Mars Map (redone)

[jshoer]

A suggestion (and your free to take it or leave it or do anything you want with it): if your aim is to make it look like a habitable world with seas and rivers, you might wanna try eroding the landscape a bit before you start colouring it in (Wilbur might help there). At the moment it looks like a parched, pockmarked world someone just dumped a few billion gallons of water on. Everything is filled in nicely, but there's no sign of a history of sedimentation, erosion, ... as you would have in an actual river-and-ocean world.

The scientific consensus at this point is that Mars was once a river-and-ocean world. It does have a history of sedimentation, erosion, and so on. The Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover has provided pretty unequivocal evidence for lots of water-influenced features. If Ilanthar used DEM data, then he's got those features already!

I think the issue you're seeing is that those features are difficult to see at the global scale of Ilanthar's map. And, in fact, every time NASA puts out a concept image of Mars in its primordial oceanic state, it looks kind of like a "pockmarked world someone just dumped a few billions gallons of water on."

[johnvanvliet]

. If Ilanthar used DEM data, then he's got those features already!

the problem is with the MOLA data

it is inferred from VERY sparse data using a spline curve fit ( i have work extensively with this data )
the hirise stereo dems and stereo pairs of CTX images is needed
this will be a while before it is near being done

the river flows and flood plains seen in the imaging data is really not in the mola dem

[Ilanthar]

By Lingon
Lol Ilanthar We should do a challenge of that, maps that look like animals…

Something like "there's an animal hidden in this map, would you find it?" ?

A before/after comparison would be interesting for me!

Sure, here's a quick explanation of my current work :
A piece of the base map
start.jpg
I just want the topography, so I removed the rest
clean.jpg
I turn it in grayscale
gray.jpg
Then a layer for the color of the water, and three other for the coastlines... My current test on a eighth of the map !
ezmars fe.jpg
What do you think of the coastlines?

[Ilanthar]

I expand the colors and tried a few things. And I'm partly satisfied, the desert is probably too blank and to bright and I don't know if this is really working without getting further in the details anyway.
ezmars fe.jpg

[Ilanthar]

Many things are posing problems right now with this map... First, the source map is not using a gradiant from dark to bright for the altitude, hence a problem. Second, with this level of details, I realize than many rivers are just having impossible paths...
My first try, with no corrections.
ezmars fev1.jpg
Then I tried to correct the first issue by almost eliminating the constrast of the different colors, in PSP7.
ezmars fev2.jpg
An other try with a comparable Inkscape filter.
ezmars fev3.jpg
Which one do you find better?

Concerning the second problem, I think I'll probably change as much as I can the course of the problematic rivers...
And I know I need to rework the snow. It's not at all what I want.

[Lingon]

Something like "there's an animal hidden in this map, would you find it?" ?

Hehehe, exactly Thanks for the explanation! I like to see other people's processes, there's always something to pick up, and understanding what you're doing makes it easier to comment too! I love the colors you're putting on this, very Ilanthar-esque Regarding the three versions, I like the last one, it's subtler in the shading which I think is what a map of this size and detail level needs. Will be very interesting to see the rivers placed.

[Ilanthar]

Thanks! The third had my preference too, but I wasn't sure if it wasn't too much.
I reworked the snow and think it's better now.
I've also done a few tests about rivers, cities and borders. The placements aren't correct, I'm just testing to see how it looks. I think I'll need the details and infos from the original map to do it right anyway.

ezmars fev3.jpg

[Ilanthar]

Some more tests about fonts/labels, an exploration camp (hedekas, near mount olympus) and a portal in the "mist" (SE of Sayansk).
ezmars su.jpg
I'm currently preparing the rest of the base map.

[smiler127]

As always you never fail to inspire! I can't wait to see how this project unfolds and learn from it!

[Lingon]

Östersund The new additions look great, nice fonts, lovely borders, cool symbols. The city dots could perhaps be a touch bigger, and less 3D-ish to fit more with the style of the borders? I'd also prefer less faint rivers, closer to the coastlines in thickness, though I guess that depends on how much other stuff you're going to put into the map and how important the rivers are.