Geidor

[altasilvapuer]

After first stumbling across this forum, and finding Karro's work on his most recent map, I felt the urge to get (semi-back) into cartography. I loved his approach to his world, so I've taken a similar mindset with my own, so far.

I had done some collaborative work with a friend a few years ago, with an extensive world of his own, but this is the first I've sat down and visually built my own full world. In my spare time, I'm slowly building up a Sci-Fi universe (as if there weren't enough already ), and have gotten a decently extensive mass of material up already.

When I began this, I hadn't decided which world of the list it would be, but I've finally settled on Geidor (Guy'-door, though the 'ei' of the first syllable is closer to high than guy), a relatively important planet that was lacking many details, so far.


This first image is of the continents and their underlying tectonic plates. These plates have undergone an almost excessive amount of revision over the past couple days, and may even see some more, but they are reasonably accurate for now.


The second image is the same map with the tectonics hidden and the ocean and air currents visible. The ocean currents move in the direction of the darker end, with the fade being the 'trail' of the arrow. I'm still a little unsure of the sea in the southern temperate region, but I haven't figured out how else it might circulate. My continents are somewhat problematic for ocean currents as they are now, but I like the mix of cold and warm coastal currents I have so far.


Both images are still quite early WIPs (as evident by the lack of definition to the continents and mountains - they're just placeholders, so far), with plenty of room to change. The advantage of choosing to make this map Geidor, as opposed to one of my other planets is that I'm quite open to suggestions on the design of the planet itself, so far.


Next step once these are reasonably blocked in will be biomes and rivers, I think.

-asp

[Karro]

After first stumbling across this forum, and finding Karro's work on his most recent map, I felt the urge to get (semi-back) into cartography. I loved his approach to his world, so I've taken a similar mindset with my own, so far.

....etc....


Next step once these are reasonably blocked in will be biomes and rivers, I think.

-asp

Looking good so far. You've done a great job at placing the tectonics and the coriolis patterns.

And wow, it warms my heart to be cited as a source of inspiration, even if my own maps are a little lacking in the coolness-factor as yet. Good luck!

As to oceanic circulations, my understanding is that they generally follow a pattern similar to air-currents and the coriolis effect, except their flow is impeded by the land masses in the way. As such, water circulates in a generally clockwise fashion in the northern hemisphere and a counterclockwise fashion in the southern hemisphere. Given that, I think your southern seas are about as close as mere mortals can get.


Also; Alta Silva Puer... would that be "High Forest Boy" or something similar? It's been a few years since latin, for me.

[altasilvapuer]

Alta Silva Puer is literally "High/Deep Forest Boy", but it's not meant literally. It's slightly idiomatic, and more closely a transliteration. alta silva is a rough transliteration of the French hautbois, or "Deep Wood," the French name for the oboe - my primary instrument.



I was doing preliminary work on the January and July pressure/wind systems this morning. I'll probably go ahead and post the January one, and finish up the July one and post that, as well.

-asp

[altasilvapuer]

Well, this is the preliminary work on the January Air currents. Green denotes areas of High pressure, while Orange/Yellow dictates low pressure. Air currents, like the water currents in previous iterations, flow in the direction of the darker portion of the stroke.

I think there's still a few mistakes that need fixing, though.

And it'll probably be a couple days before the July Air currents go up, but we'll see.

-asp

[Karro]

Hey, I'm smart enough in Latin to at least translate your name literally, if not catch the figurative meaning. I feel all brainy 'n' stuff!

Anyway, I like what you've done here with the air currents; looks very nice.

One point on the continents that might bear remarking:

The northernmost continent, as it's currently laid out, will come to a sharp point exactly on the north pole; almost forming like an arrow pointing at the pole, when viewed from above the pole. If that's what you want, that's cool then. If not, to fix it, what you might want to do is extend the top of the continent to go run all along the northern edge of the map.

[altasilvapuer]

You're right. I keep looking at that continent and realizing that it's not going to do what I want, but I keep ignoring it, heh. I'll fiddle with it some next time I work on the map - maybe plug it into GIMP and map it to a sphere again (I use Photoshop, normally). Thanks for the tip!

-asp

[altasilvapuer]

Taking a break from the slightly tedious work of wind currents, I realized while looking over Korba's Calen Ndor (one of my other big inspirations), that I had neglected the actual ocean temperatures resulting from my rough currents, so I set about doing that. It was a bit of a learning experience figuring out the best way to do it, so I'll upload my three main stages in hopes that they will be helpful to someone.

Ideally, there should be two final copies - one for 'January' and one for 'July', but due to laziness and school, I'm going with one that's somewhat both and neither, for now.


My first image is of the basic heat distribution irrespective of continents or ocean currents, and based solely on latitude. I tend to begin with something like this so I have a rough idea in mind. I basically just made a quick gradient of the colours I wanted to use, set it to reflect, and drew the gradient from the center of my image (0° E/W, 0° N/S) due North to (0°E/W, 90°N). This wasn't wholly satisfactory, so I redid it using Photoshop's layer styles (gradient) for a little bit more ease of control without cluttering the image's history, but that's not really of importance, I suppose, as it can be done without layer styles.

WIP A-0.4o 3000x1941 - Ocean Temperatures I.jpg


Next, I tried morphing that actual layer according to my ocean patterns, but this proved to be overly-complicated and produced mediocre results. My method was to duplicate the entire image for safety, merge all the visible layers, and use Photoshop's Liquify filter, so I could liquefy the temperature while still seeing the continents, as the Liquefy filter only displays the layer currently being liquefied. Then, before applying the liquefication, I saved the mesh in it, and canceled the liquefication. Next, I went back to the original, liquefied the temperature layer, and applied the saved mesh. This allowed me to liquify only the temperature layer, but still be able to work while seeing the continents.

WIP A-0.4o 3000x1941 - Ocean Temperatures II.jpg

As stated, however, this was extremely over-complicated and produced results that were mediocre, at best, so I decided to try a different approach.

My next attempt came from a closer examination of Korba's own temperature maps for Calen Ndor (link) and realized that what I loved most about them was their simplicity. So this time, using the same colours as I had created for my gradient above, I used a simple round brush with a low hardness for a little fuzz, and blocked out the general shape of the temperatures, and then deformed them by hand by painting each colour back and forth over it's neighboring colours until I had something that looked satisfactory.

WIP A-0.4o 3000x1941 - Ocean Temperatures III.jpg

I'm still concerned about some of those temperatures, though, on the final one. Some of them just don't feel quite right to me for some reason. If anyone has any suggestions, feel free to offer them.


With any luck, some of that babble might prove useful for someone.

Next, I am going to finish up my wind currents for July, and then move on to rainfall. And/or I might touch up the temperature map to account for seasonal changes, as my world does actually have a tilt to it.

-asp

[Greason Wolfe]

One of the things that I like most about the guild is seeing all the different approaches that others take when crafting their maps, and this example fits right into that category. As much as I've read up on climate/weather building for worlds, it always whips my backside in a very painful way. But what you've done here has certainly given me a new view of the process in a much more visible way than anything I've read so far.

Looking forward to seeing more.

GW

[Naeddyr]

This is looking very promising, in a sort of "oh god climates" sort of way (i know the pain, man, it's in the BONE), though I'm wondering what map projection you are using? Seems not to be equirectangular (it's not 2x1).

[altasilvapuer]

To be honest, I hadn't given really any thought to map projections until Karro mentioned something about it wrapping unusually at the poles (which it does, currently, but I can probably fix with some angry tinkering, heh).

When I started this, I simply went with 300 ppi on a page size of 11x17, as that's the largest size I can easily print at work, should I chose to do so. Beyond that, I had no idea. I noted a few places in the tectonics stage, where a plate was moving off the edge and "around" the globe, and tried to follow the motion mentally. Other than that, though, I've given little/no thought to what projection this is. Any recommendations on what I'm closest to?

-asp