WIP - (ambitious) World Map of fictious earth-like planet

[Raptori]

Answering your question, Raptori, I think I am averaging 1h a day for the last month, so something between 30 and 40 h of work. However, a lot of the initial stuff has been redone already. I will probably be much faster in the next continents. As I said, I will make a movie of my technique one of these days, but for now there's other priorities (finishing the damn penguin!)..

Thanks! Awesome, that'll be very interesting to watch

Does that Thailand/Java like peninsula work well where it is? It is created by the subduction of oceanic plate on old, submerged, continental crust.

Yep it looks fine. The penguin has an antenna.

Does the coast look alright or too linear? I can't make my mind about this.

Coast looks good too. I have a hard time with that too, I usually just open an atlas map of the real world to compare, and it's surprising how straight the coastlines look at that kind of distance.

[Pixie]

Latest update on the first continent of the world... At surface the job is done, the whole continent is finished. Under the surface, there is still plenty to do before moving on to the next continent. (as I said before, there is a large mess up with some layers, it doesn't show because there is a multicolored layer on top of it which I am keeping until I sort things out)

In the meanwhile, as to avoid the repetitive work, I took some time to experiment with political maps and climate maps. Not everything is at a standard I am ready to show, but I am also sharing a small test with political borders.

In this political map, I placed a semi-transparent brownish layer on top of the topography and then added the borders and country names. The drafting of borders was made to resemble the original 20-year-old-long-time-lost map, but accommodating the present topography. It ain't final as it will take into account climate as well, and history... (but most of the history I got in my mind already and it is mostly reflected in here)
I ended up with a kind of incomplete colorful atlas look, sort of the thing one would find in a early-teenage book about the world, I think.
I would love to hear some criticism about this one, it's by no means a finished job.

So, without further ado, here are the previews!

[Lingon]

This is really wonderful, Pixie! The full world map will look stunning.
For the political map, Have you considered using something like a dashed line instead of the colored borders? I think that looks better in this type of map, plus it'd hide less of the terrain. The brown layer could also be at lower opacity then, as the green wouldn't be clashing with lots of other colors, and that would show even more of the terrain. I think it's a shame to hide it when it's so beautiful

[Pixie]

Thanks for the positive remarks and good ideas/encouragement.
I did spend some time (very little available in the coming weeks) trying a black, unshaded line for the borders. Indeed it allows for a less opaque layer on top of the topography coloring (but still, some opacity is needed, the green/yellow/brown theme is far too saturated). The map also becomes less cluttered and I can add capitals and other geographical info (I tried a few, but alas, no time).

Still, it was a fait-divers. My primary aim is to fix the actual layers in the topographic multi-layer file and then apply (or attempt to at least) Nathan's (http://www.cartographersguild.com/tu...nique-1-a.html) technique.

[Caenwyr]

My primary aim is to fix the actual layers in the topographic multi-layer file and then apply (or attempt to at least) Nathan's technique.

Hah! I was hoping you were gonna say that! Looking forward to the result, Pixie. With such a detailed terrain map, this MUST be awesome!

[Pixie]

Hah! I was hoping you were gonna say that! Looking forward to the result, Pixie. With such a detailed terrain map, this MUST be awesome!

Let's hope so. "Awesome" is a nice little target

[Pixie]

As an update on this (which isn't a "dead" WIP!) - I have recently found that I needed to reconsider quite a lot of the tectonics underlying these planets. To see the discussions that generated this "need", see this thread or this one.

So, we are all working around our limitations. I have been trying out separate stereographic projections centered on each place and then manipulating those maps to get a sense of proper plate movement. While doing this, I've been roughing notes on top of a nearly blank map of my world. My job now is made harder as I don't want to waste the topographic work done at the "penguin" continent, so I started re-tectonics from that one.
Here's my current "state of the art, yet extremely incomplete" tectonics model:


There's only 4 plates which have been analyzed already. The large Palamb plate (eastern continent - the penguin, except it's wing) may end up having to be an aggregate of several plates and I may have to make move separately (hence, the dashed lines). Also, the central "Austral Ocean Plate" may have some surronding microplates... Not sure yet, it's a WIP..

[Ferra Dubrinsky]

Pixie, it's still looks incredible. you are doing an amazing job, can't wait to see more!

[groovey]

Can't wait to see more either, you KNOW (as you are kind of my inofficial Godfather) I'm very interested in seeing what you do on your map.

[Pixie]

Thanks. But it's like you said... figuring this out makes the head hurt.