Aloha! Irish Amateur Cartographer and aspiring author here :)

[AsDuskFalls]

Hi all!

I'm Darragh (AsDuskFalls) and I'm an aspiring cartographer from Ireland. I've been working on a fantasy novel series for a number of years and I discovered my burgeoning love for cartography when I decided to try and create a map for the series. My main continent is conveniently separated into regions held by different races so I sketched their respective regions by hand, then scanned and imported these sketches into GIMP and used them as the basis for building a complete map of the continent. I had a look at a number of different mapping software options but I opted for GIMP so I could really tailor the look and feel and also so I could develop my graphic design skills. I get distracted easily with all of the other aspects of writing and world building, so I haven't done much more with it so far but I am planning on creating separate regional maps and getting into city/town maps for key story areas too. I'll post it to the WIP section as well but here's what I've done thus far:

PrimaryMap-overview-coloured.jpg

One question I have right off the bat, is are there any methods/tools/software that would allow me to create a zoomable map in the vein of Google Maps? I'd love to end up with an interactive map readers can refer to that they can zoom in on without it all turning into a pixelated mess and without having to work on a 15,000px X 15,000px file in order to have enough detail at high zoom levels. Ideally I'd love a solution that doesn't involve using Vector art as I haven't been able to get my head around drawing with Vector art software yet.

[tilt]

Hi Darragh, and welcome to the guild. Great that you already have a map going, what is a novel without a good map ... I perused it shortly and found a troublesome river between Lake Tar and Lake Ilia, rivers generally only come together, they don't part.. unless.. magic .. deltas are of course okay.. no idea of how often they appear and what size they usually are, but others in here might be able to help you.

I don't think you can attach a pic before you reach 5 posts (might be wrong) - but it will be appreciated if you post the pic directly in the guilds system and not via dropbox etc. That way if any external partner is gone, or you move your files from there, links wont be broken in here

We have a zoomable map expert in here named Redrobes, so he can probably help you

check out our tutorials and as you yourself said.. when you're ready, post in the WIP section happy mapping

[AsDuskFalls]

Hi Darragh, and welcome to the guild. Great that you already have a map going, what is a novel without a good map ... I perused it shortly and found a troublesome river between Lake Tar and Lake Ilia, rivers generally only come together, they don't part.. unless.. magic .. deltas are of course okay.. no idea of how often they appear and what size they usually are, but others in here might be able to help you.

I don't think you can attach a pic before you reach 5 posts (might be wrong) - but it will be appreciated if you post the pic directly in the guilds system and not via dropbox etc. That way if any external partner is gone, or you move your files from there, links wont be broken in here

We have a zoomable map expert in here named Redrobes, so he can probably help you

check out our tutorials and as you yourself said.. when you're ready, post in the WIP section happy mapping

Hey tilt, thanks so much for the response! I've edited the post to include the image as an attachment so it seems to be working even before the 5 post threshold. I missed the Attachment option when I was writing the post first time around

Thanks for the feedback on that river also! I'm not 100% on the guidelines around realistic waterways like that so I'm glad for the feedback!

[rdanhenry]

Hey tilt, thanks so much for the response! I've edited the post to include the image as an attachment so it seems to be working even before the 5 post threshold. I missed the Attachment option when I was writing the post first time around

Thanks for the feedback on that river also! I'm not 100% on the guidelines around realistic waterways like that so I'm glad for the feedback!

You would do well to start here for learning about waterways: https://www.cartographersguild.com/s...ead.php?t=3822

[AsDuskFalls]

Holy smokes, rdanhenry! That thread is a gold mine, thanks so much! Every now and then I love realising how little I know