Andrew Boulton
The Adminator
Way ahead of you! One of the first things I checked this morning.
Creating World Maps
- Thread starter Flynn
- Start date
Large-Scale Regional Maps
OK. I'm just frustrated with Bryce 5 right now. But I was reading something about gradient maps in photoshop and my mouth started to water.
I started by creating a cloudmap(Filters>Render>Clouds).
I choked the input using Levels(Image>Adjustments>Levels), so that the entire grayscale range from black to white was present
Duplicate this layer(Layers>Duplicate Layer...) and keep the original at the bottom of the stack. Now working on the duplicate layer, bring up the Gradient Map dialogue(Image>Adjustments>Gradient Map).
Then click on the gradient to bring up the Gradient Editor.
You can set up color stops by clicking on the white area under the gradient. Color these as you wish. The color stop for lowest land and shallowest water should be very close to each other, making a sharp demarcation between land and sea. Play with tthe stops until you get something you like. Click OK and look at your new gradient map.
Click OK again and here's your new region map.
Pretty good start, huh?
Now, I add in bumpmapping as described here: Art of Greg Martin (I got this link from earlier in the list).
Duplicate the bottom layer(name the result, "Shadows"). Move this layer to the top of the stack. Now apply the Bas Relief filter(Filters>Stylize>Bas Relief...) to Shadows. Duplicate this layer, and name the result "Highlights."
Now use Levels to adjust Highlights till it's mostly black with just a few areas of white. Open the Layer Style dialogue and set the Blend Mode to Color Dodge at about 60% opacity.
Adjust Levels on the Shadows layer until it's mostly white with just a few dark areas. In Layer Style, set the blend mode to Multiply at around 30% opacity.
Go to the colored layer. Use magicwand to select the water areas. Now in the Highlights layer, use the paint brush to paint all the water areas black. Go to the Shadows layer and paint all the water areas white.
Now you should have a picture that looks something like this:
It might be useful to crop the resulting image, since the Clouds filter seems to produce an image that seamlessly tiles, and is therefore artificially symmetrical. This is also only really useful for large-scale area maps because it looks excecrable wrapped on a globe.
Parts of this could be used on a Land Bump render from Lunar Cell, but I doubt that would be worthwhile.
I hope this was useful.
OK. I'm just frustrated with Bryce 5 right now. But I was reading something about gradient maps in photoshop and my mouth started to water.
I started by creating a cloudmap(Filters>Render>Clouds).
I choked the input using Levels(Image>Adjustments>Levels), so that the entire grayscale range from black to white was present
Duplicate this layer(Layers>Duplicate Layer...) and keep the original at the bottom of the stack. Now working on the duplicate layer, bring up the Gradient Map dialogue(Image>Adjustments>Gradient Map).
Then click on the gradient to bring up the Gradient Editor.
You can set up color stops by clicking on the white area under the gradient. Color these as you wish. The color stop for lowest land and shallowest water should be very close to each other, making a sharp demarcation between land and sea. Play with tthe stops until you get something you like. Click OK and look at your new gradient map.
Click OK again and here's your new region map.
Pretty good start, huh?
Now, I add in bumpmapping as described here: Art of Greg Martin (I got this link from earlier in the list).
Duplicate the bottom layer(name the result, "Shadows"). Move this layer to the top of the stack. Now apply the Bas Relief filter(Filters>Stylize>Bas Relief...) to Shadows. Duplicate this layer, and name the result "Highlights."
Now use Levels to adjust Highlights till it's mostly black with just a few areas of white. Open the Layer Style dialogue and set the Blend Mode to Color Dodge at about 60% opacity.
Adjust Levels on the Shadows layer until it's mostly white with just a few dark areas. In Layer Style, set the blend mode to Multiply at around 30% opacity.
Go to the colored layer. Use magicwand to select the water areas. Now in the Highlights layer, use the paint brush to paint all the water areas black. Go to the Shadows layer and paint all the water areas white.
Now you should have a picture that looks something like this:
It might be useful to crop the resulting image, since the Clouds filter seems to produce an image that seamlessly tiles, and is therefore artificially symmetrical. This is also only really useful for large-scale area maps because it looks excecrable wrapped on a globe.
Parts of this could be used on a Land Bump render from Lunar Cell, but I doubt that would be worthwhile.
I hope this was useful.
Profantasy's fractal terrains comes with a load of different projections (including isocohedral and equirectangular), but you would have to get your existing map into fractal terrains first. I think you'd need height data to do that or redraw it in Fractal Terrains from scratch.
TheEngineer
SOC-14 1K
Hi !
Even FT2 will not be able to do that, as the ico projection is just available as an export format
I hardly believe, that there is any program out there dedicated to the re-projection of an ico-format to an rectangular one.
Well, what you can do, is to use a 3D software package, which is able to do UV mapping. Here you can create a kind of projection by yourself, and use a ico-planet picture and a UV-map to convert it back to a rectangular view.
But surely it a bit of work and I am not sure if it will work in one step.
I will give it a try ...
Regards,
TE
Even FT2 will not be able to do that, as the ico projection is just available as an export format
I hardly believe, that there is any program out there dedicated to the re-projection of an ico-format to an rectangular one.
Well, what you can do, is to use a 3D software package, which is able to do UV mapping. Here you can create a kind of projection by yourself, and use a ico-planet picture and a UV-map to convert it back to a rectangular view.
But surely it a bit of work and I am not sure if it will work in one step.
I will give it a try ...
Regards,
TE
TheEngineer
SOC-14 1K
Hi !
Well, one result of Tavonni retransformation with the typical distortions at north and south pole...
As you might notice the transformation via UV mapping is not perfect.
Now it could be used as texture map:
Or as backdrop in order to recreate the map using a mapper tool like CC2.
Hmm, somehow I need something like the synthesis of FT2 and CC ...
regards,
TE
Well, one result of Tavonni retransformation with the typical distortions at north and south pole...
As you might notice the transformation via UV mapping is not perfect.
Now it could be used as texture map:
Or as backdrop in order to recreate the map using a mapper tool like CC2.
Hmm, somehow I need something like the synthesis of FT2 and CC ...
regards,
TE
TheEngineer
SOC-14 1K
Hi !
What are you going to use to recreate the map ??
Mostly for curiosity I am torturing FT2 now.
Lets wait for results...
regards,
TE
What are you going to use to recreate the map ??
Mostly for curiosity I am torturing FT2 now.
Lets wait for results...
regards,
TE
GypsyComet
SOC-14 1K
Good looking, that.
(I had other comments, but they were aimed at Hyphen's original map, not the efforts underway here.)
What we really need is the "Your World Name Here" overlay tool for Google Earth...
(I had other comments, but they were aimed at Hyphen's original map, not the efforts underway here.)
What we really need is the "Your World Name Here" overlay tool for Google Earth...
TheEngineer
SOC-14 1K
Hi !
Very pretty Alik !
Now perhaps some ice caps or generally climate impacts for the "real" map.
Or will you leave it as topographical world map ?
regards,
TE
Very pretty Alik !
Now perhaps some ice caps or generally climate impacts for the "real" map.
Or will you leave it as topographical world map ?
regards,
TE
Dear Folks -
I'll now have to dig out my more close-up version of the island that Beowulf Down is situated on (that's the island directly east of the T.A.S.P.(TAvonni Safari Park). There's a spine of mountains running down it, and the starport is on top of a plateau formed at the side of the range (there's no way the 'port was ever gonna be inside an area of "Tavonni jungle"!). Designer's Note: I was kinda going for the Altiplano, but actually overlooking the Amazon Basin - thus allowing us to build structures like the Hotel-At-the-Edge-of-the-World.
Wow! I'd say that for a first-cut effort, it rocks!
I'll now have to dig out my more close-up version of the island that Beowulf Down is situated on (that's the island directly east of the T.A.S.P.(TAvonni Safari Park).
There's a spine of mountains running down it, and the starport is on top of a plateau formed at the side of the range (there's no way the 'port was ever gonna be inside an area of "Tavonni jungle"!). Designer's Note: I was kinda going for the Altiplano, but actually overlooking the Amazon Basin - thus allowing us to build structures like the Hotel-At-the-Edge-of-the-World. Hi, GC! What were your comments? (If I ever get my password back, I'll upload the original scan somewhere on my website and you can have a look at that - the picture currently on the site is three times smaller than the original).
GypsyComet
SOC-14 1K
Mostly the Geologist in me looking at island placements and crustal plate movement arrows.
The minor islands are a little too regularly spaced, almost as if Grandfather was hunting a sub-crustal installation with a gigantic orbital punch.
The big central plate and the pole-to-pole plate immediately west of it both appear to be rotating. While one wouldn't be terribly odd, two rotating against each other sort of defies the usual understanding of these things, as a world's plates are all in a wrestling match. For the rest of the world's plates, which barely out-mass these two, to get them to grind on each other with such vigor would take a lot of excess energy coming up from the mantle somewhere, and even then the two plates with that convoluted a boundary would tend to lock together instead of grind.
The minor islands are a little too regularly spaced, almost as if Grandfather was hunting a sub-crustal installation with a gigantic orbital punch.
The big central plate and the pole-to-pole plate immediately west of it both appear to be rotating. While one wouldn't be terribly odd, two rotating against each other sort of defies the usual understanding of these things, as a world's plates are all in a wrestling match. For the rest of the world's plates, which barely out-mass these two, to get them to grind on each other with such vigor would take a lot of excess energy coming up from the mantle somewhere, and even then the two plates with that convoluted a boundary would tend to lock together instead of grind.
Dear Folks -
What I did - and it took some time - was to sit down with Grand Survey and try to map out Tavonni, by hand, using the plates, continents, islands, etc that I had rolled up randomly using their tables. Um, sorry that it doesn't match reality.
I did at least *try* to make the plate movements seem to go in the same direction, rather than having the same plate move north at one point and south at another point *on the same boundary*. After I placed the plates, I tried to think about what similar plates were doing on ol' Terra, and place my landmasses accordingly. However, I'm not a geologist, nor do I play one on tri-dee.
I've managed to get my FTP password reset, so the next thing is to find and scan the island that Beowulf Down is on. In the meantime, I've uploaded the full-sized scan of my Tavonni sketch map - click here to get it. WARNING: it's just over 1 meg in size (which is why I've only ever uploaded the smaller version).
Wow - now I know how Loren feels (and Marc!) I never expected anyone would *call me out* on improper placement of my crustal plates!!!
What I did - and it took some time - was to sit down with Grand Survey and try to map out Tavonni, by hand, using the plates, continents, islands, etc that I had rolled up randomly using their tables. Um, sorry that it doesn't match reality.
I did at least *try* to make the plate movements seem to go in the same direction, rather than having the same plate move north at one point and south at another point *on the same boundary*. After I placed the plates, I tried to think about what similar plates were doing on ol' Terra, and place my landmasses accordingly. However, I'm not a geologist, nor do I play one on tri-dee.
I've managed to get my FTP password reset, so the next thing is to find and scan the island that Beowulf Down is on. In the meantime, I've uploaded the full-sized scan of my Tavonni sketch map - click here to get it. WARNING: it's just over 1 meg in size (which is why I've only ever uploaded the smaller version).
GypsyComet
SOC-14 1K
I try not to let my education get in the way of having fun, but it occasionally escapes the cage.
In general, crustal plates will tend towards simpler shapes precisely because the whole surface is a big wrestling match, and if you stick something out too far, crustal movement will likely tear it off eventually.
That said, any world map we do is a snapshot in time, and a very short one at that. While odd tectonic situations may not be "stable", they do still occur. Tavonni's plates could change in another 20 years to a movement pattern they'll stay in for 50 million years, and plates that look large and monolithic may turn out to not be. But for game, it works.
In general, crustal plates will tend towards simpler shapes precisely because the whole surface is a big wrestling match, and if you stick something out too far, crustal movement will likely tear it off eventually.
That said, any world map we do is a snapshot in time, and a very short one at that. While odd tectonic situations may not be "stable", they do still occur. Tavonni's plates could change in another 20 years to a movement pattern they'll stay in for 50 million years, and plates that look large and monolithic may turn out to not be. But for game, it works.
TheEngineer
SOC-14 1K
Hi !
Puh, its really much more complicate to redo an existing map than to simply create a new one (one-click thing..).
Well, I fiddled a bit around with FT2 and here too Hyphens Tavonni map is the victim ...
It might look ok somehow on this scale, but I just have not reached the goal to create the map in a way, so that it looks pretty well even with zoomed details. The land/ocean borderlines are still much to clumpsy and many times "pattern" are visible
Its a bit tricky to mix "manual" drawing and the fractal function stuff.
Besides I'm not sure, if FT deals with any tectonic aspects during world creation ..
Regards,
TE
Puh, its really much more complicate to redo an existing map than to simply create a new one (one-click thing..).
Well, I fiddled a bit around with FT2 and here too Hyphens Tavonni map is the victim ...
It might look ok somehow on this scale, but I just have not reached the goal to create the map in a way, so that it looks pretty well even with zoomed details. The land/ocean borderlines are still much to clumpsy and many times "pattern" are visible
Its a bit tricky to mix "manual" drawing and the fractal function stuff.
Besides I'm not sure, if FT deals with any tectonic aspects during world creation ..
Regards,
TE
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