-dollar-question: "how to make a good looking citymap without drawing all the houses individually"?  :Wink:  cheers

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## tilt

yep, if you want the real city look - you gotta work for it...  working on converting my own medium sized city at the moment from pen-n-paper to Illustrator.. .*sigh* so you gotta respect Caliginis hard work  :Smile:

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## Caliginis

> it looks really good. Would love a wooden texture on the roofs though, but that's just me    ... nice job, and patient with all those houses


Actually I wanted one too when I made my roofstyle. But I actually had not a single wooden texture, and it didn't seem important enough to make one at this early stage. Once all the houses are placed and I have some streets I promise that I'll try wooden roofs.

For now I have to keep you patient with some more stone houses. Fortunatly I'm reaching the areas with some of the more interesting buildings:

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## Marken4

Great work!

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## Kaiser MacCleg

Wow, that must be horribly painstaking. Still, from where I'm sitting, it definitely looks worth it! Can't wait for the finished product.

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## Caliginis

Hi there,

good to see that you all like it so far. Seems like I'm on the right path.

And now, finally, I'm done with the houses. Except a few special ones they're all placed  :Very Happy: 
The mansions with a wall around were a pain in the A to make because the walls had to be cut exactly 5px under the house in order to get the shadows right.

I've also included a first draft of Piergeiron's Palace (picture three). I think it looks quite good so far but I had no luck in finding a good white colour for it until now as it is built of white marble. I think I'll have to try a different texture to get it right. 

The next thing to do will be the landscape and the streets so it should look like map soon.

Till then



PS: thanks for the rep!

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## cfds

Concerning the marble: Would the marble even be visible? Wouldn't you just see the roof anyways?
Concerning the map: SO many houses, you are insane but in a good kind of way...
Concerning the signature: Sounds like a bit of Terry Pratchett's wisdom..

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## Caliginis

Who needs sleep?

Been working all night playing around with the city's wall and finally found something decent. I also got the basic shape of land/water done and have made a nice cobblestone texture which I wanna use for some of the streets.

Well gotta go now, have to work.


PS: Hooray, certified insane!

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## mearrin69

Oh yes, you are *quite* mad.  :Smile:  This is going to look awesome. So many buildings...

Have some rep.
M

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## Sapiento

Fantastisch!

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## Meridius

Judging by how quick you got a city that big, you must have a quick way to draw the houses individually. If I where to draw individual houses I wouldn't progress quite that quickly. :S

Awesome city by the way! Have some rep for this 'good kind of insanity'  :Razz:

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## Elothan

You are making WATERDEEP ?!  You are mad, very very mad....:p  The largest City in the Realms (at least it was), and hand placing all houses.. Damn... Wow...Something.. I am just a bit flabbergasted... Love it..
I assume you dont plan to include undermountain as well ? :p

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## Caliginis

Hi everyone,

unfortunately I had lots to do for my uni work and almost no time to work on the map last week.
Yesterday I had a bit of free time and began to texturize it and start to place the streets. I'm quite happy with the textures so far, only the grass seems a bit of. Not sure though whether to keep the outline on the water or to change it against something more 'natural'.
Unlike placing the houses (all done with via mouse) I can now work with my tablet which is way better for my wrist (damaged by RSI). So I hope to get some substantial progress soon.





> Judging by how quick you got a city that big, you must have a quick way to draw the houses individually. If I where to draw individual houses I wouldn't progress quite that quickly. :S
> 
> Awesome city by the way! Have some rep for this 'good kind of insanity'


Thanks for the rep!
Sadly I don't really have a quick way to place all the houses, I just happened to have a hole week of nothing else to do. When I placed them I worked for 5-10 hours a day making rectangular selections and filling them. Quite boring but definetly worth it.




> You are making WATERDEEP ?!  You are mad, very very mad....:p  The largest City in the Realms (at least it was), and hand placing all houses.. Damn... Wow...Something.. I am just a bit flabbergasted... Love it..
> I assume you dont plan to include undermountain as well ? :p


Making a map of Undermountain ... sounds like something only a madman would try to do  :Wink:

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## Carnifex

Caliginis> Great looking walls there. How do you make them?

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## Carnifex

I really like the looks of the walls! Are they done with "Stroke the path"?? Anyone knows?

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## Ascension

To get the battlements on the top to follow the wall, yes.  Make sure you set the angle jitter to direction when stroking a path.

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## Katto

I am very impressed about the level of detail. What is the overall size of your city (pixel)?

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## Master of Dragons

Any progress yet?
Come on, hurry up!  :Wink:

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## sigurdbjohansson

Hello??

This is just effin madness! You need!!! to show us whats happened!

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## JDCt

This looks fantastic... Also working on a large city... not to this scale, and tis killing me to draw by hand  :Razz:  I can't wait to see more!

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## Aegeri

Oh wow that is some great work you are doing.

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## Kraal55

Excellent work  :Smile:  Would love to see the latest on this...any chance of an update?

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## Brandon Michael

wow thats pretty cool dude

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## Akerbeltz

Whoa, impressive work.

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