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Thread: Cruenti Dei world map

  1. #1
    Guild Apprentice thomryng's Avatar
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    Wip Cruenti Dei world map

    This is a work in process in tiny, tiny steps.

    A bit of background: Cruenti Dei is a fantasy PBeM that I've been running for several years. The basic idea is that each player is running a country, doing all the sorts of things a country does: trade, ally, war, research, and so forth.

    Until recently, the players have been confined to a single continent, Sahûl.

    As technology has improved, a new Age of Exploration has blossomed. The players (at least some of them) are aware of three continents now, at least one of which has nations (and thus, new player positions) already present.

    It recently occurred to me that the quickie world map I made several years ago was not going to cut it:

    Click image for larger version. 

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    So I conceived the idea of putting together a full-colour poster map of the world. Because I apparently go from "easy" to "ludicrous" in just one step.

    I figured I'd start by cutting and pasting outlines of my finished continents (suitably reduced) to a single Photshop doc and then use jezelf's first tutorial to put together the coastlines and major rivers for the remaining continents.

    Here's a reduced version of step 1: importing the three "finished" continents:

    Click image for larger version. 

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    (Note that I'm reducing these posted WIP maps considerably from the actual working map. The final poster will be 24 x 36 at 300 dpi - though I'm considering dropping to 200 dpi to prevent my old Mac from suffering a coronary).

    Here's step 2: adding the first of the new continents

    Click image for larger version. 

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    At this point, I got hopelessly distracted by the wonderful WIP map that Slylok is working on, featuring a beautiful double-hemisphere frame. I decided right away that I wanted my poster map to have the same motif.

    Thanks to the very kind advice of Hai-Etlik (Stereographic Azimuthal projection indeed!), I was able to whip up a version with a twist:

    Click image for larger version. 

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    Now to finish those other pesky new continents and marry them to the frame.

    And then the fun really starts!
    Thom Ryng

    Cruenti Dei Line Editor
    Sardarthion Press

    "The real trouble with this world of ours is not that it is an unreasonable world, nor even that it is a reasonable one. The commonest kind of trouble is that it is very nearly reasonable, but not quite." (G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy)

  2. #2
    Guild Apprentice thomryng's Avatar
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    Wip

    OK, I've got the last of the continents "inked" in.

    Click image for larger version. 

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    Tomorrow I get to play plate tectonics and scootch them around a bit. And then on to the next tutorial!
    Thom Ryng

    Cruenti Dei Line Editor
    Sardarthion Press

    "The real trouble with this world of ours is not that it is an unreasonable world, nor even that it is a reasonable one. The commonest kind of trouble is that it is very nearly reasonable, but not quite." (G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy)

  3. #3
    Community Leader Facebook Connected tilt's Avatar
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    nice... looking forward to seing it progress
    regs tilt
    :: My DnD page Encounter Depot free stuff for your game :: My work page Catapult ::
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  4. #4
    Community Leader Facebook Connected Steel General's Avatar
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    I'm with Tilt, looking forward to seeing how this progresses.
    My Finished Maps | My Challenge Maps | Still poking around occasionally...

    Unless otherwise stated by me in the post, all work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.



  5. #5
    Guild Adept Aenigma's Avatar
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    I'm also with Tilt on this one.
    Yesterday today was tomorrow.
    My deviantart: http://darkaiz.deviantart.com/

  6. #6
    Guild Apprentice thomryng's Avatar
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    Wip

    Thanks for the encouragement, guys. As I said, I'm posting this in tiny steps as I walk through this process, rather than putting up something nearly done right off. I hope it doesn't get too tedious, but it's already been helpful to me, since I'm thinking through next steps as I post the current one.

    This morning I married all the elements together and did something that a real-world cartographer never gets to do: I moved some of the continents around so that they wouldn't be sliced by the projection I'm using.

    Click image for larger version. 

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    As you can see, I was not entirely successful. In fact, I've had to cut one continent (Efan, for those keeping score) pretty much in half. Since this is one of the continents the players have already discovered, there wasn't much I could do to move it.

    I also distorted some of the landmasses near the poles to give the illusion of conforming to the projection I'm using. Since this will (hopefully) be a 16th-century style map by the time I'm done, I'm not exactly shooting for 100% accuracy here. The players obtain regional maps as they explore, and this chart is mostly to show how they all go together.

    Here's one of the regional maps to give you an idea of scale:

    Click image for larger version. 

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    This is centered on the star-shaped lake on the south-westernmost continent (Sahûl).

    My next step will be to walk through jezelf's tutorial on making fantasy/parchment maps.
    Thom Ryng

    Cruenti Dei Line Editor
    Sardarthion Press

    "The real trouble with this world of ours is not that it is an unreasonable world, nor even that it is a reasonable one. The commonest kind of trouble is that it is very nearly reasonable, but not quite." (G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy)

  7. #7
    Community Leader Jaxilon's Avatar
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    This is going great so far!
    “When it’s over and you look in the mirror, did you do the best that you were capable of? If so, the score does not matter. But if you find that you did your best you were capable of, you will find it to your liking.” -John Wooden

    * Rivengard * My Finished Maps * My Challenge Maps * My deviantArt

  8. #8
    Software Dev/Rep Hai-Etlik's Avatar
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    Actually, for a project like this, you might just find some more 'serious' geospatial software useful. QuantumGIS for instance.

    This would provide a way to store data about your world and analyze it. (A simple example would be: Find all regions with average temperature above X, and all regions with more than Y cm of annual rainfall, and then intersect them to find tropical areas.) It can also convert projections for you.

    It's more software to learn, but it's free.
    Last edited by Hai-Etlik; 10-27-2010 at 01:01 PM.

  9. #9
    Guild Apprentice thomryng's Avatar
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    Wip

    Well. I took a look at QuantumGIS, but I'm afraid that several hours in I'm finding it quite beyond me.

    Back in Photoshop land, I've aged my map.

    Click image for larger version. 

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    I can't say I'm too happy with it. Although it looks much better in the larger size than this one, it's still not right.

    There's nothing I can't fix, but the sheer amount of fixing is enough that I'm leaving it for another day.

    For one, it's much too dark - dark enough that any other use of colour is going to look like mud.

    Then there's the fact that the tan frame is not working with the parchment effects. It's going to have to be a different colour.

    And for some reason, I have one river that's standing out like it's on fire.

    Grr.
    Thom Ryng

    Cruenti Dei Line Editor
    Sardarthion Press

    "The real trouble with this world of ours is not that it is an unreasonable world, nor even that it is a reasonable one. The commonest kind of trouble is that it is very nearly reasonable, but not quite." (G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy)

  10. #10
    Community Leader Facebook Connected tilt's Avatar
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    love your regional map ... but agree, the aged map needs more work and to be lightened
    regs tilt
    :: My DnD page Encounter Depot free stuff for your game :: My work page Catapult ::
    :: Finished Maps :: Competion maps - The Island of Dr. Rorshach ::
    :: FREE Tiles - Compasses :: Other Taking a commision - Copyright & Creative Commons ::
    Works under CC licence unless mentioned otherwise

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