Help:Mapmaking

I've seen quite a few maps for constructed worlds, including some images made with unusual software, and I can say that based on my observations, using Adobe Photoshop is the best way to go for making maps. If you're serious about making a quality image, it's a must-have. I wouldn't be cheap and use MS Paint, KidPix or MS Office for this task. And now, for a guide to using Photoshop to map-making:

Photoshop Basics
Okay, so you got Photoshop, and you want to create a map out of thin air. Regardless of how you want your map to turn out, follow these general principles:


 * Use multiple layers. That's what they're for. Assuming you have the default windows open, the one that has "background layer" as a tile on it is the one that will also show the other layers, in order, with the ones at the top going over the ones at the bottom. There is a button near the bottom of this pane that allows you to quickly add new layers. You can also duplicate or delete layers by right-clicking on them and choosing "duplicate" or "delete".
 * Save often. Save before making a copy (ie. png), otherwise you'll have trouble saving the photoshop file.
 * Use undo often. This is Ctrl+Z. Doing it twice is an undo-redo, basically it undoes your undo. You can undo further into history all the way up to around 30 past actions by choosing the correct tile in the history pane.
 * Use a larger zoom that allows you to see the whole picture if you're trying to determine where to place something such as a continent. Use a smaller zoom for finer work.

Map Size
First, you have to choose the size of your map. I really like the 1280x800 pixel image, and I happen to have a computer with those settings in place. For starters, you can choose to have an image of that exact same size, since it'll display on your computer very well at 100% size. You can also choose to make smaller maps if your subject has a small land mass or doesn't have many geographical features, or it can be multiples larger if you ever hope to magnify out your map. Remember, the larger your starting map, the more detail you can cram into it, but the larger the file. Uploading PNG files bigger than 1920x1200 is discouraged for those with slower internet connections.

Map Outline
Let's move on to making a map. Before you begin, it may help to first sketch out what you want the map to look like on paper; this is because doing it on paper is particularly fast and easy. A general outline will do; just get the basic appearance down. If you're artistically inclined, you may want to do it in more detail on paper first, just to make sure it's good, or you could do it directly on the computer.

At any rate you'll want to create some sort of outline on the computer because it's easy to lose the map proportions you want when drawing wiggly lines on a blank image. Create a blank layer and use the paintbrush tool to create the general outline on the computer. If you've done the paper step, just transfer that map to the image on the computer. The first time doesn't have to be too accurate.

The next step is to elaborate on that map. Create a new layer. Set the paintbrush to a small size (round 1-5 px) without blurring on the edges, and change its setting from "Normal" to "Dissolve" or else remove anti-aliasing. and using the same color, draw the coastline borders of your map on that layer. This layer shouldn't have anything else on it. Also, it is important that you don't end up with half-colored pixels and such. If you let go of the mouse often, you must be especially careful to cover holes in the boundary. You definitely don't want holes in boundaries. You should especially take care to cover the edges of the map. Take this opportunity to decide if you like your map as it is. You'll want to have the map pretty much complete before you move on, and it'll be a pain to change it later, so try to fix any problems now.

Deciding on Map Appearance
For those who aren't artistically inclined, you'll have to settle for whatever image you get. For those few artists out there, take a moment to, after creating the first, brief outline, step back and see if that's actually the shape and size you want that landmass to be. Is it appealing? Does it have a memorable shape? A natural shape? Does it match too closely with the USA's boundaries? That of a stocking? A good map doesn't look too much like any one thing, and as we can see from the map of the real world, no part of the world's natural boundaries really look like anything in particular. A good map doesn't have a viewer focusing constantly at the object that the map ends up portraying, but instead can give suggestions of different parts of all sorts of different things, much like clouds in the sky. You'd be freaked out if you saw a cloud formation that looked exactly like a mountain lion. Same with landmasses.

Golden proportions can be very useful. Imagine them being overlaid on the map, and use them as guiding points or guiding lines for geographical borders and corners. Use this technique over and over until you totally get the hang of it. Then again, don't use it in the same way too often, or that too will come across looking unnatural. Don't use the "rule of three", or else you'll end up with a map that looks a lot like a game of tic-tac-toe.

There are certain things that world maps ought to take into consideration. Planets like the Earth could be expected to have oceans and continents, large islands and seas, small islands and large lakes, peninsulas and bays, archipelagos and straits. Look at the world map up close and absorb what those geographical features ought to look like. Continents don't look like ovals, and peninsulas don't look like Oklahoma. Oceans aren't entirely surrounded by land, but have rivers flowing into them. Lakes and islands aren't placed at regular intervals; you have regions with typically more land, and regions with a lot of water. Don't end up making your map looking too much like a grid.

If any of these problems arises, take as much time as you need to fix them. Consciously locate all the over-regular, over-obvious, over-artificial portions of the map and erase them (using 100% opacity). Redraw over them with a different shape. Try your best not to end up with a similar shape. Too round? Add a peninsula. Too square? Make a gash down near the middle and rotate half the image.

You would also want to add plenty of zigzags and other jagged shapes to the boundary to give it a semblance of realism. Almost the entire boundary has to be made in this way, drawn from one side to the other and back again using a paintbrush and zigzagging the entire time. But you don't want to end up doing the same shapes or same line patterns over and over again, because that too will cause the map to look too regular and hence unbelievable.

The ultimate check is to squint at the map and ask yourself,


 * 1) Is this natural?
 * 2) Can I imagine the landmasses as if they had been pulled out from under the sea, into this shape?

Understanding the Underlying Geography
There are other geographical features to take into consideration. Being aware of the most commonly accepted practices will allow you to craft more believable worlds.

Most likely you'll feature mountains on islands and mountain ranges and plateaus on continents. The locations of these mountain ranges, and the locations of bodies of water, should determine the climates of the world without your direct intervention - at least for the most realistic ones.

If you want to get mountain ranges accurately, you must also consider tectonic plates. Draw these plates however you like them. However, once you've drawn them you must stay consistent. Decide in which direction these plates have moved in the past and have been moving in the near past. Plates running into each other buckle and cause mountain ranges and are good for separating a massive continent into pieces (think Indian subcontinent); plates moving away from each other cause sudden, noticeable breaks in the landmass and are good for severing a continent from an adjacent ocean. Along the tectonic borders are regions of intense volcanic or seismic (earthquake) activity. There are also hot spots, which can be located anywhere but if located in ocean can be responsible for archipelagos (such as Hawaii).

Trade winds generally flow east to west or west to east, alternating in direction at different longitudes. These winds continuously take moisture that had evaporated into the air above bodies of water - generally oceans and seas - and take them in the direction of the winds. The brunt of the rainfall will occur right along the windward side of mountain ranges (the side from which the winds approach). This leaves the land on the other side highly lacking in rainfall. Places with considerable precipitation tend to become rain forests, while those with very little often become desert or tundra. So if you have a body of water and then a mountain range immediately to its east and then open plains and then more water at the far east, then if trade winds are west to east, that plains region will be desert, but if the trade winds are east to west, that plains region will be a more "typical" prairie climate.

Understanding Climates
In places where there isn't a major geographical feature (mountain range), you'll want to gradually adjust climate. Don't go from prairie to desert immediately; there should be an intermediate savanna region. Don't go from prairie to tundra all of a sudden; there should be a taiga (coniferous forest) region, or at least a considerable amount of territory with cold but not terribly cold weather.

If you're using Earth-based life forms, you should know that the deep deciduous trees of rain forests are very different from light deciduous trees of ordinary woodlands, which in turn differ from the coniferous forests of the taiga.

Seasons matter if your planet is going to have a significant axial tilt of at least 15 degrees. Seasons are always summer in one hemisphere and winter in another, or spring in one and fall in the other, and only differ across the equator, not between western and eastern ones. The more pronounced the tilt, the more pronounced the change in seasons is.

Climates are generally hotter along the equator and become progressively colder as one moves away. Temperature is a heavy determinant of climate; hot deserts along the equator are very different from cold deserts further removed, and likewise, you don't get rain forests far from the equator.

Filling in the Map
After you've done planning where to place your land masses, and after you've finished with the outline, switch to using the bucket fill tool and flood all the landmasses one color, and the waters another color, as long as the color you used to outline is one of these two colors. Change colors afterward at will. Now your entire map should be either green for land or blue for water, and maybe white for ice caps.

Use the magic selector tool, turn off the "continuous" option, and click on the land (green). This will select all landmasses and only landmasses. Copy and paste; this will create a second later comprised of just the green landmass layer. Right click on the tile for that layer in the tile pane, and click on "blending options". This is a set of tools that can give a certain "spin" to the appearance of that layer. In this case, let's say we want the landmass to cast a shadow over the water. Select "outer shadow" and adjust the settings accordingly. Or we may want to outline the landmass in yellow-grey-white to represent beach. Select "stroke" and choose the color and thickness. And there you go. Alternatively, instead of creating a new layer you can click on the selection tool, right-click anywhere on the image, and choose "stroke", for a similar effect.

You can do the same thing with water. For example, if you want to create the waves style on old-style maps in the water around the landmasses, select all the water, click on the selection tool, and repeatedly add inner strokes at varying distances and opacities. This will allow you to get the same effect on the map regardless of where it is, and do it near-perfectly.

Forests
Now, it's time to place forests on your landscapes. Select the brush tool, but this time, instead of using circle styles, switch to the starry or sporadic styles. I would generally choose a dark green color to represent forests. Create a new layer. On this forest layer, use the brush to create woods. You may also want to experiment with different size brushstrokes and different opacities to find out what works best. An important part of making forests is to not make it ubiquitous.

The problem with just using brushstrokes is that if you're doing coastal forests, it'll inevitably spill over into the water regions, which is unacceptable. Fortunately this problem is easily resolvable; before you start adding the forests with the paintbrush, use the magic selection tool on your landmass, thereby selecting it. Now the program will ignore all parts of all brushstrokes that go out of bounds. You can remove the dotted lines (and deselect) at any time by clicking on the selection tool and clicking anywhere on the image.

If you want to add a bit more shape to forests, you can alter its blending options. Try using drop shadow for casting a shadow and texture/emboss/bevel to add that outgrowth appearance to the forests. Play around with the techniques - who knows what you'll find, and there's an infinity of possible combinations of blending options at your disposal with Photoshop. I promise you it'll take a while, so don't be in too big a rush to master it all.

Furthermore, it may be a good idea to diversify the color of your forests.

Water
Water is quite simple. However, in certain map types you'll want to include