Vanaheim (WIP)

[Hawksguard]

Greetings, Cartographers.

It's been an Age since I posted anything, but life circumstances have recently changed and afforded me the opportunity of more time to work on personal projects instead of solely professional ones.

I went back to the Vanaheim project I'd posted previously on and decided to rework it from the ground up...again...this time focusing more on a small-continent sized area instead of an entire planet offering. This was primarily due to two main reasons. The first was my increasing frustration at being able to illustrate landforms like mountain ranges, rivers, relief and elevation that were anywhere close to 'realistic'. So, I decided to focus instead on using some real-world data as the base. The second, and perhaps more importantly, was the realization that I didn't really need an entire planet to tell the 'story' that I wanted to tell.

The results are below. I've spent far too much time tweaking this base map, but it's finally approaching something I feel is representative of the overall feel I was going for. The next steps will be to focus at the regional level to start adding rivers, roads, cities, etc., and going back and cleaning up the base map with any changes/irregularities that pop up along the way. Any and all comments, criticisms, and suggestions are welcome!


For the images below, the first is a resized view showing the entirety of the continent. The second is a zoomed-in portion of the center of the map at full size, which I believe should be a bit over 200 miles across.

Programs/tools used for this map: Adobe Photoshop; Wacom Cintiq 22 Graphic Tablet

[Naima]

Greetings, Cartographers.

It's been an Age since I posted anything, but life circumstances have recently changed and afforded me the opportunity of more time to work on personal projects instead of solely professional ones.

I went back to the Vanaheim project I'd posted previously on and decided to rework it from the ground up...again...this time focusing more on a small-continent sized area instead of an entire planet offering. This was primarily due to two main reasons. The first was my increasing frustration at being able to illustrate landforms like mountain ranges, rivers, relief and elevation that were anywhere close to 'realistic'. So, I decided to focus instead on using some real-world data as the base. The second, and perhaps more importantly, was the realization that I didn't really need an entire planet to tell the 'story' that I wanted to tell.

The results are below. I've spent far too much time tweaking this base map, but it's finally approaching something I feel is representative of the overall feel I was going for. The next steps will be to focus at the regional level to start adding rivers, roads, cities, etc., and going back and cleaning up the base map with any changes/irregularities that pop up along the way. Any and all comments, criticisms, and suggestions are welcome!


For the images below, the first is a resized view showing the entirety of the continent. The second is a zoomed-in portion of the center of the map at full size, which I believe should be a bit over 200 miles across.

Programs/tools used for this map: Adobe Photoshop; Wacom Cintiq 22 Graphic Tablet

Looks pretty good, you used satellite heightmaps or assembled images?

[Hawksguard]

Looks pretty good, you used satellite heightmaps or assembled images?

Currently, the images consist of about 20 separate layers, some of which are based on 100-meter resolution raster data, although only one (satellite imagery) is present in its original form. Some of the other layers are based on the data; for example, the oceans are recolored heightmap info and I used a sliced-elevation layer to determine the coast- and snowlines. The bulk of the layers, though, are hand-painted adjustment layers with various photoshop effects that focus on vegetation and climactic indicators. Probably the most 'fun' layer to do was the relief, because I didn't have any raster data that was just relief, so I had to derive it by manipulating several other layers and do lots of manual adjustment in areas to make it look the way I wanted.

One of my basic goals for this map was to have a solid base that would look good at whatever 'zoom' level I wanted...with areas of crisp detail that didn't look faded or blurry.

[Naima]

Currently, the images consist of about 20 separate layers, some of which are based on 100-meter resolution raster data, although only one (satellite imagery) is present in its original form. Some of the other layers are based on the data; for example, the oceans are recolored heightmap info and I used a sliced-elevation layer to determine the coast- and snowlines. The bulk of the layers, though, are hand-painted adjustment layers with various photoshop effects that focus on vegetation and climactic indicators. Probably the most 'fun' layer to do was the relief, because I didn't have any raster data that was just relief, so I had to derive it by manipulating several other layers and do lots of manual adjustment in areas to make it look the way I wanted.

One of my basic goals for this map was to have a solid base that would look good at whatever 'zoom' level I wanted...with areas of crisp detail that didn't look faded or blurry.

thaks but what you mean by sliced-elevation layer?

[Hawksguard]

thaks but what you mean by sliced-elevation layer?

Sorry, I might be using the wrong terminology. It's a map with a range of elevation contours represented by a single color, instead of a blend or gradient. Below is an example of what I mean.

[Tiluchi]

This is a very impressive map! I would say in particular the way you've handled the colors and the biomes is really excellent and photorealistic. I always love seeing how people use real-world DEM data for their maps as I'm not really tech-savvy enough to do it.

Stylistically, I would say that the unusual angle of the shaded relief throws me off a little bit; having the light seeming to come from the south makes things look "upside down" and left me a bit discombobulated. Also, unfortunately as I was squinting at the map I realized that the elevation is mostly just the west coast of North America rotated 90 degrees and with the sea level raised a couple hundred meters (the Basin and Range Province, the Snake River Valley, and the Valles Caldera were what tipped me off). It might just be a personal reference but that tends to totally throw off my suspension of disbelief. I would say the technique here is 10/10, but I might recommend shuffling up the geography a little bit (or a lot) so that your real-world reference is less obvious.

[Hawksguard]

It might just be a personal reference but that tends to totally throw off my suspension of disbelief. I would say the technique here is 10/10, but I might recommend shuffling up the geography a little bit (or a lot) so that your real-world reference is less obvious.

This is, honestly, my biggest concern about this type of map. As I mentioned previously, I've had issues working with getting terrain-generating software to do what I want, so I tend toward a more raster-based approach. However, after reading through some other folks' workflows here on the site, I have discovered a few new techniques I can try out that might help me create something more 'original' in terms of landforms that isn't so easily recognizable.

This is a very impressive map! I would say in particular the way you've handled the colors and the biomes is really excellent and photorealistic. I always love seeing how people use real-world DEM data for their maps as I'm not really tech-savvy enough to do it.

Thanks, this feedback is very much appreciated, as it has been the main thing I've been working to improve.

[Diamond]

Heh heh, I'm FROM the West Coast and I didn't notice those features, so for the less observant crowd (me), it looks fantastic.

[Hawksguard]

Heh heh, I'm FROM the West Coast and I didn't notice those features, so for the less observant crowd (me), it looks fantastic.

LOL! Thanks!

After spending some time yesterday seeing if I could edit out some of the more obvious real-world geographical references I came to the conclusion that I managed to quite literally paint myself into a corner. I found that the combination of satellite imagery and relief and elevation were so tightly interrelated that trying to change one thing really threw off the others in a seriously detrimental way. So I've decided to leave it as it is for now. While it has been an interesting learning experience, I don't think I'll do many of these large-scale satellite type maps in the future. I've found you sacrifice a lot of creativity when the map totally controls where things should go, with really no regard to your imagination whatsoever.

In a way this map is mostly for myself as I continue to explore the world. It has been an amazing creative springboard in working on it resulting in thinking about how culture(s) would grow, adapt, spread and interact on it. Eventually I'd like to see this evolve into something similar to vorropohaiah's Map of the Inner Sea. But I do want to have and use it as a base reference to create more maps with a medieval style using map symbols, which I don't think would work well on this. In terms of worldbuilding I've been focusing on the concept of "solid foundation first...pretty stuff later."

In terms of 'lore,' below is another version of the map that I had actually worked on before the current one. It shows Vanaheim in an Age before the present one, when it was lush and green. Nothing quite like having 5000 years of wealth and prosperity living in a verdant paradise only to have your day ruined when Ragnarök comes along.

[Tiluchi]

As we say in worldbuilding, your world, your rules! One small suggestion might be to try changing the direction of the light for your shaded relief. Currently it comes from the bottom of the map (south), which is rather unusual and can make topography look "upside down" or inverted- this is partly how I caught on to the source of the topography. I would recommend changing it so that it comes from the upper left, which is the usual angle for topographic maps. If you're working with DEM data that should be possible, though I don't know exactly what your technique is (and don't know enough about Photoshop anyway).