First Map Post

[wthrasherb]

Hey, what's up mapographers! I'm making an effort to be more active in the community, so here is my first ever publicly displayed map! This is a rough work in progress, but I told myself I had to stop making excuses for why I didn't want to post any of my work.

This is one of the many incarnations of a world I have been developing for my fiction. The examples I'm posting right now are the very first stages of the (latest) full world map (I'm a top down builder). There's not much to them right now. I just started on this version yesterday. Shortly before this post I got bored with the real work and started fooling around in Photoshop with one version and gave it a border, name, compass rose, and a few artsy touches, but I was just goofing about at that point.

Right now I'm just trying to get the "base map" to a point that I can develop smaller areas with more detail, all from one consistent map. Torstan mentions on his blog that, when world building, "a map shouldn't be pretty". I agree for the most part, but I at least like to get something half-way decent to look at while I'm writing.

I don't plan on putting too much work into the full world map other than adjusting/blending some colors a little better and a few other aesthetic modifications. Also a few rivers are just stupid, but they were generated in Wilbur and as of this posting I haven't made any sort of corrections.

I'm not sure about the ocean colors, so the first two images are the same map with ocean variation. The third version is the one I was just playing around in Photoshop and seeing what would happen.

Cart_Guild_WIP_02.jpg Cart_Guild_WIP_03.jpg Cart_Guild_WIP_04.jpg

More to come.......

[Sapiento]

Looks good! I like the second version.

[wthrasherb]

Looks good! I like the second version.

Thanks!

So far, me too... at least the ocean part. I haven't touched the land much. I've identified some problem areas, but gotta take a break. Get back on the grind tomorrow.

[wthrasherb]

Yesterday I noticed the northern most areas of my map, including the highest mountains with snow caps, were washed out and lacking definition. Here is the most recent incarnation of Aerdlon with a few color touch ups.

Cart_Guild_WIP_05.jpg

The ocean color and texture has been giving me the most trouble. On one of my monitors the colors look just fine, but the on another monitor they look too dark or too bright...

Any feedback or tips for the ocean (color, texture, etc.) would be greatly appreciated.

[wthrasherb]

I just touched up a tiny bit here. I decided the southern most landmass didn't need to have a desert and I softened the shadows across the land...

Are the shadows softened TOO much compared to the last one (the post above this one)?

Cart_Guild_WIP_06.jpg

[wthrasherb]

Today I blended the land colors a little better and added some texture to the land. Also I attempted to give the rivers a little more definition.

Cart_Guild_WIP_07.jpg

[wthrasherb]

Ok, so I lied earlier when I said I was done with the color. I thought the last one was just a little too dark, so I adjusted the brightness and a few things to brighten up the overall picture.

Any input, especially about the color, would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Cart_Guild_WIP_09.jpg

[CloudFang]

Think it's looking great. About the color: in my opinion, I like the yellower tinted slightly less saturated color. The deep blues and greens remind me of a save the planet shirt. Just reminds me of earth pics too much to not constantly compare. I'm all for colors that make the world seem a bit more fantastic or unearthly. I tend to buy into another world that way more. I also think the yellowish tint helps unify the landmass and oceans better so the whole map feels slightly more unified and less land vs sea. Just my thoughts!?

But more importantly how are you achieving your topographical layers? The depth and structure look really cool. What's the technique you are using?

[wthrasherb]

Hey CloudFang! Thanks for the feed back. I agree that the yellows are a little over saturated in some of the maps. I'm completely self-taught (with the help of the community tutorials here) with all the software and techniques that I use, so I'm always learning and trying out different ways to do things. As for looking similar to earth, well, I always have my National Geographic Atlas of the World on hand when I'm working.

nat_geo_atlas_web.jpg

I actually like to do more of a mix of realistic and fantasy looking maps. I got started with my love for maps with fantasy rpgs, so I've always gravitated towards "game maps" than real world maps. I have since come to love maps in general, but still prefer working on the fun game-style maps.

The topographic "sculpting" was done mostly with Fractal Terrains 3 (by Profantasy Software) and Wilbur (Created by Joseph R. Slayton). With those programs you can shape the planet surface in all kinds of ways. Even though I owned Fractal Terrains for many years I never really used it much. I didn't get it. Then I found the "Israh" tutorial (either on here or on the web in general, I don't remember) and started playing around with the techniques that tutorial teaches. I spend a good deal of time with Fractal Terrains and Wilbur doing nothing but shaping the land/topo features. It takes a long time compared to just drawing some things by hand, but the BEAUTIFUL thing is that once you have a good world map made in FT then you can save all kinds of different views, projections, zoom levels and such without having to redraw new maps. This work in progress thread started after I did all the work in FT/Wilbur. Everything I've done since I started this thread has been in Photoshop.

[wthrasherb]

I'm proud to present this map today. For anyone who has been following along, I've been focusing on the ocean and finding some kind of blending that works for me. Consider it done. I added some "grungy" texturing and more Photoshop magic and got the following result. I also touched up some coloring in some areas to add some subtle variations. The first image here is just the map image. The second image is the map with a border and "cartouche" and I added a canvas texture to give it a subtle "painted on canvas" look. I'm not sure if you can see all of the detail on the lower res version I had to upload here. Today I'm going to get some posters printed to see how the color and detail looks.

Comments, feedback, tips, praise... all are welcome. Enjoy!

Cart_Guild_WIP_10.jpg Cart_Guild_WIP_11.jpg