Dragon Shaped Continent World Map [WIP]

[Leland]

So, I decided to really try out some fantasy mapping after being inspired by Thorf, who has done many mapping projects for Calidar and Mystara. I wanted to try my hand at the process and I'm a bit overwhelmed but wanted to show off what I had created so far.

I started off making maps using Saderan's AMAZING tutorial for islands and continents, but wanted to do something bigger with my own style. I had purchased Fractal Terrains in the past and wanted to give it a real whirl (besides just painting up a map).

This is a mix of FT3, Wilbur (after Thorf's urging that erosion tool is the map makers' friend), Illustrator, and Photoshop. I wanted something that from a glance was vaguely dragon shaped and after playing around with painting up terrain in FT3 came up with this.



And here is a much more modified version that has a more artistic feel to it.



Please critique and let me know your thoughts, things that can be improved upon, and the like. I look around here and am utterly overwhelmed by the amazing pieces of cartographic art. I want to thank everyone that has contributed and let you know that the lurkers sometimes pick up a few things along the way.

[Greg]

I have to say when I saw the title of the thread, I was worried, but that dragon shape is far more naturalistic and organic than I thought it would be! At the moment I prefer the first map, but I think that is mostly due to the fact it has far more texturing and detail that the second. You want to dull the contrast a tiny bit on that first one if I were you and the second one seems to go the other way. You can still get that artistic feel for it whilst bringing the land a bit more to life with details. Just check out a few world maps on the guild and I'm sure you'll see what I mean.



Anyway, great going on uploading your first map and I look forwards to seeing this develop!

[Leland]

I have to say when I saw the title of the thread, I was worried...

It's alright, so was I! I was playing around with different contrast and saturation levels. I'm leaning a bit toward something like:

Anyway, great going on uploading your first map and I look forwards to seeing this develop!

Thanks. I'm pretty satisfied with the overall 'shape' and will be concentrating on fine tuning things.

[Leland]

I started some work on the political boundaries and the like with a darker sort of map with a very parchment or cloth feel.

[Big Mac]

Very nice maps. I hope to be able to make maps that look that good at some point.

One word of caution, I would give you is that you have things that get close to the north pole and the south pole, that might not wrap onto a sphere properly. (In other words, you might have "broken poles".)

The very thin and wide island, on the bottom-left side of the map might be most problematic.

You might have gotten away with it, as the flow of the tall continent on the eastern side of the map, might combine with the land bridge all along the north side of the map and the small bit of land in the middle of the map, to make a land that flows right over the north pole and back down. And that wide-but-thin island might translate into a small roundish island if your map is wrapped onto a sphere.

But it might be worth doing a test, where you throw your map onto a sphere, just to see if you get the effect you are aiming at. If you need to tweak the poles, it would be better to do it, before you add a ton of information.

Good luck.

[DanielHasenbos]

I think the stretched out island looks fine on a globe. I took the liberty of taking your map and put it on a globe (type in 'map to globe' in google and click the first result). In the attached image you see the island in the red circle.



If your not comfortable with me posting this image, just let me know and I'll remove it.

This map looks nice so far, looking forward to see where you take this (:

-Dan