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

[Pixie]

Thanks.

I am using Photoshop (and G-Projector every now and then). For now, the job is lasso -> bucket fill, lasso -> bucket fill, lasso -> bucket fill, almost at pixel level. Every now and then I do some other tasks (like warping a selection to change/squeeze/stretch the overall shape of a mountain range, or to open a valley/rift). Once all land-area is colored this way, I'll work on noise and effects (might use Wilbur at some point). Once land is about right, will repeat the technique for submerged crust.

I am aiming at something along the lines of this:
http://www.geosage.com/products/srtm...ew_res10km.jpg
(BUT... a little less detailed, I'm not mad )

As for tutorials, I have read a few yes. I've been lurking for a while.

[Pixie]

Just wanted to share my current state of affairs concerning this map:


This is a partial screen shot from the continent where my work is more advanced. The method is to paint small areas at a time, highest bits first.
It's a slow task but I'm enjoying the result. Specially now that the main ridges stand out, as well as some volcanoes, and I'm starting to cover other areas with lower/older mountainous areas.
The elevation map is a separate layer, obviously.

This second pic shows the color code I'm using.. just for reference (and the continent is zoomed out a little).


Any thoughts? I've seen this so often lately that I'm curious to know how it actually looks to others.

[Pixie]

Another peek the the current state, a week after the previous one. I decided to work on single continent at a time, and started with the smallest. So, at the current pace I know it'll take no less than a month to finish the elevation map.
This has been 100% hand painted with lasso -> bucket fill technique, often with a lot of zoom.

I have also took some time experimenting turning my work into a B&W heightmap and testing it with Wilbur. It works fine, but Wilbur can't make precipitation vary from area to area and considers all terrain to be equally hard/soft for erosion. On a continental scale it doesn't really work that way... Hence, I'll use it only in the last stage, to create some localized erosion, because on that particular aspect it's way better than I can ever be painting by hand. I will still have to develop that technique once I get to that point.

Anyway, that's the future in a month or two time... Without further ado, the current state of affairs:

This first one shows the whole continent. I left latitude/longitude lines, which are 30º apart in both cases. The map goes roughly from 35º N to 60º S.


This second one has more detail. In most of the map there's only 2/3 levels of altitude to go...