My first map, WIP

[DanChops]

Regarding rivers -

What is the scale of this map (whole world)? I think some of the rivers are too twisty for this scale. Look at rivers on earth that have a similar scale in similar terrain to see how they move. Really big rivers tend not to meander that much (it all depends on the scale...if this map were, 25-50km across, I'd say you got it right). Just my opinion, doesn't count for beans

Yeah, I guess I got a little crazy with the twistiness of the rivers. I'll have to tone that down some.

As for scale, I'm thinking roughly 6,000 km or so from side to side. So yea, I definitely need to straighten out those rivers.

I do like the river running down the sandstone mountain valley in the SW.

Thanks. My goal is to make it look like it's running through a canyon.

[DanChops]

I started straightening out a few of the rivers, and decided that I was too lazy tonight to go back through them all. Since I don't plan on ever actually using this map, I'll just chalk this up as a learned lesson.

So, here we are with a few rivers straighter than last time. I also duplicated the river bump map and applied the brown mountain mask, emphasizing a bit more the rivers running through the sandstone mountains.

20a Rivers Mark II.jpg

The things I still want to play around with on the physical geography of this map are:

• Create some sort of a plateau look in the midst of the north east granite mountains (think Tibet)
• Play around with the coloring for the band (currently yellow) that transitions from the grass to the desert
• Add a lush river valley to the river running through the desert to the west (think the Nile)

[DanChops]

Okay, I think I'm pretty much done with the physical geography portion of this map. Here it is:

21 Physical.jpg

I added the fertile river valley and the high mountain plateau, and adjusted the coloring of the transition band. I also added a bump map to the ocean floors and did the coastline stroke like Robb suggested in his tutorial.

All in all, I'm quite happy with this map. I've learned quite a bit about GIMP and about map making:

• Like Rob pointed out, I need to keep map scale in mind when drawing rivers to keep from making them too curvy.
• Similarly, I think I need to work on my mountain placement. The width of the central North-South range in particular just looks regular for my tastes.
• I like the two-step elevation process I played around with here, and I have a few ideas of how to play around with that in the future.
• I kind of like the canyons in the southwest - I need to play around with the idea a bit more to refine it though.
• I like the three bands of ground color, and imagine it could be expanded to include a tundra and an icy band as well.
• I also like the two different colors of mountain.
• I really like the way using plasma clouds affects the forests.

A huge thanks to Rob for the tutorial, and for everyone who's commented thus far. Next time I have a chance to sit down and tinker, I'm going to start with the political geography aspects of the map.

[Elvith Gent]

For rivers : I personnaly "cut" forests where I want to put a river. The result is, in my opinion, a little bit better. But it's not perfect ...

[jfrazierjr]

I added the fertile river valley and the high mountain plateau, and adjusted the coloring of the transition band. I also added a bump map to the ocean floors and did the coastline stroke like Robb suggested in his tutorial.

In my opinion, the river valley is a bit to regular. Make a few points where it flairs out a bit more and perhaps consider using a gradient blend to show how it gets lusher the closer to the river you get.

All in all, I'm quite happy with this map. I've learned quite a bit about GIMP and about map making:

• Like Rob pointed out, I need to keep map scale in mind when drawing rivers to keep from making them too curvy.
• Similarly, I think I need to work on my mountain placement. The width of the central North-South range in particular just looks regular for my tastes.
• I like the two-step elevation process I played around with here, and I have a few ideas of how to play around with that in the future.
• I kind of like the canyons in the southwest - I need to play around with the idea a bit more to refine it though.
• I like the three bands of ground color, and imagine it could be expanded to include a tundra and an icy band as well.
• I also like the two different colors of mountain.
• I really like the way using plasma clouds affects the forests.

1. I think the two elevation process is a good idea, it just does not look natural in this execution. Perhaps as you say the problem is that it is two uniform in width
2. canyons are cool
3. Multiple color bands are very cool
4. different mountain colors is a very good mutation of the tutorial
5. plasma = good! your forests rock!

For rivers : I personnaly "cut" forests where I want to put a river. The result is, in my opinion, a little bit better. But it's not perfect ...

I agree to some point with this. In a perfect world, I would have bits if the river hidden and show as it winds through the forest.

[DanChops]

In my opinion, the river valley is a bit to regular. Make a few points where it flairs out a bit more and perhaps consider using a gradient blend to show how it gets lusher the closer to the river you get.

Agreed. Truth be told, I just rushed that out right before bed last night. I'll take another look at it this evening.

I think the two elevation process is a good idea, it just does not look natural in this execution. Perhaps as you say the problem is that it is two uniform in width

How do you think it looks elsewhere on the map? I like the mountains to the southwest and to the east. It's just the constant-width stretch in the middle that I don't like so much.

canyons are cool

Thanks. I'm still not entirely happy with them, but I'm not sure why. I think I may go back and tinker with them some as well.

Multiple color bands are very cool
different mountain colors is a very good mutation of the tutorial
plasma = good! your forests rock!

Thanks!

I agree to some point with this. In a perfect world, I would have bits if the river hidden and show as it winds through the forest.

Yeah, I think I may need to rethink my approach to rivers. Not sure exactly how yet though.

[DanChops]

Okay, I played around a bit with the river valley, and I think it looks a bit better now:

21 Physical.jpg

[DanChops]

Okay, so I'm ready to start with the political geography portion of the map. Before labeling cities and drawing in roads, I wanted to define empire boundaries. So, as always, I started with a sketch:

Borders Sketch.jpg

I figure the three in the middle can be locked in war. The one in the west would probably be based on Egypt (yeah, I'm not stretching the creative muscles tonight, am I?) The northeast can be the obligatory Elven kingdom; the one in the east the obligatory Dwarven kingdom. The other three would be small, trade-based seafaring nations.