Smaeyaugh

[s0meguy]

Edit July 1: I've put the current newest images as of now in the first post. See the latest post later, I won't always be updating this one.

Thank you for all the comments and compliments. I like the texture myself because it gives the image character and visual depth I think.

Anyway, here is something I have been working on. Learned lots of new stuff in Photoshop and started off with Illustrator on the way.

I have decided to take information off the original image, presenting that as a satellite image. I have made a political map to put all the information on, and I have added more cities and population data and economic data (yes those numbers are right) and there is a mini-map showing the location of the archipelago in the world. Suggestions and comments for both are very welcome.

I'll update the starting post of this thread with the newest images too. The satellite style image hasn't been updated much yet. Some tweaks are coming for that one, but I'm still pretty content with how it looks currently.

I'm also going to look into reworking the map into more different styles.

I am curious what you guys think of the political map. How should I improve it further?

Thanks for this great forum and for the nice people here.

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The archipelago is located in the pacific. From the western edge of Awenlye to the eastern edge of Sirodcer is 1786 km, horizontally. Land area is 1,151,991 km2, as large as France and Spain combined plus around 100k km2. In 2012 it is inhabited by a modern powerful technocratic society mostly composed of the native people that managed to fend off colonization attempts earlier in history, that thrives on trade, production/exporting and offshore oil deposits. It is close to the equator. Syanall, the capital, is an ancient huge city hewn out of the surrounding mountain walls. Cities used to be part of individual autonomous competing states and cities gained prestige for their beautiful architecture, which was continually improved. In the absence of warfare from other countries, cities flourished into distinct architectural masterpieces. Only citizens get to enjoy said beauty because only citizens may wander the islands freely and those with a hard to get visum are allowed controlled access to the islands. They do this to prevent what they see as pollution of their lands by foreigners. They despise ugly concrete cities and superficial societies. To become a citizen and be worthy of living amongst them in the eyes of the society, one needs to prove him or herself. Similarly, in their late teens, native young adults are sent into the world where they must prove themselves in order to be allowed to return. The Smaeyaugh enjoy the highest standard of education and living in the world.

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The resolution is lowered due to the forum's limits. The first is without names and the second is with. It is my second attempt at making a map, using what I learned from this awesome website.

I'm thinking of adding smaller veins for the rivers, but I think the map would become a little too crowded with rivers if I did that.

I'd love to hear what you all think, even if you hate it, and ideas on how to improve on any aspect of it are appreciated a lot. It is intended as a satellite picture style map.


edit: I just realized that you can't read the city names on the low res version of the map. Here is a higher res one: http://www.mediafire.com/?ddftufbmqd2ocz2

[s0meguy]

Administrative Regions. Any suggestions for how to display these in a more elegant way? It has to be a bright color because dark lines are hard to see because the image is generally dark. I'll also upload a lower quality version of the higher resolution one without all the names and stuff on it. It's probably better than the low res high quality one.

[Nightdragon]

I like it! Very realistic. Maybe a bit too realistic formy taste, the textures divert from the main informations. I dont know where to look first.

But I'm new to this hobby so I cant say how I would change it or it should be changed at all :/

~Nightdragon

[Ricardo Controversio]

s0meguy,

Very impressively textured! Might I suggest using a different color than that bright-midtone yellow where you've used it? It is rather jarring next to the smooth, pleasing earthtones of the topology/climatology. The plastic texture of the symbols seems somewhat cartoonish against such a well-developed backdrop, as well. I also think it would be helpful if a proper legend were provided.

Judging by the tonality difference between the water surrounding the archipelago and the larger ocean, you've given some attention to the bathymetry; how accurate is the deep-water bathymetry, or are those varying tones just the byproduct of the texturing process? If that is meant to be accurate bathymetry, then I'm curious what made you choose such a relatively uniform depth for the ocean floor.

I really like what you've done with this piece, so far, and hope my comments and questions are helpful!

[kestrelgrey]

impressive. The mountains are especially nice, and the rivers merge quite seamlessly into the oceans. The only thing I might look at are some of the angles in the rivers - here and there are, the rivers make very sharp turns, and sometimes even seem to loop back in on themselves. Without some more geographic information (cliffs? canyons? etc.), it's hard to tell if the rivers are "forced" into those channels. Hard granite cliffs bordered by softer rocks could produce those sharp angles, maybe, but it's something to think about.
Other than that one little thing, though, I love this map! Right now, the amount of "political" details aren't too much, and work with the level of geographic information.

- Kes

[s0meguy]

Thank you for all your comments and input.

I like it! Very realistic. Maybe a bit too realistic formy taste, the textures divert from the main informations. I dont know where to look first.

But I'm new to this hobby so I cant say how I would change it or it should be changed at all :/

~Nightdragon

I love the level of realism. I guess it is a matter of personal preference. This type of map style does not seem to be popular here. Anyway, I'll probably end up making simpler more traditional maps of the archipelago too. And welcome to the Cartographers' Guild, though I am new to both this place and mapping too.

You can speak your mind about anything that might occur to you about the map.

s0meguy,

Very impressively textured! Might I suggest using a different color than that bright-midtone yellow where you've used it? It is rather jarring next to the smooth, pleasing earthtones of the topology/climatology. The plastic texture of the symbols seems somewhat cartoonish against such a well-developed backdrop, as well. I also think it would be helpful if a proper legend were provided.

I agree with the comment on the yellow stuff and the symbols, which is why I also provide one without any of that with just the geographical features. I experimented with more neutral symbols like black dots and more complex icons but the thing with that is that any neutral looking symbols do not have strong colors and they are easily swallowed up by the environment. You would have to closely inspect the map to find the city dots and borders. I experimented with many different colors and looked at other maps for inspiration. It's apparently a problem with all satellite picture style maps (check google earth), all the sattelite pic style maps I've seen use bright colors such as white, yellow and red to display information, which is why they tend to provide versions with information about population centers etc and without them. I'm going to experiment with replacing the city icons with zoomed out versions of the cities. If you have any ideas about better ways to show the borders of provinces, or have ideas for the icons of cities, I'd love to hear them.

Judging by the tonality difference between the water surrounding the archipelago and the larger ocean, you've given some attention to the bathymetry; how accurate is the deep-water bathymetry, or are those varying tones just the byproduct of the texturing process? If that is meant to be accurate bathymetry, then I'm curious what made you choose such a relatively uniform depth for the ocean floor.

I really like what you've done with this piece, so far, and hope my comments and questions are helpful!

It is meant to be accurate. I was under the impression that my ocean floor isn't that uniform, but I experimented with making the ocean floor deeper in some places, however I found that it had a weird effect that called attention/focus of the image away too much from the islands, unless I make all of the ocean deeper. It made the map a lot less pleasant to look at. Keep in mind that the color of the ocean and water in general is relative, every map gives it a slightly different shade of blue as well as every picture depending on the camera's settings, angle and light exposure of both the camera or observer and the water, and also the water's composition, currents and sea floor, if it is close enough to influence the look of surface water.

impressive. The mountains are especially nice, and the rivers merge quite seamlessly into the oceans. The only thing I might look at are some of the angles in the rivers - here and there are, the rivers make very sharp turns, and sometimes even seem to loop back in on themselves. Without some more geographic information (cliffs? canyons? etc.), it's hard to tell if the rivers are "forced" into those channels. Hard granite cliffs bordered by softer rocks could produce those sharp angles, maybe, but it's something to think about.
Other than that one little thing, though, I love this map! Right now, the amount of "political" details aren't too much, and work with the level of geographic information.

- Kes

Thank you for your comment as well. I like the mountains too. I have checked real life rivers on satellite maps and many of them make a lot of turns that look weird from top down, including very sharp short turns, even on relatively soft ground (take the tiber for instance). A factor in this is probably sediment collection by the river itself. Even so, the native rock composition on the island is tough, a necessary ingredient for a city built into mountains (and all the other things they had hewn).

[s0meguy]

The rivers got an upgrade. Again, lower quality due to forum restrictions. (zoomed out it looks weird on my screen, but zoomed in it looks decent)

[arsheesh]

I think that the sea texture tends to be fairly heavy, but that aside, this looks lovely so far. I too like your mountains.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

[Lyandra]

I agree with Arsheesh about the texture, it is a bit heavy, but it has a certain appeal too. I like your rivers. This starting to look very nice.

[s0meguy]

Thank you for all the comments and compliments. I like the texture myself because it gives the image character and visual depth I think.

Anyway, here is something I have been working on. Learned lots of new stuff in Photoshop and started off with Illustrator on the way.

I have decided to take information off the original image, presenting that as a satellite image. I have made a political map to put all the information on, and I have added more cities and population data and economic data (yes those numbers are right) and there is a mini-map showing the location of the archipelago in the world. Suggestions and comments for both are very welcome.

I'll update the starting post of this thread with the newest images too. The satellite style image hasn't been updated much yet. Some tweaks are coming for that one, but I'm still pretty content with how it looks currently.

I'm also going to look into reworking the map into more different styles. I am fond of this one.

I am curious what you guys think of the political map. How should I improve it further?

Thanks for this great forum and for the nice people here.