Tectonics map of Maward

[Pixie]

Some of you might have been following the long threads on tectonics that are active at the moment. Well, this is the finished product of one of those.
The world is called Maward as a word-play with "My World", which is the name of folder where everything is stored here at my laptop.

After finishing the task of devising plates, movement, boundaries and so forth, I took a couple of days to "work on looks". This final version includes plates names and ocean/sea names. It should work as a stand-alone map even if it will eventually become part of a larger collection.

tectonics_finished.jpg

[Akubra]

I should probably have posted this here instead of its original thread, so here goes:

What an amazing map you have there, Pixie! Congratulations! I am truly impressed. Not only does it have a very high degree of realism, it looks very pleasing to the eye to boot. The UoP (abbreviated because I don't want to give away the answer) has some very skilled people working for it.

Cheers - Akubra

[Naima]

Very cool , how u did draw those arrow boundaries?

[Ilanthar]

Impressive and interesting work on this, Pixie. The map is very clear and user-friendly.

[Pixie]

Thanks, Akubra, Naima and Ilanthar.

I really aimed for a clean look kind of style, guess it worked.

The boundaries with the triangles: it's all raster - a lot of lines and 3-sided polygons turned into a selection and then filled with black.
First the black line, done by making small lines after small lines (10 pixels wide in my original large file). Then expanded the selection another 20 pixels and filled in gray in a different layer (underneath). All triangles had to be aligned with that gray area - this is the boring part. Then I filled the triangles and deleted that guide layer. You may add extra touches on the selections like smoothing, feathering, etc. Just experiment. I also added a slight drop shadow to that layer to hide the imperfections a little bit (I think it does the job).

[Naima]

Thanks , pretty cool , I tought there was a kind of brush that allowed to directly draw those ...

Are you going to make now the Physical map?

[groovey]

Wonderful piece of work!

That's a lot of science and hard work you've managed to turn into such a beautiful, clean and clear tectonic map. It has to be noted that this is also your 1st finished map in the guild, so it's an impressive 1st map in my opinion.

I'll rep it as soon as I'm able to.


P.S: it took me forever until I checked the text bit, but I found it. It is an honor for both you and me to have a "temple" of knowledge and formation (based on the name of a place, I guess) named that, so again, an honor. I loved it.

[ascanius]

Great map Pixie and congratulations on finishing it. I didn't know it was your first map, so kudos.

[Pixie]

Thank you for your comments, people.

It's back to elevation map and climates now.

[Naima]

I also really like the shape of your continents that look very natural , how did you create them ? hand brainstorming? cloning parts of real world or by fractal terrains? Or pehraps some other system?