vaiyt
Journeyman
Mine was done by splicing real world landmasses together, using progressively smaller shapes to create the details.
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Anybody care to share their map?
- Thread starter Johnny Cosmo
- Start date
Reilith
Mystagogue
This is a great thread! I love to see this sort of creativity! And finding out new techniques for mapping is also great.
I have two maps, one from my previous WIP that's on hiatus, and another from my current WIP.
The first one is a map of Therannia, the country the story is set in:
This is the world I am currently working on. It is not the full map, there are a few other continents, but they are not important to the story so I didn't include them. There will also be close up maps for the two countries at war - the north-western Human Kingdom of Naisan and the south-east Veelae Monarchy:
Both maps were done in PS, in many many layers. The second map is not finished.
I have two maps, one from my previous WIP that's on hiatus, and another from my current WIP.
The first one is a map of Therannia, the country the story is set in:
This is the world I am currently working on. It is not the full map, there are a few other continents, but they are not important to the story so I didn't include them. There will also be close up maps for the two countries at war - the north-western Human Kingdom of Naisan and the south-east Veelae Monarchy:
Both maps were done in PS, in many many layers. The second map is not finished.
Reilith
Mystagogue
It was Photoshop. I used the brushes I found on dA that are free for use.
Malik
Scribal Lord
The final, tweaked from old papers and hand-drawn maps.
Malik
Scribal Lord
Thanks. It all comes back to worldbuilding: in epic fantasy, the world is a major character with its own arc. It has to be as developed as any other main character. It has to have a reason for existing, it has to impact the other characters, and it has to be changed in some way at the end.
In epic fantasy, the map is the instigator of your story, and a hastily conceived or unrealistic map will raise more questions than it seeks to answer. I see this a lot in self-pubbed fantasy; a lot of maps are self-indulgent or badly researched -- either the layouts don't make any sense, or they don't generate friction on their own. Friction is a form of energy, and energy is what makes stories go. I really think that if you create your world correctly and draw your map accordingly, the strategic level aspects of the story should write themselves. Then you take well-developed characters and put them in it and write down what happens. I look at my map and I see wars brewing. Everywhere.
Once you know exactly what your world looks like, and why it is the way it is, you can use pretty much any graphics program and the results will be nice.
I have a blog post on maps on my site. I think I'll do a second one this week, getting into plot generation through maps. Maybe today.
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xerolee
Journeyman
Hey everyone, I have recently designed my first Map. Unsure if its any good let me know
Sent from my HTC One mini using Tapatalk
Sent from my HTC One mini using Tapatalk
Malik
Scribal Lord
It's nicely drawn, but there's no scale, which I think is really important for maps of island chains. Are the major islands a month's sail away from each other? A week's? An easy swim?
I love the names.
I love the names.
xerolee
Journeyman
Ahhh of course
Thanks Malik
Sent from my HTC One mini using Tapatalk
Thanks Malik
Sent from my HTC One mini using Tapatalk
Demesnedenoir
Dark Lord
Here is a map of the world, not a final by any means. It's poster-sized photoshop work. The creation of the world is a combination of mystic and tectonic, hence there are geographic anomalies that wouldn't exist in our world... see the continent of Sutân.
You can also see more images at:World Overview — Sundering the Gods
You can also see more images at:World Overview — Sundering the Gods
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DragonOfTheAerie
Istari
I'm still working on a rough draft of my map. Hand-drawn.
Malik
Scribal Lord
Here is a map of the world, not a final by any means. It's poster-sized photoshop work. The creation of the world is a combination of mystic and tectonic, hence there are geographic anomalies that wouldn't exist in our world... see the continent of Sutân.
You can also see more images at:World Overview  Sundering the Gods
Wow.
Just, wow. You built that in Photoshop?
Demesnedenoir
Dark Lord
Yeah, I used Fractal Terrains 3 for the basic outlining, but I wasn't totally satisfied with that, so I took the outline and did a full photoshop overhaul. If I knew how many hours that took, I still wouldn't admit it, LOL. I've done some smaller regional maps too, a set of islands and one larger island.
If you checked out the website you can see the globe view of the map.
Gotta say too, the mountain technique i found on Cartographer's Guild, the mountain details are just awesome when you zoom on the full sized original.
If you checked out the website you can see the globe view of the map.
Gotta say too, the mountain technique i found on Cartographer's Guild, the mountain details are just awesome when you zoom on the full sized original.
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Miskatonic
Dark Lord
Looking good Demesnedenoir!
This is seriously cool man, good job.
Demesnedenoir
Dark Lord
Thanks everyone, good to have other folks like what took a stupid amount of hours to create.
The main problem with map making is it can really eat into writing time, LOL. Now it's been a couple years since doing serious work on this, I've also pretty much forgot how to do anything, so I'd have to reverse engineer to make major changes. But on the other hand, for most geopolitical backstory I have everything I need. I did a blow up this island, but the story leaves here, so I didn't go as crazy in detail as I'd like, LOL. The ice tundra in the north was kind of interesting to attempt.
The main problem with map making is it can really eat into writing time, LOL. Now it's been a couple years since doing serious work on this, I've also pretty much forgot how to do anything, so I'd have to reverse engineer to make major changes. But on the other hand, for most geopolitical backstory I have everything I need. I did a blow up this island, but the story leaves here, so I didn't go as crazy in detail as I'd like, LOL. The ice tundra in the north was kind of interesting to attempt.
Malik
Scribal Lord
Well, son of a bitch. Inkarnate won't let me use the map I built. Since it's beta, they won't let me publish it. I'll have to build it all over again in GIMP. At least I know what I'm doing this week.
Malik
Scribal Lord
Open to suggestions, but I'm pretty much going to have to Tolkien this if I want to make my suspense dates.
It will be in black and white in the hardcopy books, so here's what I'm working on right now.
I'm ready to go after the Inkarnate guys with lawyers, guns, and money to use that other map.
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