3D island country map (Blender Freestyle)

[Gozdom]

Hi,

I've been sniffing around here many years ago, with plans for a children's book about politics. The book is now written, and I'm doing illustrations, all in Blender 3D with its Freestyle plugin, which provides outlines. I also needed a map, which is a compulsory element of any such "worldbuilding" book. I may still hire someone for the finishing touches, but instead of commissioning a 2D map, I decided to create the whole country in 3D. This map is going to be printed A3 size as the inside cover, for reference.

I used an orthographic camera (as opposed to perspective). The only addition I needed was contour lines, so I created a big multi-bladed razor and cut up the map mesh horizontally several times. Blender can then find these cuts and draw strokes along them. I can exclude these from renderings if I need an aerial photo or a panorama.

I may touch up the texture map later, but it's more of a chore than a challenge. It is pretty crowded.

Roads and rivers are separate objects, following a curve. They can be repositioned easily, and wrap onto the terrain. Mountains are much harder to move around, but I may push them out toward the sea.

There is a layer where cities are actually groups of tiny houses, and another one where the are replaced by dots where a more abstract map is needed. As such, the model allows for some zooming in, until forest textures and dummy buildings begin to stick out. Such closeups will be patched up manually. However, it can be used for aerial photos, as you can see on the second pic.

Names will not say much as this is not in English. They are cute words mostly borrowed from dialects.

Any advice or bugreport is welcome, thank you. I know of a few stray Freestyle strokes, these will be cleaned up manually once the map is finished.

macmap.png

farewell.png

[Falconius]

Pretty interesting project. You got a pretty darn good top down map out of Blender. The only thing I would suggest needs work are the repeating sea texture, and the pixelated/woodcut compass rose since it doesn't fit the rest of the style very well. You also might want to put a page border, you'd be amazed at what they do for a map, even the simplest of borders.

I doubt you are looking for a critique on the aerial picture, but it doesn't look right, the horizon seems too high, and honestly well the texture for the sea looks really good there it's just not that interesting. Two other problems is that it is dead flat, where you would definitely see a fairly heavy horizon curve. And it's all in focus, so 'd suggest limiting the focal length to just get the island in focus. You might also consider putting in some volumetric atmosphere for that long shot.

[Gozdom]

Thank you Falconius. You are right about sea texture. That's actually a displacement map, but definitely needs manual work. Also, the compass rose and the map banner will have to be done in 3d to blend in. I'm working on the banner currently. Same goes for a border.

The aerial is a bit more complex. This is going to be the last page, and there will be text on the sky, and that's the main focus there. It's farewell to the bears who live on that island. Actually it's not this particular image, here it only serves to show the usefulness of a "real" object as map.
Dead right on the horizon curve too, I'll implement that - although we aren't flying very high here, it's a small island.

As for focus: the filter system I work with and Freestyle itself doesn't allow for DOF effects. The whole book is done in a half-cartoony style, so I don't see this as a problem.

Interestingly, Freestyle also excludes panoramic camera use, so the horizon will have to be bent by brute force. But I didn't think of that, thanks again.

[Gozdom]

macmap2.png

Here's a new render, with 3d compass, border and banner. Compass shows Hungarian abbreviations.
I know, no legend and scale bar. The latter may be omitted as I want to keep exact size and pop of the country blurry, as well as the time frame. Not decided yet.
I find that a legend is not necessary with these few symbols, and a few bears on the border may do a better service to ease up on raw data. Remember, this is for children, I don't want overwhelm them with the first sight they see after opening the book.