new planet

[ranger]

thanks to tovette for inspiration
this is the beginning of a homeworld for me :)
sector 1 Capitol sector -

[Meurig]

Cool. I've always liked this sort of map work :)

My only comment at the moment would be the very harsh divisions between desert and jungle or other greenery. I'd expect the transition to be more gradual.

Looking forward to seeing it with more detail :)

[DELTA]

Great start!

[ranger]

Cool. I've always liked this sort of map work :)

My only comment at the moment would be the very harsh divisions between desert and jungle or other greenery. I'd expect the transition to be more gradual.

Looking forward to seeing it with more detail :)

look at chille and california :P (its actually modled after the mountains near chille, and also look at the himalaya mountains they are the exact same)

its called a rain shadow
high mountains bordering a zone, block all moisture from entering a region

its actually going to be in an entire world 8k x 4k size so its huge
this area is roughly the size of europe, more detail will cause software and time issues :P

image 1 - planet view
image 2 earth comparison
image 3 has finished continent between south america and africa to show how it matches

[Darkstone]

You gotta love those hi-res Blue Marble pics and the Clone tool, eh? :D

Love the progress... That center lake reminds me of the Imperial City in TESIV: Oblivion.

[ranger]

clone is ok but its how you use the tools to make it look genuine :P and yep on all counts :)

and ya i love the lake idea, but this one is the size of one of the great lakes in the us so lol you prolly cant see the far shore

im imagining a waterfall city on the edge of the large one overlooking the coast droping off like a mile or so (yes that much) similar to the cliffs in brazil where the highlands suddenly meet the lowlands, with spectular waterfall features, and similar to lake viktoria in africa

and the water/crater in the desert is a puncture, with a similar feel to the sinkholes in star wars 3

[Elowan]

Transplanted Texas did ya?

[Tovette]

Everything looks awesome so far. Remember as you make your planet to place the Rainforests and more arid locations near the equator where it will likely be hotter and more humid. This will help you make your planet more believable. :)

[lonewriter]

super job.

[ranger]

too right tovette
one of the things ive done, is went back though ocean currents, and air current maps of earth
i also read anything i could on planetary climate contitions etc (that being said, im going ot have to move this continent down a bit to warm it up slightly)
one interesting thing, if you notice the desert is in the northern section you may be like wtf why is desert there?
well, nambian desert in africa is in almost the same position in the southern hemisphere on earth
what causes some deserts is a suprise to some...cold ocean currents sit and hit the region preventing storms from occuring (in addition to the rain shadows caused by the mountain ranges)
in addition the mountain ranges on the eastern portion funnel warm fronts causing a stormy eastern portion while the southern part is refreshed by storms forming from the relativly warm ocean to the south, keeping it a tropical paradise
the north east portion is somewhat like our nations midwest region relativly flat, and not terribly wet, but fed by runoff from the mountains and storms from mixtures of cold and warmfronts

[ranger]

been doing a little more on it
not near completion yet but moving that way

Ive tweaked "texas" a bit, and meshed the northern desert with the wetter east so its not so drastic
the land above is nearing completion, have to meld it a little, add some "features" and a couple rivers

[ranger]

played around with a "map" view, but it also shows some major tweaking to this "texas" and shows why such a huge inland desert exists

[Rigel]

This is looking very good so far.

[lonewriter]

nice to see this back, are you using lunarcell for the map?

[ranger]

To start i used lunarcell, then with advice from tovette, and a tut i found i started with some other techniques, as this has progressed, its has morphed into a personal style

some parts of the land masses in final form i actually hand draw to get the feel that im wanting

im working on a northern continent now, that im having alot of fun with the ideas
ill post it later today if i have some time

this continent is virtually done, but i may revisit for some touchups when i have the rest complete the areas im working on now are to the north and west of this one

[ranger]

more update

Some techniques im using, you can probably tell from this WIP pic how i flesh it out

1. clone tool
clone tool uberfied i use a custom brush with flow and opacaty set at different intervals to even terrain out and meld them together
2. my hand
after i use the clone tool i then go in to randomize the area or tweak it to give it a feel ...when i say feel i may have a landscape in my mind or an idea of how i want the wind to blow or how much rain is in the area etc, i create a small story for the area im working on

about the only continent thats done is the far right one, and you can see different levels of progress on the rest

[lonewriter]

that's how I did mine but now after seeng how much better yours is looking than mine did, I might have to go back and do it over again. great update.

[ranger]

some more progress

[ranger]

playing around a bit
http://www.foundation3d.com/forums/showthread.php?p=87154#post87154

[ranger]

http://www.designsnlines.com/SF-planet.html
not sure if anyone keeps up with this but im now updating this on my website, with information etc

it shows the full planet, with a few new tidbits of coastal areas

[ranger]

update

im making this into a sectional image for now, there is alot of detail i still want to add to this world

anyone know of a way to stitch several large images together?

but this is my main focus for now once i finalize the scale i may add cities or other manmade features.

[Elowan]

There is/was an app (free?) named Stitcher available on the net.

[Tenement 01]

Canon has a sticher programe that comes free with their cameras. Have a look on their website and you might find it.

[ranger]

Cool!

Thanks

Btw focus now is a 24x36 size poster with 1km per pixel resolution
I will add clouds and cities.

[mJAstro]

things look "blown up" right now, the resolution isn't too great. if you are zoomed out it looks fine, but when you actually look at it full size its just not clear at all. a big issue if you are aiming to make a poster. try using better source material. there is a VERY large map available out there. was available from nasa via a torrent last time a checked. its in pieces because its so large, so depending on your machine you may not be able to load it all at once, but for what you are doing pieces would work better. But, unless you plan on resizing that to something smaller, you need to start with better source material for poster quality.

[ranger]

yep i noticed that when i was adding the ocean textures today, ive already created a new pallet for sculpting, ill be using the old blurry image as a backdrop for the higher rez land areas i found a ton of 1k per pixel images that im going to be using as references and i blew up the origional rez almost double the resoultion of my old one

[ranger]

a very small amount of progress

image one shows old, image two shows how im making it high rez
still got quite a bit of tweaking to do...but this shows a nice chunk of how it will look

[ranger]

a bit more

[Rigel]

The high resolution map looks really good.

[BillS]

Man that is coming out nice!

[Tovette]

looking sweet, Ranger. :)

[Elowan]

Looking good!

[Quetzal]

Reminds me a lot of Final fantasy maps

Looks great!

[ranger]

small update, desert regions are a pain because of the transition...but i think i got it figured out now


still have to smooth the mountains, eliminate patterns, smooth coloring transition from main desert to the dune sea...add coatlines, smooth out green areas, may slide in a partially arid area....create an edge to the crater....this continent will be famous for its massive waterfalls :)

[Rigel]

That looks amazing. As good as any satellite image I've ever seen.

[ranger]

entire continent at a glance

[lonewriter]

really nice updates. your link to your homepage returned a 404 error. I'd love to get the tut you mentioned for when I redo my planet.

[Ravalox]

You don't see enough of these projects. Excellent and thought-provoking work!

[ranger]

a bit more
(site is working now...wich link? )

also...im not too sure on the brighter part sand in the middle...any comments ideas?

[Rigel]

To me it just looks like a different type of sand. In the thumbnail view it looks a bit off, but when the image is viewed full size, it works.

[Elowan]

I'd lose that bright patch were it me.

[ranger]

had a bit of fun with this area, you can see it blended alot more, this is much closer to what the final will look like for the deserty areas :)

i can imagine massive fjords with extremely steep cliffs :) imagine alaska/sweeden but in subtropical/tropical area :)

[ranger]

hah

[ranger]

another update its been a while
http://www.foundation3d.com/uploads/general/2009/07/1641-28-819829_tn.jpg (http://www.foundation3d.com/uploads/general/2009/07/1641-28-819829.jpg)

[Rigel]

Hmmm, methinks a large asteroid impacted the ocean quite close to that continent.

Nice painting ranger.

[ranger]

another update
started work on the oceans using real world data again
man this is going to take a long time hah

[bmckain]

You know, I getting really anxious to see this done so it can be wrapped around a sphere. :)

[ranger]

lol
it may take me 5+ years :P
at least im continuing on a project, youve known me a long time and have seen me start stop alot of things, but this one...just something about it keeps me working on it

some things i gotta work on
shorelines
rivers
silt deposits (gotta get some nice reference images so i can do it right)
deltas

algae plumes are going to be a pain, but i think they will really bring this baby to life
(they are the light blue and green swirls - taken from real sat images...and here you thought the oceans were just blue expanses :P)

[bmckain]

lol
it may take me 5+ years :P


Oh, you mean like my enterprise. :o ;)

[ranger]

another update
rivers

[ranger]

playing around with
geo control 2

[Tovette]

you're crazy!! :D

[hamzaoza]

Its looking real good!

[PolyGone]

Frighteningly high res that'll be. Really impressive.

Are you going to create specular maps for the water and bump maps for the land? Or in other words, are you going to kill yourself?

[ranger]

ive been debating on creating bump maps for the land, im not sure if i want to finish the planet or work on all the details for the continent first....
the bump maps = i was kinda thinkin of actual contour maps like large scale usgs maps....
:P
you know i should look at going into cartography or gis, i love that stuff soo much more than standard architectural, and civil drafting (i do that to pay the bills)

[Redcow]

Looking sweet man

[Phoenix]

another update
rivers


Absolutely beautiful, that map'll render up nicely :)

I can whip up a cloud map that'll fit this geography when you're done as well if you'd like. Let me know.

[ranger]

WIP update
http://designsnlines.com/PS1.jpg

[farco]

WIP update
http://designsnlines.com/PS1.jpg

My god your work is amazing :eek:

Cool planet :tu:

[JVogel]

My god your work is amazing :eek:

Cool planet :tu:
I concur whole-heartedly!

[ranger]

Thanks!

Still tweaking the ecosystems on the main land mass
here is a cropped view

I wanted to give the desert a bit of a less arid area due to glacial activity - the small lake feeds a localized weather area creating a grasslands area in the middle of more arid rugged plateaus thus the weird y shape to the green

also note the white squares are 10 km

[ranger]

also doing a topo study of the main crater area where im planning on designing and placing a city some day...maybe in 10 years...

[Gabrobot]

That looks really cool.

[farco]

better and better

[Gojira2006]

:) That's so lovely looking - going through the progression of your work . . . ! Nice planetary maps are always a great find . . . ! ;)

[ranger]

this is to go with the mini tutorial...
ive continued on with similar techniques with the coastal areas

[ranger]

Im still alive. I spent way too much time trying to find a 3d game engine to translate this into, then I got distracted by online gaming hah, past that now. I have a wiki I started for this, because I will be posting art work, of the flora fauna, and architecture of this planet in here as well.
I won 3rd place in a local art competition here with this, and took home some cash, that was an unexpected surprise. :)
I still have to tweak, the rivers, a couple clone stamp weirdness, and the algae coastal areas. Then on to the other continents.

[Rigel]

Congratulations on the win and I look forward to seeing more of this.

[ranger]

Im still alive
I have not done more with this lately just been busy, its almost 98% so i found it hard to finish the last 2% hah
but....I may be creating a section of this for minescape...
:)

[Elowan]

Sharp stick time methinks. :p

[lonewriter]

played around with a "map" view, but it also shows some major tweaking to this "texas" and shows why such a huge inland desert exists

Nice, if Texas was really like this, I'd be living right on the island in the big lake! I could just step out my door to go fishing!:)

[lonewriter]

http://www.designsnlines.com/SF-planet.html
not sure if anyone keeps up with this but im now updating this on my website, with information etc

it shows the full planet, with a few new tidbits of coastal areas

Still get a 404 error.

[Elowan]

Hmmm. Maybe my 'sharp stick' did it? :p

[ranger]

http://www.designsnlines.com/special.html
this weekend im going to try and get this redone and make it more like a news thing and tutorial

it seems my technique is harder than I thought...had some artist friends having difficulty duplicating my methods