Pangarap: Building a world from the ground up

[kacey]

I didn't have time to read all the new posts on this thread just skimmed over it so forgive me if I read wrong, but you can definitely draw on a globe in 3d in Photoshop and it's really easy to do, it's also a quick way to check the poles without having to switch to another app. Just make a merged visible layer at the top of the layer stack then with that selected hit the 3D tab at the top, then press new mesh from layer then from the list hit mesh preset, and then sphere. It will ask if you want to enter the 3d work space hit yes and then you can see you're equirectangular map on a globe and navigate it in 3d space.

From here you can choose a normal brush and start painting, when you're happy with how it looks on the globe go to where you're layers normally are and you'll see a 3d layers tab, under it hit sphere_material. Then at the top there will be a properties tab that sais materials just under it then under that it sais diffuse, then right beside diffuse there should be a tiny picture of a dog ear'd page with a few symbols in it, it's very small, click it, then a few options will appear so choose edit texture and the 3d image will be projected back to equirectangular.

Be aware that the image will be opened in a new document, I find this helpful though because then I don't screw up the original and if I like the changes I just drag it back onto the original image.

I hope that made sense, I think I posted how to do it with some screen shots of the process over on PaGaN's thread so I may have explained it better there. I had a few too many with christmas dinner tonight so I'm not sure if any of that will be helpful or just utterly confusing... I guess I'll find out in the morning.

[kacey]

And I almost forgot... Another way to draw poles is using G.Plates which I'm sure you're familiar with. Just drag you're poleward continent down to the center and save out a picture with the new position, then open it in Photoshop or whatever app you prefer and draw it how you like it, and since you've moved it to the center of the equirectangular projection you don't have to worry too much about distortion and when you like how it looks bring the new image back into G.Plates and drag it back up to the pole. I've actually found this way to give really good results because when you drag it back up at 60 degrees G.Plates distorts it just perfectly.

I would suggest making a new G.Plates file just for this though with only the continent in question so you don't f up the techtonics model that I'm sure you put many hours into. Once you have you're newly drawn and perfectly distorted continent back up to it's original position you can save another image and bring it into you're world map then just update the G.Plates raster input for you're project.... Hope that helps, again, not sure if I'm making any sense, but I tried...

I've struggled soooo much with trying to draw the poles on an equirectangular projection, I can't even tell you how many times I've almost thrown my computer across the room, but the pain is real, I've nearly found myself just outside the door of my local psych ward on many occasions after spending hours and hours jumping back and forth between photoshop and G.Projector, it really is enough to drive a person mad.

[Tiluchi]

Charerg and Kacey, I just realized I never got around to thanking you for the advice! I like all your methods and will definitely try them out when it comes time for doing my shorelines for real. In the mean time, I've diving even deeper (yikes!) into the geology, and I'll have an update on that process out in a while. It'll be a doozy though...

[Tiluchi]

Wow, somehow I managed to let the better part of a year slip by without updating this map. I actually continued plugging away through January with some geology work, which I'll post here, but disaster struck when my personal computer decided to turn into a brick without warning, taking all my saved map work with it. It was only recently that I was able to afford a proper new computer and recover the work that was on the hard drive. Not to mention life getting in the way- blah blah blah.

Anyway, with my basic tectonics more or less figured out, I've been working on tracing back the geologic history so that I can have more-or-less accurate topography for the present day. I realized it was better to do this now before I start working on the elevation map, because any changes in geology would also mean changes in topography, which would just be a massive headache. I've learned the hard way it's best not to get too far ahead on the next step before finalizing the first step of worldbuilding! At the moment I'm tracing orogenies, LIPs, hotspots, tectonics (only where relevant/reconstructable), cratons, and terranes. I figure those are the features that will be most relevant in figuring out modern-day topography and geological like what mountains will like and what topographical features will be where. I'm hoping that this information will be enough for me to figure what mountain types I'll see as well (fold belts, fault-block, volcanic arcs, etcetera).

I managed to reconstruct the plate movements in GPlates back to 250MYA, when the "real" Panagarap version of Pangaea is still intact. I was originally hoping to go back even further, but managing all the different features becomes more and more difficult the further I go back, and probably less relevant to current topography. At 250MYA, the western part of PGondwanaland is attached to the southeast part of PLaurasia, while "North Gondwanaland" (a smaller supercontinent composed of modern-day Ipil, Narra, Abaca, Ilang, and a bit of northern Dao and Talisay is colliding with "South Gondwanaland" (Dao, Talisay, and Bakawan), having rifted off from PLaurasia maybe 50-100mya prior (not being super picky about dates here). Bakawan and part of eastern Talisay was also formerly part of western PLaurasia, but broke off a little bit longer ago. PGondwanaland is now in the process of rifting off of PLaurasia as a hotspot there happens to hit a weak point in the continental crust, and a massive Large Igneous Province is forming at the same time. I'm assuming here that that LIP may also be responsible for the Pangarap equivalent of the Permian-Triassic Extinction, also around 250mya.

Here's the basic geological map I've come up with so far; note that modern coastlines are just based off of the reconstruction in GPlates; I'm assuming that in "reality" they're actually closer together and/or overlapping.



After that, the farthest I got was the geological map for 200MYA. This is the setting we established earlier, where PGondwanaland and PLaurasia are more or less intact and separate from each other in two supercontinents. The hotspot that separated them is still active, though not causing as much trouble- as it's in the tropics I'm hypothesizing that it's creating a chain of volcanic islands that will become atolls by the present day, similar to the Maldives or Laccadives. The collision between North Gondwanaland and South Gondwanaland around 230MYA created a massive Himalaya-style mountain range through what is now Talisay and Dao, which is still uplifting although at a decelerating pace. The supercontinent is moving in a southeasterly direction, and a series of terranes is accreting to the southeastern coast, while a volcanic belt is active in the far east. There's trouble brewing in the northern part of the supercontinent too- another LIP is forming as the hotspot there punches through the crust, and will soon cause the northern part to rift away, separating what is now Ipil and Abaca.

On PLaurasia (currently looking quite distorted as it's straddling the North Pole), some of the action is happening on the west coast, where there are terrains accreting and a general orogeny beginning to happen as the supercontinent moves westward. The big deal, however, is the massive LIP forming near the north pole (upper right corner), where the continents that will become Malobago and Molave are in the process of rifting apart (there's also an aulacogen forming at that triple junction, which may become important later).



As I mentioned, this is getting a bit into the weeds with the geology side, but it was rather fun to put together. I'm still waiting on the tablet I ordered (last one broke ), but in the meantime I'm looking forward to hearing any thoughts of people who are better at geology than me. No guarantees at the speed I'll be working on this, as life tends to get in the way- since I last posted I've moved to a different country and started a new degree, so things will be a bit hectic. Hoping to keep plugging away nonetheless...

[Charerg]

Nice to hear that the project is still living and breathing!

I'll try to post some feedback about the geology later (if I can think of any, what you have looks pretty solid). For now I just want to say (well, write) that this is some inspiring work and dedication! Keep up the good work .

[Tiluchi]

Well, I've been plugging away at this pretty much every day despite the lack of updates- figured it made more sense to make a larger update rather than one post per 50mya increment. I managed to finish the paleo-maps up until the present day, which I've been using to get a better idea of modern-day landforms and coastlines. Lots of back and forth in Photoshop, GPlates, and GProjector (God I hate making the poles) and sketching coastlines at 500% magnification, but I finally have a geological setting I'm more or less happy with. In retrospect it might seem odd spending 100+ hours before even getting to making the elevation map, but I wanted to have a geology that felt relatively realistic, since the more work I put into this now the fewer mistakes I'll have to go back and correct later.

Once I finished my paleo-maps I made a larger-scale map of the current-day coastlines and geological features, mainly the plate boundaries and the approximate locations of mountain ranges (both currently uplifting and inactive), and volcanic hotspots. I made some last-minute changes to the general continent shapes, including changing the shape of Talisay (southeastern continent) a little bit, and changing the position of the failed rift in Malobago to be an inland one, similar to the Midcontinent Rift System in North America). I also used GProjector to make a better-looking coastline for the pole areas. I'm attaching a basic map and one with the geological features below:





Just for fun, I also made a Pangarap version of this map showing the geologic provinces and ages of the oceanic crust. I'm sure I made a hash of the oceanic crust, although I'm not terribly worried about that, especially since it seems we don't even know that much about the ocean floor in the real world. I'm hoping that the on-land features are more or less correct however, especially the placement of the orogenies, LIPs, and basins, which I think will be important when it comes to figuring out elevation and terrain.



(Note that for this map and the previous one I didn't put much detail into the large Antarctic continent... mainly because I didn't trust myself to draw safely at the poles, and didn't feel like doing all the extra effort to work things out in GProjector)

I'm sure I'll continue to put more detail into the geology, and make more maps of this sort, but for the moment this feels like it's sufficient to get a start on a fairly plausible elevation map. Any comments or corrections (especially on the geology part) are welcome!

[Charerg]

Overall really solid looking. The plate arrangement makes sense overall and the orogens and subduction zones are very well done. If I was to offer one minor criticism, it's the extreme similarity of the large collisional orogen in Malobago with the Tibetan Plateau. I guess it's ok if you really like the shape, but personally I'd adjust it a bit, maybe get rid of the "western side" and make it more continuous with the coastal mountains at the southwestern corner of Malobago?

[Ottehcnor]

Wow! This thread has so much good stuff in it. I'll definitely need to bookmark it for later to try a new map thinking about the geology

[Tiluchi]

Thanks Charerg and Ottehcnor for the comments! I do agree that the orogeny in Malobago looks a lot like Tibet, which... isn't entirely coincidental, partly because I like the shape and partly because it just seemed to make sense as I was looking at the tectonics.

I've been working on the elevation map for the past month or so, and I'm posting what I have so far here. I'm clearly not finished, as the stuff very far north and very far south is going to require a reprojection in GProjector to avoid the headache of taking distortion into account as I draw elevation. Figured I'd post my current draft now just to prove I'm still working on things, and also in case there's something grievously wrong with my current geography that I should correct before moving on to climates.

[Ryan Pourchot]

Fantastic work! Definitely a well done map in progress. The plate tectonics, as well as your elevation relief are great, and I would not change anything.