I'm missing something...

[Bohunk]

Hey guys,

I'm tryin to create atlas style maps using a cheap variation of the Sorol maps made so beautifully by Handsome Rob. Now I realize my maps will not come close but even so the maps I am creating are, for whatever reason, not looking right to me and maybe you can help me out and let me know what I may be missing. Now I know their unfinished and could use some labels and rivers, but before I get too involved in them, I want to figure out what I'm seeing or not seeing, if you get my meaning.

Thanks.

[Midgardsormr]

One thing that jumps out at me is that your coastline borders are a bit heavy. Looking at HR's maps, he uses a fine blue line, identical to his rivers, for coastlines, supplemented by a tiny bit of glow into the water.

Good on you for trying to emulate those incredible maps! You've made a good start, I think.

[mmmmmpig]

I would bet money that Handsome Rob's linework is done in a vector program. There is a possility that his stuff might actually be getting some work within a GIS as well. There is the smell of ESRI on them to me. The style is similar to the National Geo atlas. Go look at one of those and see what their styles are. Another source would be Barrington's Atlas of Greek and Roman World.

You are very much on the correct path.

[The Cartographist]

Bohunk - I like your maps.

One thing that I would offer is that you could re-do your oceans so that the depth of water is indicated in the shading used for that water, i.e. darker shades of blue for deeper water. I think that would make them look more atlas-like.

[HandsomeRob]

Hey, they look good to me.

I am using Adobe Illustrator to most of my mapping work. Using a nice little filter called "Autotrace," I trace out the coastlines, which I then run two more filters on to smooth out. First I'll add anchor points, and then I run a Round Corners filter. These two steps get rid of a lot of the sharp corners and nonsense along the coastline and give you a nicely generalized line.
If you want I have posted a tutorial on my style at http://www.conlanger.com/issue5.pdf

Thanks,
Rob

[Bohunk]

Thanks guys. Working on getting CS3 as soon as I can. Mean time I got Elements, thus what I mean by the "cheap variation" on HR's maps. I'll keep working on them and keep ya updated.

[RPMiller]

Hey, they look good to me.

I am using Adobe Illustrator to most of my mapping work. Using a nice little filter called "Autotrace," I trace out the coastlines, which I then run two more filters on to smooth out. First I'll add anchor points, and then I run a Round Corners filter. These two steps get rid of a lot of the sharp corners and nonsense along the coastline and give you a nicely generalized line.
If you want I have posted a tutorial on my style at http://www.conlanger.com/issue5.pdf

Thanks,
Rob

Repped. You deserve much more.