Seeking Several Maps (Potential for payment- read more for details)

[Osellic]

Hello talented mappers!

I recently finished making a series of maps using Hexographer so I would have specific distances covered across my world, and followed numerous tutorials to try and get it as "realistic" as possible. I'm very pleased with how they turned out, and for me and my story-telling needs they serve wonderfully. However, they aren't exactly "beautiful" or interesting to look at it.

I'm looking for someone who is able to use the maps I've made as a rough draft, and then draw versions of them in a much more appealing design. In total I've a single world map, and then an individual map of each continent. Thus in total there would be 19 maps, (1 world map, 18 continent maps).

I realize thats a lot of maps, and a lot of work to go unpaid, so I'd be willing to negotiate a price if its reasonable to my budget (but I'd probably still be unable to pay what an artist would consider scale). If you are at all interested in helping me make my world come to life, please reach out! At the very least message me what you would charge for a commission like this, and I can respond with what my budget can allow for.

Below is a link to the world map, and a single continent map.

World Map Details: https://www.flickr.com/photos/130288...57683581257583

"Finished" World Map: https://www.flickr.com/photos/130288...7683581257583/

The map was made with the idea of distance and size being as accurate as possible, thus it's been "flattened" out. All of the black space is empty, and the rest should be fairly self explanatory. However if you were to draw the map, I'd like it to be done in a more traditional style, less concerned with accurate distances and sizes.

Maybe in the shape of the globe (similar to this https://www.naturaleneinc.com/wp-con...23746102-1.png ), or in the more common rectangular shape of world maps we see for our world, (like this https://geology.com/store/wall-maps/...cal-map-lg.jpg ).

As for single continent maps, I can provide you with the enlarged versions (should you decide you are interested). An example of what they currently look like is this https://www.flickr.com/photos/130288...in/dateposted/ . I have another version of this same map with political territories and settlements added as well. Ideally I'd like to receive a copy of a plain continent map, and then a copy of the same map with the settlements added.

Should you decide to respond to this, I'd be happy to answer any questions you have (such as what does the light green hex represent as opposed to the dark green). I'm very passionate about this project, and know that the amount of work you'd be doing deserves compensation. So please reach out with a reasonable price that I can negotiate with you, or if you are willing to do it for free (I'd likely pay you at least a little).

I hope to hear from you soon!

[DanielHasenbos]

Hey Osellic,

I might be interested in this project. You can have a look at my portfolio to get an impression of my work and if you are interested you can contact me at info [at] danielsmaps [dot] com.

I hope to hear from you soon.

-Daniel

[johnvanvliet]

might be interested , i do have a bit of spare time over the next few weeks

this is the type of maps i do
https://www.cartographersguild.com/a...chmentid=81581

more textures to wrap around a globe

[waldronate]

One of the problems of drawing on a equal-area projection is that it may look a little weird when pasted to a globe if you haven't taken the distortion into account.
test.gif

[Osellic]

One of the problems of drawing on a equal-area projection is that it may look a little weird when pasted to a globe if you haven't taken the distortion into account.
test.gif

How did you even make that so quickly? SO cool!!!

But yes, I see what you are saying about distortion. I had hoped that by making the world map in an already flattened shape that it would be rolled up back into a sphere and therefor nullify any distortion. You certainly did some editing to cut away the empty space on this globe projection, and its very satisfying to see, even with the distortion.

Is there anyway/ thing I can do on my end to remove the distortion?

[waldronate]

Hand-drawing a flat map to have the correct projection is difficult unless you're very experienced at it. What should be nice shapes in one projection start to stretch as you move it to another. In this case, you started with a very close relative of the sinusoidal projection, which radically distorts shapes in an attempt to keep areas correct. The first thing that I did was to reproject your input map into an Equirectangular projection, mostly because Equirectangular is the input to a lot of other software. I used one of those other pieces of software to produce the globe as well as a Sinusoidal image to compare to your original (it's a trifle off, but that's expected).

Original:
Original.png

Simple (Single) Sinusoidal->Equirectangular reprojection:
Plate-Carree.jpg

Equirectangular->Sinusoidal for comparison with original:
sinusoidal.png

As far as what you can do to reduce the distortion, you are probably going to have to redraw the map (or your chosen artist will need to). Another option is to redraw several regional maps in a shape-preserving (conformal projection) and assemble those into one final world image. It should be possible to do this by slicing your existing map and doing a simple skew before the final reprojection. The biggest difficulty in your case is that you have a lot of maps, so the process will need to be automated or you'll need to get one map and use that as a template to redraw the others. There will be some slight changes to your world along the way, but they shouldn't be too radical.

Getting the globe actually took longer than I like to admit because I was trying out a new process to simplify final assembly of frames generated by ProFantasy's Fractal Terrains product.

[Osellic]

Hand-drawing a flat map to have the correct projection is difficult unless you're very experienced at it. What should be nice shapes in one projection start to stretch as you move it to another. In this case, you started with a very close relative of the sinusoidal projection, which radically distorts shapes in an attempt to keep areas correct. The first thing that I did was to reproject your input map into an Equirectangular projection, mostly because Equirectangular is the input to a lot of other software. I used one of those other pieces of software to produce the globe as well as a Sinusoidal image to compare to your original (it's a trifle off, but that's expected).

Original:
Original.png

Simple (Single) Sinusoidal->Equirectangular reprojection:
Plate-Carree.jpg

Equirectangular->Sinusoidal for comparison with original:
sinusoidal.png

As far as what you can do to reduce the distortion, you are probably going to have to redraw the map (or your chosen artist will need to). Another option is to redraw several regional maps in a shape-preserving (conformal projection) and assemble those into one final world image. It should be possible to do this by slicing your existing map and doing a simple skew before the final reprojection. The biggest difficulty in your case is that you have a lot of maps, so the process will need to be automated or you'll need to get one map and use that as a template to redraw the others. There will be some slight changes to your world along the way, but they shouldn't be too radical.

Getting the globe actually took longer than I like to admit because I was trying out a new process to simplify final assembly of frames generated by ProFantasy's Fractal Terrains product.

That explanation was fascinating to me. Thanks for taking the time to share it.

I'm glad to see I was so close (even with using hexagaons haha!)

How bad is the distortion and how much do you think will need to be changed?

[Naima]

Hello , if you are interested in a paid commission here are the samples of my work in case you should be interested you can contact me here via pm or on deviant art ...

[waldronate]

The feathery bits near the poles away from the center of projection are mostly because single pixels in the original are being smeared out over several pixels in the output. To get an idea of the kinds of distortion that you should have had in your original sinusoidal map, take a look at (which is the Earth equivalent of your original map) and compare it to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equire...lar_projection (which is the equivalent of the middle image that I posted). Both of these maps appear heavily distorted if you're used to something like a globe (which can be approximated by the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orthog...in_cartography ).

Ultimately, how much will need to be redrawn will come down to what you're going to use the maps for. They are plenty good for source material for an artist if you're not critically wedded to the exact shapes and distances because an artist will need to redraw the coastlines anyway; trimming off the feathery bits will be part of that. If you want a map that can be used as an input to something like a GIS system, then that's a somewhat different task, but a good artist will still be able to get reasonable-looking parts for the . I'm very limited artistically, which means that I probably wouldn't be a particularly good choice for the task of redrawing things.

Reprojecting things, now that's pretty much just a mechanical task and you can see what the continents look like when recentered on a different place on the original projection (there's still the feathery bits, but not as bad as the Equirectangular projection):
sinusoidal2.jpg sinusoidal3.jpg sinusoidal4.jpg