My First Map

[Drakmyth]

Wanted to put this out and see what people think of my first attempt at diving into the world of map making.

Crestfall.jpg

Made entirely in Photoshop CC mostly following Ascension's Atlas-Style Map tutorial, though I varied a few things. I haven't cut it up into countries yet or named anything, but all the detailing is done. The only particularly noticeable flaw I see is that the desert band is a little too solid across the middle. Looking at other maps, I might expect that to be broken up a little with some greenland, especially on the right-hand continent and where it crosses mountains. Any critiques and comments are greatly appreciated!

[lorelei]

You first map? Well done!!!

[Josiah VE]

Super nice for a first map!

In my opinion the coastline for the north and south icecaps are a bit too straight, but overall a great map. I'm wondering if you're going to add any cities, that would be interesting. I agree with you on the deserts, seems a bit too much like a gradient of climates.

Let me be the first to rep you!

[tilt]

Really good job on your first map, you can aways change the zone around a little, making the "band" jitter up and down to get a more organic look

[Drakmyth]

Thanks for the feedback! Here's a quick update.
Crestfall_2.jpg
I sprinkled some Greenland in the desert band and it looks much less harsh now. I definitely agree that the polar caps are too straight. Rather than blot them out like the rest of the landmasses, I just brushed them in quickly so that they would exist, so cleaning them up is my next task.

I wrapped this map onto a globe using G.Projector and I really love the result!
Crestfall_2_Hemispheres.png
It's very obvious the polar caps need to be redone. Would it be weird to just get rid of the southern polar cap entirely? When I get rid of it the map itself looks a little strange to me, but when mapped to a globe I like it a lot more. Those icy islands are close enough together that I don't think anything needs to go between them.

Also, is there a better tool for visualizing the map in 3D? G.Projector is great for converting to different styles of 2D maps, but I'd like to have some kind of Google Earth type thing where I can map it then spin the planet and see it from different angles. I tried Google Earth itself, but you can only map it onto Earth, which is apparently a lot bigger, so there are gaps around the edges.

I am indeed planning to add cities, maybe country borders too (undecided on that yet) but I wanted to get the terrain done and locked in before I did so.

[Josiah VE]

Looks great! Deserts are much better.

I find on the globe the icecaps don't actually look too bad, but just on the map they seem too straight. Oh well.. Looking forward to cities.

[Drakmyth]

Redid the northern polar cap and got rid of the southern cap entirely.
Crestfall_3.jpg
Crestfall_3_Hemispheres.png

I also tried a version that got rid of the northern cap as well. It seems to look the most polished to me, but it seems strange for caps to not be there at all. I don't know though. Maybe that's just because I've been leaning heavily on earth maps for landmass shapes and earth with no Antarctica would be very strange indeed. Thoughts on whether I should keep or get rid of it?
Crestfall_3_no_polar_cap.jpg

[johnvanvliet]

i would just remap in using Gimp to north and south polar projection
-- fix it
then remap it back ( something g-project can not do !)

you have A LOT of "polar pinch "

fix it while in polar projection -- used the gimp plugin "resynthesizer " or you can paint it

and remap back ( same tool just polar to simple cylindrical )
-- just the north !!!

[Josiah VE]

Hmmm.. I don't know. I sort of like it with both ice caps, but I'm not sure.. Whatever you like best!