EC's first attempt at graphics

[Eugene Church]

I may be sorry I did this...

but anyway...I have long admired Portlander's Laseron Baseball Association and DreamTeams' Metro League websites...I am graphically nowhere near in their league...but here is my first very rudimental attempt at a map of my two fictional leagues...The United Baseball Association of Tycobbia (UBAT)...and The Federal Baseball Association of Ruthlandia (FBAR)...located in the mythical countries of Tycobbia (named for Ty Cobb) and Ruthlandia (named for Babe Ruth)...two countries where baseball is truly the National Pastime. I am currently having a website called EC's Dream Leagues setup and will also include my Alltime Allstar Baseball Asssociation on it, too. I am already reporting on its first season in the Dynasty Forum.

I used Paint to create the map...couldn't get it to do colors...only black and white...whenever I tried to do colors...I would select the color...type the text and it would be in color...but when I applied it...the whole map would reverse from white background to black. I'm sure it was my ignorance...so I did it in black and white.

Is it possible for any of you graphics geniuses to improve on this? I would appreciate it.

I would also appreciate it if you would tell me how to improve it...It is ok to pick it to pieces...I couldn't get the rivers in...since it was black and white, it would have cluttered it up for more than it already is...I did manage to get the mountains in.

Here is it...take your shots.

[Cooleyvol]

It looks nice.

[Eugene Church]

Sorry, I tried to attach it...it must be too large...or in the wrong format...

It was about 400 x 400 pixels...and bmp.format.

Anyone have any ideas of how I can post it?

[Eugene Church]

Originally Posted by Cooleyvol

It looks nice.

Thanks...coming from a graphics genius...that's quite a compliment.

I didn't give you much to critique, did I?

It looks like this will be MY FIRST and also MY LAST attempt at graphics...all in one fell swoop.

[Le Grande Orange]

If you want to attach an image to a post in the forums here, it has to be 100 KB or less in size, otherwise the forum software won't let you attach it. Check the size of your file, it's probably over that.

If you have your own off-forum web storage space, then you can just post a link to wherever you have the map stored, like what Cuss does when he links to his full-size graphics at his web space. Keep in mind that in order for everyone to see your map all the time whatever place is holding your map file has to be connected to the Internet at all times. If you're just linking to your map, then the size of the file can be bigger than what the forums allow.

You should try converting your file to .jpg as it used much less space. There are some free programs which allow batch switching of file types (I think you've downloaded something like this yourself in the past when you were changing around facepack photos).

[Eugene Church]

Originally Posted by Le Grande Orange

If you want to attach an image to a post in the forums here, it has to be 100 KB or less in size, otherwise the forum software won't let you attach it. Check the size of your file, it's probably over that.

If you have your own off-forum web storage space, then you can just post a link to wherever you have the map stored, like what Cuss does when he links to his full-size graphics at his web space. Keep in mind that in order for everyone to see your map all the time whatever place is holding your map file has to be connected to the Internet at all times. If you're just linking to your map, then the size of the file can be bigger than what the forums allow.

You should try converting your file to .jpg as it used much less space. There are some free programs which allow batch switching of file types (I think you've downloaded something like this yourself in the past when you were changing around facepack photos).

Thanks for the help. It is .bmp and is 450 x 450 pixels. I suspected it was too large to post here. But decided to try anyway.

I'll see if I can figure out how to convert it.

It looks like I am getting very close to having my website completed. The web designer has been sick and hasn't been able to complete it yet.

[nmleague]

Eugene I can put it on my web site and link it here, if you want me to do so, attach it to an email and send to "nmlcom@comcast.net"

[Eugene Church]

Originally Posted by nmleague

Eugene I can put it on my web site and link it here, if you want me to do so, attach it to an email and send to "nmlcom@comcast.net"

Thanks, nmleague.

I'll give it a try.

[Cooleyvol]

Originally Posted by Eugene Church

Thanks...coming from a graphics genius...that's quite a compliment.

I didn't give you much to critique, did I?

It looks like this will be MY FIRST and also MY LAST attempt at graphics...all in one fell swoop.

haha..........maybe your first and last attempt at attaching an image?

[nmleague]

Received the file and have posted it, the URL is http://www.nmleague.com/Tycobbia.htm

[Eugene Church]

Thanks, nmleague.

You are a good man.

Much appreciate your assistance.

[Eugene Church]

Is it possible to change the colors of this map?

I would like the water blue for the seas and ocean...and the one lake...Blue Lake...and the land a light green...maybe the mountains another color.

How can I create rivers? A black line would just look like the borders between the two countries.

Any constructive criticism would be appreciated.

And if someone want to totally revise "my first piece of graphic art"...I would would not be offended and give you the permission to do so.

[nmleague]

EC here is a new URL with changes to your original. http://www.nmleague.com/TR2.htm

[Cuss]

hey that looks pretty nice! Well done EC!

[Eugene Church]

That is beautifully done, nmleaglue...absolutely beautiful...thanks for the brown mountains, too.

It is even better than I thought it would be.

I would like to credit you for the map on the website, if you don't mind.

I intend to credit everyone who has helped me with logos, stadiums, schedules, etc.

I really appreciate all that you do to help me.

Thanks.

[nmleague]

Your welcome EC, you don't need to credit me for what I did, it was a small part compared to what you did.

[Eugene Church]

Originally Posted by nmleague

Your welcome EC, you don't need to credit me for what I did, it was a small part compared to what you did.

I don't agree with you...you deserve credit...the colors make all the difference in the world...the black and white was very bland...the colors really made it stand out.

[cknox0723]

Nice job, EC.

[dougaiton]

That's really nice, EC. I toyed with making a map for my fictional leagues in the past, but they never looked like a country would actually look like. This one does!

Are the teams in bold the teams in your league?

[Eugene Church]

Originally Posted by dougaiton

That's really nice, EC. I toyed with making a map for my fictional leagues in the past, but they never looked like a country would actually look like. This one does!

Are the teams in bold the teams in your league?

Yes, the towns listed are in my two leagues...one in each country...The Federal Baseball Association of Ruthlandia...and the United Baseball Association of Tycobbia. The league winners meet in the Federation Cup Series...a best of nine series...each year for the overall championship.

And coming soon...I will have a website with all of my fictional leagues on it.

What I did to get the country was to get a map outline on the Internet...I found a site where it would show maps of the countries of the world with real cities on it and also without the cities...I took the one with no cities on it.

My island was originally Australia...I removed the original islands around it and replaced them with my poor drawing of Coral Island and Arvonian Island. It was hard to use the pencil in Paint and draw a steady line...also hard to connect lines, too. I also changed the coast line in several areas.

It took me quite a few hours to do the map...caused by my ineptness and inexperience with Paint...I just decided to try Paint and see what I could do...I had to learn it as I went along...still don't know much about it...but all I had to do was find out how to do the text...and put small dots for the towns and the "X's" for the mountains...wish I had drawn the mountains by hand...or may used "^" for them...it would have looked neater with the "^". I couldn't do colors...still don't know why not...but nmleague did a great job adding the colors to it...he really made it look fine...as you can see the black and white version I did is quite bland and uninteresting.

If you would like. I would be willing to do you a map. You would just have to be patient as it would take me a few days to do it.

I wrote a historical and demographic description of each town before I did the map.

You should also look at all the stadiums that have been created for OOTPB and assign stadiums to fit the town...for instance Forest City is the capital of Ruthlandia...is in the central part of the country...at the intersections of the Green River and the Silver River...so I chose a stadium with a view of the river in the background...the team is named the Forest City Lumberjacks because of the timber industry...La Claire is the capital of Tycobbia...located naturally in the middle of the country...so I chose a stadium with the state capitol building in the background...named the Lynx just because it sounds good with La Claire and a lynx would make a fine logo (scotto or nmleague did a fine logo)...the Upland Mountaineers Mountainview stadium has a gorgeous view of the mountains. I also gave stadiums names in some cases that reflect it location...Riverside Park...Bayside Stadium...Lakeview Stadium...some stadiums are named after the owners of the teams...Jock Ewing Stadium in Waleska owned by the Dallas Ewing family...South Fork Stallions owned by Bobby Ewing...and of course, J. R. Ewing has a team, too...the Ozarka Naturals (great logos by Le Grande Orange)...and the Fort Benton Defenders...named in honor of the military and play in Old Fort Stadium.

You should first decide the names of the towns you want...then the nicknames...which should relate in some cases to the geographical location...for instance Upland is in the northern part of Ruthlandia in the Appian Mountains and is a ski resort...Upland's nickname is the Mountaineers...Belair Beach is on the southern coast located on Belair Bay in Ruthlandia and is a warm weather tourist resort and with shipping and shipbuiding industries...The team is called the Belair Beach Sunbirds after the tourists who visit year round...Blue Lake is in central Tycobbia and siturated on Blue Lake...I just called them the Blue Lake Blue Sox...named for a Duane Decker baseball fictional team in a series of 1950's books for teens...I used to read them in study hall at Murphy High in Mobile, Alabama...the Mound City Blue Sox were the fictional team...I will eventually put all of the literary Blue Sox players in my fictional leagues...naturally if you have a team named Blue Lake...you need a lake by that name...Waleska is in southwestern Ruthlandia..in the foothills of the Silver Mountains...so I called them the Westerners named for the early cowboys settlers and ranchers...famous for beef and cattle industry...The Silver Mountains run the length of both countries from north to south with only one spot where you can travel by land from one country to the other...Ft. Benton is in the west central part of Ruthlandia...a military town in the Silver Mountains that protects the only passage from Tycobbia to Ruthlandia...team is named the Defenders in honor of the troops that defended the country from invasions from Tycobbia in the early years (Cuss did a fine logo)...East Point is Tycobbia's fort in eastern Tycobbia that is the home of the East Point Military Academy and is the counterpart of Ft. Benton...I just named them the East Point Panthers for the alliteration of the "P" sounds and because I knew dbacks, nmleague or scotto would do me a beautiful logo...Turon on the west coast of Tycobbia is named the Typhoons because of the occasional stormy weather and the alliterative "T" again...and Cape Coral on Coral Island in the Southern Sea of Ruthlandia is called the Hurricanes because of the occasional storm (LivnLegend or Treches did a beautiful logo).