I have a planet I created. I have the water and land boundaries, and I have the important mountain ranges, forests, and deserts defined.
Now that I've done this, I want to turn my cartoony world map diagram into a real topographic satellite map, the way my planet would look from space.
Question: How do I create realistic topographical features? I've tried generating and applying bump maps, height maps, or drawing manually but nothing seems to work.
I know this question is vague, but that's simply because I don't know how to do any of it: not mountains, not forests, not islands, not deserts, etc. I don't know how to transition different biomes, I don't know how to subdivide them so there isn't countless miles of one type, etc. I just really need help and I don't know where to start.