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Thread: Mapping Forests in Adobe Illustrator

  1. #1
    Guild Applicant Facebook Connected
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    Nov 2014
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    Heber City, Utah, United States
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    Default Mapping Forests in Adobe Illustrator

    I've been working in Adobe Illustrator to create my latest map, and I've run into trouble with making forests. Short of creating each tree as a tiny vector object, what methods have you used for depicting forests?

  2. #2
    Guild Expert Facebook Connected Meshon's Avatar
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    Default

    In my first ever comission (Thanks Anstett!) of the Principality of Dryad's Lair, I needed to make a forest and some wooded areas. I drew several trees as vector objects and then turned them into symbols. I was then able to use the Symbol Sprayer and related tools to fill in areas of forest relatively quickly. For the Oak Hollow map I think I only drew one tree and then used a scatter brush to fill it in. Finally, you could try something like I did on the Menkong River map (a style I'm pretty sure I stole from someone here!). It's hand-drawn, but you could definitely do that in Illustrator, especially if you use width profiles for your lines, and a drawing tablet to make squiggles easier.

    Hope this helps!

    Dryad's Lair
    DryadsLair-overland.png

    Oak Hollow
    Oak-Hollow.jpg

    Mengkong River
    Mengkong-River.jpg

    cheers,
    Meshon

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