Map of Ceres: 16th Millenium - by töff

[ravells]

Map (Click to enlarge)




Created in: Illustrator and Photoshop

Review

Created for the 'Wayfarer' magazine, this is töff's second featured map and is every bit as wonderful as his first, 'Venus Public Transit' which also made it as a Featured Map. The map is a feat of graphic design prowess and coveys an astonishing amount of information in a clear and elegant fashion.

töff says:

This map was inspired by the weird winged planet that I envisioned Ceres as having become in the CLVIIth century. I did a cover picture for chapter 31, and somehow or another for chatper 32 I could not resist mapping the whole planet, which is mostly agricultural land on the day side and a "hive of scum and villainy" on the night side.

I took a two components from Photoshop: the ag texture, stitched & tweaked from some satellite pix from Google; and the Midnight City lights, which are much more visible on the cover pic, glowing green in the night, than they are on the final map because so many city locations & roads etc. had to be layered over them. Oh, and the stars background is swiped (I think) from a Hubble shot. Oh, and the oblique nano colors, I actually rendered 3D from a grid instead of building it in vector form. Cheating, I know. But when it all looks the same after you print, who cares how you got there? Oh, the Cereal Reverence logo was done in Photoshop, with the wheat shapes brought in from Illustrator.

Otherwise, everything was done in Illustrator, with mutiple layers and quite a few applications of alpha masks and other fx.

Original Thread

To go to the original thread click here.

[töff]

I just want to thank the Guild, and my mom ... and ... *weep*.

Seriously, to be put in this Featured Map category, alongside the outstanding cartographic art from Still Pond and Aerius and Ramah and so many others -- this is not an honor that I take lightly. I'm rather shocked ... and quite grateful.

Just, please, nobody count all those extra chads that got crated up in a back closet.

[töff]

Now to get my Map Of The Solar System 15,605AD back into production ...

[Sempiternity]

I just want to say - i absolutely *adore* your retro-future-y maps! This is amazing, even if it makes my astrophysics-trained brain hurt. "How do they keep the air in?" it asks, but i don't care: the winged-Ceres atlas is wonderful! Can't wait to see that solar system map, hint, hint.

[töff]

They keep the air in by a technology called "gravity plates." Basically they are like monopole magnets: they exert a field in a certain direction.

Walking on a gravity plate would be akin to walking on sheet metal with magnetic boots (but better).

You can mount a gravity plate anywhere. Mount one (upside down) on the top of your car, and your car will fall up into the air. Mount one on the front of your car, and your car will fall forward. Whammo, flying car. Of course you can turn the gravplates on & off like electromagnets. Turn on the gravplate on the back bumper, and your flying car slows down.

The entire dayside of Ceres is covered (under the soil, of course) with gravplates at 1g. Much of the nightside is, too -- all the cities and roads and industrial areas -- but not all.

Oh, you mean the air on the wings. Heh, I just realized your meaning. Same answer, gravplates. But the concern about air applies to the planet itself, too, because its mass is so meager that it could not retain atmosphere without some technological help.

This arrangement also negates any worry that the air on the wings will "run downhill" to the planet, because center of gravity becomes a meaningless concept.

Much of this explanation can be gleaned from the story (chapters 31 and 32).

Thanks for the kudos!

The Solar System map is still very much "not abandoned"

[MarkoDarko]

I really like the retro look in general. I feel like this map takes it to a whole new level. I love the straight lines, and the neatness of the whole project. The legend is also very cool.

[heavyrocks]

Link to Chapters 31/32 broken

[töff]

Link to Chapters 31/32 broken

Ack, I took them down to save webspace on my hosting account. I can restore them if you like.

[ravells]

Yay, glad to see you're still popping in, Toff!

Any more genius goodness to show us?

[töff]

In fact, I'm happy to say I've been doing a little bit of cartography lately! I can't show you, because the rights to it are held by an ebook publisher. But I can tell you this much: mapping for ebooks is a challenge! in so many ways! Ebook technology is still very young and very inconsistent. We only have so many pixels to play with, and so many shades of gray. We're ending up taking master maps that print fine in paper editions and cutting them into simplified "overview" maps plus one or more "zoom-in" detail maps. It's sometimes frustrating, but (for a map geek) always super-interesting!