World Map for my Campaign - WIP

[Gandwarf]

I agree with Karro!

[LonewandererD]

I kind of agree with the other two before me, the coastline did seem better before hand. I hate to be negative, i really do, but the new coastlines looks a bit... unnatural and a little fluffy.

Truth be told, I was actually looking at this map for inspiration for one of my other continents.

-D-

[philipstephen]

I may give this new map a few more updates before I let the critiques settle in. The bits of the new map that seen too bubbly and fluffy are likely from my erasing and filling in with big round brushes... I still have to tweak those bits. The rest seem to be nicely jagged and random from the clouds I tried.

From my view, the old map was too soft and flowing, too bubbly and fluffy, without the nice jagged coastlines a real world might have.

Also, it was my first big map I made after checking out the Cartographer's Guild, but I was impatient and barely absorbed any of the tutorials and advice people had (aside from the River Police).

Granted, this likely led to a unique style since I was not following a step by step tutorial.

But still, something seemed off in the flow of the land masses, the mountains, the rivers. The world seemed a little too... I am not sure the word for it... static, frozen, not alive.

So... while I do respect all of your opinions, encouragement, and your amazing talents, I think i will touch up this new map for a bit, play with it... and if it does not fly, I still have the old one and have not deleted or destroyed it or anything...

[Flaterectomy]

By all means, work on your new map, I'm looking forward to seeing how you progress, but I have to echo the sentiment that the original was really quite awesome. I loved how it had this bubbly, flowy, candy feel. Sometimes you see maps that tap into different styles and they kind of clash, but yours struck me as an original and very cohesive style.

I'm glad you're not binning it entitrely.

[Karro]

Agreed, glad to hear the old one's not completely lost to history. I have to agree with the comment about your style. It was new and refreshing and different from whatever else we have on the boards, and I wanted to see more of it.

And anyway, whatever we say, hey, this is your work and your map, so you've got to do what you've got to do.

[philipstephen]

here is a bit of colour work i have done...

i am thinking that i need to trim some of the fat off of the extra islands and chunky land masses to make this look right.

once i am happy with the shape of the land... i will maybe transplant some textures and things from the other map...

we shall see how it all shapes up

phil

[philipstephen]

I have trimmed down some of the excess from my new coastline and am currently trying to reconcile it with my previous version of the world map.

The transparent shadow is the new coastline and the textured green stuff beneath it is the old one - minus a few layers of detail.

I may be able to save a lot of the work I have done if all goes well, so I am happy about that.

Feel free to throw in your two cents about the progress, but I still have more trimming to do before I am happy with it.


Phil

[Davros01]

Nice looking map. like everyone has been saying very clean looking.

Font: I like to font. Its easy to read, and yet gives you the fantasy feel. also, it looks like to you have consistent sizing which I think adds much to the quality

Continetnal Design: The continents seem a bit overly rounded to me. I looked at some maps to see if there was anything in the historical record (haha fantasy world). It seems to me that very old maps (Mercatur Era/ancient maps tended to be more rounded than more modern maps).

Islands: Seem a little less developed than the main continent. you may wanna consider fleshing them out a bit.

Water: Its kind of hard to tell from me whether the rivers follow the rules (I have my own issues with rivers. I like the brush stroke look of the oceans. I'm not sure if there is significance on where the bolder strokes are located and formed. Nice touch

The overall design: Seems well thought out. The northern climate seems to move from a cool, moist environment to a southern environment which is warmer and dryer.

** As always everything i've said could be total Tosh, but I am trying to give you an honest assesment as I can with my limited capabilities

These are my impressions from the original map. I havent gone through the whole series yet, although it looks like some of the areas have already been addressed.

[philipstephen]

here is a brief update of the shoreline with some corresponding rivers and whatnot.

The red lines are my imagining of where the mountain ranges should lie. Part of that is imagining this land mass as having been a pangea sort of form that ripped apart at the seams about 1000 years in the past.

One of the things I am wondering is how would a tilted planet with no wobble be affected by weather and the seasons.

What i mean is: what if the planet had a tilt, but the northern hemisphere always got the same lesser amount of light, because it was always tilted away from the sun, and the southern hemisphere got more light because it was always tilted towards the sun.

I would guess the seasons would be a constant and the south would dry up and the north would freeze and the equator would be desirable living and growing space.

Any insight on that idea would be grand! and comments always welcome.

Phil

[Davros01]

http://www.livescience.com/environme...arth_tilt.html

From what I can understand, the axis angle has more to do with thaw/freeze patters. depending on the axis of a planet exposes diferent parts of it to more/less sunlight, thus affectiving the seasons. adding the rotations and revolusions would also have this affect,

more exposure to sunlight = warmer periods. wildly fluctuation rotations, distances would increase extremes and pattern changes.

Don't know if this makes any sense.

MG