8 replies to this topic

[Adam Wilbert]

I've been working on a series of 95 small graphics for an online hiking guide of the Mt. Hood, Oregon area. The finished images will be only 420 pixels square, so not a lot of resolution to work with: just enough to plot a line for the hike and illustrate some of the immediately surrounding topography. The other criteria is that the images are stylistically consistent across the series regardless of scale, grab eyeballs to encourage click-throughs, and appeal emotionally to hikers to encourage trip-planning. Luckily, the images will be supplemented with plenty of written directions, hike notes and on-site photographs for each page.

So, here's a sample of where I'm going with the underlying basemaps. I still need to re-hydrate the landscape with lakes and streams. Later, some limited roads and the featured hike will be layered on top. Comments are absolutely welcome as I'll continue to refine the series over the next few weeks.

 42.jpg   356.1K   401 downloads
my working resolution file



 42small.jpg   83.45K   324 downloads
same rendering at actual published size


I've also put up a simple gallery of in-progress images of most of the other hikes at www.cartogaia.com/gallery/hood.

[SaultDon]

Nice, I like these.

Especially the snow, because at first, the brightness (sun reflecting off the snow) was hurting my eyes but I then got back to the whole hiking theme. That may be exactly what the hiker will see on the ground.

The snow drapes nicely.

In the snapshots, you can see a faint feature on the DEM, patches of brown/light tan. Do those represent land that has been cleared like urban areas and paved surfaces? Will the other base layers you add complement these to bring them out more?

Will be looking for the finished product.

[Matthew Hampton]

Cool maps Adam! That sounds like a fun project to work on. I looked through the gallery and noticed a few elevation seams that could be touched-up a little bit. Did you render the both the landcover and elevation in Photoshop? It looks like tree canopy and impervious were used?

I like how the snow embosses on the hillshading. I think I'd have to see the finished map and how the other elements work together at scale. I think I'm focusing on the dithery features and those will fade when you add the other ones.

I kept looking for a map that has the lava field east of Laurance Lake (since it's a stark land feature that grabs your eyes), but I'm not sure it's in the mix. It seems that of the 95 maps, there are several different scales of one area depicted?

I'm looking forward to seeing more.

[Green Palolo]

Nice colors and shading.
Did you consider using a higher resolution DEM like the 1 meter lidar?

 hood_tn.jpg   120.61K   250 downloads

[Agnar Renolen]

If you want to create maps that emotionally appeal to the reader, consider using brighter colors, rather than the 'dull-ish' scheme you have used for this sample.

[Adam Wilbert]

I wanted to thank everyone for the comments and suggestions. I'm having a lot of fun with this technique and went ahead and did a really large version to make into a desktop wallpaper. It's much higher resolution, and much greener! iPad & iPhone friendly versions available as well if anyone is interested:

http://adamwilbert.c...lpaper-freebie/


Donovan, there are some clear-cut areas that contribute to the texture, but most of that brown / tan color came from the DEM overlay that I used. The color is... a work in progress.

Matthew: None of the hikes that will be featured go near enough to the lava field to get onto the maps. But thanks for drawing my attention to it, I didn't even know that was there. The maps are indeed at a large variety of scales, depending on the length / shape of the featured trail. From 1:10,000 for a small lake loop, to 1:95,000 for the timberline trail around Mt. Hood.

Green Palolo: I usually love to work with Lidar data, but for these, since they're so incredibly small, I chose to go without. 420 pixels is not a lot of room. At print resolution, these maps would only be 1.5 inches square!

Agnar: I think you're right. After letting these sit for a week and coming back, they do look a little drab on a fresh review. I added green & blue contour lines, which brings come color back to the landscape, but I think the base will need a little brightening still. That will have to wait until I've got everything else layered on top and we see how the overall composition feels.

[Laura Miles]

I definitely like the more colorful version. I love hiking, and what entices me most is the idea of the beautiful flora and fauna I will see on my way, which was not communicated well in the first version.
Laura

[Mike Boruta]

This looks really nice. I just spent several minutes staring at it, comparing it to the image available in google maps, and admiring all the subtle details that really make it so beautifully three dimensional. One tweak I would suggest would be to experiment with the shadows. The yellow illumination is so warm, but it seems to be lighting the mountain up on all sides. The shadows in the forested slopes around the mountain seem more intense than the shadows cast from Mt. Hood itself. I think the combination of these effects makes the mountain look a little smaller in stature than it appears in reality.

Do you plan on doing a Mt. Shasta version?

[Matthew Hampton]

None of the hikes that will be featured go near enough to the lava field to get onto the maps. But thanks for drawing my attention to it, I didn't even know that was there.

I'm bumping this post because I just found a great rendering of that lava field I mentioned. It was created from LiDAR by the folks at DOGAMI (and perhaps slightly enhanced) .
 Screen_shot_2011_04_21_at_4.05.57_PM.png   796.93K   105 downloads