Atlas style test
So I was looking at some atlas maps on the forums here (namely the Torentine map), and decided to take the style for a spin in Illustrator. I'm pleased with the results so far, but I'd like to know how to make the countries have an inner glow; I know where the actual effect is, but I can't figure out how to make it follow the coastlines (if the country has one on its borders) exactly. Any help?
The scale was something I came up with in a few seconds, I don't know if it fits, or is too big or whatever.
Tell me what you think so far otherwise
Looks like a great start! Inner glow should work properly as long as all the places you want them are on their own separate layer. I'm not an Illustrator user though, so I'm not sure, but I assume its the same as PS. Good luck with this, it has great potential
I have no idea how to do it in Illustrator but here's how to do it in Photoshop...I assume it would be similar enough so that you could figure it out.
First I have the land on its own layer. On a new layer I draw a big blob of color that extends out into the ocean while the part on land follows the shape that I want. Ctrl+click on the land layer and select-inverse then hit delete...this deletes the blob out on the ocean so that the blob now has a "country" shape. Ctrl+click on this layer and on the paths tab hit "path from selection". On a new layer you stroke the path and voila, then you can dump the country layer beneath if you like.
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Yeah, I know how to do it in Photoshop, but Illustrator (frustratingly) has quite a different system, at least as far as I can tell. Selection isn't the same, as it is vector-based. I'll keep experimenting though, thanks for the tipsOriginally Posted by Ascension
I think you can still do path from selection so maybe just stroke the whole continent and then go back and hand-do the inner lines for countries.
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
Very true. I'll look more into it when I actually get to the coastlines.
So, I decided to take this style and start utilizing it for something more useful than a random map. I'm remaking my 'large overland map' from my other thread into atlas style; to use for more detailed regional maps, as it is all vector and easily scalable. I'm starting to grow fond of Illustrator
So far, the best way I've found to symbolize different natural features such as mountains are just colored regions, such as dark brown for large mountains, light brown for smaller ones and highlands, and dark green for forests. I'm thinking that I should just leave grasslands/plains as the default blueish-white color. Suggestions?
Anyways, I'm working on the Lush Expanse in the West as of right now. Most names are probably placeholders, unless I still like them when I'm finished. The scale bar is just the same scale bar from my other map, scaled up to fit the atlas map's size. I decided on 300 km instead of the 250 that is in my other thread; it seems to fit better. But I still need a more educated opinion on the scale.
CC is appreciated, as always
I thought Illustrator had "layer effects" That would just be an inner glow?
In Inkscape I'd create a clone with no fill and a thick blurred line then apply a cloned clipping mask. No idea if any of that applies to Illustrator, tho.
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Yes, but my problem is making the glow follow the coastline exactly. A clipping mask doesn't work, as the rest of the layer is still there, just hidden. I'm fresh out of ideas :/
Assuming you have a "continent" that is made up of "nations", and the nations are closed paths. For any given nation, some of the border is coastline, some is not. If I understand what you are asking, you are wondering how to get an "inner glow" on only part of the nation's closed path.
Answer: you can't.
It turns out, though, that this isn't really what you are trying to do. You are trying to put an inner glow on the coastline.
So, make a coastline path:
Select all the nations on the coast.
Duplicate them in place.
Put them on a new layer (on top of the nation layer).
Lock everything but the new layer.
Take the scissors or knife tool and start cutting the duplicated nation objects apart, separating the "coastline" part of their path from the non-coastline part. Delete all the non-coastline parts.
Now start joining the coastline segments together until you have a single enclosed shape for the coastline of the entire continent.
Apply the inner glow to this new path.
Rereading, it looks like you might have the opposite issue of what I described: you have a single coastline object and want to know how to build closed paths for the nations that overlap the coastline.
Do the same thing, sort of in reverse:
Duplicate the coastline in place.
Move the duplicate to a new layer.
Lock everything else.
Assuming you have loose lines that make up your national borders, where these intersect the coastline, use the knife or scissors to cut the coastline.
You will now join this coastline path to the national borders to make a closed path for the nation, then give that path an inner glow.
Important: Each of these loose lines that make up national borders will need to be cloned (and possibly cut), because a line that defines the border between two nations has to be used twice: once for one nation, once for the other. Since a single line can't do that, you need to duplicate the line in place, using one copy for one nation, one for the other.
Note the mental leap that is needed in both of these cases: it is very common in vector drawing for something that looks like one line to actually be several copies of the same line, layered on top of each other.
Another corollary: When doing this kind of work, it is important to get your shapes right at the start. Once you start doing all this line cloning, you really don't want to start editing the path of the line that was cloned.
Last edited by Wordman; 12-21-2009 at 01:36 PM.
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