Tu'lorain Discworld - Continent of Rhime

[Lathorien]

Ok I know I am not supposed to make a new thread every time I have an update, but their so far apart right now that the old threads are all... "dead"

I think I have finalized my style other than the Labeling (Town icons, text and paths, maybe borders too) and the labeling shown is just slapped down for the purpose of getting it down for world/culture building. That said any good suggestions or ideas (or textures) are appreciated.

I generated my world in FT. However with it being a Discworld i changed the projection to only show half the sphere (polar or hemispherical projection) which puts the landmasses in a round shape (as apposed to rectangular).

Picture One.

I also use the height relief from Fractal Terrains, but FT's erosion is not up to par. However Wilbur is great. I export a hright field map from FT as a grayscale image to load into Wilbure and Erode.

I start with Picture TWO. Picture THREE is the eroded version of one Continent. (my laptop is busted and my wifes computer can only wilbur on continent at a time)

Now comes the GIMP. First i start with the landmass outline picture (Picture ONE). Fill the landmass with a Gradient Fill (ala Ascension) but since my world is a Disc with the polar region in the middle with warmer regions at the edge. I used a radial Gradient. I then open new layers for each continents eroded height map (in reality i am doing each continent in its own file). Delete all black (ocean) and copy the layer. The relief is made up to two layers of the height map.
One - Layer setting - Value (lets the gradient colour come through)
Two - Layer setting - Overlay (highlights the relief)

Using the colour selection tool click on the white (highest) part of one of the relief layers. Adjusting the blur of the selection tool/wand you can grab more or less mountains. Select as much "mountains" as you feel is right for your map, and on a new layer fill the selection with a rocky texture and place the texture layer under your relief. This should make your mountains rocky but the hills around them colored by your land gradient. (green hills for a verdent area, tan hills for a sandy area ect) Now select your land mass/continent outline but remove from your selection the area of the Rocky texture. There are two ways i break up the land. Fill the selection on a new layer with a cloud layer and set the layer to overlay using it to break up the gradient. Or fill the selction with a random tile able texture set to low opacity as a breaker.

Path out your rivers starting from the coastline, however Wilbur will give you very inviting trenches, canals and banks to put your rivers in, and all round give you good drainage on your relief to trick your eye into following. select your paths when your done and delete the river selection from the land gradient layer and relief layers. Put a water colour layer under your land gradient to colour your rivers. Stroke your river cut land layer for a black outline.

Picture FOUR.

Again select the groundmass but deselect the mountian texture and using a forest texture (i used the same texture as the ground breaker and as my forest paint) paint your forests where you want, this will give soft maliable edges to your forest in the low lands but will paint the forest tight into the mountain valleys following the eroded contour of the ranges.

Picture FIVE.

At this point label away as your wish. The following is a sample of a simple style that i am using for worldbuilding and placing settlements and such. I will probebly use some iso village icons and such instead of stark yellow dots. But it works. The paths are just quick job too.

[Lathorien]

Labeled "Final":

[Steel General]

I like it... about the only 'ding' would be that the black text gets a bit lost against the background - no big deal really, just something that I noticed.

[Lathorien]

SG: Yea, I was/still exparmenenting when it comes to Labeling and text. I tried to stroke the text with the inverse colour to see how that looks (thats why the forests and the "Kodiak Hinterland" are the inverse of each other, to experiment) I am still trying to figure out what colours are appropriate and look right for the map style. Yellows and oranges actually seem to work alright, to my surprise.

also anyone know a good way for me to make the lower left area look "arcticly" either with textures or colours or something?

[Ramah]

I really like the style of the mountains, even though there seems to be no elevation to them - if anything they seem to go downwards - but I like them.

I'm no member of the river police but I see at least two lakes with no outflowing river - the one to the north of Veiko and the one to the NW of Harnsborg.

[Steel General]

also anyone know a good way for me to make the lower left area look "arcticly" either with textures or colours or something?

I think it looks fine, what don't you like about it?

[Lathorien]

Good eye Ramah! Apparently i still need to touch up the river paths...