Becka is inimidated by mapping

[Becka S]

Hi Peeps,

I'm Becka from the UK.

I'm intimidated by mapping so I joined a while back to learn more then just never said anything. (I even forgot I had an account until I tried to join X-D ).

I write fantasy stories and I'm trying to create maps for several of my worlds. I'm not so concerned about the technical/artistic side of mapping - that's just a thing that takes practice and there are many good tutorials on here - but I get nervous about the physical geography side of it and get positively stressed when it comes to map projections and understanding how to represent different sizes of landmass correctly in 2D for a world map and worry I'm going to make things too big, too small or the wrong shape so I never start.

Part of me says start with a regional map but then I'm like "how can I work out my climate for said place if I don't know where and how big everything else is?"

Becka

[Diamond]

Becka should not be intimidated. She should seek out help from several GREAT world-builders, among them Pixie and Hai-Etlik for physical geography and map projections, respectively. Pixie especially is a great font of information and if you ask her (I hope I have the gender right) nicely I'm sure she'd be willing to help out.

Oh, and welcome to the Guild.

[Becka S]

Hi Diamond,

Thank you for the welcome.

I will look the people you mentioned up once I have a few more posts under my belt. :-)

Becka

[Freodin]

When building a whole world, getting the experts to help you is a great way to start. (And the people mentioned by Diamond are defintily the right ones to go to.)

But if you stay "regional", there is another "expert" that you can go to: the real world.

Just copy shamelessly! Look where you region is meant to be, and look up comparable areas from our own planet. And copy! Copy river systems, copy weather patterns, copy parts of coastlines, copy settlement layouts... the world is yours for the taking.

Shuffle it up a little... and you have a nice start for a regional map.

[Chick]

Hello Becka, Welcome to the Guild!

To get you started, there is a great tutorial in the sticky section of Tutorials, called
Quickstart Guide to Fantasy Mapping: http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=4276

From there, go to
Hand Drawn Mapping for the Artistically Challenged: http://www.cartographersguild.com/sh...ad.php?t=10655

Once you have completed those two tutorials, you'll be well on your way!!

And be sure not to miss
How to Get Your Rivers in the Right Place: http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=3822

and
The Most Common Reality Errors:
http://www.cartographersguild.com/sh...ad.php?t=30156

Have fun and I'll look forward to seeing your first map post!

[ChickPea]

Hi, Becka, welcome to the Guild.

There are a couple of existing threads that touch on climates/tectonics etc. that might help with some of what you're looking for. Take a look at these two:

The Köppen–Geiger climate classification made simpler
WIP: unnamed Earh-like planet

There's also this general worldbuilding thread:

Tips for Worldbuilding

If you have questions, create a thread and ask away.

[xcorps]

Just copy shamelessly! Look where you region is meant to be, and look up comparable areas from our own planet. And copy! Copy river systems, copy weather patterns, copy parts of coastlines, copy settlement layouts... the world is yours for the taking.

I second this. I had an idea in my head for a type of city that I wanted (A trade center on an island, connected by bridges to the mainland) and I spent some time here and on real world maps trying to make my idea plausible. I finally ended up tracing an outline of Constantinople and scaling it up by about 50% and rotating it and went from there. I ended up with a portion of the world about the size of the US and Canada and I am particularly happy so far with my original city.

[Becka S]

Thank you for the welcomes and advice everyone. :-)