Results 1 to 10 of 10

Thread: My attempt at making a planet

  1. #1
    Guild Journeyer someguy's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2008
    Location
    Dark side of the Moon
    Posts
    221

    Post My attempt at making a planet

    Using the terraformed Mars map from wormspeaker's thread her is my attempt at a planet.

    In gimp i used "scale image" to make it squre. Then ran "Filters > Map > Map Object" selecting Sphere from the menu to make a globe. I played around with it until I had the view of the map i wanted.

    Then I ran drop shadow twice with a blue color. I adjusted the dropshadow layers transparency till it looked like air.

    For the clouds i made some light blue splotches an right side of a trans parent layer, then used the smudge tool liberally on the edges and made them all cloud like. Then once again ran the "Filters > Map > Map Object" tool to make it all spherical and then placed that layer on top of the planet and adjusted it opacity till it looked right.

    Wa la'!
    Attached Images Attached Images
    Last edited by someguy; 12-11-2009 at 12:08 AM. Reason: Forgot sitation linkage...
    My current thread, Developing a plausible and functional system for Fantasy Economics in an rpg.

  2. #2
    Guild Journeyer someguy's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2008
    Location
    Dark side of the Moon
    Posts
    221

    Post

    Well here is an attempt at making a really cool cover.

    I feel so proud of myself.
    Attached Images Attached Images
    My current thread, Developing a plausible and functional system for Fantasy Economics in an rpg.

  3. #3
    Guild Journeyer
    Join Date
    Feb 2009
    Location
    SC
    Posts
    227

    Post

    I think that the "Mars Terraformed" map is a texture designed to wrap around a sphere in some space game. (Since it's based off a height map of Mars.) So what you're doing with it is what it's intended to do. I like the result except the clouds, they just don't look right. Here is a reference image of Earth and a cloud map to make it better. (Oh, and you've blued the surface too much. Dial that back a bit.)
    Attached Images Attached Images
    Last edited by wormspeaker; 12-11-2009 at 09:56 AM.
    “Maps encourage boldness. They're like cryptic love letters. They make anything seem possible.”
    -Mark Jenkins

  4. #4
    Guild Journeyer someguy's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2008
    Location
    Dark side of the Moon
    Posts
    221

    Post

    I'm use to making rock balls.

    Like this?
    Attached Images Attached Images
    Last edited by someguy; 12-11-2009 at 10:17 PM.
    My current thread, Developing a plausible and functional system for Fantasy Economics in an rpg.

  5. #5
    Guild Artisan su_liam's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2007
    Location
    Port Alberta, Regina(IRL: Eugene, OR)
    Posts
    798

    Default

    Considerably better, that.

  6. #6
    Guild Journeyer
    Join Date
    Feb 2009
    Location
    SC
    Posts
    227

    Default

    Yes, looking good there. Only quibble is that it's still hard to see the land under the atmosphere. As you can see in the reference image above, the North American continent stands out pretty well where it's not covered by clouds. Mars' atmosphere would be even thinner than Earth's so you might not want to obscure the land at all or only very slightly where there are no clouds. You might even want to make the clouds slightly transparent to show that the atmosphere is thinner and the air dryer than Earth. Though I don't think it would hurt to leave them opaque either.
    Last edited by wormspeaker; 12-14-2009 at 10:14 AM.
    “Maps encourage boldness. They're like cryptic love letters. They make anything seem possible.”
    -Mark Jenkins

  7. #7
    Guild Artisan su_liam's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2007
    Location
    Port Alberta, Regina(IRL: Eugene, OR)
    Posts
    798

    Default

    To be usefully terraformed, the atmosphere would have to have a surface pressure pretty close to our own. I'd say at least 450-600 millibars. Lets go with 500mb, about half an atmosphere. Surface pressure is the weight of atmosphere above a given area of the surface. With Mars having about a third of Earth's gravity this requires about three times as much mass of air for the same pressure. So for our example, this would be about 1.5 times as much air as Earth, with a commensurate increase in optical density. I'd expect a terraformed Mars to be a good deal hazier than Earth actually. Also clouds would tend to build up a lot higher, making them appear very opaque. A somewhat dry Mars wouldn't have thin clouds so much as infrequent clouds. That seems to be what someguy's image shows.

    btw, The large optical thickness is beneficial for terraforming Mars as it also means the greenhouse effect will be large, warming the planet up.

    All that hidden surface doesn't make a great map, but it is a good view of the planet from space. Sometimes in a space game you need a good planet map, sometimes you just need to know what you see out the cockpit window...

  8. #8
    Guild Journeyer someguy's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2008
    Location
    Dark side of the Moon
    Posts
    221

    Default

    Ya I agree with su_liam.
    My current thread, Developing a plausible and functional system for Fantasy Economics in an rpg.

  9. #9
    Guild Journeyer someguy's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2008
    Location
    Dark side of the Moon
    Posts
    221

    Post

    Its a very cold world.
    Attached Images Attached Images
    My current thread, Developing a plausible and functional system for Fantasy Economics in an rpg.

  10. #10
    Guild Journeyer Vorhees's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2009
    Location
    Adelaide, Australia
    Posts
    188

    Post

    nice work Someguy, i like the Book Cover pic

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •