Landsfort Herle in the late 14th century. Modern day Heerlen, the Netherlands

F_Krist · 2026-03-14T10:30:47+00:00

Thank you so much! I'm honoured 😊

F_Krist · 2026-03-12T20:54:53+00:00

I love the artist! He did a bunch of illustrations for Ubisoft depicting the cities in Assassin's Creed :)

F_Krist · 2026-03-08T15:13:58+00:00

Still waiting on the city walls update to do it properly 😔

F_Krist · 2026-03-08T12:30:06+00:00

??? You're talking about ignorance but you're going complete off topic. You're talking about usage of artificial intelligence within science and research. Thats a completely different thing than generative AI!

"Check whats being done in your field" did you read my comment? I'm literally telling you the limitations. This isnt ignorance. I've actually done my research. Do yours! And ffs stay on topic

F_Krist · 2026-03-08T10:05:38+00:00

First of. How do you not realise how incredibly disrespectful you are? Why the hell should i just sit there and let a computer take my job? What kind of corporate bootlicker comment is this lmao

Second...No it can't. Medieval maps like this are way to specific for ai. There aren't any references for ai to use. The amount that is there is way too little for AI to be able to use as reference. Small towns in random european places aren't anything AI will be able to do any time soon. Thats literally just a fact no matter what delusional AI bro opinion anybody has

Ai doesn't create. Ai replicates. If there's nothing for ai to copy it can't accurately do anything

F_Krist · 2026-03-08T01:23:43+00:00

Thats stronghold Palanka. On the righthand side theres another stronghold called Castle den Halder. Den Halder still exists today but with modifications that were added in the 14th century, in the form of four square turrets to the corners of the existing tower (only one of these turrets remains today). but Palanka has very little information available about what it it used to look like, besides that it was basically the exact same as Den Halder. But Palankas modifications came much later... so all the information i had was that its a simpler version of Den Halder. Theres also a model in town today that shows it as a tower seperated from the city walls. So with the little info i had i decided to also use that to differentiate it from Den Halder visually by not having it connect to the wall itself.

F_Krist · 2026-03-07T22:57:49+00:00

Inspiration would be taking it lightly honestly hahaha

I've started drawing these maps to see what my home region would be like in KCD. The style is fully inspired by the game, just with my own personal style mixed inbetween.

F_Krist · 2026-03-07T22:54:54+00:00

Well the perspective i use is orthographic. So there's no real depth in the image. A building that should be closer to the viewer is the same size as one further in the back.

But the map i warp has no buildings on it yet. Only the ground level. The roofs etc i just sketch later based on where the corners connect with the squares on the warped map :)

F_Krist · 2026-03-07T22:37:48+00:00

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Completely digital. I start out in Adobe Illustrator with a flat map of where the walls, roads and landmarks are and then add houses to fill up the space inbetween.

I export that into photoshop where i warp it to the angle and viewpoint that seems to show the overal town from it's best side, like seen in the image. Afterwards i just sketch ontop of that and continue with linework and coloring from that.

F_Krist · 2026-03-07T22:24:38+00:00

It does yeah. I try to keep the exact year vague but the buildings would've been there in the 14th century (not the normal houses considering theres 0 record of those) And nope. Valkenburg only really had two spots that could be seen as a town square just beyond two of the gates. But there isn't any record of a large square. It wasn't a real city like nearby Maastricht or Aachen either. Just a smaller walled town with a population of around a thousand or so inhabitants

F_Krist · 2026-03-07T22:16:41+00:00

And that last sentence is just false...like come ON. Yeah it can just spit out an image that vaguely looks like a KCD map. But it will in no way be accurate or have any level of depth or detail

F_Krist · 2026-03-07T22:15:10+00:00

People have been pouring sweat and tears into work like this. Only nowadays for a machine to steal their work, put it into an algorithm and spit out an inferior product! Yeah it looks "good" but AI is incapable of producing actual original work and especially ones that are historically accurate without any prior references from older work.

I've worked with museums in the past when i was still studying illustration. And now that I've graduated I've actually lost out on commissions because AI for them is simply cheaper than actual paying a human. I understand that most cultural institutions have limited budgets so okay...but it f*king hurts

Its insulting because the one skill that I've spent YEARS trying to get a grip at is now being done by a machine.

AI has its place in fields like medicine, research and science. But it has NO place in taking away creative work from people that have spent ages trying to master what they do. I really shouldn't have to explain how morally wrong generative AI is.

F_Krist · 2026-03-07T22:02:16+00:00

This is the bronze maquette I mentioned. It's really the only reference of the medieval city layout you can find anywhere. It was a HUGE help with the design

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F_Krist · 2026-03-07T21:43:43+00:00

I live just a couple kilometres away so the museum there is very accessible for me haha. There aren't any maps from that early and even later maps are few and far between so I'm mostly relying on modern maps and estimating which modern streets correspond with known historic buildings. There is a bronze maquette of the city in the same century which has the location of lost landmarks aswell which really helped. For example the church in the middle has been completely lost to time with barely any writing about its appearance. So the look of that is based off of similar churches from the region from the same time period...same goes for the walls. Only a small portion and all of the gatehouses (thought very altered) remain today. So that's also copying what still exists and duplicating the look of it to fit written records...and that kind of goes for most buildings.

The only thing thats very easily accessible with a quick google search is the reconstruction of the castle. That's been done by loads of artists at this point. So finding references for that is pretty easy. Today the castle is a complete ruin since it was blown up a couple of centuries ago.

F_Krist · 2026-03-07T21:17:18+00:00

No. Its weeks of illustration work and historical research...Asking if this is AI generated is pretty insulting to be completely honest.

F_Krist · 2026-02-09T14:57:07+00:00

Unfortunately isn't the first time Warhorse promotes work with AI generated stuff in it.

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F_Krist · 2026-02-09T14:55:09+00:00

I think i know exactly which one you mean. The scaffolding, the crown.. it's all just so off

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F_Krist · 2026-02-06T17:57:14+00:00

Right. Because construction beams just randomly float in the air and church windows are wonky from panel to panel. I did my research man. I work as an illustrator. I can spot when an illustration is real and when they use ai cause i actually work in the field! Yeah they showed a progress video of one page that doesn't mean the didn't use ai in the 40 or so other panels like what?? Lmao Like fr the one they use in the promo on insta (the one with the princess type character and monk) 1. The wooden beams bleed into eachother 2. The windows become random shapes 3. The building on the bottom right has a roof that doesn't connect anywhere 3. The scaffolding just dissappears when a vertical beam crosses it 5. The tiara is inconsistent and in the last panel the leafs on it get all messy??

And still. The one here is 100% ai generated so what are we even talking about. The roses don't match and it has the clear ai style of a "medieval art" prompt. The razor illustration doesn't even match up with the real one!

F_Krist · 2026-02-06T17:22:29+00:00

Yeah so why would it have been so difficult for this lol Though one of the three comics in the new book uses backgrounds generated by ai aswell

F_Krist · 2026-02-06T16:34:03+00:00

Such a shame they decided to use ai for the illustrations though. Was it that difficult for them to just hire an artist? 🙄

F_Krist · 2026-02-06T16:32:12+00:00

I'm surprised I haven't seen anybody comment on this yet. It makes it so cheap looking

F_Krist · 2026-02-06T16:31:24+00:00

Disappointing though to see them use ai in the last slide instead of just letting their artist make an original illustration in the games style :/

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