World Map, for a fantasy world similar to Earth

[tgraphic]

This is an update to my first fantasy map (shown in my introduction). It was made for a medieval role playing sim in Second Life (SL). The world of that sim is Earth like, but different. Many of the players there had come from other sims where they had developed back stories that were still relevant to ongoing stories. It was necessary to bring everyone's' stories onto some common frame.



Here is an image from SL, showing the map and a globe that uses the same map, in use.




There is a significant limitation in SL, that affected the design of the map. SL limits textures (images) that are uploaded to SL to a resolution of 1024 x 1024 pixels. (Images can be uploaded at resolution up to 20148 x 2048 pixels, but they are automatically reduced to 1024 x 1024 pixels.) This means that it is not possible to show a lot of detail, and to be readable in Sl, any labels / lettering must be quite large.

The idea for the look was that it should look like a historical medieval map. I did make the deliberate decision, though to not introduce the large errors that were found on real historical maps.

Process:

The base map was produced in photoshop. The coastline was drawn using photoshop pens from Noah Bradly. The mountains and other geographic features used the photoshop pens of Joel Pigou (https://gumroad.com/joelpigou) I also used ideas learned from several you tube tutorials:

-Spoon Graphics Create a Fantasy Map of Your Own Fictional World in Adobe Photoshop https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plF8mdhANMM

-Team Bradley How to Easily Make a Map in 10 Minutes with Photoshop. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGYEqQshfIQ

-Vorsp. Cartography Brush Map Making Tutorial. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmnBUGuRWnE

- and others.



The continental landmasses were drawn on a rectangle for the entire world. I used an aspect ratio 2:1, based on 360 degrees of longitude and 180 degrees of latitude. However, I ended up fitting the base map to +/- 80 degrees of latitude, so the aspect ratio should have been 360:160 => 9:4.



I then exported the map to QGIS (Open source GIS software) and registered it to the geographic coordinate system, using the corners of the image as control points. I added a geographic grid in QGIS.

For the globe, I exported the map image (now with a grid) back to photoshop. There I added a (featureless) 10 degree strip to top and bottom. They end up as the North and South poles, there is no map detail there. I added place names, and then exported an image to a png file, for upload to SL.
I then applied the uploaded image as a texture to the sphere, to make a globe with my map, in SL. The prexisting SL globe I used was made in SL by Raya Jonson.

For the world map, I used QGIS to re project the base map w/grid to a Mollweide projection. Again, I exported the projected map with grid, and imported it back into photoshop. In photoshop, I added the names, etc., and constructed the frame. I exported the final result as two separate images, one for the East half of the map, and one for the West half. Both images were uploaded to SL, and used to texture two separate prims that make up the map in SL. This gives me an SL resolution of 2048 x 1024 pixels for the final map.


There will be additional maps, consistent with this one although with different styles, that will be used to flesh more of the world as needed, to support the evolving RP stories, in SL.

[Bindusara]

i like it lot! Maybe you could sharpen your mountains, it seems a little blurry.

[tgraphic]

i like it lot! Maybe you could sharpen your mountains, it seems a little blurry.

thanks! Yes, I am happy with it.

"Maybe you could sharpen your mountains " hmm, yes. Fair enough. The photoshop brushes I used are, I believe, intended to be pencil, so are already not the crispest. And I am fine with that. I like the penciled look. But then the map was re sampled, when it was projected, and that makes things more blurry. That is why I added the lettering after the re sampling, but the mountains were re sampled. The blurriness is even worse when the map is displayed in SL - due to the texture resolution limits.

[XCali]

Hi, how are you? This really is an interesting project. I like it. So please don't misunderstand my feedback. It is literally me brainstorming with you on how to improve the already good project that this map is.

So, I really agree with the mountains needing some sharpening. There are tools to sharpen a layer, that is if the mountains are on their own layer. OR you can just go over them with a tiny solid dark brush on 80% opacity I think, to essentially make certain areas of the mountains lineart a bit darker and clearer.
Also, because the rest of the map are more desaturated colors (essentially more faded) the rivers being so saturated make them stand out like sore thumbs. IF the rivers are on their own layer you can just colorize them to be more desaturated like the rest of the map. And finally maybe choose a color for them that doesn't lean so much towards purple, it distracts a bit.

if there is something you don't grasp about what I said please let me know.

I'm looking forward to seeing this one progress.

[tgraphic]

...

So, I really agree with the mountains needing some sharpening. There are tools to sharpen a layer, that is if the mountains are on their own layer. OR you can just go over them with a tiny solid dark brush on 80% opacity I think, to essentially make certain areas of the mountains lineart a bit darker and clearer.
Also, because the rest of the map are more desaturated colors (essentially more faded) the rivers being so saturated make them stand out like sore thumbs. IF the rivers are on their own layer you can just colorize them to be more desaturated like the rest of the map. And finally maybe choose a color for them that doesn't lean so much towards purple, it distracts a bit.
....

These are good suggestions. Thanks!