New World Map -- Logos project
Hello people!
Well, since the first map i made had, like, all sort of newbie mistakes i decided to begin a new map for a fantasy project im working on. The first idea is to make a fantasy land with big oceans and seas, and make something that i can diversificate into smaller maps like regional maps, and stuff like that. So im open for ideas, suggestions and tips from the amazingly people of this forum, specially information about how to make the map more "realistic". I've been lurking for a while in the forums and there are great, if not amazing, post with information for rivers, mountains and other elements, but i take inspiration from finished maps. So far i got a silluette of the continental division, im planning to stablish height terrain and mountains to make easier for me to place the rivers and lakes. Well, any suggestion is appreciated, here is the silluette.
1WjRcsP.jpg
I've been thinking on a course of accion, or something like that. Right now im 8/10 lost, i dont know what to do next. I started to make some guide to height terrain for placing rivers and such, but i dont know if this is the next step after having a silouette. I've seen a lot of post that establish caracteristics like planet size, planet shape, climates, tectonic plates and other stuff, but i dont know a thing about geology. Any recomendations? i got this so far:
AiAocXB.png
The heightmap looks good. I personally don't worry about climate placement or tectonic plates (it's a fantasy map, so you technically don't have to, unless you want to). I'd suggest to just keep working on what you got. All you really have to know geography for fantasy maps is: rivers flow downhill, and faultlines (where plates meet) create mountain ranges and islands.
Also, what is the scale of this map? Knowing that could help you understand if it is realistic or not. How realistic do you want it to be by the way?
Last edited by LordCartoart; 12-01-2017 at 04:15 PM.
Thanks for the comment!, i think ill just do that, keep going with the height map. Also, i dont know what suits me best in terms of scale. I have in mind something similar to earth, not strictly equal but something where most phisics laws works the same way. Ill read some stuff about scale and then choose it.
Does this map cover the entire world? And is that world a sphere? Because if so it needs to be twice as wide as it is tall, and the continents on the poles need to be done differently. They will span the entire width of the map. For instance, look at Antarctica on this map:
Equirectangular_projection.jpg
This map is in equirectangular projection, which is the most popular one used here because a lot of software will accept it as input. For instance GProjector is free software (from NASA) that will input your map and output it in many different map projections. This is handy when you start making smaller regional maps. But equirectangular projection has a LOT of distortion at the poles, so it's difficult (artistically speaking) to make it in the first place, especially if you have polar continents. If you really want to just freehand a map then something like Robinson or Winkel Tripel might be easier, but I know of no mapping software that accepts them as input.
Read the Wikipedia page on map projections if you haven't already, or here is the Spanish one but it isn't as comprehensive.
Other comments: You have a lot of rivers flowing uphill on that height map. They also connect in very odd ways. In fact, I would say that they connect in impossible ways that violate physics. It is impossible to figure out which way most of your rivers flow from looking at the map. As a general rule, rivers will empty into an ocean or lake at ONE point and one point only. Rivers do not fragment into smaller rivers as they go downstream. Quite the opposite is true- smaller rivers combine into larger rivers. (There are notable exceptions. One is river deltas, where some rivers divide into many channels just as they discharge into the ocean if the terrain is VERY flat. Look at the Nile delta, or the Mississippi delta. The Okavango delta gets talked about a lot, too.) Rivers tend to follow the lowest points down a valley. Also, generally a lake will only have ONE output stream, though many streams might discharge INTO the lake. If I were at home I'd put more realistic rivers onto your height map to show you what I mean, but for now have a look at this:
american_rivers_gage_adjusted-1024x853.jpg
Note that the rivers combine going downstream, and none cross mountains. (Well, a couple look like they cross mountains, but they don't really- those are water gaps.) This map has the river width proportional to flow rate, so it doesn't look realistic, but it makes the point about rivers combining as they go downstream.
Your height map itself looks awesome. It's just that the rivers don't make sense. (It's also not techtonically realistic to have mountains covering an entire continent, assuming that the land mass is continent-sized, but you have said this is fantasy.) But don't feel bad- rivers very commonly cause problems like this for novice mappers. In fact there is an unofficial group on this forum called the "river police" who go around helping people with their rivers.
I almost hesitate to say this, but one option to get realistic rivers from a height map is to load it into Wilbur, which is also free software. It will run erosion for you and make a river map, among other functions. But the user interface for Wilbur is challenging, especially for someone whose native language isn't English. That page has tutorials that help, though.
The tectonics, currents, winds, and climate are the things that I geek out about, so if this is a realistic map I can help a bit on those issues. But if it's a fantasy map with all sorts of oddities explained by "it's magic" then I'm not going to be much help. I don't have an artistic bone in my body.
Last edited by acrosome; 12-04-2017 at 12:07 PM.
G.Projector accepts both Robinson and Winkel tripel as input.
It does? Huh. You learn something new every day. (Or I'm unfamiliar with new updates or something.) I thought that Winkel Tripel was more or less impossible due to how it is an average of other projections. Buuuuuut, now that I think about it that doesn't really make much sense.
Last edited by acrosome; 12-04-2017 at 12:08 PM.
Good to know. the version I was using until now only had equirectangular as input projection.
Yeah, I just updated to 2.1.2, but my prior version was 1.7 or something. I suspect that I was unfamiliar with the update.Originally Posted by Azelor
By the way, Buddy, could I impose upon you to critique my latest climate maps? Pretty please?
(FYI carlansor, Azelor is the real climate guru around here.)
Last edited by acrosome; 12-04-2017 at 01:33 PM.
Wow, nice to see ppl commented
Yeah, after a quick reading on the scale wiki page (wich i need to expand, thanks a lot fot the spanish link!) i knew my map was much smaller than i wanted, so i expanded it a bit. Here's how its going:
YWrSA57.jpg
Now with the rivers issue, that's a ghost that haunts me since my first map, (special thanks to Azelor for correcting me that time) and thats the reason i started with an aproximation of where i wanted mountains to be in first place. After finishing that ill start to think about rivers and such, since its a complicated issue involving climate knowledge and such.
Doing my first (and failed) map i tried Wilbur, but got some weird results i didnt want at all xD. No problem with reading english, maybe a little speaking it.
Now, GProjector sounds interesting, specially if it helps me to make regional maps later on. Thats the plan!
Btw, about mountains (since i saw on your Venus Maps that you do a great job with tectonics
modifiable, except mayble the right continent. I want to keep that "reptilian skull like" shape on the south, and the top its from my other map.
Anyway, thanks a lot for the info! need to focus on investigating about some of that stuff.
Yeah, i know he is. He's the only one that commented on my first map
Again, thanks for all the info!. I love how people here in the guild likes to help around begginers.
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