December 2014 Challenge : Bunga Atoll

[jbgibson]

Okay, I poked around in the FilterForge library of available filters and found a number that generate maps either from scratch or from a seed photo. So starting with a seasonably appropriate photo


wreath2small.jpg


That's a Flickr photo Creative Commons attribution licensed for use or modification by Heather Cowper, Flickr user heatheronhertravels. Starting with it, I tried the filter conveniently named Cartography https://www.filterforge.com/filters/2849.html . All kinds of interesting effects, giving me a decent atoll like so:

Wreath2Atoll2aSmall.jpg


Nice. But naaaaaaah, that's too mundane. What do other filters do? How about the one called Countries 2 - Photo Edition https://www.filterforge.com/filters/7751.html . *There* went an hour of tinkering. Anyway - while it does a verrrra interesting job of divvying up territory, *logically* an atoll is fairly limited in scope - how would numerous political units exist on a sliver of land a few miles across?

Hmmm. So let's say I give it just a few subdivisions:

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Wreath2Atoll2b.jpg

Oh - I did like the border on the first try, so I grafted that on - the Countries 2 filter doesn't do borders.

[jbgibson]

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Wreath2Atoll2c.jpg

Okay - maybe an atlas or textbook entry, what with a bit of statistical data presented. Jungle & not-jungle seem to me sensible divisions of a Pacific atoll. It lacks the string-of-pearls character of a lot of coral atolls - maybe it was subject to a lot of rising and falling sea levels and grew in extent. I liked the Malay word for wreath, bunga, so I invented an era of Malay colonization long ago :-).

[Bogie]

Most coral atolls have that circular form because they grow on top of a volcanic cone. Some cones are irregular in shape so I think this is a very plausible atoll. Nice work.

[foremost]

Hey there. Not sure if the thread title typo will affect your entry... might want to change Challence to Challenge.

As for the map, I am liking it very much. May be neat to see some more detail put into the airstrip icon.

[jbgibson]

Ha-yeah, I can't type worth a hoot. A CL must have fixed the thread title; don't think we plain forum members can edit thread titles. Thanks for calling it to notice.

Yeah, the air strip is skimpily detailed. Another transport item lacking is that surely there'd be a couple of piers sticking out at villages... beaching landing vessels would have been okay a hundred years ago, but not some visiting Navy craft's shiny motor launch. Anybody else see glaring omissions? Mind you it isn't a navigation chart, just a low-info representation for, say, a New Zealand schoolbook. For instance nobody from 3000 miles away is going to care where the one or more power plants are... Roads either. Unless sketching in a couple of roads shows that there *are* some. The whole place probably boasts a dozen jeeps, a couple of tank trucks, and eccentric Dr. Weissberger's 1936 Daimler Benz Town Car.

[jbgibson]

So why are there dirigible masts? Because this is an island compatible with Paul Gazis' world of the online Flying Cloud serialized story. 300 weekly episodes of long-form story (so far), with derring-do, dastardly deeds, dirigibles, and MAPS.

Perhaps I should confess a small deceit here... if enough present or potential competitors get lost in the Flying Cloud story, maybe I stand a better chance in the contest. Not that i would stoop to skulduggery, noooooo...

[jbgibson]

That's nice enough as is, but since FilterForge can gen all these interesting textures, maybe i can make it tastier. So after looking among a dozen or two various foliage filters, I settled on Monocotyledonous green plants, which makes a nice palm-jungle-y look - here'tis as a tiling block:
Foliage5.jpg

And when I mask that across the island's jungle areas and dial back its opacity I get:
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Wreath2Atoll2d.jpg

I s'pose i could do something to the yellow cultivated areas too - I envision palm plantation land cover, in orderly rows and chunks. Anybody think that's necessary or desirable?

[Bogie]

Nice texture for the jungle

[jbgibson]

THanks, Bogie!

Added some piers & docks, and a few fuel tanks. Much more data and it becomes a local chart instead of a reference-at-a-distance. Oh, and those are hangers next to the airstrip, foremost :-). Again - an actual chart someone would use to land there might have data on the landing lights, exact compass heading, surface, prevailing winds... but not this reference map .

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Wreath2Atoll2e.jpg