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Thread: Desperately seeking a cartographer to make a magic map

  1. #1

    Help Desperately seeking a cartographer to make a magic map

    Good Morning
    My name is Chris and I live in the state of Maine in the US. I am a dad of two. My oldest having just turned thirty this year and long since moved out on his own. We keep in touch and see him semi regularly, but honestly our love of fiction and in particular, Stephen King and Brandon Sanderson keeps us talking all the time. It has become a bit of a tradition that our Christmas and birthday gifts for each other are related to these stories and characters that we share a love for. I have gone so far as to write a addendum chapter to the Gunslinger stories along with a signed hardcover of the same book. We really look forward to giving each other these gifts and try to outdo one another with each year’s gift.
    One of our favorite stories by Stephen King is the Talisman. Which he coauthored with Pater Straub. If you are not familiar with it, the story revolves around the adventures of Jack, a twelve-year-old boy and his journey across the North American continent to bring home the all-curing Talisman to save his sick mother and the world. It is however we find to be more of a multiverse that hangs in the balance. I am hoping to give my son a map of Jacks travels as he crosses the US. But this is where it gets a little sticky. Jack travels in the United States of 1984 as well as another dimensional US that he can “flip” to at will. These two version of the US are extremely similar in geography with some minor differences. One of which being size. Although the authors never say exactly how much smaller the territories are I think they are about half the size of the continental US.
    In terms of a map, I am looking to present both maps on a single plane or single sheet of paper. Representing the Territories and the US in different inks visible under different spectrums of light. I was also thinking of a third, or middle map that shows the blurring of the two maps as a sort of transition between the two dimensions. I am aware that the middle transition map may muddy the waters a bit so if it cannot be done I am willing to skip this step, but I honestly would love to have it if possible. I can make the display lighting system if necessary, I would just need to the wavelengths of light needed. The maps do not need to be clear and distinct as separate maps. That is to say, slightly seeing each map while the primary viewing map is clearest is actually great.
    So that is what I am looking to do and honestly, I have no idea if it is possible. I have reached out to several cartographers via Etsy and although they think it is a very cool idea, they are equally baffled as to where to start. I have also reached out to some ink companies for help but have gotten no responses. I hope I have presented my ideas clearly but if I haven’t and you have questions, please respond in the forum post. I cannot be directly messaged yet as I am a new member here. So if you have any ideas or if you are interested in taking on this project please let me know and I thank you for taking the time to read this lengthy post.

  2. #2
    Administrator waldronate's Avatar
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    You're looking for something like the old red/blue 3D glasses effect? That is, you see the blue image through the red lens and the red image through the blue lens, but when you look at the page without the glasses then everything is sort of blurry? You can get the same separation of images with well-chosen red and blue LED lighting as you describe here instead of filters. Plus, you can also add black or gray for things that don't change at all between images to increase the impact. The classic fluorescing "invisible" ink shifts an illumination wavelength from UV to somewhere in the visible range. There are various UV inks with best spectral response at different wavelengths, but there is a tendency to overlap.
    The basic idea there is to use two process inks with well-separated reflectance and control either the illumination or filter the visible image to only get one image or the other. This can be done with something like a child's "spy" light to see UV inks only where illuminated or a "magnifying glass" with the appropriate filter.

    Another option might be lenticular sheets where the underlying images are arranged in alternating stripes of a frequency appropriate to the lenticular sheet used and a lenticular overlay. You would see a different image depending on your viewing angle. However, fine details tend to get lost and you need a solid printing process to keep the images aligned under the sheet.

  3. #3

    Default Hi There

    Just a friendly reply to get my access activated for private messaging. I'm also looking for a map maker to help me with a project.

    Cheers!

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