map creation?

Credit goes to WTP, really. He's the one who originally found it. I just thought I'd post the link because he's only got 5 posts and wouldn't be able to.
 
I'll echo that thanks for the link. Just read over it quickly and let out a sigh of refief that my long-worked on imagined world is fairly plausible...

Though I would also like to see a thread where knowledgeable members could share there expertise with us yobs who don't know a redwood from a house plant.

Actually, I might set that up now...

EDIT: Done and done.... http://www.chronicles-network.com/f...g-imaginary-worlds-questions-and-answers.html
 
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A good atlas will have a lot of basic geological and climatological information in it. Usually in the back, where no one ever looks....

This is an issue that drives me crazy in a lot of fantasy novels- when the shape of the land is wrong, or when the climate is wrong. It's amazing how often mountain ranges run right along book spines.:D

Edit: and mountains usually run as ridges along continents- very rarely will you see a shape such as Mordor, a sudden ring of mountains running in what is essentially a circle, unless it is one heck of a massive crater.

glances at link to wiki... a good basic article, but there are of course exceptions to the rules. But you need to learn the basics first, right? Especially the one talking about heavier rainfall on the slopes of mountains, with drier climates inland, very much like the mountain ranges are squeezing water out of the clouds as they pass by, which they are.
 
Actually: when writing fantasy, one doesn't really need to follow guidelines.
You can have your own exceptions. But beware:
Either explain them, or make sure they don't conflict with other things.

What I mean for example if in your novel the river 'oeaiuoliuoawagawagga' streams from the sea towards the hills, you need either an explanation (ancient ogre magic for example). Or you need to have all rivers going upwards from sea level. Or this is the only river and it just works like that in the world...

Just beware of your changes to reality.
 
i usually start with the rivers and just work my way backward, adding mountains in the uplands, delta at the coast, really the river and the roads are the key
 
I anwsered a similar thread about creating a universe which included a thing about map making...

If you have Photoshop here's a fun little thing to do for you to create inspire your world/map making if you're blocked..

1:make sure you have B&W colours (though not essential)
2:create a new image give it a good resolution, lets say 2000pixels X 1500pixels
3:filter>render>difference clouds>ok
4: (optional) hit Ctrl+F as many times as you like to add more detail
5:image>adjust>threshold>play with the threshold level till you're happy>ok

you should now have some instant continents or islands!
There are many 3d packages out there like Bryce that could take it further.
and there's more you can do in PS.

my other ideas are in the other thread - though I cant make a link yet as I've only just joined.

Jez
 
Hmmm... I've got both Photoshop and Bryce somewhere, and I've even succeeded in making a nice grey sphere on a grey background, in Bryce, that I was quite proud of. :)

If you're a Bryce user yourself, then can I ask, is it possible to create something in Photoshop - for example, the layout of a world - and import it into Bryce as a skin of sorts to apply to my pretty little grey sphere? If not Bryce, I don't suppose you know if it would be possible in other programs such as Maya, 3DS Max, zBrush, or even Sketchup?
 
In the little writing I have done, I usually wait until the story is finished, although I do make a note of what type of geographical features I will need. Most of those are worked from the mountains, down the rivers to the coast.

Do we have a thread on the flora and fauna for Historical Fantasy? I've gone back a fair way and unable to find anything.

Is that Photoshop the Adobe one Lenny?
 
Lenny: Hi! I don't know about Bryce that much - though you can create mountain ranges.

Adding natural objects to a Bryce Scene

I use max/Maya and yes you can used any image in photoshop as a texture map and bung it on a sphere to make a planet. I've got an WIP for my own planet and following this tutorial...

[tutorial.stavit.cz] - tutorials, instructions, manuals, techniques for 3D studio MAX/VIZ - modeling, texturing, animating, ...

...but it doesnt have to be that complex if you want to do something for your reference. 3D programs have various types of mapping which are based on primative objects like a cube,cylider, cone and a sphere, spherical mapping would be what you're after.

You'll need to pay attention to your poles if you want them to look good too, because a 3d program is likely to 'pinch' and distort your texture there. Your texture will need to be a rectangle and tile on the L & R edges (PS has a filter that will help you do this 'Offset' found in filter>other>offset )

Here's a site that will show you what your map should conform to:
Planet Texture Map Collection they have pretty good planets of our solar system.

If all you want is to map your , err...map on a sphere it would take you seconds to do once you've got your texture set up.

There is also a plugin for PS that you can create cool planets in an instant. you can play with various weathers, sealevels atmospheres and this plugin has a free trial period.

Flaming Pear:products:LunarCell


There's also Mojo world creator which is based on fractal generation. This has some really great stuff going on. Something else I wanna get around to doing - perhaps when I get to illustrate my SF novels one day!

Pandromeda : Gallery : Stills

Jez
 
Rosemary: Hi there - yep. There is only one I think.

Lenny: Yes is the anwser to your question. I did write a more detailed relply, but it has links to examples and other packages and needs to go through a moderator for approval before it can be posted.

cheers
Jez
 
Not a problem. You might even want to post it in a new thread when you can post links and the like. I look forward to it. :)
 
Thanks for that, Jez. :)

I've saved that post to my favourites, and I'm going to have a play about with it all in about a week, once I've finished my exams. Should be very interesting to see what comes out. :p
 
Lenny: No problem.

I've done a few examples to show what you can do in Photoshop with map making. These were done in about 3-4 hrs and the orignals are 4x. I wasn't using any predefined map I had drawn on paper so made it all up on the fly - names are bit crap didnt give them much thought! The B&W image created using the steps I mentioned above and then cut and pasting my results around the page to for a more convincing map.

Of course you dont have to be slave to that process. With a lot more care you can copy any sketch to create the B&W version - scan in and go from there. For the brown one I orginally added paper textures etc - but prefered this one.

I expect you would want to let your story dictate the landscape and go from there. When I eventually do my one, I'll build it up from elements of the story first and then make a custom map to fit - but the cool thing about the stuff below is that it can also inspire stories too - so I might do a bit of both!

map-1.jpg

​

map-2.jpg

​

I'll post some pics of this kind of thing on a sphere soon. Theres a good PS plugin you can use to avoid the pinching at the poles I told you about.

I'll do tutorials of the above if you're interested.

Font for map is called First Order and the small hill drawings are also a font called Hill Country. Both downloaded from http://www.dafont.com

Of course as I did all this for fun, Im not sure on any copyright issues with those fonts so you would need to check that out if you ever wanted to use for publication, but they are free to download. Usually they say it's ok for personal use, but get in touch for commerical use.


cheers
Jez
 
Escuse my French, but those are bloody amazing! And you say you did it all on the fly? Powers above...

I'll do tutorials of the above if you're interested.
Click to expand...

I'm more than interested now! :p

I've always wanted to be able to knock together my own maps that look the biz. But I've never been able to draw for toffee, sadly. I can, however, seem to be able to draw on the pixel level, it's just that it leaves me seeing everything in pixels for a couple of hours afterwards. :p

You're making me wish my exams were over now, you know, just so I could wake up early, go to sleep late, and spend the whole day playing with pixels, and effects and whatnot. Mark my words, I'm going to dreaming in pixels tonight. :rolleyes:
 
Hi - it's easy when you know how. You'll be knocking them out in no time. It also depends how much detail you want to put in.

I have other work to do for a week or more, so these are a distraction for me too :) but I'll do the tutorials after that. So good luck in your exams!

I will be able to put up the mapped spheres soon though (by the end of the week) as I've been playing with those in my lunch hours at work.

Tutorials will probably be as a link so im not clogging these forum pages. In the mean time the B&W version would be good to work on. Create your map or maps :) also you might want to come up with place names, find font or other dingbats in preperation - check the link above - they have elvish/middle earth fonts, medieval and gothic as well as some really nice 18th century handwriting fonts.

best wishes
Jez
 
OK here we go. managed to do it. this should be ok until I get the proper tutorials done. If any moderators want me to make this a link/ or size it down into more download friendly chunks, let me know (if I can edit this post I'll do that)

planet_making_illustration.jpg


best wishes
Jez
​
 
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