Newbie's first post and Ascension style map for prospective novel

[Acrotiger]

Hi! This is my first post. I have had Ascension's Atlas tutorial in my possession for a while. I have had an idea for a novel in a chrysalis in the back of my brain for a while and have finally reached a point in life where I can relax (a little) and write. As part of the world creation process, I needed a map, so I ended up here. I don't have any country names yet, and just a few elements, but before I went too much further, I figured I would submit for critique first, so here goes...



I added a small step to Ascension's tutorial where I offset the shole image by 180 degrees when making the initial land mass to ensure that it would tile, and this is that transformation:



Lastly, I wanted to see the north and south poles from above and below, so I cut the image in half, stretched it vertically and then applied a polar distortion to get:



Any critiques or comments are welcome!

[johnvanvliet]

this square map looks to be in Mercator projection for about 85 north to 85 south

this needs to be first reprojected into simple cylindrical for 90 north to 90 south and -180 to +180 west/east

thin you can fix that polar pinch from trying to remap a non full map to the poles

[Acrotiger]

this square map looks to be in Mercator projection for about 85 north to 85 south

this needs to be first reprojected into simple cylindrical for 90 north to 90 south and -180 to +180 west/east

thin you can fix that polar pinch from trying to remap a non full map to the poles

Sounds good, but you lost me at Mercator! Being new to all of this, I might need a little more explanation. I did notice the pinching, how would I start?

[johnvanvliet]

start with WIKIPEDIA and or google

the internet is the worlds LARGEST Encyclopedia and reference desk

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_map_projections

a simple cylindrical map ( AKA " Equirectangular " ) is used for mapping to a Sphere

[Acrotiger]

start with WIKIPEDIA and or google

the internet is the worlds LARGEST Encyclopedia and reference desk

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_map_projections

a simple cylindrical map ( AKA " Equirectangular " ) is used for mapping to a Sphere

Thank you, that was very interesting reading. I understand where I went wrong now. Looks like I will need to start over. I was following Ascension's tutorial too exactly, without thinking it through. Of course, no projected world map would end up square! I'll try again using a similar land mass and correct the projection...