Caterpillar mountains help

[ChickPea]

I'm not an Inkscape user, but I believe it'll allow you to use pattern brushes which is how I did my vector hachure brush set.

Essentially, I created a bunch of small illustrations that mimicked a section of hachure elevations, then used it as the base for a pattern. Then you just apply the hachure pattern you want to the stroke.

Here's a thread about my set: https://www.cartographersguild.com/s...ad.php?t=39622

Thanks for the comment.

I'm guessing you mean 'Pattern along path'? Inkscape doesn't use brushes the way Photoshop, Illustrator, or even Affinity Designer, does, but you can fake it somewhat with other tools. I used Pattern Along Path to create what I had in the first post in the thread. My 'pattern' was essentially a few vertical lines all of the same size. I drew a contour line, then applied the pattern, and you can see the results in my first comment. It's really easy to do this, and it works pretty well.

This guy has great inkscape tutorials, and I think I remember one of them being something like Alexander described, so it may be worthwhile to sift thought his channel a bit and you may find something to help you.

I used to watch that guy's channel fairly regularly, though I drifted away from it a while back. It's a fantastic resource for learning Inkscape though, and I'd recommend it to anyone who wants to get more familiar with the software.



I've been working on a challenge map, so haven't really looked at this map for a few weeks, but I've been thinking about the pattern thing, and tried a few experiments tonight, just to see how they turned out. I threw together a pic of a few things I tried.



The first pic (top left) is just a repeat of what I have in my map in the first post. Create a pattern of simple tapered vertical lines, then apply this via Pattern Along Path along contour line. Very quick and easy.

The second (top right) pic is with variable line lengths. The obvious problem is that the lines don't match up in the inner contours. There doesn't seem to be any way to offset where the pattern starts without leaving a gap at the start. Also, as the contours get smaller, there will likely be an issue if the pattern is too 'long'.

The third pic (bottom left) is an experiment with the Interpolate effect. In the first batch I tried, I changed the shape of the lines, so that they go from (slightly) facing left to right, then used Interpolate to fill in the middle lines. Afterwards, I bent the shape to fit my contour. For the 2nd batch, I used the slightly right-facing line from the first batch as the start path, then created a new end path. This 2nd batch didn't work so well. There were lines in the middle that were so thin you could hardly see them. I replaced them and used Bend to fit the contour. Overall, this method was time consuming and the results aren't great. Might work well for one or two short sections.

Fourth pic (bottom right) uses the Bend path effect. Basically, I created a couple of variable line lengths, then used Bend to fit them to my contour. This was relatively quick and I quite like the results. Although you have to manually create the variable lines and bend them to fit, it doesn't take all that long, and you have complete control over what goes where.


I'm not sure where I'm going with this (if anywhere!) but I'd been thinking of a few things to try, but just hadn't got round to experimenting until tonight, so this is my first attempt at trying out some of my ideas. I'm not even certain if long-ish contour lines are the way to go. Other maps seem to have little circles showing the relief, and that might be my next experiment. But... thought I'd show what I'd been trying, in case it's useful to someone else.

[KMAlexander]

I think those are great experiments!

In particular, I like the two examples on the right. They feel closer to what I have seen in historical sources. My only critique is that I think the lines need to be tighter. You can see what I mean in this map from 1775 (which is fairly early for hatchures.) (It was also the source for my Zatta set.)

I found my vector sets worked the best with shorter paths, as well. So I would use multiple paths to complete a "section" of elevation.

[Falconius]

I gotta say, I don't see the "obvious" problem in number the second I agree with Alexander, I like both sets on the right.

Perhaps you should try doing some broken line hatches like you can see in Alexander's example? They may be more pleasing to you.

[ChickPea]

Thanks guys, really appreciate the feedback.

Last night's effort was a bit thrown together, as I didn't have masses of time. I'll try again tonight and see what I can come up with. It's quite fun to experiment in trying to create something that a) looks decent, but b) doesn't take forever. I do like the idea of the broken up lines, and that is pretty easy to implement. I'll give it a bash.

[ChickPea]

Some more experimenting with broken up lines, as suggested. I also squashed them in a bit, and agree it looks much better.

I only made one relatively short pattern (you can see it at the bottom of the pic) but even with that, the results are fairly decent and don't look too repetitive, I think.

[KMAlexander]

Those are looking GREAT. Because of the bends you don't notice the repetition, and the result does look natural.

A lot of the reason I include multiples is to break up that repetition. You could easily create several patterns just using the lines from you single set and then randomly pick them on a whim. Even break up shapes into distinct strokes and swap at random. Lots of opportunities - depends on how "realistic" you want to get.

I include multiples of the same sign/symbol/object in my free sets to give the user the ability to make the maps look hand-drawn. No one mountain/city/town/forest/building/etc. looks the same on historical sources. They might be the same overall shape, but there will be enough differences from how the press would have worked to the etched plate itself enough to render each object somewhat different. More variance the more it'll "feel" real, even if it's just made with software.

[KMAlexander]

Oh, and ChickPea, if you're interested, a few of the early hachure cartographers had some interesting rules for how they used them to show elevation changes and such. Even if you don't incorporate their rules into your work, they're still fun to take a look at—they are on Wikipedia.

[ChickPea]

Thanks so much, KMA! I'm glad you like what I have so far. I'm definitely going to work on creating more patterns to add a bit of variety, so that nothing looks to same-y. I'll work on that this weekend.

Another thing that will help (which I forgot to include in my pic above) is that there's a node that allows you adjust the width of the pattern overall, so you can have longer or shorter lines just by dragging a node. Adding this into the mix will also help to randomise the look of things with no extra work.

I'll be studying the Wikipedia link for ideas. Thanks so much for that.

[Ilanthar]

Your last test is just excellent!

[jshoer]

I agree, your tests are definitely paying off!