September Entry: Chaskar's Doom

[jerriecan]

Everything dies.

Plants and animals, civilizations and religions, even stars and planets will ultimately pass into history. Some things just take a bit longer, that's all.

Welcome to the planet Chaskar. It's a planet much like Earth - forests, mountains, deserts, oceans. Life of all flavors. But ultimately, it's time will come, and that's what my map will try to show.

Here is the beginning: the planet Chaskar, still full of life. This is just one element of the final image, and is my first try at creating a planet from scratch with any sort of detail.

I hope you like it so far! And any C&C would be appreciated, especially when it comes to creating terrain features such as mountains and deserts.

Jerriecan

Latest WIPs:

[Steel General]

Looks pretty good so far.

Maybe post a version without the clouds so it's easier to see the terrain.

[Coyotemax]

if i remember, the thumbnail scraper needs to see ### LATEST WIP ### at the end of the post to pick things up, and will only show the first image, so you may want to consider that when posting

The planet itself is very nifty, definitely showing passage of time
in the watery version the mountians seem a little washed out for the peaks, maybe a bit more definition would help them. In the dead version, it looks like the seas have evaporated or boiled off, i would expect the shorelines to be not quite so clearly defined (unless the oceans are sludge, but the big ominous crack on the right side would suggest lack of water, heh)

for specific comments about the mountain generation.. how are you doing them?
so far it looks like a layer of gravel texture, and white airprushing overtop. I'd suggest making the texture a lot smaller so it looks less like gravel - if you're doing it as a layer style, maybe take it down to 10% or so for scale, for example. Perhaps set the white layer ot overlay at that point, should help bring out the texture.

Still, great concept and I look forward to seeing updates!

[jerriecan]

Glad you're liking it so far. Here's the latest before and after shots.

### LATEST WIP ###

[jerriecan]

Okay, here's what's probably going to be the final image... haven't had as much time to work on this as I'd hoped.

(possibly final)
### Latest WIP ###

[Ramah]

Looks great but it strikes me, and I could be very wrong here, that if the earth was viewed from space with all the seas boiled away, the continents would not appear to have the exact same shape? Wouldn't they be extended in places where land was not far below sea level? Or would there be such a defined edge without the contrast between the sea and the land to delineate them? Maybe other continent shapes would be visible around where island chains were?

Dunno. I just wouldn't expect the exact same shapes.

But even if that were the case it still looks really great. I wouldn't have the first idea how to make something like this.

[Steel General]

Looks nice and reminds me of some of my entries from earlier challenges.

Ramah does bring up an interesting point, but I wouldn't worry about it to much .

[Gidde]

This looks very nice! Great job on the red giant too

Looks like there's a typo on the second map though: "... the oceand have boiled off ..."

[jerriecan]

Thanks, everyone... I appreciate the feedback. I'll fix the typo, but changing the coastline contrast will be tough... I saved over my original planet file by accident, the one with everything on separate layers, so I have to go back and redo the whole thing. That's one of the reasons I haven't made as much progress as I wanted. Still, cross your fingers... maybe I can apply your suggestions.

Jerriecan