map creation?

[jezelf]

Lenny: Hi! I don't know about Bryce that much - though you can create mountain ranges.

Adding natural objects to a Bryce Scene

I use max/Maya and yes you can used any image in photoshop as a texture map and bung it on a sphere to make a planet. I've got an WIP for my own planet and following this tutorial...

[tutorial.stavit.cz] - tutorials, instructions, manuals, techniques for 3D studio MAX/VIZ - modeling, texturing, animating, ...

...but it doesnt have to be that complex if you want to do something for your reference. 3D programs have various types of mapping which are based on primative objects like a cube,cylider, cone and a sphere, spherical mapping would be what you're after.

You'll need to pay attention to your poles if you want them to look good too, because a 3d program is likely to 'pinch' and distort your texture there. Your texture will need to be a rectangle and tile on the L & R edges (PS has a filter that will help you do this 'Offset' found in filter>other>offset )

Here's a site that will show you what your map should conform to:
Planet Texture Map Collection they have pretty good planets of our solar system.

If all you want is to map your , err...map on a sphere it would take you seconds to do once you've got your texture set up.

There is also a plugin for PS that you can create cool planets in an instant. you can play with various weathers, sealevels atmospheres and this plugin has a free trial period.

Flaming Pear:Products:LunarCell


There's also Mojo world creator which is based on fractal generation. This has some really great stuff going on. Something else I wanna get around to doing - perhaps when I get to illustrate my SF novels one day!

Pandromeda : Gallery : Stills

Jez

[jezelf]

Rosemary: Hi there - yep. There is only one I think.

Lenny: Yes is the anwser to your question. I did write a more detailed relply, but it has links to examples and other packages and needs to go through a moderator for approval before it can be posted.

cheers
Jez

[Lenny]

Not a problem. You might even want to post it in a new thread when you can post links and the like. I look forward to it.

[jezelf]

Hi Lenny - now I've had 15 posts, looks like my links are now up - see above.

If I get some time I'll post some examples of the PS process and then it put onto a 3D sphere.

[Lenny]

Thanks for that, Jez.

I've saved that post to my favourites, and I'm going to have a play about with it all in about a week, once I've finished my exams. Should be very interesting to see what comes out.

[jezelf]

Lenny: No problem.

I've done a few examples to show what you can do in Photoshop with map making. These were done in about 3-4 hrs and the orignals are 4x. I wasn't using any predefined map I had drawn on paper so made it all up on the fly - names are bit crap didnt give them much thought! The B&W image created using the steps I mentioned above and then cut and pasting my results around the page to for a more convincing map.

Of course you dont have to be slave to that process. With a lot more care you can copy any sketch to create the B&W version - scan in and go from there. For the brown one I orginally added paper textures etc - but prefered this one.

I expect you would want to let your story dictate the landscape and go from there. When I eventually do my one, I'll build it up from elements of the story first and then make a custom map to fit - but the cool thing about the stuff below is that it can also inspire stories too - so I might do a bit of both!

I'll post some pics of this kind of thing on a sphere soon. Theres a good PS plugin you can use to avoid the pinching at the poles I told you about.

I'll do tutorials of the above if you're interested.

Font for map is called First Order and the small hill drawings are also a font called Hill Country. Both downloaded from http://www.dafont.com

Of course as I did all this for fun, Im not sure on any copyright issues with those fonts so you would need to check that out if you ever wanted to use for publication, but they are free to download. Usually they say it's ok for personal use, but get in touch for commerical use.


cheers
Jez

[Lenny]

Escuse my French, but those are bloody amazing! And you say you did it all on the fly? Powers above...

I'll do tutorials of the above if you're interested.

I'm more than interested now!

I've always wanted to be able to knock together my own maps that look the biz. But I've never been able to draw for toffee, sadly. I can, however, seem to be able to draw on the pixel level, it's just that it leaves me seeing everything in pixels for a couple of hours afterwards.

You're making me wish my exams were over now, you know, just so I could wake up early, go to sleep late, and spend the whole day playing with pixels, and effects and whatnot. Mark my words, I'm going to dreaming in pixels tonight.

[jezelf]

Hi - it's easy when you know how. You'll be knocking them out in no time. It also depends how much detail you want to put in.

I have other work to do for a week or more, so these are a distraction for me too but I'll do the tutorials after that. So good luck in your exams!

I will be able to put up the mapped spheres soon though (by the end of the week) as I've been playing with those in my lunch hours at work.

Tutorials will probably be as a link so im not clogging these forum pages. In the mean time the B&W version would be good to work on. Create your map or maps also you might want to come up with place names, find font or other dingbats in preperation - check the link above - they have elvish/middle earth fonts, medieval and gothic as well as some really nice 18th century handwriting fonts.

best wishes
Jez

[jezelf]

OK here we go. managed to do it. this should be ok until I get the proper tutorials done. If any moderators want me to make this a link/ or size it down into more download friendly chunks, let me know (if I can edit this post I'll do that)

best wishes
Jez

[Hilarious Joke]

I don't mean to alarm you but that was so awesome I wet my pants.

[jezelf]

Hi Again.

Upon request (from Lenny) I've had some time to do a more detailed tutorial if anyone is interested. Only on creating a B&W image for the moment, others on their way. It's aimed at a beginner - hopfully you can get through it ok. Please forgive any typos there, I just saw 'em so I'll sort those out when I get a sec.

I've also included some links to other sites which may be helpful if you are looking for old medieval maps to tolkien ones.

cheers
jez

I forgot to add on the tutorial (I'll do it later) that if you don't have Photoshop CS you can download a trial demo from Adobe - or usually found in most related magazines at your nearest newsagent.

[Lenny]

Ooooooh! Thanks for these. I've got the time ti play around, now, so I shall.

[JDP]

Thanks for taking the time to post this stuff, Jezelf, it's great!

[jezelf]

You're welcome. I've changed the font so it's more readable and corrected the awful typos I had. I wish I had more time to do all of the tutorials I want to do. I've got the next one almost done - just need to get the webpage done.

Here's a preview of the end result - as before it'll be a step by step guide to achieving what you see here. the B&W one is used as a starting point for this.

If you are looking forward to this one, I would suggest playing around with Photoshop's text tool and warp text options, the brush presets editor and familiarising yourself with defining a brush, brush dynamics and scattering. Also load up the calligraphic brush set ( I used them to draw these mountains, forests and locations)

Hope to get it to ya next week sometime.

Cheers
Jez

[hippokrene]

I just generate a half-dozen maps in Civ IV and use whatever one looks best.