Anybody care to share their map?

[anduril38]

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.

Indeed In it's current state Inkarnate can't be used commercially (But don't seem to be too strict on it. I had a long discussion with them and didn't get in any trouble, but as long as it's murky I won't use mine commercially.) I'm having the same problem. How do you use GIMP?

 

[Malik]

I downloaded some freebie Tolkein brushes and map brush tools off of Deviantart, free for use -- I double-checked. Then I redrew the map.

I used a repeating mountain for the main backbones. Then I went back and added different peaks by hand, varying the sizes and getting specific. I'll still have to do a continuity pass in the novel. I drew the rivers using several passes of fine lines to look hand-inked, imported two different fonts that seemed close but different (old maps often were made by multiple people), and then looked for a parchment background.

I found this one, today. It's a scan of an actual parchment. I went over the map and did some blurring in the areas where the paper is stained.

Inkarnate has a feature on their FB page of an author using their map, so I don't know WTF is up with them. What they showed me from the new "pro" version looks terrible. It's basically what I'm doing right now, basic gamer stuff. I was very impressed with the beta. I don't know what they're thinking.

So here's where I am, as of this afternoon:

 

[A.J.]

Still working with mine, but one of the best basic layout builder has got to be INKARNATE. Great for land mass.

 

[FifthView]

This is the map I'm currently designing for my WIP. I haven't even settled on names for the various kingdoms, mountain ranges, and so forth, so they aren't included.

I'm a little puzzled about drawing borders. Where borders are rivers, coast, and mountain ranges, there's less problem. But when I stick a dotted/dashed line across a plain, it comes out looking or seeming arbitrary.

I used a fractal generator for creating the main outline and shape of the map. The problem with that approach is that even when you randomly generate many to find one you like, the result might not quite match up with some elements you've had in mind for the world & story. I thought I was fine until I began to add details and saw the map itself introduced restrictions and limits requiring modification of some original thoughts. But I've pretty much worked that out.

The forests, locations of most capital cities (or centers of power), etc., may be altered. (With the forests, I just randomly place them and shaped them when I had a very general idea of where they should go.)

A lot of this is still up for revision.

 

[Asura Levi]

Maps are not my favourite part of world-building, is the actual reason why I do any world building at all, just so I can create Maps!

I made this post on the art section of the forum, an in-progress development of a major city.

I also made this regional map using Inkarnate.

 

[Talhaiarn]

Hello everyone,

First post here. This is a first draft of my fantasy world. This is the continent of Lauras in the year 1279 (no dating system as of yet). Its roughly the size of India with 13 independent nations. I'm letting the world tell me the stories to write.
Let me know what you know.
What programs are recommended to create a map?

 

[Talhaiarn]

I aim to let my world tell me the stories to write about. I'm aiming for around 3,000 years of history for my world, most of which I have plotted out.
I have no ability with software of any kind so decided to sketch out my map for a reference. Let me know what you think.

 

[Michael K. Eidson]

When you want to include an image in a post, you have to make sure you use the URL of the actual image file, not the URL of the page on which the image is shown:

 

[elemtilas]

What programs are recommended to create a map?

I like what you've drawn thus far!

Pen-n-Paper v1.0 is also what I use. Better than all the bland same-ole-same-ole fantasy maps out there, in my opinion.

A map of the interior of Gea:

A map of a little town in the Eastlands called Sulerio:

 

[Talhaiarn]

Ah thank you first post still getting used to things!

 

[Lisselle]

My eight year old 'working map'. I think it's a scrawl of ideas, places and distances only I can understand.

It has spawned countless nicer versions on good paper and painted with water colour, yet this is my most used Map when I'm working on my Book primarily set on this continent. (Yes, it's a continent!)

 

[pmmg]

Maps are always cool. I love seeing them all.

 

[elemtilas]

Awesome maps, Lisselle! Tea stains & overlapping notations --- gotta love it! I've loads of old maps I've never scanned in.

Here's one I did scan in, back when the lands of The World still looked a lot like Eurasia:

 

[Lisselle]

That's fabulous, and piques my interest in your story!

I'm pretty sure the stains are coffee, ha. I spilled a cup several years ago and now all my sketch books are stained with it, bah!

 

[elemtilas]

I'm pretty sure the stains are coffee, ha. I spilled a cup several years ago and now all my sketch books are stained with it, bah!

Adds character to the pages!

That's fabulous, and piques my interest in your story!

Thanks for that! I must admit that unlike very many folks here I am not a writer and am not doing this in order to produce a novel. (If a novel ever takes, that's a different matter, but it's not my goal). I do however like writing stories set in The World, and I've put a few of them online (here if you're interested). I also like writing books from the in-world perspective. So far, I've got one of those to a point where I'd consider it "done". That's the Chorography, a snapshot of a little bit of everything about The World from the perspective of a particular scholar of Narutanea (the Eastlands) in the present day.

I guess if there is a story here at all, it would be the story of the entire world, of Gea itself: the ultimate beginnings of Creation when the entirety of All That Is came into being; the era when Gea's mother swept together the cosmic dust to form her family of planets; the eras when the mighty Powers entered the cosmos to give it order; the deeds of the great Beings that underlie the foundations of the world; the awakening of Peoples on the surface and the rise and long histories and ultimate decline of their empires and the individuals who played their parts in the pageant; and on through the ages of successive civilisations until at last the story winds down towards its conclusion and the Seven Squirrels of Regenreck at last discover the location of the World Tree, and the Seven Stars fall from the sky, the seven fruits fall from the Tree and the Tree itself is destroyed bringing an end to All That Is.

Except that in that far distant wreckage is left a Seed...

And we all know what happens with Seeds...

Probably not a marketable three part tale, but there it is in the proverbial nutshell!

 

[Lisselle]

It's very comprehensive. You're work is immersive and thorough. I love all your drawings. You have so much information there, it looks like you are a writer!

 

[Insolent Lad]

This is the map that goes (more or less) with my novel coming out in June, 'The Crocodile's Son.' This hand-drawn version will probably not be the one that goes in the book. I scanned my drawing — the outlines, rivers, mountains — into Corel Draw (my graphics program of choice) and added the text and some refinements.

 

[RedAngel]

This is my map of Arahimheim.

My source map is like 24,000 pixels by 12,000 pixels. I use that image as an overlay for google earth. I like using google earth because you can drop the pins down for locations to name as well as drop in pictures of said location. I also have better res images of each of the continents as well that show streams and other points of interest.

This is a territory map I am still working on for the 1st age. It is still not finished but I plan on making one for each age in time.

 

[jm.milks]

@RedAngel

I have to tell you that your territory animation is one of the coolest things I've ever seen fantasy map-wise. It's like the imagination candy that satisfies all of my desires in life.

It's straight up radicool, yo

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G928A using Tapatalk

 

[RedAngel]

Many thanks!

I saw a territory map like that on youtube for ancient empires of the past and decided to give it a go.

I am treating each frame as a year. But since this map represents the rise of the gods it is measured in "Aeons". It certainly helps to visualize how things went down during those times and the rise and fall of the gods and other celestial beings of the age.