25 replies to this topic

[Pete]

The biggest upgrade in these new versions was going back and reviewing some of the effects I used to fake elements of size and depth.

I mentioned before that the map is isometric but without perspective foreshortening becuase of the problems this creates when trying to extrude buildings so I had to fake certain effects. I increased the level of "haze" in the map by increasing the opacity and number of layers of haze - these are simply white to black gradients set to screen - so there are now two in total: one on the surface of the ground and an additional layer on top of the buildings.

The biggest trick now is the shading of the buildings themselves. Before, the buildings were tinted relative to their size - buildings were shaded in 5 classes of area with larger buildings being darker than smaller buildings. This effect was also extended to their shadows and highlights were the larger buildings cast more intense shadows and had stronger highlights.

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[Michael Schmeling]

I like your map a lot. Also thanks for your explanations on building the map.

If you use a 3D render software such as 3ds Max you could probably automate the whole process of importing the map data and extruding the buildings. You could then make true perspective views and rotate your model at wish. Also the shading would be really easy. You would only add the text in Illy.

[Jacques Gélinas]

Thanks Jacques! Reasons for the perspective instead of a normal plan may include but are not limited to ... experimentation, visual impact, curiosity, the challenge, showing off and an instruction from my overlords to come up with something different than the usual "planning maps". I was hoping to create the sort of appearance you'd associate with those tabletop scale models of developments that you sometimes see - don't know if I nailed it exactly.

I think you nailed it. It is a neat and an effective variation of a normal plan. I was going to ask why all the buildings are the same height. But I would think that varying building heights would bring some new design problems, especially if you only have the footprint data to work with?

Regards,

[Pete]

I think you nailed it. It is a neat and an effective variation of a normal plan. I was going to ask why all the buildings are the same height. But I would think that varying building heights would bring some new design problems, especially if you only have the footprint data to work with?

Regards,

Thanks again Jacques - the reason for the buildings being the same height is a limitation of Illustrator's extruding tool and my patience ! I can extrude everything all at once to the same height or I can extrude groups of buildings to different heights. It's doable in Illustrator but the problem comes from manually arranging the buildings to overlap in the right order from front to back. It would be simple if the large buildings were all in the centre of the map but apparently historic town planning wasn't so sensitive to the needs of future cartographers and technicians!

I like your map a lot. Also thanks for your explanations on building the map.

If you use a 3D render software such as 3ds Max you could probably automate the whole process of importing the map data and extruding the buildings. You could then make true perspective views and rotate your model at wish. Also the shading would be really easy. You would only add the text in Illy.

Thanks for the advice Arid ... and I've gone and taken you at your word! MasterMap + ArcMap + SketchUp = ...

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[Pete]

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[Pete]

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Until an hour ago I didn't know I could do this ...

I've got all of the MasterMap data in ArcMap so it was a simple case of categorising the buildings by area and calculating arbitary values to extrude the building footprints by - 25, 20, 15, 10 and 5m in this case. Select the buildings, water and extent polygons; export them to SketchUp with the necessary fields selected to extrude the buildings et voila ... sort of!

There was a little manual editing to make the required shapes for the land but it wasn't difficult, and the map texture was imported to SketchUp as a .tif exported from ArcMap.

Thanks for the idea Arid!

[Michael Schmeling]

Nice! And now you could use Procedural's City Engine to add fancy facades to your buildings

(Oh, and my name is Michael, Arid Ocean is only my business name.)

[Pete]

Nice! And now you could use Procedural's City Engine to add fancy facades to your buildings

(Oh, and my name is Michael, Arid Ocean is only my business name.)

Sorry Michael! We're undergoing a review of software to try and save money at work and frankly, I'll be lucky to still have SketchUp by the time it's over ...

Anyway, these maps are heading down a slightly different road than I first thought ... I like the softer look of the version I made in Illustrator but it's limiting in that I can't easily change the extent or orientation short of simply zooming in and out, in which case the effects start to pixellate anyway. Also, the powers that be seem a little more sure of what they want these plans to show so I've started to use SketchUp, Photoshop and Illustrator to put together some more specific plans ... they're a little rough still and nothing like how I first intended but what do people think?

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[Pete]

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[Michael Schmeling]

I think the softer look in the Illustrator examples comes from the fact that edges are not stroked. It should be possible to get a similar look in a 3D rendering program (try Blender (Open Source) if Sketchup does not do it and if you can't afford another 3D software).

[ravells]

Really beautiful! I love the way you've labelled some of the harder to see streets by putting the labels on the walls of the buildings abutting them. Really cool touch!