UPDATE: Fixed up some coastlines that were straight from the clouds -> threshold process.
I was inspired by an atlas-style map that I saw somewhere here on the forums and decided to make a world in the same style, so here it is... So far I have the continents down and am working on the plate tectonics of the world and the ocean currents.. Not really sure how I'm doing, but I'm trying to make it as accurate and correct as possible.. Please tell me if there are any huge mistakes so I can fix them, I'm making my way off of posts scattered around this forum and wikipedia articles, so all the geography stuff might be very amateurish. Just be prepared.
The map is quite large (10,000x7,000 or thereabouts) so I will be posting scaled down versions for now.
Stay posted for more updates coming soon!
EDIT: Here's the uppermost left continent with countours nearly finished, I'm pretty happy with the result so far.
Last edited by Majortopio; 09-23-2010 at 01:49 PM.
UPDATE: Fixed up some coastlines that were straight from the clouds -> threshold process.
Sorry for the triple post, but I took the time to make a MUCH better (in my opinion) and MUCH more detailed currents map, here it is. Once again, please inform me if I've gotten it completely wrong or you see any vital mistakes.. Or if you just can't understand it. Looking over it, I realize that might be difficult for anyone other than me..
Very nice work so far! One thing though; On this scale, one usually don't see "hacked" or "wavy" coastlines. Pick up an IRL world-map and look at Africa for example. Very smooth coastlines.
Anyways, I'm eagerly awaiting more of this
Yesterday today was tomorrow.
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Thanks! - And you're right on that one, I guess I shouldn't be so uptight about coastlines at this scale, it just looks damn ugly in my opinion if they're too straight
Here's an updated view of plate tectonics, with movements included. Now this one I'm not so sure about, it's all very confusing because a movement one way can cause a different reaction that wanted if executed wrongly.. I guess this is a VERY rough sketch of how it is, no need to go too deeply into details if just some magic is involved. Rough sketches of mountainous areas are also included. C&C is VERY welcome!
I'll have to agree with Aenigma. It's a common misconception that coastlines always have to be jagged. There are many, many places in our own world that has long stretches of very smooth coastline. Africa, India, etc etc. The best thing to do is to have some parts that are smooth and others that are more jagged and rough.
One other thing about your coastlines, is that in a couple of places they seem to suffer from a Photoshop clouds issue, which is that the clouds command in PS (and perhaps in some other apps as well) tends to create diagonally oriented landmasses. Now this isn't really a problem except for those of us who notice such things. This is mainly apparent in the south-eastern part of the north-western continent, and in the eastern-most part of the south-central continent. If you wanted you could just change those parts into something more random-looking.
Other than that, what you have so far looks great. And you're obviously putting a lot of detail into the map, considering ocean currents and such. Looking forward to seeing more!
Okay, I'll take another look at the coastlines and variate it a little bit then, I have some places in mind that could have a straight coastline.
And thanks! Glad to hear you like it so far
Here's another update to the plate tectonics, fixed it up a little bit and it's better in my opinion. I don't know if it's right AT ALL, so any help on that topic would be awesome.
Ohh this looks cool. And was the inspiration perchance my collapsed world? ;-)
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Topmost western continent almost done! Started adding labels and such, I'm very happy with the result so far Next landmass to be worked on is the one directly under it.
(The straight line in the bottom of the image is the equator.)