Star Map - Emaria

[Eathanu]

So, I'm new to this forum, and semi-new to doing maps from scratch like this. Emaria's a universe I use for writing, and will hopefully one day be the setting for one or more books. I decided that the star cluster in which everything relevant takes place would be fun to map, so after a couple rough drafts I've finished the Emarion Universe Map, version 3, and here it is:

All of this was done in The Gimp, using filters and all manner of things. I also used a couple renderers I found online, though I can't remember the names. They created basically the starscape in the background and the shadowed planet in the logo.

Also of note is that Paradeisos is in an unknown location (it's basically the Emarion equivalent of Heaven) so I put it out of the way in the corner to sort of show that.

I'm sure this is junk compared to things that people who do this for a real hobby put out, but I figured I'd share it here, since I discovered this site in the process of finding ideas of how to portray the stars closer up in individual solar system maps, which I hope to be my next mapping project.

Edit: Added the new version 5 map.

[ravells]

Hi Eathanu and welcome to the guild! Just a small bit of house-keeping but if your map is large then the preferred method of posting is to upload the image to the site so a thumbnail is generated and if people want to see the big version in all its glory they can click on the thumbnail. To do this, click on 'go advanced' and then click on the paper clip attachment icon and follow the instructions.

Great map! I like the glow you've got on the systems!

[nolgroth]

Nice looking map.

[Ascension]

No criticisms from me...I like it. Good colors, clean, some of the smaller labels are a tad hard to read. Overall = nice.

[Bohunk]

I agree with Ascension, the labels are hard to read but a great looking map nonetheless. Your symbol in the middle drew my eye because for an instant from the thumbnail I thought it was a Star Trek symbol.

I do not think this map is "junk" whatsoever!

[Steel General]

First off...Welcome Aboard!

Secondly...as has become my habit, anyone wo uploads a map in their first post automatically gets some 'rep' *bonk*

Thirdly - I agree with Bohunk, no "jubk" related to this map whatsoever.

[Eathanu]

I have to admit the whole "positive response" thing caught me off guard. I'm so used to forums whose members will nitpick even the most inane detail to death for the sake of it, but offer no insights into how to make it better.

As I sort of alluded to above, my next task was going to be to make system maps of each of those stars, based off of the data I've already compiled on them: a Traveller-inspired classification system of each planet in each one of those systems, when applicable--Aum is a shell built around a star and Bronach has no natural planets, but other than those, they all have plenty of data already.

Time to get started

[ravells]

Check out the starfield and nebula tutorial link in this thread. It really rocks. Your nebulae are nice, but you can really make them sing.

[NeonKnight]

Good job on the map. it looks really good.

And yeah, we are a pretty helpful bunch here.

[Eathanu]

It's been over an entire year since I posted this map, and much has happened, though I never quite got into mapping the star systems themselves as I had wanted to.

Either way, I have since made an update to the original, using a much less lazy approach. Each star was rendered differently, so each one is actually a unique texture on a sphere, colourized properly, and pasted at a severely reduced resolution onto the map. I've also managed not to save over my .xcf file this time, so I have the whole thing set up with different elements on different layers. I'm far more happy with everything else this time around, too. I'm working on adding in some other things, like better-defined political boundaries, hence the lack of that text.

Oh, and I've started writing the first of the books I mentioned in the first post there. Not really relevant to the new map, but worth mentioning.

Apologies if it would have been better to use a new post rather than dig this one up from the grave, but it is the same map, and some forums frown on making new threads when older ones are perfectly valid for the purpose.