Looking for techniques/advice/discussion

[johnvanvliet]

i would have to say the ( for the 3d image) the first thing i see is the location of the deserts
they just "pop out" at me for being off . the wrong locations

they just do not fit in

large deserts like those on the coast are "rain shadow areas"

i would start with a topographic height map
then work from that

someplace here is a wilbur tutorial for filling in a land mass with fractal height data

there are other ways like using a "skeletal" and "distance" algorithm on the land masses fallowed by one of the many "erode" algorithms

Do you know any methods I can use that would keep the general shape of the continents while varying the shore-lines?

this came up very recently
the gimp plugin "fractalize path" ( fractalize_path.scm)
though it is old and for a OLD version of gimp
it works , the tool just opens up UNDER the "gimpshop" one window on Gimp 2.8 for Microsoft Windows

turn off the "One window to rule them all" setting