First Post and WIP Maps

[Dogzilla]

Hello all,
Like most here, I've been enamored of cartography, especially fictional cartography (cryptocartography?) for a while. I've used CC2 for a while, now I've upgraded to CC3 and I'm impressed by the improvements they've made, especially in visual presentation. I've drawn a global map, a WIP with coastlines only. The second map is one of the continents (near the center), zoomed in and natural features added:

Yan-v9.jpg
Yan-Zoom.jpg

I'm trying to resist the temptation from adding too many details on a map that covers 250 million square miles, so I'm using very few symbols. I'll probably switch to symbols for mountains and forests on regional maps.

By the way, I've enjoyed lurking here for a few weeks and checking out the maps...many of the posters here are very talented cartographic artists.

[HandsomeRob]

It's a very, very nice geography. Obviously quite well thought-out, with deserts and rainforests at the correct latitudes and all. Quite a few large impact craters as well, it appears.

I have created a kml file of your world to view it in Google Earth: Dogzilla.kml. One thing to notice is how the continents pinch a bit at the poles. You might want to redraw them slightly to avoid this problem. The best way (in my opinion) is to make sure the entire northern edge of your map is either all land or all water, and the same with the southern edge.

I'm excited to see where you take this, I think it's excellent. Have some rep.

-Rob

[Dogzilla]

Thanks, it's cool to see the map on a globe. I actually cut off the poles at 80 degrees, even though the shape of the map suggests otherwise. I'll alter the shape of the map to go to the poles, and see if the pinching improves.
I tried to be realistic with climate. Obviously, not all planets have to have earth-like specs but significantly altering temperature, axis tilt, etc. has far-reaching consequences, so I decided to stick with something easy for now.

[Dogzilla]

The circles represent an orbit-altering asteroid bombardment in recent history, maybe 20,000 years ago, so they would still be prominent in planetary geography.
I plan on using photoshop for finishing touches. I kind of like the look of symbol-based maps, I just can't use them on this size of map.

[Badger]

Ya... that's one of the downsides to huge maps, but its always fun to make at least one.... I'm a big fan of creating a small map of a region, a few towns and geographic features, then keep expanding from there... but reversing the process is also just as fun can't wait to see some more

Del

[pyrandon]

Welcome, Dogzilla--and nice first map post! I greatly enjoyed it--although for some reason the radically jagged coastlines jarred my eye a bit. Not saying they're wrong per se, just that they seem extremely jagged for the scale at which you are working in comparison to Earth, which at this elevation is only occasionally that sharp. Something to think about.

Welcome to the Guild! Glad you're here!

[Badger]

Greetings and Welcome Dogzilla. You are in the right place if you love maps. I like the geography you've done with this world, but one question. I noticed more than several places that have circular impressions, I'm guessing that this represents previous craters or impact areas. Was this intentional? Just something that really popped out and was a bit distracting, but this is probably more asthetic and something of a personal observation. Can't wait to see more.

Also, you might look into Photoshop or Gimp to add in details, that way you can keep the symbols down to a minimum...

Del