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Thread: Taemandor (Name pending)

  1. #1

    Wip Taemandor (Name pending)

    The name is lengthy and unpronounceable, I know. I invented it when I was much younger and it needs redone. Anyhow.

    I made this map over last night and this morning. I was going to proceed to add mountains/lakes/rivers/etc, but then a friend critiquing it pointed out a few horrible flaws that made me realize... I have no idea what I'm doing. I'm feeling entirely in over my head, but I want a map that, even if it's ugly, I can be proud knowing at least it's feasibly realistic.

    Click image for larger version. 

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    Basically, I took an old outline I drew years ago, traced it in Illustrator, made adjustments, brought it into Photoshop and started coloring it one layer at a time (ocean, then sand, then grasslands).

    I showed some friends what I'd done thus far (pictured above) and it was noted that the landmasses kind of end to nowhere... rather than the caps/bands of land you see at the top/bottom of a map of Earth. There are a few other concerns due to the theme of the world I'm trying to create.

    So, as a total newbie at this... I just decided last night that I wanted to do it... how should I go about developing a realistic land mass? Climate/geography/etc?

    There are two particulars I should note. One, the world was essentially still a pangaea before a magical spell went awry and basically nuked it, resulting in the central ocean, with those middle islands being an 'eye of the storm' deal. Second, it's rather crucial to the theme that those center islands are the only practical way between the two major land masses (another concern with the current layout is that this isn't currently the case).

    So... where do I begin making this remotely realistic, barring the two caveats above? I've read a lot of things about mapping out the plates of the planet, considering ocean currents for climates, all that, but... I feel entirely in over my head.

    And my apologies if asking for this amount of help is bad form when I'm so new.

  2. #2
    Guild Journeyer octopod's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by rabek View Post
    I showed some friends what I'd done thus far (pictured above) and it was noted that the landmasses kind of end to nowhere... rather than the caps/bands of land you see at the top/bottom of a map of Earth.
    There's no reason to think that this is the map of the whole planet! Maybe there's some more land in there that we can't see on this image? And of course not every planet needs to have land or ice covering the poles; after all, for much of our own planet's history it was too warm for polar ice caps, and we may soon be in such a climate again. That said, you do look like you've cut off the ends of this projection.

    I highly suggest you jump into the worldbuilding tutorials in the Tutorials section of the board. In particular you're going to want to pay attention to anything about tectonics or climate -- the fact that you've got deserts in the extreme south but not the extreme north suggests that the continents are pretty non-uniformly distributed from north to south. I also suggest the climate maps at scotese.com, since you make particular reference to the breakup of supercontinents. Try the late Cretaceous.

  3. #3

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    Thanks for the response! I did jump into tutorials, but I think I've messed up rather terribly.

    I was using this tutorial: http://www.cartographersguild.com/sh...t-in-photoshop

    At a certain point, it shows this:

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    What I got at this point is this:

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    Any idea what I did wrong? Anyone who bothers to look here.

    Thanks!

  4. #4

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    Wooo! My first completed map. I decided to start with just the central isles/continents before doing the entire world. Better to start small, maybe, and I needed that map in particular for something else. Any comments?

    Click image for larger version. 

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  5. #5

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    Looks nice so far. You said this map is completed though. Aren't you going to add some terrain features like mountains, rivers, etc.? If I were you I would also leave more space around the islands/continents, I think it would look better that way. Now it seems a bit "stuffed". If it's a part of a larger map then it's ok though. I'm telling you about this "space-problem" because it's something I have to work on. I like the colors you used and the bright "glow" around the land (it looks like foam - lots of it, waves breaking on the rocky shores perhaps?). Anyway, like I said, good work so far, keep at it.

  6. #6
    Guild Apprentice Megahercio's Avatar
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    Hello rabek

    I like the idea of light up the islands in a Dark Sea. I wait to see how you resolve the problem of names and text... is not easy, i think.

  7. #7

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    And I'm back! Life's been crazy, but I'm going to get more done on this map. I've started over from the basics. I've been using the tutorial here to get the land-masses worked out. So far, I have this:

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    For the tectonic plates.

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    With the directions

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    And finally, the actual landmasses.
    Last edited by rabek; 05-09-2013 at 07:08 PM. Reason: Fixing images

  8. #8

    Wip

    It's been a while again. I did this a while ago, but I haven't posted it yet.

    I did some research on climate and utilized my tectonics to determine some features like volcanoes and mountains. Here's a color-coded map with those features. This world has a more extreme tilt, so the polar caps are a bit larger... though I maybe made them a bit too large.

    Note that this is just a guideline for the final map. It isn't meant to look pretty.

    Click image for larger version. 

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  9. #9

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    Whew! Lots of work, but I've got the map finished in a kind of 'version one' sort of way. I plan on tweaking a bit where I can, changing colors a bit, adding polar ice caps. Eventually maybe political boundries/cities.

    Click image for larger version. 

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    Also, I used the Saderon Tutorial from this forum.

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