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Thread: Introduction and THANK YOU

  1. #1

    Post Introduction and THANK YOU

    The name's Yvain Wintersong (or occasionally just Scott), Special Cartographer for the Micronational Cartography Society. We've been doing map simulations for simulated countries of various stripes for the past decade or so.

    I want to shoot myself for doing cartography so long without knowing this place existed. I've been lurking here for about a year playing catch-up, and I'm finally getting myself up to a standard where I'm not embarrassed showing my face here every so often

    So this post is just a big THANK YOU to everyone who has ever posted a tutorial. Special thanks to Pyrandon, Jezelf, Ravells, Rob, and whoever posted that one Photoshop mountains brush (you know, the awesome one).

    Some of my work:

    Micras political map (warning: large file)
    Micras physical map (warning: large file)
    Republic of Shireroth (in the northwest of Micras)
    City of Hyfrost (you can find it on the Micras political map if you have a lot of free time)
    City of Kamalshahr (ditto, most of the credit on this one goes to my friend Hesam)
    Last edited by Yvain Wintersong; 11-30-2008 at 05:01 PM.

  2. #2
    Community Leader Facebook Connected Ascension's Avatar
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    Some nice maps there, Kamalshahr is outstanding.
    If the radiance of a thousand suns was to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the Mighty One...I am become Death, the Shatterer of worlds.
    -J. Robert Oppenheimer (father of the atom bomb) alluding to The Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 11, Verse 32)


    My Maps ~ My Brushes ~ My Tutorials ~ My Challenge Maps

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    Community Leader Gandwarf's Avatar
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    These are some very cool maps, that must have taken a lot of time to create! The world map is so large and pleasing to the eye... wow!

    And I have to agree with Ascension, Kamalshahr is outstanding (but hey, I am a city kind of person).

    The only critique I can think of right now: the font on the Micras physical map is nothing to write home about. It does the job, but there are better fonts out there I think.

    Anyway, repped!
    Last edited by Gandwarf; 11-30-2008 at 06:06 PM.
    Check out my City Designer 3 tutorials. See my fantasy (city) maps in this thread.

    Gandwarf has fallen into shadow...

  4. #4

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    Thank you for the nice comments. I'll tell Hesam that people liked Kamalshahr.

    If you don't like the Micras font, please recommend a better one for me. Not all the countries on the Micras map are fantasy, so I don't want something too medieval. It's supposed to look modern and professional. I tried Frutiger, but didn't like it much. What other good (free) ones are out there?

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    Community Leader Gandwarf's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Yvain Wintersong View Post
    Thank you for the nice comments. I'll tell Hesam that people liked Kamalshahr.

    If you don't like the Micras font, please recommend a better one for me. Not all the countries on the Micras map are fantasy, so I don't want something too medieval. It's supposed to look modern and professional. I tried Frutiger, but didn't like it much. What other good (free) ones are out there?
    It's not that I don't like it! It does its job as I said, its just a bit too standard for my taste. I can understand you don't want to make it too medieval... in light of that maybe the font isn't such a "bad" pick.

    I can't give you any specific advice on fonts unfortunately, I only use a couple myself that I found over the years (and all definitely have a fantasy/medieval feel).

    Don't let this bit of nitpicking distract of the coolness of your maps
    Check out my City Designer 3 tutorials. See my fantasy (city) maps in this thread.

    Gandwarf has fallen into shadow...

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  7. #7

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    Quote Originally Posted by Yvain Wintersong View Post
    The name's Yvain Wintersong (or occasionally just Scott), Special Cartographer for the Micronational Cartography Society. We've been doing map simulations for simulated countries of various stripes for the past decade or so.
    Oh, hi Yvain.
    We have the same basics. I´m from the german micronation-comunity and accidental the current cartographer for the OIK.

    Welcome to the guild!

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    Guild Novice The Good Doctor's Avatar
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    Post Micronational Maps

    Very nice work. I had never heard of the Micronational before. Some of the place names are a hoot! "Northern Absentia" and the classic "Monty Crisco" to name a few!

    The Kamalshahr map is intriguing. Obviously reduced in file size for posting. I would have loved a closer inspection. What program(s) did you use to generate your work?

  9. #9

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    Ruedy! A pleasure to meet a colleague here! I've never seen the OIK before, but from the few things I can find there without knowing German, it looks beautiful.

    Does OIK have an associated universe and astronomy society? MCS and another English cartography society are thinking of joining a common universe simulation, in which our planets are in the same galaxy (possibly even solar system, we're still debating that). Would the Germans be interested in working with us on that?

    Doctor, my friend Hesam made this original in MSPaint (yes, MSPaint; he's that hard-core). I touched it up in Photoshop and a little PaintShop based mostly on Pyradon's city tutorials.

    There is a larger version, but it looks awful. Because the Paint file doesn't have layers, I couldn't figure out how to get rid of the text, and I ended up just zooming out to a degree where no one could tell there were mangled, half-erased labels everywhere. Is there any way to remove the text in preparation for more complicated graphics work other than manually?

    For example, is there anything similar to PaintShopPro's "select color range" in Photoshop? Photoshop has its own "select color range" command, but it seems very different (based on midtones and highlights and works off the flat image instead of just one layer). I'm looking for something where I could say "RGB 120-150-80: select every pixel with that color with a tolerance of 10 in Layer 2". Can Photoshop do that?

    What about some sort of scratch remover where I could define everything of the text color as "scratches". I'm sort of new to Photoshop so I don't know these things.

  10. #10

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    Quote Originally Posted by Yvain Wintersong View Post
    Ruedy! A pleasure to meet a colleague here! I've never seen the OIK before, but from the few things I can find there without knowing German, it looks beautiful.

    Does OIK have an associated universe and astronomy society? MCS and another English cartography society are thinking of joining a common universe simulation, in which our planets are in the same galaxy (possibly even solar system, we're still debating that). Would the Germans be interested in working with us on that?
    Very good ideas, but there is a big problem.
    The german micronation-community is splitted in three world-map-organizations at time.
    The OIK, the CartA and the GF.

    There are a few cross-overs, example my own nation Gran Novara (staying at CartA and OIK), but primary there ist no harmony between the organisations.
    I Think there are not many chances to join with foreign-speeched organisations, if in the community self is no cooperation.

    A few micronations from france cooporate with the germans and I know, that there are contacts to british nations too.

    But there are other options to cooperate, I think. For example, we have big Micro-olympic-games. In March 2009 we have wintergames and it could be a good start in cooperation, if some british MNs take part of it.

    (Sorry for my bad english. I understand every word, but I have no practice in articulation since I left the school.)

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