August 2015 Entry: Climate, currents, forests

[Deadshade]

I already did a climate/biomes tutorial here : http://www.cartographersguild.com/sh...ad.php?t=30482
I was just in the process to upgrade it by including surface currents (different beast than thermohaline circulation) and monsoons which I didn't cover in the tutorial above .
However as this challenge came from an Azelor's idea, I guess he'll do something about climate and so I think that he has priority.

Then I thought about another project I summarily developped which was an encyclopedic style tutorial about forest creation for cartography.
The idea was to show the relationships between scales and forest representation styles and thus to propose a classification of different forest creation styles.
It is quite ambitious and that's why I have been working on it on and off.
If there is interest for such a type of tutorial and if there is enough time to finish it before the 1.9, I can try it.

[Chick]

I would love to see a tutorial like this, Deadshade!

One of the things I really dislike in some maps around here is when the vertical scale is off. Trees as tall as nearby mountains is certainly one of those, so addressing the different ways to depict forests that don't look completely off scale would be super! The horizontal scale of a map and the vertical scale of a map need to mesh, and I think showing forests is one of the hardest problems, since the size of trees and mountains is so vastly different and yet both need to be recognizable. Anything you can do to help this would be most welcome!!

[Deadshade]

Thanks Chick.
The problem you are talking about is definitely part of the tutorial . As I had a health problem I am not sure I will make it to the deadline but I will try

[Chashio]

That sounds like a very interesting topic to go over. I would like to see how you mesh it together in a tutorial. It sounds like a cataloged reference of different illustrative styles for cartographic forest representation with some info on how they're structured and the reasoning behind them.... So, pretty much a topic I would be overjoyed to find in a book somewhere.

[Deadshade]

That sounds like a very interesting topic to go over. I would like to see how you mesh it together in a tutorial. It sounds like a cataloged reference of different illustrative styles for cartographic forest representation with some info on how they're structured and the reasoning behind them.... So, pretty much a topic I would be overjoyed to find in a book somewhere.

Yes that's exactly the idea Chashio.
The focus is more on the structures/philosophies and the "whys" of different forest representations and not so much on detailed techniques (like "do that in Gimp, make a layer, use this parameter" etc)
With a constraint to fit it in no more than 20 pages because if it was more it would indeed be a book and not a tutorial

[Azélor]

propose a classification of different forest creation styles

That would be an excellent idea! I could even help you with that since i already compiled a bunch of different styles. By helping, I mean : image dumping.

[Deadshade]

Thanks Azelor but I already did this part of work months ago. What is missing is to structure on paper the analysis that I have in head.

[Chashio]

Azelor - D may not need it but would you mind sharing your compilation of styles with others? I always love seeing new things to inspire. I'd understand if it was just a one-way offer, though.

[Deadshade]

There were so many interesting things to say that I was writing and writing untill I realized that I had to stop somewhere.
Even then I saw that the PDF was above the authorised limit for uploading here so that I had to cut it in Part1 and Part2.

Due to my problems that don't allow me to stay a long time sitting at a computer, I am actually surprised that I did it before the dead line
Anyway here we go .

### Latest WIP ###
Forest representation in cartography Part1.pdf

Forest representation in cartography Part2.pdf

P.S for Chashio

When I was writing the 5.2 , I was strongly thinking about your unfinished map http://www.cartographersguild.com/sh...ad.php?t=29542 that belongs to my most preferred on this site.
Unfortunately you didn't do the most difficult part which is the forests so that I couldn't include the image in the tutorial

[Francissimo]

Really complete and well documented tutorial! Thks for sharing those reflexions about forest representation, really interesting work