Holy Crap...What have I got myself into?!

[Yandor]

Just one thought that came to mind, when I thought "How would i do this".

First off I would resolve the water issue, you've mentioned there is "some" water, but for me I'd make a sketch of what the world was (probably a 2 circled map, showing left and right hemispheres, with the continents and oceans) then say ok this portion of the world is gone to the collapse, and then on the other side reduce the waters down, to whatever you believe the water level should be.

In this way you've got your ultra high ground which is the old mountain tops, you've got a mid plateau-ish type land where the old land use to be, then you've got the new land, which is the reduced ocean floor that is now the habitable zone of your world. Cause the other two areas (in my opinion) wouldn't have much water if any at all. This habitable zone probably wouldn't be very... as you'd say flat however.


^---\`````````````````````/---^
`````--^-^-^--\/--^-^-^--
*ignore the `, they are to make the picture space correctly =D

So this is just the simple idea of what I was talking about, ^ are mountains, \ are slopes, and the - is flat ground.
The slopes would be your continental shelf that in a normal world would be right below the water. However since the water is now "missing" your deep ocean trenches (the \/ symbol ) would become your new oceans, and you've probably got a lot of lakes hanging around. Along with very long chains of parallel mountains due the the ocean floor shifting (forget the technical term) away from a central location.

Then after I've gotten the pre-collapse sketch, and the post collapse water/land figured out, I'd have two choices, 1. figure out the broken portion of the world (still just a sketch) or 2. depending on where the story begins, or your adventures begin detail out the area they are in and work out from there. In this sense, you've got your general outline of where things kind of are, and you can detail out portions at a time, cause it will be very time consuming to do every part of your world at once.

Keep it simple, until you truly need to define things, because the more you have the generals figured out the easier it is to place the details down.

Anyways my 2 cents, good luck.

[dlaporte7271]

Thanks Yandor,

Lots of good thoughts there. Definitely going with the sketch first. I was considering making the map of the 'pre collapse' world and then working from there. I think you're right-on RE water levels. I had envisioned the former ocean/sea beds as new land...also presenting some interesting settings...lots of sunken ships dotting the landscape etc. Anyway, as you suggest, I'd like to have a general world map, but I'll only be detailing the areas that are 'in play' so to speak.

I came across a thread outlining some ideas for mapping out continental plates which I think would be useful, especially considering mapping those "long parallel mountain chains" where tectonic plates converge and diverge.

Thanks for the 2 cents. I should have a rough sketch up in a few days.

[dlaporte7271]

Mapdraft1.jpg

First draft: I used an idea found in a tut by dhalsimrocks to draw continental plates. Here's the first attempt. Not sure I like my random continents...but it's a start...I may go through this process a number of times before I come up with something I like.

[Gidde]

This sounds like a cool (yet overwhelmingly huge) project! Looking forward to seeing it take shape. Err ... more shape

[dlaporte7271]

Thanks Gidde...do you or anybody else for that matter have any tips on choosing the appropriate size and ppi for the initial image? I am going for a world map...it will be primarily online...I don't anticipate printing any hard copy...I understand that I can go way down on the ppi if I'm not going to print...also...I tried 3000x2250 with a ppi of 300, but the file just kept growing and growing as I added layers...I think my poor computer had a stroke trying to process things...so...I plan to scale down...thoughts? I'm such a noob!

[Gidde]

The ppi isn't nearly as important for just screen-viewing; a monitor will simply show the pixels that are there. As far as size goes, 3000x2250 shouldn't tax your machine unless you have a LOT of layers (or an old machine). So, I'd suggest this: work on one aspect of the map at a time, and as you finish that aspect, save a copy that has all those layers in it, then merge them all on your working copy. So, for example, I think I had like 10 different layers (at least) in my belgariad map just for the ocean. So once I had the ocean right, I saved a copy called "ocean layers", then merged em all down into one layer I just called ocean on my working copy, then started on the land. If you're using gimp, it also helps to clear the undo stack (it's the brush at the bottom of the undo history dialog) -- just make sure you're happy with what you've done before you clear out your undos For PS, I'm not sure how to clear the undo stack. If it bogs I usually just exit PS (save first!) and restart the program.

It may be worth noting that my current project is 7200x5400px and following the above advice keeps my computer from choking on it

[dlaporte7271]

Uh oh...did you just give me license to go EVEN BIGGER!? Korash is going to be happy...Guess I won't be going home...so I am still really in the tutorial phase...I'm just going through the motions on one tutorial. I'm beginning to see how this works...but I'm really just following the steps without REALLY understanding WHY the heck I'm doing them....I assume this is typical for us rookies...(BTW I am using GIMP)...I will most likely be checking out your tutorial for the Artistically Challenged soon...though...I think I have some artistic sense...just WAY out of practice....


Dave

[Gidde]

Yeah, it's pretty typical, at least that was my experience. I didn't start to feel like I really understood anything until the third tutorial or so

[dlaporte7271]

Here is a second attempt at a draft...hand drawn continents with my mouse...put through GIMP and inverted black and white:
Mapdraft2.JPG

I'm not super happy with it yet...I'm still bent on the idea of starting with tectonic plates and allowing that aid in the creation...I think that is working nicely. I'm not satisfied with how the coastlines look yet...and I'm finding that the process of blurring and selecting..etc. is having the effect of making things even rounder...hmmmm

Suggestions?

oops...wrong pic...that's my rough sketch including tectonic plates. Here's the inverted map:

[arsheesh]

I'm not sure what process you are using for eroding the coastlines, but one that I often use is RobA's GIMP translation of OldGuy's tutorial on how to erode coastlines in photoshop. In fact, I use it so frequently that I eventually took the time to jot it down so that I could refer to it without always having to search for OldGuy's original tutorial. I've attached a pdf of it for you.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh