#Making Maps

[notaboxofrocks]

Field camp photo dump, week 1

[abuddyforeveryseason]

This is the Buddy for April 19th. I guess he, like me, has a tough weekend ahead of him.

What's up with his hair, you ask? It's kind of like the Buddy for July 12th, last year, says you? Looks a bit like an island, you say?

Well, let me explain. I took this public domain picture of a cow:

See the pattern? I then isolated it and turned colored it black:

And the result does look like a something you'd see in a fantasy novel. In fact, let's see what we can do with that...

See? Fun, right? Sure, it's not a perfect cut, and I'm not sure I'd call the geography there realistic - but you can always say some evil wizard or god moved the mountains around in the distant past or something.

I'm not that into fantasy. But I'm watching Dimension 20 and it's not half bad. I'm more of a comedy guy anyhow.

But, really, making maps is the most fun part of writing fantasy. Probably because it's such an unemotional aspect of the story - seeing the map and imagining all the exciting adventures therein is more interesting that reading about the dull, angsty and repetitive description of a long road trip.

Of course, the maps have the same issues the books have. Bad fantasy maps are a bit like bad fantasy stories - they look cool, but make no sense when you take a closer look at them. Not just from a geography perspective, but also from a social studies sense - why would they build a city in the middle of the desert? Why do they need to take a bandit-infested country road if there's a safer, shorter path in another direction?

Then again, there's a lot I don't understand about fantasy. Why do dragons hoard treasure? They don't go shopping, after all. It'd make sense if they were just interested in beautiful jewels and carefully-made pieces, but they're usually just laying atop a giant pile of boring gold pieces.

[rains-inky-mind]

Anyone have any good recommendations (sites/apps) for creating fantasy maps? It would be a huge help.

[starspell57]

Ok, so we all know what Hawks' original design was, right? Well... I may have just found his race in DND. Mind you, I have yet to actually play DND, and am trying to make a map for my art class and was looking at different creatures to base biomes off of. But Hawks would definitely be an Aarakocra in dnd.

[carlyraejepsans]

tragic! trans person no longer merely tolerating the act of existing just now realising their entire wardrobe is ass

[thecrazyworldbuilder]

->BUMP<-

A tutorial on a (bit cheating) way of creating fictional maps.

Open your editing software (RECOMMENDING Krita, since it's free and it's very good).

Step 1: Google "X country silhouette" and copy it.

Paste it onto the canvas.

Step 2: Separate the silhouette from the background you copied with it! You can do that by using magic wand selection tool or by making a gradient map with black on 49,9% and transparent on 50% on the slider.

Step 3: Repeat several times with numerous countries and/or islands, cities, municipalities, communes, continents et cetera.

Step 4: Combine, mesh, stretch, rotate, mirror - go ham, make it work.

Step 5: Erase and add.

Step 6: Have your map outline ready, copy/paste it several times in the same doc on different layers and edit in different ways like biomes, kingdoms, mountains and other.

Step Mountains+: To figure out mountains, make another layer on the doc and do something like this:

-and then in every polygon you add an arrow.

Where arrows meet or transfer onto continents, add mountains.

Color the sea with a couple layers of depth and you're done :D

[potofsoup]

Oh look, it seems like there's a Republican-led movement to purge voter rolls in the lead-up to the election! It's almost as if your vote matters and they don't want you to vote! Anyway, I whipped up a quick map (based on this) that shows when the voter registration deadline is in each state. There are a few deadlines coming up in the next week or so.

If you live in a state that regularly purges voter rolls for infrequent voters (the orange ones in the first map), or if you moved recently, it's good to check if you're still registered to vote.

Vote.org makes it super easy to check your registration: https://www.vote.org/am-i-registered-to-vote/

Just put in your address and DOB and they'll tell you whether you're registered. (And they give you a quick link to register online if it turns out that you're not! Only the 9 states in white on my map don't have online registration, and for those they provide instructions on how to do it via mail or in person.) If you want an extra verification, find your state's election website and double-check there.

So yeah, give yourself peace of mind -- do a quick check. :)

[moochilatv]

Rapt presents: Making Maps

Good sense of humor here

RAPT it's a Folk/Indie artist form London.

Jokingly described as a “diss track” to his then-girlfriend, “Making Maps” plays almost like a subconscious premonition, a song charting out all aspects of love, only to begrudgingly realize love might not be enough.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Rapt (@raptfolk)

Video shot by @abig_sinclair . Edited by RAPT. Stream Making Maps:

[tinymoves]

the extent that i would be at emo night at sneaky dees every single weekend is crazy. you would think i was canadian.

[spidergvven]

queerness under apartheid

[snazzynewton]

my wife and my son walking out of the Claire’s together

heres the speedpaint and some other versions

[abuddyforeveryseason]

This is the Buddy for June 12th. The big special thing about it is the hair wasn't drawn normally, but procedually generated by an algorithm.

It's not exactly artificial intelligence, but it's not something I made. The credit should go to the person who developed the algorithm.

Same thing goes, for instance,for this map:

I can't really draw an island in a way that doesn't look fake. I used to just close my eyes and move the stylus in random directions, then try and fix it later, but even that didn't look good.

I get that the algorithm is doing the work for me. And on one hand, I hate AI-generated art because it's basically stealing assets from authors without paying or crediting them (and at the same time costing these very artists paying jobs). On the other hand, as simplistic at Buddy's hair, or the map, are, they're also computer generated, though nobody would call that AI.

It's hard to figure out where to draw the line.

[ditzybat]

Maps: So, how did you come into this family anyway?

Jason: Bruce lured me into his proverbial white van with some candy.

Bruce: Please don’t word it like that.

Jason: Fine. He Pretty Woman’d me

Bruce: That’s worse, please tell me you understand how that’s worse.

[daysofnights]

padfoot grabbing cat regulus by the scruff of his neck and forcefully bringing him to the gryffindor dorm because he's been avoiding james after a fight

[pachix]

https://www.geoguessr.com/vgp/3007