World Map - Unnamed
Hello all,
Since joining a week ago, I've read a few fantastic GIMP tutorials and decided to take a project I've been tinkering with on paper to the digital side.
After a few days of messing around in GIMP and trying to get the hang of things, I'm equal parts happy with how things have turned out and disappointed with the steep learning curve.
The below pictures in order are (if I uploaded them correctly):
- A pen-and-paper Tectonic Plate map with movement directions, created entirely at random and assigned by my wife calling out directions on a clock.
- A pen-and-paper Landmass and Major Elevation map created using the Tectonic Plates and movements as inspiration (and quite a bit of artistic liberty).
- A pen-and-paper Weather Pattern map scribbled over with my best interpretation of the Koppen Climate classification.
- Lastly, a GIMP rendering of the same world map with some mountains, forests, rivers, and a handful of varying terrain types (grass, dirt, sand, snow).
My To-Do list includes, besides the obvious "get a better grasp of using GIMP":
- More regional difference in terrain (everything looks a bit similar in color and brush, save the eastern continent that I want to resemble a vast cliff-laden desert)
- Apply detail to outlying islands (the smaller island chains are very bland currently. They should be partially volcanic ranges and Mediterranean-like locales)
- Better mountains (I followed RobA's tutorial, but I think applying it to a world map rather than a smaller continent or regional map may have skewed the details)
- Better cliffs (because they're currently just skinny mountains with a high depth setting)
- Add Kingdoms/Cities/Circles of Influence
- Figure out proper trade routes, sea- and land-traveled
- Most likely re-do the whole thing after taking some criticism and critique from the community
I look forward to seeing some ideas on how to better this map, or any questions about it! Keep in mind, this is my very first pass through GIMP on any project, so if it looks like I made some glaring simple mistakes, call them out! I won't be offended.
- hustle
As a P.S., I should note that I'm still shaky on the continental outlines. They were hand drawn, and I didn't mind that on paper, but in the first few waves of GIMP tutorials, I never blurred them enough to vary the coastline shapes. I'd like them to look a bit more natural, but the couple of methods I've seen leave them extremely diminished or jagged.
Any tips on that issue?
Looks as though a few of my posts are caught in the admin web. I'm also adding "Subsea features" to the To-Do list. I'd love to give the sea floor some life extending a bit from the coastlines, and eventually some deep sea features; perhaps a trench or two, some foreboding places you wouldn't bring ships (both deep and shallow), and the like.
This looks really good to me. Maybe try the noise method for the jagged coastlines?
Looking nice so far!
Love that world building you're doing.
To me, somehow the mountains look more like valleys. I'm not sure why, or how you could fix it, but it just looks like it goes down instead of up.
The mountains could use a bit of transition from the ground, as right now they have a hard edge. Also, do you think they would look better grey?
The white around the coastline is maybe a bit too bright, I think it might look better if it was just a light blue.
Great job!
I think that's probably the fix for the "smoothness" I have, but so far my limited GIMP abilities have resulted in a noise method severely distorting the continent size. Is there a way to contain the noise to only the coast without it shrinking the landmass as a whole?Originally Posted by Reilith
Would I be right in assuming the map size is a problem? Anytime I add noise layers, even at max size and detail, it seems to be that the noise is still "big" in regards to the map extent, and not smaller blobs.
The size could be a problem there, if you're working in insane measurements. I am not really knowledgable about gimp, maybe someone else can help you with it?
Or you could always take the cut tool and do it by hand, up to the scale you want it.
Sent from my HTC Desire 820 using Tapatalk
Thanks very much for the compliment!
I agree with you here. This was the best of four mountain attempts, but they still look very disconnected, almost like you know they're supposed to be mountains, but they aren't... I'm sure part of the problem could be alleviated with the mountains being grey (unless it's a hilly region or a purposefully covered in trees), but I think the larger issue is with the transitioning that you mentioned as well as the detail in the mountains themselves. They're kind of smooth, and I'm having trouble pulling any more "jaggedness" out of them.
That made an immediate difference. Thanks for pointing it out.
I've decided to start a little smaller in scale concerning the world-building. I picked a continent to begin with and used the Regional Mapping GIMP Tutorial to get this far.
I tried to take into account some of the tips and advice from this thread in creating the new portion, and I think it's a step in the right direction.
This first draft is of the continent itself. I haven't completed a legend or scale yet, but I think this entire landmass will be a bit smaller than the US, so maybe 2,000 miles (3,200 km). Enough to give it a "vast" feeling and give some idea of population density.
Speaking of population, this draft is my first mock-up of city placements. Wagon wheels are port cities (can you tell I'm using RobA's Tutorial?), circled dots are large capital cities, and small dots are walled cities. Any town, village, or unwalled city is not shown on this scale, so you can assume there are settlements that fill in some of the space, especially near water. Also, the "fork" in the middle of the desert is some type of relic site/world renowned pilgrimage/magic thing that I haven't gone into detail on yet.
And lastly, a mock-up of each capital city's sphere of influence. Eight major nations, including (prepare yourselves for a huge surprise) Dwarves that live in the mountains (I know, try to contain your shock).
Couple of notes, I guess. For your enjoyment, or my own amusement.
Due to the position of this continent in the scope of the world (northern hemisphere, between 30-60 degrees latitude), I'm giving the lands east of the mountain range a temperate climate and the lands west of the mountain range, especially near the inlet sea, a Mediterranean climate. I don't have a good explanation for why there is a desert smack in the middle of a temperate zone, so maybe... magic?
The Strait. There is a narrow waterway between the western peninsula and the rest of the landmass. Two large port cities straddle it, and I'm thinking this will be a big point of contention between the "red" and "cyan" regions.
The Cliffs. On the eastern side of the mountains, there are two enormous cliffs, accompanied by two enormous waterfalls from one of the main rivers into a lake at the base of each cliff before continuing toward the coast. I think the "orange" region that occupies both cliffs will be fairly self-reliant, especially the capital that sits alone at the bottom of the last drop-off.
Last edited by Hustle; 03-30-2017 at 11:59 AM.
The map is nice and readable, but I keep wanting to see it as a small island rather than a continent that spans more than 3000 km vertically. It's probably the size of the coastal areas and the light-colored sea areas right next to the shore that makes me want to see surf and beach, which are features on the order of tens of meters. The mountain ranges also seem a bit wide and diffuse for something of that scale.
The size of the countries also contributes a bit to my scale misunderstanding, because I want to assume medieval-level technology when I see this sort of map. A very rough rule of thumb is that an administrative district tends to span not much more than (very roughly) the distance an enforcement party can travel in a few days time. Those districts might have a very few levels of hierarchy (district, county, state) above them but won't be very large. Those countries are on the order of 1000km across, suggesting some highly effective means of travel with good roads and massive military presence to quell raiders and other predators.
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