8 replies to this topic

[Matthew Hampton]

I saw Stamen's negative space style map they made for Cloudmade they call "Midnight Commander" awhile ago and thought it looked intriguing, but impractical. More recently I saw a tileset from Mapbox called "DC Nightvision" that used the same negative space/luminescent visual styling. I think watching the upcoming Tron movie trailer momentarily modified my previous feelings for the style and I hacked-together a a similar style in ArcMap for fun (using mainly LiDAR derivatives for shapes). I am sure it could possibly be meaningfully used for some narrowly-defined basemap application (reflective HUD at night on car dash?), but maybe it's sheer folly and I doubt I will spend more time dialing-in anno or other finish work - but it's at least eye-catching.
 NV3.jpg   442.6K   515 downloads

>>
I edited the title of the thread in anticipation of tomorrow's movie debut.

[MapMedia]

Excellent map! Great experiment and can be practical for theme based web mapping.

[Rusty]

That is one cool map!! but it scares me!!!

[Agnar Renolen]

Although negatively colored map are not always practical for print, they work very well on computer displays and similar. However, if the map shows a theme associated with night, for example this night bus route map, a negative color scheme may work well on print as well

[ravells]

Although negatively colored map are not always practical for print, they work very well on computer displays and similar. However, if the map shows a theme associated with night, for example this night bus route map, a negative color scheme may work well on print as well

It would look really cool for a Science Fiction city map!

Thanks!

[Dustin Edge]

Hi Mathew

Any chance you could share the tron-inspired styleset?

[Charles Syrett]

For some reason I missed this thread. Night maps can be tricky to design and pull off, but there are some good ones out there. It gets really interesting when relief is added. The last issue of Canadian Geographic had this one by their in-house cart-wizard, Steve Fick.

Charles Syrett
Map Graphics
http://www.mapgraphics.com

[Jean-Louis]

I cannot find the aforementioned night bus route map!
I,ve also been tinkering with the idea of night pictorial map. As was pointed out, it is a challenge and the look on the screen does not translate well in print.
Here was a quick tryout test I did once with a section of NYC (with a couple of hybrid Las Vegas bldgs thrown in!)
One of these days I hope to do a real one.
 NYnight.jpg   779.89K   69 downloads

[SaultDon]

Some more tilemill examples, and they provide the source styles for you to play with.

http://mapbox.com/#/.../baltimore-dark
 baltimore_dark_ex.png   24.91K   43 downloads

http://mapbox.com/#/...et/control-room
 control_room_ex.png   26.3K   38 downloads

http://mapbox.com/#/.../dc-nightvision (example from OP)
 dc_nightvision_ex.png   19.54K   36 downloads

http://mapbox.com/#/tileset/world-dark
 world_dark_ex.png   5.33K   32 downloads