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Prettiest map out there and map design

ThinkerX

Myth Weaver
My only issue with maps is that once drawn, they become pesky. The map shows the travel from her to there is 3 weeks, but the story kinds of needs that to be 3 days....that's were a lot of creativity takes place.
And that is one of the major reasons I spent half of 2022 doing the rewrite lite of book 5 in my 'Empire' series.
 

Malik

Auror
My favorite is definitely my own. I've seen prettier, but I'm biased. I have a 36x48" version framed above my desk for quick reference.

The new series has some really cool maps that look like military GIS workups replete with elastic cloud processing and all the correct markings. During the clearance process, I had to convince the Pentagon that it wasn't DoD material, even giving them the exact coordinates on the Earth that I pulled it from and the site where I licensed it. Boy, did my security manager have words for me. Loud ones, too. I need to bring him onstage at the launch party and get everyone to cheer for him. He doesn't get paid enough.

FOS-May-2022-1024x545.jpg


Map-Parchment-Low-Res.png
 

Demesnedenoir

Myth Weaver
Classic styling and clean design, two thumbs up!

Yeah, I had an office with a canvas map once, then I realized I never write there... and my wife won't let me put maps all over the house, damn it. I have an approximately 2'x4' map of the world at 300dpi in photoshop, which allows me to zoom into some reasonably tight places. But with the insane number of layers built up going for a pseudo-satellite visual, the file got huge, and it can hammer my old desktop.

Someday I want to do the whole thing in a hand-drawn style again, but might hire it done. Not enough time to do it myself.
 

pmmg

Myth Weaver
Malik's office is much cooler than mine. May map is a work in progress, so well see... And yes, I want it in the parchment style for inserts into the book.

Not sure if I will go hand drawn, but I would prefer it.
 
Nice map Malik, gives me Tolkien vibes for sure, hope that’s no offence. That would be nice to get my own framed, if I can ever be bothered to draw it up properly. My choice of programmes would be working in Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop working between the two. Ideally Illustrator, because working with vectors allows you to make it as big or small as you like!
 

pmmg

Myth Weaver
I bet Inkarnate is easier than illustrator and photoshop.

I read one beta for a friend once and when I asked them about the map, they just described it to me. I had to draw it myself...not the way to go ;)
 

Malik

Auror
>A multispectral & thermal composite overview of the AOI, with the initial SR mission overlay
And I like how military specialists sometimes imagine they are speaking English. :unsure:;):unsure:
There's a lot of that in the book, but it gets explained as it goes . . . unless it's specifically there to make you feel every bit as lost as the character hearing it.
 
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