Western United States

[johnvanvliet]

Here is a geo referenced dem that Qgis can read
16 bit signed ( every tone is 0.5 Meters )

 Group = Mapping
     ProjectionName     = SimpleCylindrical
     CenterLongitude    = 0.0 <degrees>
     TargetName         = Earth
     EquatorialRadius   = 6378100.0 <meters>
     PolarRadius        = 6356800.0 <meters>
     LatitudeType       = Planetocentric
     LongitudeDirection = PositiveEast
     LongitudeDomain    = 180 <degrees>
     MinimumLatitude    = 10.0
     MaximumLatitude    = 85.0
     MinimumLongitude   = -170.0
     MaximumLongitude   = -12.0
     UpperLeftCornerX   = -18924203.653647 <meters>
     UpperLeftCornerY   = 9462101.8268233 <meters>
     PixelResolution    = 463.82852092271 <meters/pixel>
     Scale              = 240.0 <pixels/degree>
   End_Group
 End_Object

in isis3 "cub" format . gdal in Qgis has no problems with this image type
but it is 1.3 Gig image unzipped
-- g-drive
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6Z...ew?usp=sharing

[snodsy]

John trying to Get the QGIS to make a hill shade of the DEM, taking a while I may need to do it overnight, large file. But at least I was able to get it into QGIS. I took the first one you sent, inverted it and then made a hill shade of that one, should be helpful, I see what you guys are talking about on the Sierra Nevada's. Thanks for taking the time to send the DEM's.

Here's the base art I used as a template. I took Tom Patterson's (NPS cartographer) colored hill shade and overlayed a state & capital vector file over it, then scaled (85% horizontal), skewed 30, and rotated -30 all in Adobe Illustrator to make the perspective for my base art, I then put in all the Elevations of the capitals and the National Park elements that I wanted to highlight and saved as a jpeg base for the photoshop drawing I started.

I've found a continental divide elevation,that I'll use this to define the heights that I plan on drawing the mountain ranges on at least for the Continental divide - this should give me a good reference for the other elevations.

I'm gathering all the Hillshade NPS maps of the areas as well to help. I'm scared and intimidated now, and I may have to have a sick day at work to attack this thing.

[johnvanvliet]

no problem

i already had the data on one of the 4 TB drives i use for planetary image data
and north America area was already cropped off the the whole earth data , for use in something else


when i say i work with BIG images i am not exaggerating

and this less that 1/4 crop is ( 37920x 18000 px. )

[snodsy]

Here's an update with the Continental Divide, which will help me place the mountains better, the Cities, States and the placement of the elements I plan to include on the map, now on to the actual drawing, starting over and trying to do a better job on the line work.

[Chashio]

Wow, that's a good map all by itself, snodsy, with just the points and borders to see where things are. Like a good clear touristing reference (minus how to get there, of course). If you're including all of those points in your drawing then I'm extra impressed. If you should want some other sources of inspiration (or you may have already found them) I know of a few good oblique and panoramic maps of those regions. They might not be from the same angle but it may give you some further ideas for rendering them. ?

[snodsy]

This mornings update, Northern Continental Divide - Glacier to Rocky Mtn NP (Denver), with Arches and Tetons. Still not happy with line work.

[Chashio]

Looks good. I know you mentioned it before, but I can't figure out what it is about the line work that is bugging you. Maybe just try a different style of line art or a different tool (like a pencil) and see if you like that better? I don't know.

[snodsy]

todays update, not sure if scale is too small, will have lots of shadown/highlights to do.

[snodsy]

80% of line work done, hopefully lots of coloring this weekend

[foremost]

I think the shadowing and such will be very important, because right now, zooming in on the line work can be a little confusing. That being said, I like the state-boundary lines and labels and such... the font you used if perfect for this project. Kudos for attempting to map a real place, as that presents some unique difficulties.