WIP - Space Archaeology Mission Map

[Abu Lafia]

Hello fellow cartographers!
Inspired by Ilanthar's wonderful "Aarklash in space" map i decided to make "first contact" with space-mapping myself. Because i wanted to include different types of maps into this, i set a "space-archaeology mission" as the frame for it.
I started with a map of a starfield / starcluster somewhere in the outer regions of a galaxy. I somewhat followed the fantastic tutorials by Greg Martin and devvv.
This is the result so far:
Starfield1.jpg
The work is still in progress. The nebulae need some refinement and i will put some bigger stars in it with "flare" / glow, etc. I'm also thinking of a grid or something like that. And ofc the labelling.

The starcluster map will be the background-map where i want to place other maps and objects/ info-texts on.
I thought about the following:
1.) A "window" with some general information, the mission/project objectives and some technical data and a blueprint? of the research-ship, i already started to wrestle with in sketch up.

2.) 3 maps with different "zoom levels"
- a map of the planetary system
- a map of/on the planet depicting the larger region. For the sketch i used Ilanthar's planet tutorial
- a map of the planetary surface depicting the local area around the dig site.

This is how i thought the maps could be arranged. It's a first "sketch" and most of the elements, names, etc. are dummies for now:
space_archaeology_wip1.jpg

After the experience to map under time pressure in the last lite challenge i plan to work on this project in a much slower pace, especially because i'm a total noob "in space" .
So i would greatly appreciate any kind of suggestion, critique and comments!

Cheers,
AL

[Azélor]

I really like your starfield !

[Abu Lafia]

I really like your starfield !

Thanks a lot Azelor, glad you like it! Since i know from your comments that you have a lot of geological and general "scientific" knowledge, i'd love to hear if there are any flaws if you could spare the time (because astrophysics and geology aren't exactly my field of expertise XD).

So, i redid the planet (the old one was only a placeholder). I generated a heightmap with this nice Planet Map Generator. then i tweaked some hard edges (blurred it a bit) and "gradient mapped" one copy with a sandy gradient, and bumpmapped the other copy which i then "overlay" over the other (like i learned in arsheesh's eriond tutorial). This was my basic texture. I put a part of it in the bottom right of the map so you can see how it looked like. I won't take it as the third map but i'll call it the next generation dummy .
Then i mapped the texture on the sphere (this time i made some different adjustments in the options menu) and voila...
Planetclear.jpg
A nice desert planet ... digging in the sand for traces of ancient alien civilizations will surely be a lot of fun down there If you have the right coordinates...

Planet.jpg space_archaeology_wip2.jpg

The steps i made are a little tough to reconstruct in detail because of my notoriously messy workflow (but i'll give it a try soon because i personally like the outcome)
The mapping of the labels on the sphere was a pain in the @$$ but finally it came out something similiar to what i had in mind.

Cheers,
AL

[Azélor]

The texture of the planet is good. I guess there is a large cloud cover like Venus ? I do think it's a bit too blurred.

Since i know from your comments that you have a lot of geological and general "scientific" knowledge

That's nice of you. It's all amateur, my specialty is in politics. Well it's not like there was a professional order like there is for engineers...

[Ilanthar]

Good concept and layout ! I noticed that the first planet of the system seems to be but cutted on the right side. Also, I think the names on your main planet could be more legible if made brighter.
You're braver than me : I've never done a full background (just arranged/worked existent pictures)!

[Abu Lafia]

The texture of the planet is good. I guess there is a large cloud cover like Venus ? I do think it's a bit too blurred.

Thanks for the feedback Azelor! Glad u like the texture. As i wrote, i'm pretty happy with it too but my problem is, it seems to be to small and not detailed enough for my purpose. The "map object on sphere" function in gimp is blurring it even more. Thats why large parts of it are looking more like clouds than planetary surface (which was not intended btw ) ... although it might be the gradient making some parts too white which gives the impression of clouds. If it is downscaled it looks ok, but i'm currently working on a larger and more detailed texture. Not sure if i'll go with a generated or one by myself. Will post some WIP on this soon.

Good concept and layout ! I noticed that the first planet of the system seems to be but cutted on the right side. Also, I think the names on your main planet could be more legible if made brighter.
You're braver than me : I've never done a full background (just arranged/worked existent pictures)!

Haha, thanks Ilanthar, but i'm not so sure if its brave of me or rather foolish! There is still a lot to do on the starfield... As with the other parts (the small planets in the upper map are only placeholders done with a brush i found in my brush folder) it's all provisional and no element can be sure not to be drawn into a black whole the next minute. The names on the main planet indeed need some rework (as the whole thing i guess...). I have to find out if there is a way to do something similar with vectors/paths so it won't be so distorted...

Well, there are so many things to do ... It seems that im riding the U.S.S. "Hybris" right into deep space XD

[Azélor]

You could add a texture or use the unsharp mask filter.

[Abu Lafia]

You could add a texture or use the unsharp mask filter.

I couldn't see the forest for the trees Thanks Azelor for the hint.
Here is an updated version. I generated a bigger texture with the VP Planet Generator and overworked it in gimp (sharpened, bumpmapped and coloured). I also found this little trick by K1TesseraEna for mapping objects to sphere with less distortion, and it worked wonders. Finally i redid the grid and the labels, so here we go:

Planetwip.jpg

[J.Edward]

I'm digging this thread Abu. I love what you're doing here. I subscribed so I can watch this unfold.

[Abu Lafia]

Thank you J.Edward! This is good to hear. Besides the freshly cleaned up map and some updates on the labels and stuff on the starfield, as a little bonus for the new subscriber i'll throw in some lore :
The archeological mission in the Boas System is led by the late Prof. Dr. Dr. Klaus Bohrenheimer. As a young assistant he was a member of the legendary "Laika Mission" under Major Porocheck, who accomplished the first successful space-jump and thereby opened up a new chapter in history. Bohrenheimer always had a strange weakness for 20. century anthropology, so he was overly happy that he could actually name a whole sector and a huge load of stars and planets of the new discovered "Porochenko-Cluster" after his heroes. The somewhat quirky Prof. Bohrenheimer had some trouble raising funds for his new mission, but he's sure he will find there something of enormous importance for the whole universe...
space_archaeology_wip3.jpg