map creation?

[jezelf]

Thanks Lenny. Flattery will get you everywhere. Glad you like.

"If you like that...you're gunna luurrve this..."

Pseudo 3D tutorial will be done by next weekend I hope. If you have the colour 2D one - to do this will take about 30 mins - an hour tops.

Coming soon...

cheers
Jez​

 

[Ursa major]

Now that's what I call a map!

 

[HardScienceFan]

drainage patterns coming??

 

[Lenny]

Thanks Lenny. Flattery will get you everywhere. Glad you like.

"If you like that...you're gunna luurrve this..."

Pseudo 3D tutorial will be done by next weekend I hope. If you have the colour 2D one - to do this will take about 30 mins - an hour tops.

Coming soon...

cheers

Jez​

Oh, I could flatter all day, Godly one. Well, as long as brilliant things come of it.

I'm going to have a play with the new tutorials tomorrow, and I look forward to the final two.

 

[jezelf]

another piece of software worth looking into for your maps : Fractal Mapper™ v8.0

 

[jezelf]

...and this website Cartographers Guild :: Homepage has a list of mapping programs . Interesting site for map making.

 

[Mattastic]

Holy cartography, Batman! Time to have some fun with photoshop...

 

[Mattastic]

Wow, these tutorials are great, Jez. Best cartography tutorials I've seen in ages.

I had a bit of a play around, using your original alpha for testing purposes. Hope you don't mind.

I parchmented mine up a little.

 

[jezelf]

Nah. no worries. Always good to see what other people do.

I see you've used the bevel there. That's a trick Im exlporing for the next tutorial on reilef shading. gunna mix it with what I've done above among other things I have in mind.

Glad you found it usefule and cheers for showing us the results.

Jez

 

[jezelf]

Just wanted to share.

My adventures on this subject has lead me to discover some pretty cool things out there. Generally via the Cartographers Guild :: Homepage . Those guys take map making to whole new level compared to my stuff. It depends on just how far you want to go with your maps. Orginally I started my stuff with a view as something for an illustration for your reader, but it's turning into a full reference guide to the world!

For those also interested developing more detail for your world, here's a couple of programs and their results.

Wilbur free software . It helps create worlds and can be used with your exsisting maps to detail them as long as you have a grey scale height map (which is what I'm covering in my next tutorial to create the 3d look). Errosion is a feature I don't have on my map. It's something which gives the realism, so I'll be trying this program out and let you know. Might fold it into the tutorial.

World Machine 2 is another world generator, Like Bryce and Terragen, Mojo World creator etc. There's a free edition to try out - max res is 513x513 pixels. If you want high professional res there are other versions to buy at a decent price.​

check out the gallery... and what people have done with it​

 

[jezelf]

New Tutorial. Creating a relief texture in Photoshop - it also goes on to use the Wilbur program I have mentioned above.

tutorial is here

 

[jezelf]

another freebie for map makers - check out Instant Islands and Dragon's Flight

 

[jezelf]

For creating your random map or working from a sketch - if you're following my tutorials, there this easier method than my cut and paste if you have a basic idea of your shapes you want. I hope to update my tutorials to include it, but it will save you some time.

 

[jezelf]

Hi - just found another thing out that wanted to share here. Over at the Cartographers Guild again, on this thread . Theres talk about how you can actually apply your map over the top of google earth!

The advantage of this is, if your planet is earth size, then you can work out distances between places accurately, which could then be helpful to work out time frames for things happening in your stories, how long it would take to get from A -B etc. you get the idea. (if you want to go into that kind of detail ) Worth checking out.

(Also if you dont have Photoshop - you can use the free GIMP to do your own maps - plenty of tutorials over at CG to help build maps)

here's a test example I've done from creating the map to getting it on Google about 20 minutes. details on the process can be found at the above thread link.