Anybody care to share their map?

[OrionDarkwood]

I'm just looking to see how others are getting along with mapping their worlds. It's one of my favourite aspects of world-building, and I've been making decent progress with my own map (though I don't feel it's ready to show yet). So, if you have a map, why not let us see your hard work?

I have a rough map, however my major issue is I have good visual images of what places are suppose to look like but my drawing skills suck. I guess I could use map making software but that would be for a general image.

 

[Giant]

I have recently started using Fractal Mapper V8.0. They have a trial version that is easy to use and free. I like it so far and it has really helped me visualize my world and cities. Here are two examples they give on their website of the kind of maps that you can create. Give it a shot if you are struggling with mapping your worlds.

http://www.nbos.com/products/mapper/screenshots/fm8-sample-nazrain.jpg

http://www.nbos.com/products/mapper/screenshots/fm8-TiPander.gif

 

[Telcontar]

That first one especially is pretty nice. Both of those are products of this Fractal Mapper program?

 

[Giant]

Yes, both of those images are screen shots of the Fractal Mapper v8.0. I am still working to make mine look nearly that good. But the program is easy to use, and they have a trial version that is free to download. It has all of the same features as the pay version, only you can't save your maps. (But you can take screen shots of them which is cool for your own reference.) Here is the link to the trial version if you want to give it a whirl.

Trial Versions

 

[Johnny Cosmo]

@W.K.Trail: I really like that.

 

[Johnny Cosmo]

I get the sense that style and character is lost in cartography-specific software, although I do understand that some of us create maps to function. I've considered cartography software, but it doesn't look like you get much freedom to design.

Moving on, here is my latest offering. It's similar to my last one, but I've pushed the watercolour look a bit more. I'm happier with this style of forest, and I've worked on developing the mountain technique a little. I'm not as happy with the paper though... it just doesn't look as good. Perhaps I'll go back and steal the settings from my previous map. Again, it's no where near finished; the labelling isn't finished, most of the labels that are there are placeholders, and I'm trying to think of a way to present hills.

Incase anybody is wondering where this fits in to my world - it's a small land mass (probably around half to two thirds the size of England) that was south of the land mass in my last map, before it sank and took with it the old Kingdom of Gullydia (from where most of my dominant races originated).

I'd love some feedback...

 

[myrddin173]

probably around half to two thirds the size of England

Do you mean the country of England or the island of Great Britain? Anyways it looks really nice!

 

[Johnny Cosmo]

Do you mean the country of England or the island of Great Britain? Anyways it looks really nice!

Thanks, and England (although I've not completely decided on the scale of all my landmasses yet, so it might get bigger). I have a question - do you think that the colours are a bit dull or faded looking? It just doesn't quite look bold enough to me, but that might be because I've been staring for a few hours whilst working on it.

Edit: In fact, I've already changed my mind, and now it is about the full size of England.

 

[Telcontar]

Johnny, if you have the time and inclination I'd very much like to see how you make these maps. Perhaps you could do some sort of tutorial? Perhaps it has been asked before in the thread, but I'd like to see how you get this look.

 

[Johnny Cosmo]

I'm not sure I'm qualified to be teaching others. There are probably easier ways to do a lot of what I do, and a lot of my techniques have been picked up from other tutorials (albeit altered and adapted to fit my needs). Perhaps when I develop my own style a bit more, I'll upload a tutorial to my portfolio.

Until then though, feedback would really speed up the learning process for me.

 

[Shasjas]

See below.

 

[Black Dragon]

attachmentid=40962&d=1325625793Erdriel

Hey Shasjas,

We're unable to view your map, as only members of the cartographer's guild can see it.

If you like, you can upload it to our brand new Map Gallery, and then place it in this thread.

Once you upload it there, you can use the Direct Link URL (which will be to the uploaded image's right, under "Additional Info") to place the image directly into this thread so that we can all see it.

If you place the Direct Link URL within IMG tags, it will be easy to display it here. The usage would be:

[img]direct url to image[/img]

So for example, the following code

[NOPARSE][IMG]http://mythicscribes.com/gallery/data/513/pappenheimer.jpg[/IMG][/NOPARSE]

would result in this:

You can visit the gallery here:

Fantasy Image Gallery - - Mythic Scribes

 

[Johnny Cosmo]

@Shasjas: Really nice work! Any chance of a different link for the benefit of non-Cartography Guild members? I am a member, but I'm not sure how many other users here are.

Edit: Beaten to it by Black Dragon...

 

[myrddin173]

Shasja, Nice map. (I knew signing up for Cartographer's Guild would be handy)

 

[Shasjas]

Oh sorry about that, I always forget that you have to sign up to see images on that site.
I tried uploading using the gallery here but my picture said it was uploaded and then when I went to my pictures it wasn't their, so i uploaded it to flickr which should work.


Erdriel

 

[mrmister]

I like that you've got the climate figured out.

 

[ascanius]

So I dug this thread up for the simple goal of wanting to know what other think of my map. however i discovered that it was much to large to be uploaded to the gallery so I had to cut it into fourths, flatten it, and in general dilute what I have done just to get it to fit on the other website. Originally the map is something like a 18.7MB file at 4800x3600 pixles, I was able to zoom in really close and add little details and the like Sadly the zoom level is only at like fifty percent even when it says 100 so a lot of the detail is lost. But any input is appreciated. So they are labeled by location, NW, NE SW,SE. the Password is: abcdefg12345 and they are at Login to a private Photobucket.com album
Thnx.

 

[Jabrosky]

^ It's quite beautiful, especially the mountains.

 

[kadenaz]

My map is in my link, here in my signature

 

[myrddin173]

@ascanius Are those hand-drawn? They look fantastic!