World Map: Chizu

[lisze]

This is my foray into map-making since high school. With the exception of the poles, all of the outlines were drawn and scanned in. Everything was later twisted 15 degrees and I had to start over. I've followed along with RobA's tutorial, with really minor alterations such as palette and using brown and green, rather than green and green/etc. The light water is his dirt layer reversed, more or less.

The latitude and longitude lines are marked off in degrees of ten and correspond with Earth. I'm still having difficulty visualizing how big that makes each land mass. For example, at its widest point, the continent on the equator bests the States.

The pink lines are where mountains are currently planned. Some may be moved because I very, very much want a savanna. I realize the desert I have on the equator is not horribly common, but I am hoping that a slight elevation (not too much, since hot is still necessary) and the rain shadow from the mountains will allow a small desert that grows when the savanna (yellow-green) is over-grazed.

Red=Rain Forest
Yellow=Desert
Blue=Maritime
Green=Mediterranean
White=Taiga/Tundra/Arctic
Yellow-Green=Savanna

I need help making sure that the climate zones make sense and what else I'm missing in my inability to appreciate the size of the land. (Any easy ways to make a fast and dirty globe so that I can see where places are and the more relative sizes?) Do I need more mountains?

My next steps are to add the actual mountains and then try to figure out the major rivers that would show up on the world map. I'm thinking about doing layers of bump maps for the mountains so that I can get elevation without making it seem like one peak covers miles.

Please let me know what to fix or what else I ought to be thinking about.

HalfSize.png

ClimateOneLayer.png

(Note: Actual map is 3312x3024 (the numbers divided nicely for my long/lat). These are both scaled down.)

Here is my first attempt with the layered mountains. Not very satisfied.
MountainsTakeOne.png

[Steel General]

I think the mountains look pretty good.

There's a bunch of tutorials here for doing mountains, if you haven't already, be sure to take a look.

[Ascension]

All I can say is maybe add a bit of brown to the mountains, but leave the snow caps. Real nice.

[Greason Wolfe]

Hey, that's not bad for a "first attempt." Much better than my first attempt. My second, third and on up to about my twentieth attempts as well. Keep plugging away, I think you're doing just fine. And, as SG said, there are plenty of tutorials here to help you along when you get stuck.

GW

[lisze]

Thank you, all. I have looked through the tutorials. Below is first a copy of the mountain you've already seen. I tried to increase the brown/green (continent) color, but now I think it is too dark.

The other image is 12 other ways I've tried of making up a mountain. Some are only slightly different in shading/etc. For one of them I tried to use a fractal since several of the overland and satellite shots of mountains I've looked at remind me of fractals. Is there a way to play more with a fractal than Gimp allows sans a special plug-in/etc?

I'm considering sub'ing one of the mountains from 10~12 in lieu of what I have now. Or, just giving up on this avenue altogether and go for something in the way of symbols/etc. Or drawing height circles on one of the plain bands of color mountains.

Anyway, enough rambling-- pictures:
MapMtNewColor.png
MountainStudy.png

ETA: I've decided on some quick mountains for right now, like 10~12, but with less mucking about the color and the selection feathered so that they blend better. Anyway, onto rivers.

[Ascension]

I like number 6 the best...it has a nice brown color (I think) and lots of crunchiness.

[jfrazierjr]

Combine 6 and 10. 6 as the base layer and the put 10 above it and set the layer mode to overlay assuming the mountain is restricted to a small section of the map on an alpha layer. If it is not, create a new layer at 50% grey and then recreate the look of 10 and set it to overlay.

[Steel General]

I'm with Ascension, I like #6 but #1-5 are also pretty good.

[lisze]

Number 6 is the one I used the fractal on. If I can figure out how to use fractals better in gimp, that is likely the mountain style I'll replace my current mountains with. I'll play around with it more and see if I can't get something workable.

ETA: jfrazierjr-- Thanks. I'll try that.

Below is the latest version with lines for potential rivers. I would definitely like some feedback on them before I start making them.

WithRiverGuidelines.png

[lisze]

I looked through the guidelines and did not find anything regarding a double-post. This is one of my landmasses with features, save for the rivers and lakes, filled in. I know I need to fix the coast if I want to keep the outline, but other than that--

I don't know how to make the scrub (upper-left) better looking and I'm not sure what to do on the other side of the mountains. Maybe more rainforest since that is the windward side.

Also-- are my river and lake placements okay? I tried to follow the guidelines in the tutorial forum.

Tris sans Rivers.png

Tris (working name) was once the site of a great empire. When the last great emperor died, he did not leave a confirmed heir. The three siblings squabbled and ultimately divided the empire between themselves.

The lower portion of Tris is very wet and hot year-round. As one travels upward, however, the weather dries, giving way to the savanna. The desert was once small, but has grown over time due to over-grazing by one of the three (nations/kingdoms/mini-empires). One group of people lives in the south, along the river and coast. Another lives on the west coast harbor where the summers are drier and the savanna begins to thin out into scrub. The last lives in the north where the savanna is gradually disappearing.