Good job tcberry !
The World of Gotha is an impressive project. I like the coloring and general style, but the mountains are a little bit hard too read.
Like the constructed script too.
This map is for the World of Gotha, a collaborative geofiction project set in a pseudo-Victorian setting. Atregona is my nation, which is a sprawling, corrupt oligarchy, struggling to compete against more technologically advanced nations.
Most of the nations in the world appropriate foreign languages for use within their nations, and the national language of Atregona is a somewhat mangled version of Basque. The script featured on the map, however, is a constructed script.
Prepared with Illustrator, Photoshop, Fractal Terrains, and FontLab Studio.
Preview:
Deviantart:
Map of the Atregonese Aigentarate by ~plexust on deviantART
Last edited by tcberry; 08-03-2013 at 06:12 AM.
Good job tcberry !
The World of Gotha is an impressive project. I like the coloring and general style, but the mountains are a little bit hard too read.
Like the constructed script too.
Good clean map overall, though it looks more like an expriment for the four-colour-theorem than a genuine map. The differing colouration for every province (banner?) adds more confusion than information for the viewer. I would try to keep the layout simpler.
@Ilanthar - I wanted them to read as contour lines, I suppose it doesn't exactly come off that way?
@Freodin - So you would recommend omitting the coloration altogether, or just toning it down?
The contours might read better at a higher resolution. At this size, they just turn into mush. Likewise, the political coloring might look better at a larger size—if this were a poster map, for instance.
And combining topographic and political maps into the same image may also hinder understanding. What is the purpose of the map? Who uses it, and what information do they need when they do so? Perhaps you could split the data onto two simpler maps.
Bryan Ray, visual effects artist
http://www.bryanray.name
I think you have too many political subdivision on a map of this size. Like Midgardsormr said, it's probably too much information.
I would change the colouration, to provide a better focus for the reader.
The way it is now suggests that the important information that this map provides are the political subunits of your country. But beyond the borders, there is no information given about these regions - like names, important cities or such, (as in this map of England's counties, for example). I'd say that the scale of the map is even too small to provide such informations.
So I would try to put the focus on larger regions / political units - the areas delineated by the broader black borderlines, perhaps? - and just hint at the subunits with uncoloured, perhaps dotted lines. The smaller subdivisions could be presented in other, larger-scale, maps.
Last edited by Freodin; 08-01-2013 at 04:01 AM.
I kinda agree with Midagardsorm, a higher resolution is probably a solution, and the purpose of the map is a good guideline.
Maybe you can use a shadowing effect and a small number of contour lines or a different coloring effect to make it more easy to read.
Just a few ideas, I don't know if it helps...
Alright, I've toned down my crazy a bit, thanks for the help, everyone!
Are the contours still a bit much?
atr-map-old.jpg
Last edited by tcberry; 08-01-2013 at 05:32 PM.
I think it's good. What's the pink line in the middle ?