An Experiment

[jamieg270]

Hi All,

Registered last year but not very active since then. thought I'd post a WIP/Experiment I've been working on.

Been playing with the idea of a new fantasy world, but wanted to base it on more realistic terrain. I have used Wilbur for the land forms and continental shelves. Then used photoshop to add in the height data using real world mountain ranges (if you look closely you can see the Himalayas on one of the continents!) and am now experimenting with colouring the map using images of Earth from NASA as source material.

Not got onto river systems yet, and I need to do a lot of tidying up. Anyone done anything similar got any advice? Especially with the river systems.

Ultimately I'll then use that to create a more hand-drawn map based on that more 'real' detail full of the inaccuracies of early map making and the bias of the map maker etc. Not sure if I'll use this particular map for the finished item, at this stage this is more an experiment on technique.

Attached are the raw JPG and a simple Robinson projection using G.Projector.


Jamie

[hohum]

I'll pitch in even though I haven't yet finished my map in this style. I think it looks pretty good but my gut is telling me there is something up with the mountains on the right on the Robinson projection (left on the 2nd image). It just feels like real tectonics wouldn't do that. As for the rivers, since you can't see them on a global scale, you might want to dice up your map and work on smaller areas for that level of detail and then stitch them back together for your world map. I ran erosion and incision on my world level map and it gives you 10 mile wide gullies. So it is something to think about. Lastly the desert coloring looks good, but it looks like it may be too repetitive to use on areas much larger than that. Good progress so far.

[Gidde]

Looks like a good start, looking forward to seeing it progress!

Anyone done anything similar got any advice? Especially with the river systems.

Check out How To Get Your Rivers in the Right Place. It's a wealth of knowledge; you'll leave that post feeling quite confident about where to put your rivers

[jamieg270]

Thanks chaps,

Your feedback is much appreciated. Hopefully post an update soon.