A New Enderra

[bartmoss]

Hi All,

this is my nth attempt at creating a map for my fantasy setting, Enderra. Previous attempts - some of which I posted, some of which I didn't - never really satisfied me.

For this map I am trying something a little different. I will still create the basic outline in Inkscape, as I always do, but then I will work on the map itself using a different program. More on that later.

While this New Enderra will naturally be based on the existing Enderra - it would be stupid of me to throw 20 years of worldbuilding completely out the window - I also decided that I will not hesitate to change any and every aspect of the setting if I feel I can make it better.

One such change I've already implemented on the first WIP: I've moved Enderra to the southern hemisphere, with the arctic regions on the south end of the continent. I thought this would be an interesting experience and give me a fresh perspective on the continent.

Finally, I've decided to start with an old supercontinent which is not the shape of things in the present.

Here's WIP#1 - the horizontal streaks are an artifact of Inkscape being crappy and buggy (I wish I could afford Adobe software).

neoenderra-v5-002.png

[bartmoss]

And here's WIP#2. As you can see, I started by filling in the ocean/coastal waters. Started with these because I figured it would be the easiest piece - I am learning a new program while I do this. That program is Corel Paint 12, which I always wanted to buy and use. I'm on a 30 day trial now. But since they dropped the price for Paint to a more reasonable level I will probably end up buying it.

I originally wanted to use their simulated water colors for the oceans but that ended up killing something in the programs setting which corrupted my image. I am now using a digital airbrush, so fairly basic stuff.

Looking at the map now, I think the SW island chain looks unnatural, and I'll probably have to move or rotate it.

neoenderra-v5-004a.jpg

[eViLe_eAgLe]

So far, I love the landmass.

[bartmoss]

Thanks. I hope you won't feel too bad when I start blowing it up. ;-)

Here's the current WIP - I've started filling out the landmass. It's very rough though and needs considerable work.

neoenderra-v5-004b.jpg

[arsheesh]

This looks really nice so far Bart. Looking forward to seeing it progress.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

[bartmoss]

Thanks, Arsheesh.

New WIP - laid out mountain ranges.

I made the mistake of just starting off on these, kind of like doodling - I had intended to do tectonics first. I still think this will work, however; there's probably a subduction zone NW of the continent where the oceanic plate pushes the continent up. And there's probably a faultline running from the south to south-southeast, roughly along the coast north of the ice. I am thinking this could be something akin to the african rift valley.

The islands that disturbed me in the SW still bother me. if the subduction zone runs that far south then I'd expect the mountains to be more Andean. So I guess this means the plate ends before then - but then I need something else further north. The area could be a mini-plate similar to the Caribean plate. Mh.

neoenderra-v5-004c.png

[randigpanzrall]

Interesting Project so far. Let´s see how it develops

[bartmoss]

I found a way that works, even if it's not pretty at all: Merging layers then creating a new mask of the resulting layer. I had to remove the old islands manually - not a big deal for my purposes, but I missed a small corner on the western coast. Totally avoidable had the layer masks worked properly. Overall this is a big, big big minus in the Painter 12 evaluation.

Here are my notes on tectonics:

neoenderra-v5-004d.jpg

And this is the latest WIP after I tried to apply some of those thoughts to the image:

neoenderra-v5-005a.jpg

The horizontal line is again an Inkscape bug of some sort. I honestly never thought I'd use any graphics program to an extent where I hit weird and obscure errors...

[bartmoss]

Thanks.

I keep running into little problems with Corel Painter 12. Working with layer masks is so buggy that it's basically impossible to use any masking features beyond the absolute basics. For a 300€ software - which used to cost 1k€ - I really, really expect more. Hell, Gimp can handle them better. This may prove to be a showstopper; I edited the coastlines so now I need to to create a new mask for the existing layer. I think I know how that would work, except every time I switch masks and try to edit them, Painter 12 starts dying a disk access death.

[jtougas]

Weird lines notwithstanding This is great. I really admire you guys that figure out all the geology and the "real world" stuff. I love the clean feel this has to it.