Planet texture help request.

[PlutonianEmpire]

I used a 4k earth map to do the first continent, but I've run out of places to clone brush from earth onto this planet (2x the size of Earth), so I was wondering if anyone had anything to say, or if anyone may be willing to do the rest (in part or in whole, whichever you prefer) of the texture for me?

[Don. Edwards]

Well first off, if you are going to use an Earth texture for this you should be using a bigger one, maybe at least 16k in size. That gives you allot of surface area to work with. There are many texture artists out there that always seem to find more than enough Earth surface for creating alien worlds. One other issue, I think all the continents look a little to rounded off. They look more like rounded river rocks in a stream than landmasses. Because of plate tectonics and other erosion going on I am sure things might look a little more interesting. I am not slamming your work, but just sit back and give a little thought to there layout and shape. I can see that you used a planet generator. I would keep trying to generate different patterns for a better and more interesting look.

Just my opinion though.

Don. Edwards

[Dollan]

I've largely given up on world map generators, myself, at least for Earth-like planets. Anymore, for me, nothing works more than a piece of paper, a pencil, and a bit of imagination. Of course, a scanner helps too! The problem with most generators is that the continents look either too fractal, or they look to cartoonish.

One of my favorite sources for clone sources is here: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsro ... index.php3

...John...

[Cormoran]

Dollan,

I seem to remember sending you some images of my world, Isis that you quite liked. Those were done using FT Pro as a starting point. They have also just boosted the functionality to do river valleys and erosion effects, so it might be worth another look-see for you

Regards,

Cormie

[Dollan]

I don't suppose that you still have some shots of that map you could send along again, do you? I'm at work, and don't recall exactly which image you mean (I kind of remember it, but if I don't see it, I'll never remember properly...)

...John...

[Cormoran]

Sadly I am in the process of rebuilding my PC after a nasty HD crash and lost a lot of my artwork (luckily not base data)

I remember you complimenting me on how real it looked, though.

I know, I'm useless

When I get back up to speed I'll be doing a lot more, and you'll be the first to know

Cormie

[Dollan]

I did peek at FT Pro, though, and it does look like quite a bit of an improvement. I might try to order it....

...John...

[PlutonianEmpire]

Well first off, if you are going to use an Earth texture for this you should be using a bigger one, maybe at least 16k in size. That gives you allot of surface area to work with. There are many texture artists out there that always seem to find more than enough Earth surface for creating alien worlds. One other issue, I think all the continents look a little to rounded off. They look more like rounded river rocks in a stream than landmasses. Because of plate tectonics and other erosion going on I am sure things might look a little more interesting. I am not slamming your work, but just sit back and give a little thought to there layout and shape. I can see that you used a planet generator. I would keep trying to generate different patterns for a better and more interesting look.

Just my opinion though.

Don. Edwards

About that "planet generator", it was actually for a game. I drew the mountains and climates myself. The continents themselves were handdrawn by me in a paint program. I then converted it to the map format of a game I had, then used that game's map creator to give the map it's climates, etc. I use that as a key for where the mountains and deserts will go.

And as for clone sources, i did find some of korea and Vietnam, but much of the water has a color variance from the ocean color on my belle hades planet.

Also, here's my planet in Celestia:

Code: Select all

"Belle Hades" "Deneb" {
   Texture "bellehades.png"
   NightTexture "bellehades-night.png"
   BumpMap "bellehades-bump.png"
   BumpHeight 0.8
   Color [ 0.90 0.90 1.00 ]
   HazeColor [ 0.40 0.60 1.00 ]
   HazeDensity 0.710
   Radius 12756

SpecularTexture "bellehades-spec.png"
   SpecularColor [ 1.00 1.00 1.00 ]
   SpecularPower 30

   Atmosphere {
      Height 127.56
      Lower [ 0.40 0.60 1.00 ]
      Upper [ 0.00 0.00 0.50 ]
      Sky   [ 0.20 0.40 1.00 ]
      CloudHeight 12.756
      CloudSpeed -8
      CloudMap "bellehades-clouds4.png"
   }

   EllipticalOrbit {
      Period            2629.0683
      SemiMajorAxis     480.0000
      Eccentricity      0.0300
      Inclination       3.0000
      MeanAnomaly       286.4439
   }

   RotationPeriod        -622.900
   Obliquity               00.000
   
   Albedo           0.53
}

AltSurface "limit of knowledge" "Deneb/Belle Hades"
{
   Texture "belle hades-lok.png"
}

"Lethe" "Deneb/Belle Hades" {
   Texture "lethe.png"
   BumpMap "lethe-bump.png"
   BumpHeight 1.61
   HazeColor [ 0.80 0.70 0.10 ]
   HazeDensity 0.8
   Radius 5200.00

   Atmosphere {
      Height 52.00
      Lower [ 0.80 0.70 0.10 ]
      Upper [ 0.20 0.20 0.90 ]
      Sky [ 0.00 1.00 1.00 ]

      CloudHeight 5.200
      CloudSpeed 85
      CloudMap "lethe-clouds.png"
   }

   EllipticalOrbit {
      Period            1.4799
      SemiMajorAxis     143278.0000
      Eccentricity      0.0051
      Inclination       4.0750
      MeanAnomaly       44.4596
   }

   Obliquity        4.075
   RotationOffset   174.200

   Albedo         0.27
}

"Tartarus" "Deneb/Belle Hades" {
   Texture "gc_deser_03.jpg"
   BumpMap "gc_deser_03-bump.jpg"
   BumpHeight 0.6
   HazeColor [ 0.60 0.51 0.00 ]
   HazeDensity 0.8
   Radius 7000.000

   Atmosphere {
      Height 70.000
      Lower [ 0.60 0.51 0.00 ]
      Upper [ 0.20 0.20 0.90 ]
      Sky [ 0.00 1.01 1.01 ]

      CloudHeight 7.000
      CloudSpeed 95
      CloudMap "gc_deser_03-clouds.png"
   }

   EllipticalOrbit {
      Period            305.0764
      SemiMajorAxis     5000000.0000
      Eccentricity      0.0051
      Inclination       17.0000
      MeanAnomaly       190.2397
   }

   RotationPeriod 36.000
   Obliquity 17.000
   RotationOffset 14.200

   Albedo         0.28
}

EDIT: Also, I have no problem with the interiour of the continents. It's the shorelines that i've run out of (especially fertile ones).