Thursday, September 15, 2016

And Father Dragon said "let there be a planet...."


Lo and behold, Dragon made a planet!! Oh, I'm so very proud of myself so forgive me if I brag a little bit - way too much. I'm in the process of learning Photoshop and as an exercise to better learn the tools, I asked Sir Jeffrey S. Hargett if I could borrow the map he did for his book "Strands of Pattern". He kindly agreed to let his world be subject of experimentation, all for academic purposes.


The dwarves brought me Sir Jeff's charts and I then started the task of finding the appropriate landscapes that would better suit the world where the story takes place, as envisioned by his author.  Now where would I find suitable satellite pictures of places I could transform and put together in a brand new continent? There were many options but the best was, of course, NASA Visible Earth.  If you have a moment to be amazed by amazing shots of our planet, go there.



It all started with the topography of Spain...That was the base canvas, a good start.
 It only needed a few changes, so I sent my dwarves out for the search. "Bring me mountains! Let's take the mountains off from right and get higher mountains in the north. The Alps with a bit of Himalayas. Tassin, bring some volcanos! The Stromboli, the Colima, this in Nepal looks good, Kasakstan? Where's that? Ah, a Canadian glacier! Mountain? Mmm... spin it like this and it looks like a sugar virgin snack. We'll use it! Holy Scales, we're missing the rivers! No river big enough, let's pain them. Two more. No. Three. This has a lake. What do you mean this is not a mountain? It's a forest, you sure? I don't remember forests look like that at dragon's flight. Ok, more forest. Hills. Not hilly enough. Ah, there it is!"

Wrapping the land in a 3D sphere was not easy. Dragon destroyed many spheres and got glue all over the dwarves but finally it was done. Few hundreds of hours,  overly sweaty scales, trembling pulse and tons of dragon cursing later I had managed the space point of view- stratospheric look. (Alright, alright, it was more like minutes but all the rest is accurate.) Anyway, to be my very first try at this, the result is pretty amazing, isn't it? Yes, I can't help it. I'm really strutting around the cave today, feeling brilliant, divine and all stuff. After all, I've just made a planet! Look everyone, I've made a planet!!!

Dragon Hugs!

15 comments:

  1. Al, it looks great! A lot of detail. Be proud f your first world.

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  2. Hi Al - well done on mastering Photoshop ... I'm sure I wouldn't be able to wangle my way round it. Your globe and world look grand - I honestly didn't know it was so easy to make a planet - have they named it "Diaz"?! Cheers and enjoy the practise .. Hilary

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  3. Congratulations. You have done very, very well. Again.

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  4. I am proud of you querido dragon. Great looking planet. Hope Sir Jeff is impressed.

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    1. Sir Jeff is waaaaaaay more than impressed, believe me. I'm so glad Father Dragon chose a world occupied by dragons. I'm awed that the world he chose was mine. :)

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  5. I'm constantly amazed by the fact that your talent still amazes me. Lore speaks of a king whose touched turned everything to gold. Now there's a dragon whose touch turns everything into all manner of treasures.

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    1. You must feel very honored that he chose your land.

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  6. That is way awesome, Al! Planet creation is a first for a dragon. :)

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  7. It's beautiful! I can't imagine creating something like that.

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  8. Congrats Mr. Creator. But wait...where are the people? I'm teasing. Great job. I'll even pay a visit if if you promise to keep your virgin eating habits in check.

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  9. Oh my goodness!!! You are so very talented! That is amazing.

    Jeff's book is wonderful, by the way. I can't wait util he publishes it.

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  11. This is great and here I am exploring sci-fi worlds and you're creating real ones. You've got real talent Dragon.

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