July 2012 Challenge Entry: The New Galilean Commwealth

Here is my take on clouds. 'Space Clouds' aka Nebula.

Source Image: Bow Tie Nebula (NGC 40)
Attachment 46766

Here's what I've got working with the above image for a little while.

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Anyway, here's a very little bit of back-story;
- The New Galilean Commonwealth has 40 member states located throughout the Caldwell Isles.
- The Caldwell Isles are located within the Cepheus Ocean at about 32 degrees south of the equator on the planet Galilea.
- The map is set in the year 1788 OC (Old Commonwealth)
- The Founder of the Old Commonwealth was W.F. Herschel, otherwise famous for inventing the 'Galilean Bow Tie', a cocktail popular amongst the elite within Galilean society.
- Around the rim of the Copernican Crater are 12 observatories, each maintained by one of 12 astronomical schools.

Well, that's what I have for now. Hopefully I'll have some more updates in the next couple of days. For both the map and the back-story, as I equally enjoy creating both.

great base image, which translates into a very interesting coastline

That's a cool picture, hope you have a chance to finish what you are making with it.

Well here's what I have so far. It's still not finished and there are many things I'm not quite happy with but I thought I had better get it online before the challenge closes.

40 member states and their capitals labelled as well as the central administrative territory (Copernicus).

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I'm really not to pleased with the title. Also, whilst I like the design of the flag for the New Galilean Commonwealth I'm not to sure if they really go with the rest of the map.

If I had of found out about this challenge earlier I may have been able to finish it to a satisfactory standard. Ah well.

I had planned to have towns, cities, roads, points of interest, etc.

If I get time before the challenge closes I may at least add in the points of towns and cities.

Looking good, a few more details will make a big difference.

Lovely looking shape, very unusual!

Here's a slight update. I posterizesd the under-water details to help show depth. I also realised I had somehow combined two regions into one, so a colour shuffle was required after the split. There was also some experimentation with the region borders and given the time constraints I'm happy with the outcome.

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I'm still looking for an alternate method to display the title and flags as well as some sort of border. I think I will leave the towns and lesser cities out as I won't have time to name them anyway.

Well, here's another update. I decided this was a better way of showing the height info.

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I'm not sure that I'll be able to get any more updates and fixes in.

Here is what I believe will be my final update. Though maybe not. I keep finding things I can quickly fix or add.

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Excellent!!