Half of Terran World Map

[ravells]

Hmmm, must try that ocean ripple trick. When you say it's a problem of scale, do you mean that your document is at too high a resolution for the cloud filters to give the effect?

[Xeviat]

Hmmm, must try that ocean ripple trick. When you say it's a problem of scale, do you mean that your document is at too high a resolution for the cloud filters to give the effect?

No matter what resolution I try, the cloud details are just too big. I figured out a workaround; I fill the whole layer with the clouds, then use transform to scale the selection down to 1/4th, then tile it. GIMP allows you to play with the detail of clouds, but I can't find a way to do it in Photoshop.

The ocean ripple trick is only good for islands I found; it makes continents too uniform in their randomness ... as oxymoronic as that sounds.

[ravells]

It's a pity the PS cloud filter doesn't have settings, I use a plug-in filter for clouds which has a lot more options. Very good plug-in set, which I'd highly recommend to anyone. Works with PSP too.

[Xeviat]

Thanks for that link. I'm not in a position to spend money on this now (more so than PS already cost me), but I'm happy to see other resources.

Oh, and here's what I came up with for my new coastline.

http://www.thecbg.org/e107_files/pub...an_outline.jpg

(The image is too large to put here, as this forum doesn't auto shrink it)

[RobA]

I see the mmcloud filter is not at the website I linked to.

Attached.

-Rob A>

[Xeviat]

Thanks RobA, much props. I'll fiddle with it and see what it can do. In the mean time, anyone have feedback on how things look so far? Should I use the coastline trick to make the mountains a bit more organic as well?

I'm going to be going through all of the tutorials here (in fact I intend to go through RobA's "Using GIMP to Create an Artistic Regional RPG Map" tutorial and see how it feels). But maybe you all can give me a few pointers on the things I want to do on a global scale:

1: Map Elevation. Along with the mountains, land, water, and air/water currents, elevation will help me in setting climates (I have a few resources that aid in getting general bands, maybe others have better ones?).
2: Climates. Plotting out general climate tendencies like humid tropical, humid temperate, hot and dry, and cold and dry. I have real world maps and a few resources to help.
3: Biomes. Forest, Grassland, Desert, Tundra, you know it all. Climate helps here.

I'm not looking for regional level detail yet, but I'd like to have a nice map with multiple layers for all the purposes I could need. I'm shooting for believability over accuracy, but I want things to look organic.

Thanks all.

[RobA]

Some Links (culled from some old threads)...

Check out this thread and possibly Geoff's Climate Cookbook.

Another good reference for both climate and geology is Expeditious Retreat Press' A Magical Society: Guide to Mapping, which is a free-to-download chapter from the larger A Magical Society: Ecology and Culture book.

(And if you like that one, try also A Magical Medieval City Guide.)

This whole thread

-Rob A>