Detailed Atlas-Style Topo Map, “Deianerra”

[Peter Toth]

Hello Guild,

Like many of you, I am strongly immune to every known vaccine against cartographer’s fever (and yes, I’m referring to those people and/or circumstances that can dissuade the best of us from pursuing the delightful hobby known as mapmaking.) With that said, it should come as no surprise that I’ve been working on this project essentially since my last contribution, for a grand total of approximately five months of labour, interspersed with work and frequent cat feedings. I don’t mean to suggest that I’m completely satisfied with my final result; in fact, several aspects of the conworld are riddled with flaws, which collectively make my map somewhat implausible. For instance, my mountain building algorithm still needs some tweaking to produce more realistic mountains of the kind, for instance, that grace the work of Ilanthar, one of my exemplars. Additionally, my (implied) tectonics may not be the most realistic; but keep in mind that in this project, I simply prioritized aesthetic appeal over absolute realism. (Perhaps in an update I’ll include an animation of the tectonics.)

I’ve named this project “Deianerra,” who according to legend, was Hercules’ wife. I chose the name because, in 1994, I developed an infatuation with the stunningly beautiful actress Renee O’ Connor, who (back then) played the role of Deianerra in an episode of Hercules: the Legendary Journeys (before she won the role of Gabrielle in Xena: Warrior Princess). Another inspiration for this project also dates back to the summer of 1994, when my friend invited me to stay at his father’s cabin in central British Columbia (Canada) for a two-week camping adventure in a pristine wilderness. Ever since, I’ve been aspiring to flesh out the world of my dreams, an ideal Medieval-esque paradise closely modelled to (and inspired by) J.R.R. Tolkien’s work. Thus, Deianerra represents not only a beautiful young woman, but also a colossal, complex world that I’ve been daydreaming about during my menial jobs for about 99% of the last 25 years, no exaggeration. (I’ll leave it up to you to guess what the remaining 1% was spent doing, lol.)

Deianerra was cooked up entirely on Wilbur and Gimp, using a 10 year old dinosaur of a computer, simple because I cannot afford the coveted, higher-end programs such as Photoshop, nor can I afford to upgrade my computer or purchase a tablet/stylus. (Caring for a demanding senior cat is already costly enough for someone living in my situation, lol.) As you can imagine, I am constantly dealing with crashes and dysfunctional keys on my computer, which may account for the delay in this project’s completion.

Aside from crashes and dysfunctional keys, another roadblock I struggled to overcome was seaming together two different projections in an effort to create an accurate-looking equirectangular projection, with realistic polar distortion. (If you look close, you may notice the seam line.) I realize the entire process could have taken minutes rather than a month, if only I had access to Photoshop. (By the way, can anyone recommend a freeware program that has the capability of beginning with, say, an orthographic projection; then, after defining a pole or other reference lines, changing the projection to equirectangular? Doing it manually is very time consuming!)

Minus the visual rendering, I can assure that I’ve modelled the physics of Deianerra very accurately and painstakingly, including the solar system she belongs to, using the familiar world building formulas that are available on in the World Builder’s Cookbook and other Internet sites. I’ve calculated many physical aspects of the world, including the magnetic field, which, if you’re interested, was computed as a function of Deianerra’s rotation, age, and the size of its molten outer core (where the field is generated). The inset showing a cutaway diagram of Deianerra isn’t merely for show; rather, the breadth of each layer was calculated with precision assuming a largely Earthlike composition. (Don’t hesitate to critique if you notice any errors.)

The attributes for Deianerra’s home star (Rolphus) were generated using the website “www.rainman.astro.illinois.edu,” assuming a particular user-defined mass and metallicity; thus, I hope the luminosity data are accurate, for a wealth of further details hinges upon the luminosity value. I used Clima-Sim to model Deianerra’s climate, initially desiring a habitable polar region; so, for many days, I kept tweaking my semimajor axis, eccentricity and such until the software produced a climate that met my satisfaction. Regarding climate, you will notice that Deianerra has a rather high eccentricity—0.1067, which would make the planet’s total temperature fluctuate by about 30 degrees Kelvin from perihelion to aphelion. I don’t know if such a high eccentricity would produce a habitable climate over the long run; rather, I just relied on Clima-Sim’s output perhaps a little too faithfully. Thus, to discuss the ramifications, I’ve created a world where the temperature variation causes the sea level to fluctuate considerably between perihelion and aphelion (perhaps many meters?); unfortunately, I lacked any handy formulas or software to calculate the fluctuation precisely. (Can anyone help me here?)

If you’ve read to this point, thank you for your interest. If you have critiques or any suggestions on how I could improve my craft, I would be delighted to hear them. Like many of you, I dream to eventually work for commission and one day afford a lightning-fast PC or laptop, with the latest version of Photoshop and a tablet/stylus. My cat, on the other hand, would appreciate a seven-foot cat tree so that her highness could retire in luxury.

And if, perchance, you’re interested in a realistic world built for your novel, game, or hobby, simply send me a message.

And to everyone who has discovered the infinite joy made possible by the hobby of fantasy cartography: keep on churning out those maps!

Peter


P.S. My original map exceeded the Guild's size restrictions, so I've had to resample the image at a much lower resolution. If you're interested in the full resolution file, please let me know. Alternatively/additionally, if someone could please inform me how to post an oversized file, I'd immensely appreciate your favour. Thank you so much!

[DrWho42]

wow, this looks epic in literally planetary proportions!

My cat, on the other hand, would appreciate a seven-foot cat tree so that her highness could retire in luxury.

haha, i'm sure!

[Ilanthar]

Very nice ! It's a difficult and long road you've taken here, but I certainly like the result.

[Raven9]

I love it! Nice work. I would be curious to see what you do with better equipment.

[Peter Toth]

Thank you DrWho, Ilanthar, and Raven9, for taking the time to respond.

Yes, Raven9, I long for a bright future of finally being paid to draw maps, when I can afford a better PC stocked with the finest and latest software. Maybe by Christmas this will become a reality.

Does anyone out there want a link to the full-resolution map of Deianerra? (The one I've posted has been downsampled considerably.)

Here are a few sneak-peeks.






And, if it's not too much to ask, could someone critique this map? Because I want to improve my cartography, I am seeking as many honest critiques as possible.

Thank you for your interest.

Peter

[Naima]

Looks preetty good, my only criticism could eventually be the height of the land, looks like only coastlines are low level terrain , but that can just be a feature of the world so its not really a critic!
Other than that great job!

[Peter Toth]

Thank you so much Naima. I'm very happy to finally hear some real criticism, which I strongly rely on to improve each map. (I try to never make the same mistake twice!)

I was kind of hoping a couple more seasoned, expert Guild members (such as Arsheesh or Pixie) could have responded, because I study their work and use it as a model to strive for. I was disappointed that no one expressed any interest in the full-resolution map, especially considering that I offered some "sneak peeks" in my last post. Why is feedback so important to me? Very simple: I immensely aspire to create fantasy maps for a living! Perhaps with enough commission, I could one day afford that updated PC of my dreams (and Photoshop), to enable me to produce better quality maps. Until then, my work might be somewhat mediocre. But please tell me, so that I can improve my future work.

Thank you to all who took the time to view my map, and thank you to all responders.

Peter

[Badger]

Hi Peter! Nice to meet you. I know how much passion goes into a work like this, trust me, my world of Azora has been my passion for nearly 40 years. Long ago I used Wilbur and Gimp, but it's been so long ago, I couldn't give you any pointers on it now. Don't worry, Arsheesh or Pixie may yet come along and answer some questions for you. Also, the only way I know to get around the file size limit is to be come a sponsor by donating. If you hit the Support link at the top of the screen up there.

Beautiful world! And so much work! I feel your pain and your passion on a project like this. I'm always free to discuss world building and mapping any day of the week... and twice on sunday! Just private message me with questions anytime.

Del

[Tiana]

Perhaps with enough commission, I could one day afford that updated PC of my dreams (and Photoshop), to enable me to produce better quality maps.

I have paid for my setup with commissions, so it's not really a "perhaps"... I didn't even mean to become a professional cartographer, I just liked drawing maps and was trying to become a freelance artist. So if you actually WANT to, yeah, at some point you'll find yourself able to buy computer upgrades with your income from drawing maps. Be confident about it and eventually you'll be there. I started doing art professionally in 2013 and I am now at a point where all of my computer add-ons were purchased with a bit of hustle and income from my artwork (I did not pay anywhere near full price for any of my equipment, unless it was a program from a small company).

I'd say prioritize RAM, an art tablet, then a video card with a decent amount of VRAM, storage if you don't already have it (map files get big and you'll find yourself collecting stock photos and textures), a comfortable keyboard and mouse. Only then would I bother to get Photoshop, to be honest, I've found the non-Adobe competition to be shockingly sufficient, though I don't exclusively use one program that does it all, I only had to pay for each one of them once. Whatever software you used to produce this map is sufficient. From what I've heard tons of people are still getting great use of Gimp. You can fool around with Photopea too, it's a free in browser editor I've found occasionally useful.

For the record: I use Other World Mapper for mapping-specific needs, I use Clip Studio Paint for drawing, I use Corel Painter for painting, Affinity Photo and Designer instead of Adobe's suite, Lazy Nuzmei to cheat, and I've been using free video editing software VSDC for my screen capture videos. I've also started fussing with making music and I use Audacity and Bandlab (free).

The only equipment that made a significant change for me as an artist was going to a Wacom Cintiq instead of a disconnected eyes-wrist tablet experience, and even still, I did a lot of great art with a more basic tablet. Of course having more RAM made it easier and some programs have better workflows for certain tasks (which is why I use so many different programs) and you'll figure that out as you go along... but the best thing you can do is just put your art out there and make it known that you're willing to draw maps.

My critique for this map:

While you can get away with doing text without a contrasting stroke or shadow, there are a few places where you have text intersecting a line. This could cause trouble reading the word for someone, Vimino Isld is the one where it causes the most difficulty, at first I thought it was an O at the end but I think it's actually a D. This is easy to be mindful of when placing text. Just don't overlap text with a border of the same color, and if it's unavoidable, put a bit underneath it to create contrast or give all of the text an outline.

I would say that for the most part people here are not going to fall for 'hype building tactics', so if you want feedback on the full map, just find a way to post it instead of trying to get people to ask you for it. As a salesperson I understand why you're doing it, and if the crowd here weren't dominated by other miserly artists, it might even work. Feedback comes at a trickle, and it's best to just be upfront about what you want, and where you want it on this forum. Especially since it ranges quite a bit in whether people want critical feedback or not. But, be the change you want to see. A couple of solid new participants who make a point of commenting on other people's projects can do a lot to liven up the forum. I suppose the thing to remember about forums is that people don't always show up (drawing, I suppose) but if you keep activity on your thread they may eventually still see it. If you really want a certain person's feedback though, I'd just outright private message them and ask! Don't hope for the future you want, go and take it, if you want to learn from the person who inspired you, the worst they'll do is say they're too busy right now or ignore you.

[- JO -]

You did a remarkable job on the geographical data of your world! But above all, I admire your work with perspective: it gives a completely unexpected point of view on this world! Very refreshing!
Congratulations for all this work and a very nice result