Zion Canyon Commission map

[Gamerprinter]

Talk about one of the toughest mapping terrains I've ever had to work with, I am beginning my first of seven maps for Dog House Rulez, Sidewinder - Recoiled, old west RPG - a regional map of the Zion Canyon area in south central Utah.

Zion canyon is a fabulous canyon varying from a half mile wide to just a few feet wide and 800 feet to 2500 feet deep surrounded by sandstone mountains, mesas, some of them with canyons, slot canyons, box canyons cut into them, yet hundreds of feet over the main larger canyon itself.

This is the hand-drawn portion of the mountains and canyon cliffs only. I have yet to place the north fork, west fork and south fork of the Virgin River, place bevels and shadows for the various land forms, both conifer and cottonwood trees groves and much more. Of the seven maps, this is the most complex.

This map will take me most of this week to create, the other six should be done in the next week - I've got a January 31st deadline to meet.

The other six will be closer in sections of the canyon area, plus encounter scale maps of hidden canyons, caves and slot canyons. At least one of the canyons and caves is completely fictional though matches the terrain, and for all intents and purposes could be a hidden actual place, by looks of it. At least the towns of Springdale and Grafton (ghost town) need to be created as well.

I've got the rough draft of the adventure as well, which describes the encounter scale areas I need to create, but it looks like a fun adventure!

This map, to the best of my ability matches actual terrain, however. I used a Google topographical map for reference in the creation of it.

Complex, yet still fun. I'll keep posting as I get updates to this thing.

GP

[Rythal]

very nice start!

is the style going to be similar to the under thieves guild?

[Gamerprinter]

I think it will be very similiar, yes, but more of an wilderness style than the Under Street Guild which is mostly urban. I will have a couple small old west towns, but they will be minimal in structures - town hall, church/school, a couple rows of long buildings - though every other map will be canyons, caves, boxed mesas, etc.

What makes this regional map really tough is its an actual place so I can't just make stuff up, I have to match some really tough terrain fairly accurately. It makes it tougher than a similiar fantasy terrain.

GP

[Gamerprinter]

Experimenting with colors and bevels - still lots to do. I think its working. When I add the forests and river, it should look lots better. When I add the parchment paper background, it will change the colors a bit.

GP

[su_liam]

Gettin' raht purdy there!

[Gamerprinter]

Thankee, pardner!

I might throw in a border, perhaps a square grid, definitely need a scale bar, and I might change some fonts, but I'm not putting in a forest. This map works quite well for my needs and I have to work on the other maps. So this is just about done. I told you the parchment would change the colors a bit and so it has.

Oh, I scavenged my cow's skull compass rose from my Superstition Valley map - my first challenge win, back in November 2007.

GP

[Steel General]

I think this came out quite nicely GP.

[hubbardmapworks]

your colors look really good. this post got me looking around that area.
i found some imagery that so closely matches your hues. (just darker)
nice work. i like the fonts, and the skull cardinal.
Zion_Canyon_4.png

[Gamerprinter]

Thanks, Hub - oh and post some larger Arc GIS/GIMP maps - I want to throw some Rep at you!

Incidentally, the fonts used: Zion Canyon uses a font called Willow, which is essentially the title font used for the movie, Willow. Found the font at my favorite: http://www.acidfonts.com - free fonts are alphabetized at the top of the page, bottom fonts are paid-for fonts. I use the free fonts, there.

The other font, I think came with Xara Xtreme Pro 4.0, which is called Bandicoot - a classic looking font, better than Helevitica or Century Schoolbook, but the same style, though more square, I think.

GP

[hubbardmapworks]

you know, i have this other nice map (demographic map for client) that i had to use gimp alot on to finish off, but i cant get a low enough file size to post here. they fall apart when lowering dpi. (i will keep trying though)
this seems to big my biggest challenge in sharing my work online, or even getting images that even closely look as good as the map itself when printed on my printer with nice paper.
i would have posted many maps on this forum already if it werent for this predicament.
the minute detail and amount of data in the maps slows the post-editing process so much, i crash adobe like nothing else when i reach a 80 MB file or bigger. and my 300 MB arcscene stuff? forget about it...
i find gimp handles them better for digital printing, and still using adobe or just my printer interface for hardcopy.
can i post just a picture of me holding my finished maps?? and still get some rep?