TORENTINE: Political Map

[a2area]

Well I finally finished this one! The WIP thread for this is at Torentine Empire: my li'l corner of a fictional world but basically, the entire map is built in Adobe Illustrator (CS3) and then pasted into Photoshop in groupings of layers where i apply various filters and layer some subtle effects in to make it look more polished. I especially like the easy mask-ability of Photoshop. I made good use of graphic styles in illustrator to get train tracks etc and i use some free fonts for some of the little icons. All of the coats of arms are built in illustrator as well. The globe is taken from the original fractal file of the planet and then shaded.

This is the first in a project of about 4 (maybe more) atlas style maps which will focus on this fictional place. The next will either be a land use, resource, topography and relief map (all wrapped into one if i can manage it) or a large city map of the imperial capital surrounded by some smaller city insets.

Something is up with the site tonight and i can't seem to view the map i uploaded (had troubles). You can see it at the following link until i can get it uploaded properly:
http://www.completehandyman.org/bria...ICAL_FINAL.jpg

[Xyll]

That is pretty amazing really great work

[Sapiento]

Excellent!

[Locution]

This is beyond words...

[Daelin]

Wow, this is amazing. It has everything you would expect from a real-world professional map, only it's a fantasy world. Superb job.

The legend is awesome. And the globe thing in the upper left corner is intriguing.

[Steel General]

Beautifully executed!

[Ilwan]

Heiliger Bimbam, as germans say. This is incredibly well done. Illustrator maps are seldom here and this one makes me want to learn it better.

[torstan]

Excellent map. Well done.

[Ramah]

Very nice map. Very professional looking.

[a2area]

Heiliger Bimbam, as germans say. This is incredibly well done. Illustrator maps are seldom here and this one makes me want to learn it better.

Thanks! I like to layout/keep the master map in illustrator because of it's precision and the flexibility of points and curves as opposed to pixels makes it easy to change. I would find it difficult to actually output the map from illustrator with results this polished although it can most likely be done.

Masking in photoshop is a breeze compared to illustrator in my opinion and makes it easier to get a nice finished product.