Central Zelandyi, a topographic map

[Pixie]

This was a nearly finished map for some time, and today being "cleaning computer clutter" day, I gave it a quick finish and decided to upload it to my Maward album.

Originally this is a part of my forever-to-be-fisnished topographic map, which is still (and always) in the works.
The cropped part was turned into a grayscale heightmap and went to Wilbur for some tuning up (the process damaged some of the features I had purposely draw, hence the long time this was left abandoned). After being worked at Wilbur, including changes the scale of the map, the map went back to Photoshop. Using the Threshold filter on the grayscale, repeating with different levels, I did a number of layers, which could be colorized at will.

The coloring was done using the legend from this map:
I also added a layer with rivers and lakes, as to better conform with the map I was using as model.

I added an accurate graticule and that was it! Comparing with the original map which I'm copying there are two differences: I chose not to include relief shading and the latitude variation of the area mapped made a linear scale pointless, so I didn't include it either.

So, here's the map:
Central Zelandyi Topographic.png

[Azélor]

It looks pretty cool but I'm not a great fan of the colour choice.

[Pixie]

This started out as an experiment with Wilbur. From there I decided to colorize it with the same scheme of a real-Earth location. The point was mainly experimental, to evaluate how realistic my topogaphy was. Here's comparison number two - which, actually, would have been a better comparison from the start...
Iran_topo_en.jpg

Still, I admit the restrictions I made (just a few color layers and no relief shading) were too much and the resulting color scheme turns pretty poor. However, these colors are what would make this map a great geography teaching tool to show the marked difference between jungle/savannah coastal Zelandyi and the interior plateau.

[Chashio]

That's a fine piece of work. The lower altitudes could perhaps use some smoothing out, but otherwise it's a pretty good imitation of the comparisons you worked against. I personally would like to see relief shading on it, just 'cause I find it easier to see and visualize that way--okay, I also really like relief shaded maps--but that really is just a personal preference. It doesn't look bad without it.

[Azélor]

Using the shader makes the map look better but it is also more difficult to use for reference since the colors are harder to distinguish form one another.
It depend on the purpose of the map.

[Chashio]

I had never considered that Azelor. That's a good point, I suppose, but still... There are probably ways to do it, keeping the colors clean and using cool tones in the shading and warmer tones for the lit portions. But not a necessity.

[foremost]

I think those colors (and especially the colored legend bar) are comparable to what one would see on a radar map for a weather report.

alamo.png

The contrast does help show the difference, though.