Rheia: one final try at ground-up worldbuilding

[Ilanthar]

It's great! I really like the layout of your continents.

[Charerg]

I just realised I never dropped a comment on Rheia, despite following (ahem, lurking) the project with interest. But all this is looking really great!

If I wasn't a bit rusty with the climate stuff I might drop some criticisms/suggestions here, but that may have to wait. Btw, did you use MrBragg's methods and attempted to use ExoPlaSim to simulate the climates? Kind of curious what results the software would produce.

[Tiluchi]

I just realised I never dropped a comment on Rheia, despite following (ahem, lurking) the project with interest. But all this is looking really great!

If I wasn't a bit rusty with the climate stuff I might drop some criticisms/suggestions here, but that may have to wait. Btw, did you use MrBragg's methods and attempted to use ExoPlaSim to simulate the climates? Kind of curious what results the software would produce.

Thanks Ilanthar and Charerg! I mostly used the Azelor tutorial for climates, but I used MrBragg's ExoPlaSim output as a reference and sort of split the difference. I wasn't entirely satisfied with the ExoPlaSim output, so what I have at the end of the day is probably more art than science... But I think I'm more or less satisfied with what I have now, as I wanted reasonably plausible climates, and if I have Cfa where there should be Cfb or something I won't lose too much sleep over it...

[Tiluchi]

Making some progress on the labeling- that took way longer than I expected mostly because there's a lot of worldbuilding that has to happen before naming geographical features! Still trying to settle on a style that I like, and will probably need to make some changes to the raster image in Photoshop in order to lighten up the colors and make the labeling easier to read. Any critiques or recommendations for figuring out labels and lettering are welcome!

Rheia_relief_winkel_v2.jpg

(image is horridly compressed in order to be uploadable- you'd think that an art-focused site would be able to support larger file sizes...)

[Harrg]

AMAZING! I hope you don’t disappear when you finish your map and continue to delight with updates to your world. MB blog or where else can I follow you?

[Peter Toth]

I second Harrg's assessment of your map as AMAZING! Are you ever going to write a tutorial explaining how you accomplished such realistic topography, step by step?

[Tiluchi]

Thanks Harrg and Peter! I definitely expect to keep posting here- this particular map isn't done of course, and next might be some more history-related maps. I haven't posted this anywhere else as I'm still working on some key worldbuilding questions I'd like to have answered before I post on Reddit or whatever. For now CG seems like the best spot even if activity here has dropped off precipitously since the pandemic.

For a tutorial, most of the steps are probably in this thread right here, from the GPlates work up to the hand-drawn topography. Not sure if any particular part of it would need a clearer explanation? Also not sure if I'd recommend going the route that I did, considering it was dozens if not hundreds of hours of work drawing everything by hand, and I still don't have the detail I'd have if I'd just gone the saner route of modifying real-world DEMs with Wilbur and such. But happy to answer any questions about the style.

Anyway, about finished with the toponyms for now, still need to do labeling for the insets and the overall map legend but first I think I'm going to transfer back to Photoshop to edit the raster layers some more- need to lighten up the exposure to make the labels easier to read, and do a bit more work with blending in areas I missed.

Rheia_relief_winkel_v2.jpg

[Tiluchi]

Alright, after lots more frustration, trial, and error I think I'm more or less done with this- added legends and finalized labels, smoothed out the raster file a little bit more, and tried to make it look more like an official map. I decided to add text blocks on either side to hint at other worldbuilding details, so it's a bit busy but hopefully in an interesting way...

Will probably put this up in the Finished Maps forum after I've done another once over but C&C definitely welcome! Unfortunately can't upload anything bigger than 5000px (full version is 8000px) but I might add a link to an external host later...

Rheia_relief_winkel_v3_smaller.jpeg

[Peter Toth]

Hey there Tiluchi!

As always, I'm highly impressed with your work. Just curious: How many hours did this entire project take so far?

I've also noticed that activity on this forum has dwindled in the last little while. I find that quite a shame because I absolutely love discussing the scientific aspect of worldbuilding with the experts here on CG. I know Naima gave me some tips regarding eddies in a turbulent atmosphere and I'm grateful for that.

Specifically, I'm wondering how you were able to get such realistic topography. Is there a process such as Miguel's that might end up with mountains as nice as yours?

At any rate, you've really set the bar for what I'm quite accurately describing as "breathtaking realism." Looks like all that frustration has definitely paid off.

Congrats!

Peter

[Turambar]

Alright, after lots more frustration, trial, and error I think I'm more or less done with this- added legends and finalized labels, smoothed out the raster file a little bit more, and tried to make it look more like an official map. I decided to add text blocks on either side to hint at other worldbuilding details, so it's a bit busy but hopefully in an interesting way...

Will probably put this up in the Finished Maps forum after I've done another once over but C&C definitely welcome! Unfortunately can't upload anything bigger than 5000px (full version is 8000px) but I might add a link to an external host later...

Rheia_relief_winkel_v3_smaller.jpeg

Fantastic work! It has been great watching your progress on this world.