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Will-Erwin β The Milky Way Islands, a Free Use Map
#astronomy #cartography #fantasy #fiction #freetouse #galaxy #heightmap #map #milky #science #sciencefiction #way
Published: 2015-06-20 00:08:41 +0000 UTC; Views: 4711; Favourites: 79; Downloads: 26
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Interested in making something like this yourself? Check out my video tutorial on YouTube!www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uMK3Yβ¦
I took my kids to the planetarium today, and as we did one of those dome-shows of the night sky, the Milky Way reminded me of a height map. I yanked an image off this website , played around with some selection and filter tools, ran it through WILBUR, and added a terrain gradient. To avoid the stars making the result too grainy, I blurred the image a bit. The result is a bit lumpy, but it makes a passable land mass. The end result took about an hour.
I don't own the rights to the milky way galaxy image on the bottom; it's just there for comparison. Feel free to use the map for whatever you like.
[edit: I made a follow-up map based on the Andromeda galaxy. See it here! ]
[edit: I made a second follow-up map based on a nebula. See it here !
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Comments: 36
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Also looks like a bird of paradise mating display!
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Wow, I had to google that to know what you were talking about, but yeah, kind of!
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Thanks for the smiley!
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Interesting. I might try to use this for something.
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You might have some fun with myΒ video tutorial on YouTube.
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Have at it! I'd be curious to see what you come up with.
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Hey that's quite clever!Β Who'da thought a B&W galaxy map would work so well as a height map for an island?Β Cool idea FeroceFV.
Cheers,
-Arsheesh
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Thank you! It's funny how your Eriond tutorial and all that land-sculpting made me look at the Milky Way differently. I'll keep my eyes open for other height map sources.
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wow fascinating a different view of the galaxy! amazing stuff
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Cool idea! And the big black hole in the center shall be a volcano XD
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That makes all kinds of sense. I had a similar idea for the follow-on map I made last night of the Andromeda Galaxy.
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The Great attractor must be some supervulcano !
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That's a great idea! It would explain a lot of the bumps as smaller vents, and the eroded look could be explained by not having any big eruptions in a long time. But yeah, volcanoes! I had a similar thought for the follow-up map (see the link in the description above).
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HAHAH! I love it. That's a great way to come up with maps for stories and games.
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Thank you! I'm glad you like it. It's definitely a bit different from some of the random cloud filter approaches I've seen, and I'm actually pretty happy with the overall shape. Other than the lumpy texture of the land, my only beef was that it isn't all that recognizable without the reference image. Maybe I should try a crack at turning the Andromeda galaxy into a map.
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That would be interesting using Andromeda. As a kid I would get ideas for maps by looking at patterns in the marble floor we had in the bathroom. LOL.
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I just couldn't leave it alone. Hope you like the result.
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Now that's interesting!Β The centerΒ does not look like a mountain, more like a massive snowyΒ plateau with a crated in the middle. That gives me ideas right away for stories and worlds. Okay now I need to know how you did this.
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Rather than follow the steps I listed below, you could follow along with myΒ video tutorial on YouTube.
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Well, some volcanoes are wide and squat, like Olympus Mons on Mars (which is still the highest mountain in the solar system). I'm glad it's a catalyst for your imagination.
The process isn't terribly complicated. I could probably put together a tutorial, but the gist of it is this:
In GIMP:
1. Find an astronomy image you want to use on the interwebs.
2. Copy the image and paste it into GIMP. Duplicate this layer so you have an un-altered original. Call the new layer "Working"
3. Use the Select by Color tool and click theΒ blackness. You will probably have to adjust the threshold until you roughly have what you're looking for.
4. Select - Feather your selection by 5 pixels or so. This helps get rid of most of the tiny stars outside your intended land mass.
5. Select - Sharpen your selection. This keeps your shore-lines clear.
6. Create a new transparent layer, call it "Ocean".
7. Dump black into your selection.
8. Select - Select None
9. Click the "Working" layer. Desaturate it using Colors - Desaturate (any method is ok).
10. Filters - Enhance - Despeckle the Working layer. This helps to tone down the smaller stars. You may need to do this a few times.
11. Colors - Brightness/Contrast. Bring up both by 20-50 points.
12. You may want to do a small-radius Gaussian blur (2-3 pixels) to smooth some of the remaining stars a bit.
What you should have now is a height map. Oceans are black, mountain peaks are white. The brighter the pixel, the higher its elevation. You may want to do a bit of terrain sculpting to avoid unwanted basins in your land mass.
13. (Optional) Create a layer between "Working" and "Ocean" layers.
14. (Optional) Using the airbrush tool with opacity turned down to about 3%, selectively raise some of the inner regions of the land mass. This is more of an art than a science.
15. Export your image to a PNG file.
What you should have now is a height map. Oceans are black, mountain peaks are white.
In WILBUR (Most of this comes from an Arsheesh tutorial) we do some erosion effects and generate rivers.
1. Open the export from your GIMP file.
2. Filter - Mathematical - Span (from 500 to 3500)
3. Filter - Noise - Percentage Noise (2-5%. smaller maps need more, larger maps need less. I did 2% for the Andromeda map)
4. Filter - Erosion - Precipitation (do 2 passes)
5. Filter - Noise - Percentage Noise (same % as earlier)
6. Filter - Fill - Fill Basins
7. Select - From Terrain - Flat Areas
8. Filter - Noise - Percentage Noise (same % as earlier)
9. Select - Deselect
10. Filter - Fill - Fill Basins
11. Filter - Erosion - Incise Flow (I used Amount 1, Flow Exponent .65, Effect Blend 2)
12. Texture - Grey Maps - Height Map
13. Save your file as a PNG Texture.
Back in GIMP (This is a simplification of the Eriond tutorial ):
1. Open your WILBUR export file as a layer and copy it. Rename the copy "Land Bumps."
2. Filter - Map - Bump Map. Set your elevation and depth to 30.
3. Set the layer mode of Land Bumps to "Overlay."
4. Rename the Wilbur export file layer as "Grey". Duplicate it and rename the duplicate "Temperate".
5. Make your own color gradient or download the Vranos ones from the Eriond Tutorial link above.
6. Select your temperate gradient and the Temperate layer. Colors - Map - Gradient Map.
7. Adjust the opacity of your Temperate Layer.
8. Move your "Ocean Layer" to the top. Select the black by color, and use your bucket tool to fill the selection with a suitable water color.
9. (Optional) Duplicate your "Ocean color, Rename it "Land Glow", select the water, and the invert your selection (Select - Invert).
10. Fill the selection in your Land Glow layer with white. Then Select - Deselect.
11. With your Land Glow layer selected, do a Filter - Blur - Gaussian Blur (5-10 pixels).
12. Go you your Ocean layer, select the water by color, and invert.
13. Go to your "Land Glow" layer, and hit Delete. Then adjust the opacity of your layer so the glow isn't too glaring.
Repeat steps 10-13 with wider Gaussian blurs (30, 90, 150) and lower opacities until you're satisfied.
Β
That's the process. It seems like a tall order, but once you know what you're doing, it's pretty quick. I might try my hand at doing a full-blown tutorial sometime, but honestly, the Eriond tutorial is a great basis if you want to get into making these kinds of maps.
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Ah. I did not see you were using GIMP. Never heard of WILBUR before.
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It's a great terrain modification program (and it's open source and free, like GIMP). I use it mostly for erosion and river effects, but it can do a lot more.
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I am going to look for it. Sounds cool and I can use the help making maps. Thanks for the info
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My pleasure! Have fun making maps!
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