-»Rhothar«- .:The World:.

[Redrobes]

I think this is a great start on a world and theres obviously been a lot of thought gone into it. Thinking about all of these things up front helps to build up the data you have on a place which I believe makes it easier to map later on and improves consistency. I liked the picture/photos and they bring a sense of reality to the place. I dont have much to add. A world is a most complex beast so there is innumerable ways to improve it. You have to pick your fight tho cos any one of them can get you into an extended period of work.

[Rhotherian]

Cool, I like to see a world built from the ground up.

"WIP" stands for "Work in Progress"

Your concept of "cold" and "warm" currents is a little off though. It's a relative concept. A "cold" current at the equator is much warmer than a "cold" current closer to the poles.

As the currents move around they adjust toward the ambient temperature. There may be some exceptions, but here's how it works in a nutshell:
if a current moves a significant distance toward the equator, it's going to be a cold current, since any other source of water is going to be colder.
Similarly, if a current moves a significant distance away from the equator, it will be a warm current.

Especially around Duratar, the currents don't follow this patterns.


Also, using the most common method of wrapping a sphere with a map, your North pole gets pretty distorted.
Attachment 24982

Hopefully you are aware of these kind of issues, and have some sort of projection in mind that avoids this problem. I'm not very experience in other projections, and am not sure that any projection can avoid this problem, but i thought you would want to know, if you didn't have something in mind here.


EDIT: i've wanted an easy explanation of how to check for polar distortion before, so i through together a quick tutorial of my method, here:
http://www.cartographersguild.com/sh...p-in-the-Round

Please forgive the promotion of my own tutorial, but i haven't found another explanation of how to do this.

Thanks alot! ^^

Great tutorial. I'll only be able to make use of it next month, though, as I'm too scared to download those just yet as my internet cap of 2 megabites may run dry. I'd love to see Rhothar in a 3D, so mind taking a screen shot of each continent and the poles (the pic you've allready taken + the south pole) for me? Oh, and I preplanned for the pole-distortion. The islands are just alot thinner than I expected... -_- I'll fix that later.

Finally, about the sea currents, mind fixing them for me? You don't have to make them from scratch, I'd just like you to change the arrows to the colours they would most likely be (blue = cold current / red = warm current).




@zhar2: Oh, I see. Well, Sultarin and Oltarin's pics are actually concept art for Avatar. Hutarin's pic is from concept art for Star Wars' "Felucia".



Thanks alot for your responces, guys! ^^

[jwbjerk]

I'd love to see Rhothar in a 3D, so mind taking a screen shot of each continent and the poles (the pic you've allready taken + the south pole) for me? Oh, and I preplanned for the pole-distortion. The islands are just a lot thinner than I expected... -_- I'll fix that later.

The other related issue is that your base map doesn't have a width to hight ratio of 2 to 1. 2 to 1 is standard for a normal wrapping, and since yours is closer to 3 to 2, it implies your map is supposed to have a different projection, or that you goofed. If i took pictures of the continents they would all be distorted, (compressed toward the equator i think) though less obviously than the picture i showed of your north pole. There's no painless way to fix that-- that i know of. You'll need to make some judgment calls about things.

Finally, about the sea currents, mind fixing them for me? You don't have to make them from scratch, I'd just like you to change the arrows to the colours they would most likely be (blue = cold current / red = warm current).

But what would you learn from that?

[Rhotherian]

@About the projection: The areas near the equator would be stretched, actually. I did some calculation and found that the 2:1 ratio is the equator (if you will) of the orb against the diameter. Thus the longer the length of your map, the more compressed it will be. Thus, if your length is shorter that the 2:1 scale requires, the areas near the equator will be stretched.

Doesn't really matter, though. I simply want to see each continent and pole seperately so that I know what to edit at each to stop it looking funky.


@As for the currents: I'll figure that out after I see how it differs from my version. So, please?

[jwbjerk]

--------------
world.jpg

[Rhotherian]

Thanks alot!! ^^


Now all that's left is the ocean-current map. If you don't want to recolour the arrows, mind giving me a more detailed explaination of how ocean currents work and where I went wrong? =]



Edit: I edited the map abit. I added a ridge in the Elegar sea that I forgot to add orinionally and edited the poles abit - especially the north pole. I smoothed out the details. Mind orbing it like you did the origional?

[hohum]

Very cool, it reminds me of this site http://www.khoras.net/

I was curious as to what programs and methodology you were using to produce your maps? I particularly like your tectonic plate/ volcano maps. My solution for avoiding polar distortion was to massage my continents out of the extreme latitudes. However if you want more realism that may be unacceptable.

[Rhotherian]

Thanks! ^^


I think you'll be very surprised to learn that I used nothing more than MS Paint to do the tectonic map!! Want a tutorial? =]

[hohum]

Want a tutorial? =]

Of course I do! I am a hoarder of tutorials. Someday I may actually even finish a map.

[Rhotherian]

Well, creating a nice (I think) tectonic map is really simple.

Unlike dhalsimrocks' tut, which is tectonic map --> world map, this is world map --> tectonic map.

For this tutorial to make sence, it's best to not have finished your maps yet. The mountain ranges must be in chains and, well, the map should simply follow the laws of geology.


(Note: If you allready know where you want your fault lines / plate boundaries to go, skip to step 5)


1) First study the way plate tectonics work. There are three basic types of fault lines: Transform Faults, where tectonic plates slide past one another (eg. the San Andreas Faultline and the Middle-Eastern part of the Great Rift Valley); Divergent Faults, where pates spread (eg. The Mid-Atlantic Ridge and Africa's part of the Great Rift Valley); and Convergent Faults, where tectonic plates crash into each other. There are three basic types of Convergent Faults: Mid-Ocean Subduction Faults, where oceanic crust (thin crust) colides and the one plate slides underneath the other - this plate can then melt under the other plate. The material can then rise as volcanoes, forming volcanic islands next to the fault on the "top plate" (eg. The Indonesian Islands and much of the rest of the Pacific islands); Coastal Subduction Faults, where oceanic crust colides with continental (thick) crust. The oceanic crust slides under the continetal crust. The same volcano-forming prossess can now take place, only instead of forming an island chain in the ocean, it'll form a volcanic mountain range allong the coast of the continent (eg. The Andes Mountains in South America and the Rocky Mountains in North America); then there are Continental Colision Faults, where continental crusts colide. It's now alot harder for one plate to slide below the other, so both plates take the obvious route: up. This forms huge non-volcanic mountain ranges (eg. The Ural or Himalayan Mountains).

Now that that's sorted, find simmilar features on your map. Look for mountain ranges, island chains, ridges and vallies.


2) Found them? At this point, I usually coppy my map (with the needed features) down on paper. I then look for the most likely fault zones (based off the above information) and draw lines where they would be (note: Never draw your fault lines over mountain ranges unless it's a continental colision fault. Same goes for island ranges. The only point at which faults can go through mountains or islands is when it's a transform fault. For vallies or ridges, draw the fault line directly down the middle).


3) Now, to complete your plates, it's a simple prossess of connecting the lines. See what I did on my map. There are some points where faultlines follow no apparent landmarks. These will usually be transform faults. Note that some faults you drew earlier may be seperated form everything else. On Earth, this does happend. Many faultlines do not count as plate boundaries. Examples of these are the Baffin Rift Zone, the Great Glen Fault and the Ural Collision Fault. It's ok to have these on your map. Even I've got quite a few of those on my map.


4) Now, you may want to add features allong your faults that weren't there origionally, simply to make the tectonic map seem more believable. These features would be things like volcanoes, ridges or anything like that. Use my map as an example if you wish.


5) Now it's time to put this on your computer (unless you want to keep it a drawing, that is. If so, you're done! ^^). If your origional map was on the computer, you may want to keep your tectonic drawing nearby for this step.

First, right click your map (if it's allready computerised. Otherwise you'll need to skan in your drawing) and select "edit". You should find yourself looking at your map in MS Paint in a few seconds.

Now, select the colour you want to draw the faults in with. I used red (I darkened it abit by going to the top menu bar (--> colours --> edit colours) after selecting red). Now, use the "line" tool. Select your line width and start drawing in your fault lines where they are meant to be straight. (Note: If you added features to your drawing, you may want to add these to your computerised map before starting with the fault lines).

Where the faultlines bend, it's allitle more tricky. Select the "curve" tool (make sure the line width is the same as your other lines). Now, the curve tool can make lines with at most two curves ("S" shapes), so make sure you use it as such. Click where the curve/double curve in the fault system stars and drag the curser to where it spans its maximum of two curves. Now, you can only edit in the curves twice (that's why it can only make two curves), but MS Paint counts using the curve tool, like any other tool, as one move, so pressing ctrl-Z to undo a curve you didn't really want will mean you'd have to redo the curve.

Now, when you've drawn the line, click somewhere allong the line (NOT the middle!) and drag it in the direction of your first curve. It doesn't really matter where the line ends up yet. Making the second curve does. Now, click on the oposite side of the line and drag it in the direction of your second curve. Concentrate here. Drag it untill the line followes the curves in the fault line. If it doesn't yet, try again.

Now repeat the prossess untill your whole fault system is complete.



Hope that helps. If you have any problems with this technique, I'll be happy to help.