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Thread: How to transform continents into projection???

  1. #1

    Help How to transform continents into projection???

    Hi! I want to create entire, naturalistic globe, with tectonic plates, climate, etc. I've already drawb a supercontinent, which will breake into several others. However, I have a problem with putting such a map on a planet (I'd like put my planet in Celestia, or some other rendering software). I don't know, how to do it to get naturalistic look, because flat image is difficult to be presented on a globe. Can you help me with that? Or better, could you give me some help with transforming flat pictures of continents into shapes, that would be well peresented on a sphere? I'm esppecially looking for a way for transforming single continent image into shape, that would lay well on a planet, depending on its possition, because during development of my continents, some of them will move from equator closer to one of poles.

    And this is my first map, with future division of continents marked on the supercontinent:
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Click image for larger version. 

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  2. #2
    Community Leader Facebook Connected Ascension's Avatar
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    Are you talking about making it look distorted near the poles like on the pic below? Or are you talking about how to get it onto a globe in the first place?
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    If the radiance of a thousand suns was to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the Mighty One...I am become Death, the Shatterer of worlds.
    -J. Robert Oppenheimer (father of the atom bomb) alluding to The Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 11, Verse 32)


    My Maps ~ My Brushes ~ My Tutorials ~ My Challenge Maps

  3. #3

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    if you want a full globe, then try throwing it in gimp and warping it, or globing it. it will warp any image like way your talking about. gimp>filters>animation>spinning globe works for my big projection images. then adjust it.
    adjusting the warp can be better answered by one of these other guys for now...i think you adjust the degree of warp with other tools.
    i.e. make the whole map like you want (in 2D), then put in gimp as image, and globe it >>Name:  ddd1.jpg
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    Last edited by hubbardmapworks; 01-08-2010 at 11:32 PM.

  4. #4

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    gimp globed this very easily, i would try it for your map when you get it fully labeled and ready to go. the animation part i am learning still.
    this was a high-res image like acension posted
    Click image for larger version. 

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    Last edited by hubbardmapworks; 01-08-2010 at 11:46 PM.

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    Community Leader Facebook Connected Ascension's Avatar
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    I think it was either Redrobes or Ravells...maybe RobA who worked out an animation for globes like that. Whoever did it would be able to explain more and linky to their post on it.
    If the radiance of a thousand suns was to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the Mighty One...I am become Death, the Shatterer of worlds.
    -J. Robert Oppenheimer (father of the atom bomb) alluding to The Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 11, Verse 32)


    My Maps ~ My Brushes ~ My Tutorials ~ My Challenge Maps

  6. #6

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    Very interesting, I hadn't realized gimp could do that. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.

  7. #7

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    Quote Originally Posted by Ascension
    Are you talking about making it look distorted near the poles like on the pic below?
    Yes, I'm talking just about that. I'd like to distort my continents proportonally to their position on globe, so as they look naturalistic after putting the image as texture of planet in Celestia.
    Last edited by golem; 01-09-2010 at 12:30 PM. Reason: Possibility of missunderstanding

  8. #8
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    I've only tried to do this twice in Photoshop - it's not the correct program for doing such things but it's all I have so here's as far as I got with it.

    First make your continents white on a black sea...very basic cow spots type thing. You'll want your coastlines as detailed as possible so it should be the "final shape". Next duplicate the layer. Use the reactangular marquee tool and draw out a selection that covers the top half of the image. Hit Edit-transform-scale and reduce the height 25-50%. Deselect and move to the top of the screen. Select-color range=black, hit delete and deselect. Now your continents have a distorted look but they don't line up properly anymore. So here you'll have to manually stitch them back together with the pencil and eraser. Then you do the whole thing for the bottom half of the screen. Once you have these basic shapes they will serve as the templates for doing the "pretty" work of adding color and terrain.

    Again, this isn't perfect but it's as far as I ever went with it...not sure how to do it in other programs either.
    If the radiance of a thousand suns was to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the Mighty One...I am become Death, the Shatterer of worlds.
    -J. Robert Oppenheimer (father of the atom bomb) alluding to The Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 11, Verse 32)


    My Maps ~ My Brushes ~ My Tutorials ~ My Challenge Maps

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