Map WIP

[Pumpernickelsguy]

Hello.
I'm making a map and i finished the coastline:

I'd like to know if anyone has any advice or critique.
if it helps at all, I'm going for a Tolkien-esque map.

[DanielHasenbos]

Ik like the landshape, it looks very natural to me. Like to see where you take this

[ChickPea]

Looks good.

[johnvanvliet]

is this just one continent with a few large islands near the equator within 45 N to 45 S
or
a whole planet

for the first , not bad

if a whole planet then ......

[Pumpernickelsguy]

Say i was going for the latter, how should i go about improving it?

[johnvanvliet]

things depend on the map projection

that is the base for everything

so this is only a guess , so take it with a bit of salt

the map in the first post looks to be in mercator BUT from about 60 north to 60 south
there are some nasty projection distortions as you get closer to the poles

there is a FUN gams to help visualize that
"Mercator puzzle" - part of google maps
https://gmaps-samples.googlecode.com...uzzledrag.html

also a very good reference is the wikipedia page on map projections
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_map_projections


you DO NOT need to know these by hart ,but just be familiar with them
Also if you are using software and not paper and pencil moving from one projection to a different one will be a needed skill
i use GDAL and PROJ4 or ISIS3 in the terminal -- normal for me

but there is a good GUI for doing that using the gis program Qgis



ocean navigation maps for ships is normally in Mercator for the EASE of calculation the course of the ship

but near the north and south poles are a PROBLEM


now as to the "Tolkien-esque "

i do not do 2.5 d drawings , there are a TON of rather GOOD artists here that do
fallow there work

you LEARN BY DOING

that is why painters are ALWAYS setting up easels in the luv and coping the MASTERS

[CarnivorousJellybean]

I just started mapping out a world that I've been creating in my head and worrying about why it looked like a set of islands rather than a planet. At least until I came across your thread reminded me about the whole projection thing, so thank you!

Anyways, getting to the point, I started googling how to create a Mercator projection in photoshop (my preferred program) and came across a very interesting alternative:
- Install Google Earth
- Save your map as a png, jpeg, or whatever other type you like
- Follow this tutorial to set your image up as an overlay: https://www.google.ca/earth/outreach...hoverlays.html
- Make sure you stretch the image to the size you want before closing the main window (grab the top and bottom, drag them to the poles, then the side and make the East and West meet up)

This might be a cylindrical projection, not Mercator, but it worked sufficiently for my purposes (and maybe yours?). Either way, I was able to keep editing my image and see where the shapes I wanted were going all weird and wonky. Hope that helps with your projection issues!

Also feel free to ask more questions if I wasn't clear enough!