Bréistyn's Folly - the Sværian Age (an experiment in globe cartography)

[Caenwyr]

Hey all! So I just finished the rather peculiar map dedicated to our newborn, and now I'm off to the regular schedule again.

Well, almost. I should actually continue work on my Dragon's Backbone map (which came to a sudden halt the day our little one was born), but I'm not quite ready for that yet. I've been toying with an idea for a while now, and I wanted to give it a shot before anything else.

The idea isn't new: a map showing the horizon, and with quite some curvature too. I've seen some pretty amazing maps here on the Guild employing that principle, but there was always something off in 'em: mountains that aren't oriented quite correctly, lighting that doesn't really work the way it should... They were awesome, but I couldn't help noticing (and fretting about) those minor imperfections.

While my mapping skills are obviously nowhere near those of the ones that went before, I'm still going to try and have this orientation issue perfectly right.

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So, with that disclaimer out of the way, here's my first stab at it:
Breistyn's Folly (1).jpg

I used a grid to help me orient each of the mountains exactly the way they should be, and used Tissot Indicatrices to help me estimate the excentricity of the mountain footprints - assuming a mountain viewed from the top is a perfect circle. Check out the image below to get an idea of what I mean with that. The tissot indicatrices also helped eyeball the foreshortening of the coastlines, so nothing but good news so far.

Breistyn's Folly (1b).jpg

However, there's another issue I just came to realize: the closer you get to the center of that circle (the actual centre is located at the bottom of the image, so it's just out of frame), the more you're supposed to see the mountains from the top down instead of from the side. I can do sideways mountains, and I think I should be able to draw top-down mountains too, but I can't for the life of me think of a way to transition between the two.

You see? It's interesting! It's awesome! It's a challenge, and I love to solve those. At the end of this process I'll have a map that will probably look half-decent, but I'll have learned something I should be able to apply to full-planet maps too, if ever I get an itch for that type of thing again.

[ThomasR]

As I ran into the same problem and cheated my out of it (I did not place mountains in the problematic areas or chose tangent views) I'd be curious to see you solve this one. Hold fast

[Voolf]

Yes, the globe map is rather difficult. I agree that the center should have the mountains top down but also at certain angle, so not exactly flat top down. I am sure you can do top down mountains without much problem. Probably the transition from side to top will be the most difficult... to preserve the consistency.
Good luck with that. This is a promising start.

[Vigilus]

Great work! Globes are so fun.

[J.Edward]

I like that you're taking this challenge.
It really can be challenging.

When I did the Thurian map, I was working with a more simplified terrain style, so there were constraints.
To do this accurately, I think you would have to render the mountains in a realistic style.
That would likely mean changing how you render them at a glancing angle, so the standard iso mountains likely wouldn't work.
Or to be more specific, the standard style of drawing mountains at angle would be incongruous with the style required for a closer to top down view.
You would have to find a way to truly render them in a 3 dimensional style, i would think.

The average 2d mountain is just representational, not accurate.
So i suspect it may not mesh well with an attempt at realistic top down mountains.
Of course, all of that is just my opinion and i look forward to seeing how you'll try to solve it.
You do great maps, so I'm sure this will be good.

[Caenwyr]

As I ran into the same problem and cheated my out of it (I did not place mountains in the problematic areas or chose tangent views) I'd be curious to see you solve this one. Hold fast

Haha, I must admit, I have been contemplating that cop-out too over the weekend!

Yes, the globe map is rather difficult. I agree that the center should have the mountains top down but also at certain angle, so not exactly flat top down. I am sure you can do top down mountains without much problem. Probably the transition from side to top will be the most difficult... to preserve the consistency.
Good luck with that. This is a promising start.

Thanks! And yes, the transition is gonna be the hardest part. Partly that is why I decided to go for a somewhat different style: more ridge-like, less individual mountain-ish. I just hope that still gets the message across, since I have zero experience with that style

Great work! Globes are so fun.

I like that you're taking this challenge.
It really can be challenging.

When I did the Thurian map, I was working with a more simplified terrain style, so there were constraints.
To do this accurately, I think you would have to render the mountains in a realistic style.
That would likely mean changing how you render them at a glancing angle, so the standard iso mountains likely wouldn't work.
Or to be more specific, the standard style of drawing mountains at angle would be incongruous with the style required for a closer to top down view.
You would have to find a way to truly render them in a 3 dimensional style, i would think.

The average 2d mountain is just representational, not accurate.
So i suspect it may not mesh well with an attempt at realistic top down mountains.
Of course, all of that is just my opinion and i look forward to seeing how you'll try to solve it.
You do great maps, so I'm sure this will be good.

Thanks a bunch John! I did indeed go for a (slightly) more realistic style, kicking out the ISO mountains. Here's what I came up with:

Breistyn's Folly (3).jpg

I still got a long ways to go in detailing the place, but speaking from a perspective viewpoint, I think it's rather okay! Sure, there are things that could be better, (tons of 'em probably!) but I think overall I managed to get the transition going.

Next up will be the finishing touches to the coastal terrain, then shading the terrain, and then I can go on an plonk in the rivers. These too will have to transition from top-down to terribly foreshortened AND shrunken at the horizon, so I'm not out of the woods just yet!

[Steel General]

I think this is coming along quite nicely.

[Caenwyr]

Hey all!

I'm back with an update.

You'll notice I finalised the coastal detail, redid the large-scale shading (this way it's no longer exactly the day of the Equinox, but rather late fall), and spent some time on getting that overly straight border transformed into more of a ripped parchment.

Bréistyn's Folly (4b).png

Next up will be the rivers, then the forests, and then I might (not sure yet) plonk in a bunch of labels. Or a few. Or none at all.

Thoughts? Let 'em come!

[Caenwyr]

Alright, rivers!

Bréistyn's Folly (5).png

I also did a ton of other tiny tweaks, such as changing the colour of the sky (or rather, space), and flipping around the lon/lat-grid. The way it was before, there was an overly strong emphasis on the polar region. And with that mountain ridge going all the way around the pole, I'd have been left with a massive band of snow and ice on one side of the ridge, and a splattering of deserts, forests and plains on the other. Now, with the grid rotated 180°, we're looking at a morning in early southern spring, with lots of opportunities to draw all sorts of different climate zones.

[Voolf]

I think you did the mountains just right. The shadows are also top notch. Really coming along nicely. Great job so far !