Reply With QuoteI love the 2nd picture, how you'v made it look like a real world, I'v been trying to use CC3 to create some kind of world but very detailed and hard to understand everything.
How did you start?...
World of Madara
So in my never ending quest to improve my map making skills, I bring my third attempt at a world map. This is done in GIMP 2.8, using MathMap. Currently it has no labels or national borders drawn in as I'm currently trying to think of the best way to do that. Also implementing a legend, this world is roughly the size of Earth of Venus.
Madara.png
Originally I made the world much smaller with less oceans, here is the crude version I did earlier. This version has labels and depicts a smaller world.
new world waterworld.png
The inspiration for this world originally were maps of a theoretical future Terraformed Mars. Originally the world was smaller with just one single ocean but for my purposes this lead to a world that was too small and to climatically hard to explain. So I upped the scale, expanded the land masses, added more water and also produced I think a slightly better quality world map. The top one having more texture to the land and more defined rivers.
Anyway, Questions? Comments? Input? I'm open to suggestions on improvements or recommendations on ways of implementing good labels, or national borders.
I love the 2nd picture, how you'v made it look like a real world, I'v been trying to use CC3 to create some kind of world but very detailed and hard to understand everything.
How did you start?...
Actually I started with a webpage about a guys theories about a Terraformed Mars.Originally Posted by DreamingNomad
I looked at this,
MRZ.GIF
Source
And from that I just build my own version of a world. Actually some of the source material is still visible. Mariner Canyon is still there only now in the larger map it is a significantly larger inland sea. The Top Image is my current rendition, mainly my attempt at a world with enough Ocean coverage IMO to evenly maintain climate stability. Also still there is the Helles Sea, Chryse Gulf and the Agryge Sea as well as the two big continents general shape.
Mainly I just started with a single layer, with just two colors, one for oceans and one for land and sort of moved things about, added ocean, subtracted ocean, and went from there. I just basically added layers to give color based on climate, like the green areas of the tropics ect... and used a lot of bump maps to give the land form.
The world itself is partly a reaction to other D&D DM's in my areas local setting. Homebrewing a setting is basically the entrance exam, the Trial one has to do to DM in this area. Or at least in the circle. Most of the DM's have created these rather oppressive fairly bleak worlds. One friend has made one where "The bad guys have won and you must cling to hope." another is making a sort of gritty steam punk post apocalypse. I came to the idea of taking their ideas and flipping them on their head. This world, the Bad guys have won, several times, been toppled, civilization has risen collapsed, and the very world has nearly been rendered uninhabitable, but now is terraformed back to life. Were other DM's have sought to make bleak worlds, dying worlds, I decided to flip the script and make a lush vibrant virgin world. My main inspiration is the idea of taking a dead world like say Mars and making it a living world, in this case with magic. Or a dying world like Athas of Dark Suns and Rebirthing it into a lush life filled world of plenty.
Last edited by Tzi; 07-11-2013 at 11:01 PM. Reason: Adding more info.
Okay world atlas mock 2....
Here I tried to correct the colorization of the map and made a little ocean and wind current chart just so I could kind of know where it is likely wet and where it is likely not wet.
Madara.png
It has come out less green but in my mind a bit more realistic. The Tropics are much more clearly delineated from the rest of the world and the planet now climate zone wise at least has fuzzy bits of grassland, dry space and more then just ONE desert.
Curious, for those who've made scales? Whats the ideal way to calculate out a scale? Since I'm a novice at this my first instance was to take my intended circumference of the whole planet and divide it by say the number of pixels the image is wide.
so Say the circumference around the equator divided by 1600 Pixels (=423.33 MM), I went with 38025.6 Kilometers (The same circumference as Venus)
Last edited by Tzi; 07-13-2013 at 03:19 PM.
What type of map projection is it?
Hi Tzi, nice work. I love the idea behind the map.
Right now? Just a flat map projection, I'd warp it to be more errrrrr.... planet? Shaped but I probably will just keep it in its current form which I envision as being more a Mercator projection. Which will be more apparent when Lat/Long lines are added.
Thanks, Yeah I felt in my groups circle we needed at least one Vibrant lush world to play in. With insane Magi-tech bordering on scifi of course. XD
Okay long time without updates, mostly work consuming all time....
Madara.png
First attempt at labels and having the snow, glaciers, and others more visible.
Side not this is a map of small country I did on the side,
Caledonia.png
This is just a country/region on the larger map. I think I'm good at a smaller scale map but I'm still troubled with making labels for bigger global scale maps.
