Faladriand - a large work in progress.

[tatteredglyph]

EDIT: Okay, so I did a lot of work between the original post and now. And I don't know if I'm allowed to post that many times in a row. So I'm just overhauling this message to show my new changes.

I've completed my oceans as well as a biome outline. This is just a rough outline but I probably won't refine it anymore unless absolutely necessary (i.e.: someone points out flaws that need to be improved). That said, I'm quite happy with the outcome.

I'm just trying to figure out a good way of coloring the final rendition.

faladriand - wip (4b7).jpg

[PaGaN]

Hey TG!

great progress!

seems as i'm NOWHERE near doing climate yet i will leave it for others to chime in with direction. I know that Pixie, Charerg and Azelor all know a RIDICULOUS amount about the subject.

PaGaN

[tatteredglyph]

Thanks PaGaN.

I'm really happy with how things are. Well, I tried to kinda mimic what I saw in Earth's biomes. Though, given this is fantasy, I don't see why these climates wouldn't work. They seem fairly logical to me, but then again I'm just now getting back into geology - so these *might* change. I'm pretty happy with them, regardless. Now to just figure out how to paint this in a way that shows some texture and I feel like I'll be done. I have where my dense forests and deserts will be, so painting is all that's really left. My only problem is I can't figure out how to do it in a way that looks good. The tutorials I look at just don't fit well with what I'm doing for.

I don't think many more people will comment. xD So, I think these are about as good as things will get - even so I'm happy with my progress.

[Pixie]

I don't think many more people will comment. xD So, I think these are about as good as things will get - even so I'm happy with my progress.

I can only speak for myself, here, but I haven't been commenting because you are quite far from being realistic (in comparison to Earthly rules, that is), and I didn't want to sound harsh. Still, I have followed your thread with some interest.

And since I'm writing a comment. It's hard to paint whole world maps in "real" colors, as a satellite picture. Mountains hardly show, rivers are invisible unless they are huge and crossing deserts, greens are immensely variable and follow gradients that are very difficult to match. You're in for a very difficult task, the only advice I can give, since I never really tried it, is not to rush.

[Mouse]

Yes I'm still here, and still reading. Sorry TG - I've been a bit distracted.

Map is looking good, though when I looked at it yesterday it did seem a little climatically imbalanced with all the deserts in the southern hemisphere. There also seems to be a huge amount of desert, but I suppose you could say its a more arid planet than Earth? I'm out of my depth with all of that, however...

[tatteredglyph]

I will admit: I am still struggling with scale and sizing on a world map. I always want to add as much details as humanly possible, so NOT being able to do that is immensely difficult. I'm not quite sure why I'm having so much difficulty with sizes. You'd think having a world map as a reference I'd be doing better! XD

@Pixie
While I can appreciate not wanting to come off as harsh, I won't be able to improve if no one points these things out. I'm not easily discouraged by criticism or what people consider to be "harsh" criticism. I understand no one gets everything perfect on their first go-around. And a lot of feedback has been given that will help my future maps be better. But, I can't improve on this current map if no one points out what I'm doing wrong. So, please, offer any feedback and suggestions on how to make things feel more accurate.

@Mouse
Oh, being busy and distracted is understandable! Thank you for the comment, though. Yeah, as I mentioned above, I'm still heavily struggling with size and location. I have a reference of the world map, so I don't know what my problem is. I'll probably end up changing things yet again. I want a balanced planet, so I'll be re-doing these again (I have no problem doing that).

* It should be noted that, I realize the triad of islands (bottom right) are "unrealistic." They're meant to be that way. That is the portal to another dimension, there's an actual reason behind the climates being that way. I'm not gonna get into the reasons at the moment, but they are that way for a reason. Everything else I do want to get at least as accurate as a fantasy world can get.

[Mouse]

Judging scale is difficult, but it can almost be down to a way of thinking.

Google yourself a map of the Earth's deserts and notice how not even the Sahara takes up more than about a fifth of the continent its on. then look back at your map and you will see how simply vast your deserts are in comparison. If you google a map of the earth's climates, you will also see that they are incredibly complex in their variety and distribution. I know that you are still only in the early stages of development here, but its worth bearing in mind for the future.

Maybe import the climate map into your map and make it transparent so that its there to refer to when you need it. That may also help you further develop the coastlines. The shape of real continental coastlines is both surprisingly simple (ie the long straight western coast of South America, and incredibly complex (between India and China, or northern Europe). Coastlines vary so tremendously from area to area depending on how they were formed and how old they are that you could almost make two variants of Earth that look completely different by making all the straight coasts crinkly and complex on one version, and simplifying the crinkly coasts on the other version.

I'm probably not really explaining myself very well, and you may already feel that you are done with the coastlines, so this is just for future reference, and more 'food for thought' than any real direction

[tatteredglyph]

@Mouse
Yeah, I figured out a new way to do coastlines (that I'm rather liking). I think it'll be my "style" of how I do things - you'll see the coastlines in my next update. As for referencing the Earth, I'm trying - just I get really into doing things, and end up forgetting to look at the Earth. So what I plan on doing is open the Earth in a new window, and have it constantly open to look back upon constantly. On that note, I'm also going to have a climate and biome map of the Earth open as well, so I can figure out where I'm going wrong with those.

* * *

Okay, so, I think I'm going to do another revision...

My thought process mainly is I don't think my landmasses are working, so I'm going to... "earthify" them in a sense. What that means I don't know. I'm going to figure something out. I'm doing a lot of research on climate and how it relates to biomes, and I found a sorta tutorial on how to hand paint a map (which I'm sure could be applied to what I'm doing). No progress as of yet, I'm still working on things. This time I'm keeping in mind where I want my races, as well as how I want things to form. Maybe having all this in mind will help. I'm also going to use a world map of Earth as a heavy reference to how big things ought to be (as that's my major problem).

Wish me luck on this go-around!

[kacey]

I don't see a problem with the size of the land mass, and I can't comment on the climate because I don't know allot about it, but Pixie has a good tutorial and I think Azelor has one too, forgive me if I got the names wrong I've been looking at so many threads lately. The only real issue I have with you're map is the projection, I'm not even sure what projection you're using... if any? but I think this would look much better in equirectangular and it would be more useful. I'm not quite sure how you managed to get it wrapped around a sphere before.

[tatteredglyph]

@kacey
I really don't know what dimensions my document size should be. I grabbed a large file of the world map of Earth and made sure the size could fit around the sphere - and use that for scale. I don't know what an equirectangular map is, nor do I know what the dimensions should be. I just use what I find. I can show you the reference if that'd help.

Well, looking on the map I'm finding it unflattering to the regions I have in mind. Now that I have proper regions in mind - and researching biomes - I think I'll be able to make something better.

I'll look into equirectangular maps and their dimensions to see if that'll help me.