21 replies to this topic

[Pete]

Been trying out some new trees for this map - what do people think?

The map is to show a "hypothetical" settlement with suitable options for further development to consolidate the village as opposed to having it sprawl out along a road. I say "hypothetical" because the map is based on a real location (Nairnside near the Culloden Inn) but I've generalised the data and altered the building footprints and locations so as not to alarm residents!

Typically, I've not got all of the details for the map so things are likely to change - I added the text around the bottom just to see if I could ... I don't think it's going to stay! - and I have to make another couple in the same style so any feedback at this stage would be useful!

Thanks

- Pete

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[François Goulet]

I think it's an elegant map. I like it!

Some houses are built practically on the road so I'd move them a bit. The color variations of the trees give an interesting look and I like the reflection on the pond.

I'd remove the text and place it outside the map. The drop shadow of the map could fit the shadows of the houses and trees.

Other than that, nice color palette!

[DaveB]

Nice! Simple, effective, almost diagram-like (in a good way), and pleasing colors.
I don't care for the text at the bottom.

[Pete]

I don't care for the text at the bottom.

Me neither !

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I think I got a bit lucky with the colours. I normally stick with "MasterMap Green" but it looked far too acidic in these maps for some reason - what I've landed up with now are all 60-80% tints of various global colours.

In the second map there I've tried to suggest raised areas of ground with shading and fuzzy little hachures - I'm not totally convinced of it yet ... something to tinker with later I guess !

[François Goulet]

In the second map there I've tried to suggest raised areas of ground with shading and fuzzy little hachures - I'm not totally convinced of it yet ... something to tinker with later I guess !

That's not really what I meant... I just found that the shadow under the map look "smaller" or just under the map and perhaps it could be better (or worst) to have the same shadow, slightly to the left, as is it was lighted from upper right... but keep the title there, I tought it look great!!!

[Nick H]

I like it, especially the colour palette. Which bears a strong resemblance to the famous Pete elevation colour ramp, I notice . Just one minuscule queriette, to me the far corner appears to bend upwards, is it possible to adjust for perspective?

Regards, N.

[Pete]

That's not really what I meant... I just found that the shadow under the map look "smaller" or just under the map and perhaps it could be better (or worst) to have the same shadow, slightly to the left, as is it was lighted from upper right... but keep the title there, I tought it look great!!!

Oops, sorry! The first drop shadow just went straight down from the base of the map as if lit (lighted ?) from directly above. I knew this was a bit at odds with the shading on the map which is from somewhere off to the bottom right so the shadows are cast back from objects - away from the viewer - so as not to obscure anything in shade. I think the shadows from the base of the map are in about the right position now ... roughly ..? The title may yet make a comeback - these maps are going to be about half the size I have them here for a publication but I have a feeling that the maps may get used in larger displays and presentations - I'll drop the titles back in for them !

I like it, especially the colour palette. Which bears a strong resemblance to the famous Pete elevation colour ramp, I notice . Just one minuscule queriette, to me the far corner appears to bend upwards, is it possible to adjust for perspective?

Regards, N.

Ha ha, thanks Nick ! If it ain't broke, don't fix it! There was a good bit of palette-rummaging to find some greens that "hung together" without being too insipid or too much of an eye-full. Is it just me or are greens quite hard to work with ?!

I see what you mean about the tops of the maps looming a bit. I purposely didn't include any perspective in the 3d transformation (isometric) to keep the scale the same from the front to the back which saves me time in not having to make far away trees smaller than those closer to the front of the map. I use parallel-projection a bit in 3d stuff so I'm not too put off by how it comes across but does it look really wonky? Rather than remake all of the maps, as a compromise, could I warp the map in Photoshop before I add the text ... hmm ...

[Pete]

Weeeeeeeeell ...

My bright idea didn't work:

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The base of the map is probably a more agreeable shape but everything on the surface leans towards a point somewhere above the map . It was worth a try!

Lesson learnt - apply perspective transformations first!

[Pete]

I think I've got the looming map issue sorted.

I carried out the same isometric transformation on the base as before but with a perspective of 60 degrees. All of the blocky features were extruded with the same perspective to match the map and moved into position, then all of the trees were added in.

Altering the size of the trees to reflect the perspective was much more straight forward that I thought it would be. Just to keep the workload down I made a grid of thirds the same size as the map base and transformed it as before - same rotation and perspctive. The trees in the top third were randomly scaled to 70% or their original size, those in the middle were left unchanged while those in the bottom third were randomly increased in size to 130%.

The steps are shown here:

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1 - original
2 - with perspective on ground (not trees)
3 - thirds grid
4 - perspective applied to trees
5 - done

[Pete]

Large size:

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I've not added in all of the details yet (colours, roof lines, reflections, etc.) but you get the idea .

[Mike Boruta]

Looking nice. What software are you using to make this?

[DaveB]

Latest version is looking really good!

(Not in this version yet as you said, but I love the bit of reflection in the water - nice touch)

[Pete]

I've got all of the effects that I want to use sorted now: little bit of a texture on the ground, lighter patches along the roadsides, solid base to the map. I stopeed just short of putting some ducks on the pond - that would have been too much !

 NEW_nairnside.gif   231.44K   69 downloads

Still no roof lines for the moment ... I'll add them to the finished maps. This project is destined for the back burner for a week or so as the decision makers have all gone on holiday ... typical !

Looking nice. What software are you using to make this?

Hi Borga -

This is all made in Illustrator. I'd made a similar map for Badaguish (here) using Photoshop for the textures, Illustrator for the linework and annotation, an SketchUp for the buildings but I couldn't justify such a process for three much smaller maps. As it turns out the streamlined process for these smaller maps is much more straight forward and I'm quite please with the way it worked out.

The 3d effect is all done with the 3d rotate, revolve and extrude tools in Illustrator. The "flat" things (land, roads, water) - things on the base of the map - are all rotated isometrically with 60 degrees of perspective (if you check out the first draft, not using perspective was a mistake!) while the sticky-up things (buildings and walls) were extruded with the same isometric rotation and perspective but with height defined by the extrude depth. Trees were all based on three "heroes" - a pointy tree, a round tree and a shrub - made from a 3d-revolved shape, again using the same isometric perspective to match the rest of the map. These were copied all over the map and then coloured and scaled as required.

[Michael Karpovage]

Pete, I have to say this has turned out to be a really nice looking map. I just went through your whole post and watched it evolve and your work is really impressive with it's simplicity. It has a unique style to it with the trees you created along with the color palette. I could have sworn you were using Photoshop at first but you explained this was all done in Illustrator and this shows you really have an excellent grasp on the tools in that program. I really do appreciate you sharing your insight into the 3d rotate, revolve and extrude tools. I've only done a few vector style maps myself - I'm mostly a Photoshop guy - and seeing what you did with the terrain effects and the shadowing and water reflections really inspires me to push further in Illustrator to enhance my own designs.

Might I ask what tools in Illustrator you used for the terrain effects and the transparent shadowing with a faded edge?

And could you post a close up of an area to see the fine detail work? I'm interested in how your shape edges look.

Really great work and again, thanks for sharing the background information on how it was done.

[Pete]

Thanks! When I was making the trees I was thinking "what would Karpovage do" ! The process more or less turned out like how you described making your wooded areas in Photoshop: establishing the basic trees, making an area and then copying and pasting parts of it as required.

Might I ask what tools in Illustrator you used for the terrain effects and the transparent shadowing with a faded edge?

And could you post a close up of an area to see the fine detail work? I'm interested in how your shape edges look.

Really great work and again, thanks for sharing the background information on how it was done.

Do you mean the terrain effect on the Geddes map? I just used the freehand pencil tool to draw a rough shape around the back of the houses and the group of trees at the top of the map to suggest a rounded shape and then used a gradient fill from a pale grey-yellow (the same that is used in the houses "gardens") to a darker version of the green that is used in the base. It was heavily blurred and made about 50% transparent. I added some very hazy hachures following the shape of the forms I was drawing by making a scatter brush out of a long grey wedge shape, tracing the contour, blurring it to near-invisibility and then changed the blending mode of the line to colour burn to slightly intensify the underlying colour.

In the most recent version of the Nairnside map I had actually applied a texture to the background before I carried out the 3d transformation - I think it helps to reinforce the effect when you can see the texture receding with perspective. The same sort of thing was done to the roadsides. Oddly, and I hadn't really intended it, the greener land around the water makes it look inset into the land giving it a bit of depth and the little bridge helps to sell the effect, although the pan-flat edges all around the mpa give the game away slightly !

I think the transparent shadows with the fuzzy edges are all basic shapes of some kind but with a mid-grey fill and a bit of a feather, as opposed to a blur. The reasoning for this is that blurring expands the shape outwards suggesting that the shadows are spreading outwards from whatever is casting them. I made the assumption that ambient light would lighten shadows around the edges. There are different complexities of shadows (this is me we're taking about here ... of course it wouldn't be simple !) The trees simply have an oval shape, coloured and feathered as described, which is offset isometrically (two to the side and one up) until it looks about right. The buildings are more complicated - the shape from the base of the buildings was duplicated twice, one coloured mid grey and the other white. The white group was moved isometrically until it looked right and then the two groups were merged with the blend tool to make a gradient effect going from dark at the base of the building shadow to white at the top to suggest the increasing ambient light. The blended shapes were multiplied with the background and feathered as before.

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I've attached some close-ups: 700% of actual size. The edges of the trees, walls and buildings are all sharp because they are all vectors but the raster effects - feathering and texturing mainly - pixellate quite quickly when you zoom in.