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4 June 2017

Perspective in Topographical Maps

3D, Araldûr, Calidar, Patreon, topographical maps 0

You may already know that my Calidar maps are created from a 3D terrain model (Digital Elevation Model) that I sculpted back in 2013-2014.

Well, since then I have been wrestling with how to use this to its best effect. The main problem I’ve had is that I always thought that using a perspective would require the map to be tilted at an angle, thereby giving depth, but also turning a flat rectangle into more of a trapezoid — getting smaller as it stretches into the distance.

This looks great, and Bruce has used some of these 3D renders for blog posts in the past. The trouble, though, is that it’s not really a map any more: the scale at the top of the image (at the back of the tilted terrain) will unavoidably be much smaller than the terrain at the bottom (front).

Or so I thought.

Today while setting up last week’s Osriel map as a 3D terrain, I had somewhat of an epiphany: couldn’t the 3D render be stretched back into the shape of the original map, and yet retain some of the perspective?

It turns out the answer is yes!

Now I’m not saying that this should replace the top-down format. You can see why, even in this small preview: the perspective mountains hide lakes and rivers in their midst completely, and the exact locations of the mountains become a bit vague and undefined.

But at the same time, my main worry has evaporated, because the close match in terrain means that this remains very much a map, with as constant a scale as you get with a regular map.

This could be a really fun variation, and I think I’ll put it into practice for thematic maps from now on.

I forgot to mention the one downside to this: it took about 5 hours to render the terrain for the full Osriel map. So I won’t be using this technique when I’m in a hurry!

What do you think? Do you like the perspective mountains in the preview above?

Edit: Here are the full maps in both formats for you to check out. Click for the full size maps.

: Topographic Map of the Republic of Osriel with Perspective effect

: Topographic Map of the Republic of Osriel, Great Caldera, Calidar. This map was created with the support of Patreon patrons.

28 May 2017

Osriel Topographical Map (Patreon)

Calidar, Osriel, Patreon, topographical maps 0

Here’s the latest map I’ve produced for my Calidar mapping Patreon: the Republic of Osriel.

Osriel Topographical Map — Topographic Map of the Republic of Osriel, Great Caldera, Calidar. This map was created with the support of Patreon patrons.

Brought to you with the support of these wonderful people. Here’s the Honour Roll:

Jesper Andersen, Azure Admiral, David Chart, Francesco Defferrari, Christopher Desmond, Joshua DiCicco, Paul Dupuis, Bruce Heard, Brian Isikoff, Eric Jackson, Grégory Le Louette, Wendy Lord, Christopher Maikisch, Harri Mäki, Nate Mangion, Carl Matthews, Gordon McCormick, Anna B Meyer, Sverre Midthjell, Hervé Musseau, Wolfgang Neckel, Cameron Paine, Thomas Pizard, Dave Poppel, Friedrich Röhrer-Ertl, Mirco Sadrinna, Jeff Scifert, Robert Slaughter, Erin D Smale, Joshua Starnes, Kurt Stoffer, Maciej Szydłowski, Sandra Tait, Douglas Zielsdorf.

After spending the last months in the arid Emirates of Narwan, we’re now moving north into the much more fertile lands of the Republic of Osriel.

I wrote a bit more about this in my Patreon post, so please check it out over there.

You may also be interested to hear about Bruce Heard’s upcoming Kickstarter, for his third Calidar book: Dreams of Aerie. As with last time’s Beyond the Skies, the Kickstarter is needed to provide funding to illustrate the book — which is already written, and currently going through editing. I will be doing the layout once again, so I’m going to be pretty busy over the next few months.

The campaign is due to kick off on 14th June, but you can see the preview here.

1 May 2017

Narwan, 10 miles per hex Full Map (Patreon)

Calidar, hex maps, Narwan, Patreon, trail maps 0

I have now been producing new maps for Bruce Heard’s World of Calidar for six months. With the support of close to forty patrons, I have created a total of eight new maps. It’s no exaggeration to say that none of this would exist without these wonderful people, and I’d like to take a moment to thank all of you, as well as everyone who has helped spread the word about my projects.

Links to all eight maps are at the bottom of this post. But first, here is the eighth one:

This map combines all of the hex maps for Narwan into a full poster map. In fact, it’s really a double poster map, as its intended printed size is 28″ x 44″, or double the size of Meryath’s poster map. Appearing here for the first time is the Emirate of Taiffah in its entirety, as well as the Ras-Meliyah Dread Lands and extensive border-regions of Osriel and a little of Phrydias.

It has been a labour of love from start to finish. It involved a lot more terrain design than I am used to — most of my maps up until now have been remaking or adapting existing maps, after all. Bruce was a great help in this regard, providing feedback as well as extra labels and other things to place on the map even while in the midst of his own Calidar project, the upcoming Dreams of Aeries adventure.

That said, there will undoubtedly be more revisions to this map in the future, whenever Bruce decides to take the next Calidar book to the Emirates of Narwan.

Finally, here is the Honour Roll for this map:

Jesper Andersen, Azure Admiral, Trentin Bergeron, David Chart, Francesco Defferrari, Christopher Desmond, Joshua DiCicco, Paul Dupuis, Bruce Heard, Brian Isikoff, Eric Jackson, Grégory Le Louette, Wendy Lord, Christopher Maikisch, Harri Mäki, Nate Mangion, Carl Matthews, Gordon McCormick, Anna B Meyer, Sverre Midthjell, Hervé Musseau, Wolfgang Neckel, Cameron Paine, Thomas Pizard, Dave Poppel, Friedrich Röhrer-Ertl, Mirco Sadrinna, Jeff Scifert, Robert Slaughter, Erin D Smale, Joshua Starnes, Kurt Stoffer, Sandra Tait, Douglas Zielsdorf.

I have great plans for the next six months of maps. I can’t wait to share them with you!

In the meantime, here are the articles for the other seven maps I’ve produced so far: