# Mapmaking Discussion & Philosophy (WIP/Critique) > Sci-fi/Modern Mapping >  WIP - Space Archaeology Mission Map

## Abu Lafia

Hello fellow cartographers!
Inspired by Ilanthar's wonderful "Aarklash in space" map i decided to make "first contact" with space-mapping myself. Because i wanted to include different types of maps into this, i set a "space-archaeology mission" as the frame for it. 
I started with a map of a starfield / starcluster somewhere in the outer regions of a galaxy. I somewhat followed the fantastic tutorials by Greg Martin and devvv. 
This is the result so far:

The work is still in progress. The nebulae need some refinement and i will put some bigger stars in it with "flare" / glow, etc. I'm also thinking of a grid or something like that. And ofc the labelling.    

The starcluster map will be the background-map where i want to place other maps and objects/ info-texts on. 
I thought about the following:
1.) A "window" with some general information, the mission/project objectives and some technical data and a blueprint? of the research-ship, i already started to wrestle with in sketch up.

2.) 3 maps with different "zoom levels"
 - a map of the planetary system 
 - a map of/on the planet depicting the larger region. For the sketch i used Ilanthar's planet tutorial
 - a map of the planetary surface depicting the local area around the dig site.

This is how i thought the maps could be arranged. It's a first "sketch" and most of the elements, names, etc. are dummies for now:


After the experience to map under time pressure in the last lite challenge i plan to work on this project in a much slower pace, especially because i'm a total noob "in space"  :Very Happy: .  
So i would greatly appreciate any kind of suggestion, critique and comments!

Cheers,
AL

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## Azélor

I really like your starfield !

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## Abu Lafia

> I really like your starfield !


Thanks a lot Azelor, glad you like it! Since i know from your comments that you have a lot of geological and general "scientific" knowledge, i'd love to hear if there are any flaws if you could spare the time (because astrophysics and geology aren't exactly my field of expertise XD). 

So, i redid the planet (the old one was only a placeholder). I generated a heightmap with this nice Planet Map Generator. then i tweaked some hard edges (blurred it a bit) and "gradient mapped" one copy with a sandy gradient, and bumpmapped the other copy which i then "overlay" over the other (like i learned in arsheesh's eriond tutorial). This was my basic texture. I put a part of it in the bottom right of the map so you can see how it looked like. I won't take it as the third map but i'll call it the next generation dummy  :Wink: . 
Then i mapped the texture on the sphere (this time i made some different adjustments in the options menu) and voila...

A nice desert planet ... digging in the sand for traces of ancient alien civilizations will surely be a lot of fun down there  :Smile:  If you have the right coordinates...

 

The steps i made are a little tough to reconstruct in detail because of my notoriously messy workflow (but i'll give it a try soon because i personally like the outcome) 
The mapping of the labels on the sphere was a pain in the @$$ but finally it came out something similiar to what i had in mind.

Cheers,
AL

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## Azélor

The texture of the planet is good. I guess there is a large cloud cover like Venus ? I do think it's a bit too blurred.




> Since i know from your comments that you have a lot of geological and general "scientific" knowledge


That's nice of you. It's all amateur, my specialty is in politics. Well it's not like there was a professional order like there is for engineers...

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## Ilanthar

Good concept and layout  :Smile: ! I noticed that the first planet of the system seems to be but cutted on the right side. Also, I think the names on your main planet could be more legible if made brighter.
You're braver than me : I've never done a full background (just arranged/worked existent pictures)!  :Wink:

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## Abu Lafia

> The texture of the planet is good. I guess there is a large cloud cover like Venus ? I do think it's a bit too blurred.


Thanks for the feedback Azelor! Glad u like the texture. As i wrote, i'm pretty happy with it too but my problem is, it seems to be to small and not detailed enough for my purpose. The "map object on sphere" function in gimp is blurring it even more. Thats why large parts of it are looking more like clouds than planetary surface (which was not intended btw  :Wink:  ) ... although it might be the gradient making some parts too white which gives the impression of clouds. If it is downscaled it looks ok, but i'm currently working on a larger and more detailed texture. Not sure if i'll go with a generated or one by myself. Will post some WIP on this soon.




> Good concept and layout ! I noticed that the first planet of the system seems to be but cutted on the right side. Also, I think the names on your main planet could be more legible if made brighter.
> You're braver than me : I've never done a full background (just arranged/worked existent pictures)!


Haha, thanks Ilanthar, but i'm not so sure if its brave of me or rather foolish! There is still a lot to do on the starfield... As with the other parts (the small planets in the upper map are only placeholders done with a brush i found in my brush folder) it's all provisional and no element can be sure not to be drawn into a black whole the next minute. The names on the main planet indeed need some rework (as the whole thing i guess...).  I have to find out if there is a way to do something similar with vectors/paths so it won't be so distorted...

Well, there are so many things to do ... It seems that im riding the U.S.S. "Hybris" right into deep space XD

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## Azélor

You could add a texture or use the unsharp mask filter.

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## Abu Lafia

> You could add a texture or use the unsharp mask filter.


I couldn't see the forest for the trees  :Very Happy:  Thanks Azelor for the hint. 
Here is an updated version. I generated a bigger texture with the VP Planet Generator and overworked it in gimp (sharpened, bumpmapped and coloured). I also found this little trick by K1TesseraEna for mapping objects to sphere with less distortion, and it worked wonders. Finally i redid the grid and the labels, so here we go:

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## J.Edward

I'm digging this thread Abu. I love what you're doing here. I subscribed so I can watch this unfold.  :Smile:

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## Abu Lafia

Thank you J.Edward! This is good to hear. Besides the freshly cleaned up map and some updates on the labels and stuff on the starfield, as a little bonus for the new subscriber i'll throw in some lore  :Very Happy:  :
The archeological mission in the Boas System is led by the late Prof. Dr. Dr. Klaus Bohrenheimer. As a young assistant he was a member of the legendary "Laika Mission" under Major Porocheck, who accomplished the first successful space-jump and thereby opened up a new chapter in history. Bohrenheimer always had a strange weakness for 20. century anthropology, so he was overly happy that he could actually name a whole sector and a huge load of stars and planets of the new discovered "Porochenko-Cluster" after his heroes. The somewhat quirky Prof. Bohrenheimer had some trouble raising funds for his new mission, but he's sure he will find there something of enormous importance for the whole universe...

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## Korash

> ...
> The archeological mission in the Boas System is led by the late Prof. Dr. Dr. Klaus Bohrenheimer. ... but he's sure he will find there something of enormous importance for the whole universe...


I like what you got going here, and having a story to go with is even better, so I hope you take a little English lesson in the way that it is intended: helpful c&c. When you put "late" before a persons name, it generally means that that person is dead.

I am trying to get a decent workflow to create some planets of my own so I am really interested in your progress. I do have a thought about the clouds, If there is an atmosphere and rotation, there could very well be some sand storms, and quite big ones at that, that could soften up/obscure some of the features on the planet.

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## Ilanthar

Nice improvements! The labels are perfectly legible now.

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## Abu Lafia

> I like what you got going here, and having a story to go with is even better, so I hope you take a little English lesson in the way that it is intended: helpful c&c. When you put "late" before a persons name, it generally means that that person is dead.


Thank you Korash, this is really helpful!  :Very Happy:  I know that it is normally used "in retrospect" but thought it might work on living persons too...  But yeah, Bohrenheimer is still very lively in testing the nerves of the other crew-members on the long flight to the Malinowski Sector...^^ (a typical quote while "arguing" with some crew members: "... all of the sudden there seems to be another person in this §$%! spaceship who recieved a honorary doctorate from Gagarin University on Mars!?!...").




> I am trying to get a decent workflow to create some planets of my own so I am really interested in your progress. I do have a thought about the clouds, If there is an atmosphere and rotation, there could very well be some sand storms, and quite big ones at that, that could soften up/obscure some of the features on the planet.


You have a good point here. I tried to add some clouds/sand storms, but wasn't too happy with the result so far. I wanted to label some sites on the planet so i need at least some parts of the surface free from clouds that should be clearly distinct in grade of detail. I'l try to figure this out soon.

Edit:



> Nice improvements! The labels are perfectly legible now.


 Thanks Ilanthar, seems you posted while i was writing my post. I wanted some "retro-sci-fi" look and i'm quite happy with the results and think the colours fit somehow.

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## Korash

> You have a good point here. I tried to add some clouds/sand storms, but wasn't too happy with the result so far. I wanted to label some sites on the planet so i need at least some parts of the surface free from clouds that should be clearly distinct in grade of detail. I'l try to figure this out soon.


In which case, don't bother with the clouds at all. Even now we have the tech to look through cloud cover as if it wasn't there, so I am quite sure that the future tech will be able to pierce sandstorms and such. It also explains why the features are so clean.  :Very Happy:  Thanks for the info, it helps put a bit more polish on the story.  :Smile:

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## Abu Lafia

Update of recent changes. More detailed description and explanation of them will follow soon... What do you think?
Cheers,
AL

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## arsheesh

Looking really nice Abu!  Great colors, and I really like your regional map.  

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

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## Ilanthar

I agree with Arsheesh about the regional map. And I find the layout better too.

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## Abu Lafia

Damn, i'm sorry you guys, i knew it wasn't a good idea to upload in a hurry... no wonder the regional map pleases you the most...i uploaded the wrong version with this wonderful shaded relief map (only coloured by me) from an anonymous person, maybe somewhere in Virginia  :Wink:  I only used it as a placeholder and an inspiration for my own (not yet finished) attempts to make a regional map and forgot to take it out before uploading  :Blush:  
I focussed more on the other elements recently, like the depiction of the "Boas System", heavily inspired by Jim Burrows StarGen SVG Graphic File Output  , and the revamping of the layout and border. 

The next steps are the following:

- Replacing the black placeholder circles with various "proper" planets and after that, i'll finally write the "review" on Ilanthars Planet Tutorial as i promised

- I try to fit in detailed info about the different planets (and maybe the star itself), and add a legend

- Doing something with the border!?!

- Adding some light effects to some stars on the starfield-map 

- Adding some sandstorms on the planet-map

- placing a logbook text from Prof. Bohrenheimer on the left side of the map for some background info on the mission 

- last but not least the regional map with maybe two "zoomed-in-map-in-map" maps (don't know the right term) depicting the base camp and (one of) the dig site(s). This is the most artistically challenging part, so i decided to make it in the end. For the camp i was thinking about something like these nice hexagonal building-block containers.

Well that's it for now. I promise to take a second look on the map the next time i upload something... or preemptively quoting properly all the stuff that i didn't created myself  :Very Happy: 

Cheers,
AL

Edit: totally forgot to say a proper "thank you" to arsheesh and Ilanthar...glad you like the colours and the layout!!!

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## Abu Lafia

So, here's another update:

 

After my hamster couldn't handle the stress anymore, gimp crashed while saving and ate roughly the half of my layers 8( . Fortunately i had some Elements saved in other projects but it needed some time to bring them back together and rework some other stuff. The freshly done small planets in the Star-System-Map were still alive, only had to redid the main planet (version 3 or 4 now i guess, and still without sandstorms   :Blush:  ), the "Sector-Map" on the starfield (the latter was saved in another project too...phew...  :Very Happy:  ), and the labeling. I also tweaked the border and the windows a bit.
Would love to hear what you think about the changes. And ofc any kind of C&C is very welcome!
Cheers,
AL

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## Chick

Sounds like a bad day  :Frown:   I like the look of your map, especially the border really does it justice!  Are you going to expand the map of the sectors, because otherwise it looks like a lot of open empty space.

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## Abu Lafia

> Sounds like a bad day   I like the look of your map, especially the border really does it justice!  Are you going to expand the map of the sectors, because otherwise it looks like a lot of open empty space.


Thank you Chick. I'm glad you like the map! I was thinking of adding more sectors but am not sure whether it might be to "busy" on the starfield, taking attention away from the important sectors. Maybe i could fade them with the hexgrid. 

Updated Map:


- I moved the Sector-Map a bit more to the center, so it looks less "squeezed" to the maps on the right.

- I added some log-entries from Prof. Bohrenheimer for some lore. It also fills some of the open empty space on the map  :Wink: 

- I added a logo in the bottom-left corner. Bohrenheimer was not too happy that he had to accept fundings from the IASA, a somewhat dubious organization full of "hobby archaeologists", conspiracy nuts and other "gescheiterte Existenzen" , to get his mission started....The contract says that their logo has to appear on all official documents of the mission. The fact that now Bohrenheimer gets constantly reminded of his "pseudo-scientific" sponsors, isn't exactly lifting his mood...  :Smile:  

Cheers,
AL

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## Ilanthar

It's looking good Abu! A few questions/comments: I think that your planetary grid is a bit too strong, did you try with a brighter one? What does the ball around giant gases like Sapir represents? Will you add a texture effect on the border?
I really like your sartfield and the IASA logo is excellent  :Smile: !

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## Abu Lafia

> It's looking good Abu! A few questions/comments: I think that your planetary grid is a bit too strong, did you try with a brighter one? What does the ball around giant gases like Sapir represents? Will you add a texture effect on the border?
> I really like your sartfield and the IASA logo is excellent !


Hey Ilanthar, thanks a lot for the nice feedback! 
Regarding your Questions: 
- I'm working on an other texture for the border. There is a slight "brushed" texture already on it, but maybe i'll add a bit more "grunge" to it, to make it look more shabby...
- Glad you asked about the Gas-giants! I totally forgot to mention, that the low-opacity Planets behind them are depicting the original size compared to the other planets.
- I altered the grid a bit, does it look better now?
- The logo was inspired by a pretty popular gimp-logo-tutorial on youtube.
-I also made some subtle labels in the style of the ones on your Aarklash-in-space map, hope you are ok with it?  They look so nice, i couldn't resist...  :Smile:  Now the starfield isn't looking so empty anymore, as chick rightly pointed out.

I finally finished the Star-system map with some detailed information about the planets and a key.
And well, i reworked the planet (again...  :Wink:  ) because i still wasn't too happy with it...

As always, any kind of thoughts, suggestions and critique are much appreciated.

Cheers,
AL

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## Ilanthar

> *By Abu Lafia*
> Glad you asked about the Gas-giants! I totally forgot to mention, that the low-opacity Planets behind them are depicting the original size compared to the other planets


Ok! I thought it might be something like that. Good idea!




> I altered the grid a bit, does it look better now?


Yep! It looks just fine now  :Smile: .




> I also made some subtle labels in the style of the ones on your Aarklash-in-space map, hope you are ok with it? They look so nice, i couldn't resist... Now the starfield isn't looking so empty anymore, as chick rightly pointed out.


Completely! Rachmaninov and Prokofiev belts, cool names  :Very Happy: !




> And well, i reworked the planet (again... )


Successfully!

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## Abu Lafia

Hello fellow cartographers,
i haven't been around too much lately, but i wanted to show you the latest progress of my space-archaeology-map:



I'm not sure but some parts of the map seem not fit together too well... maybe it's because i was working only every now and then on the map the last weeks. I actually hesitate to call it "finished" and would love to hear what you think about it.

Cheers,
AL

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## J.Edward

Looks great Abu.  :Smile: 
I couldn't say what else you might need. I think it looks wonderful.

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## Abu Lafia

> Looks great Abu. 
> I couldn't say what else you might need. I think it looks wonderful.


Thank you J.Edward, glad you like it. 
My first "trip to space" (-mapping) has been a lot of fun, but seeing many of you guys heading towards middle-earth, and doing wonderful work there, makes my fingers itchy and i might need a dose of good-old fantasy pretty soon  :Very Happy:

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## J.Edward

My pleasure Abu.  :Very Happy: 
Maybe once I'm done with ME I have to trip out to space. I have some unfinished domed cities on other planets to complete.
I'd love for you to get in on the whole ME thing too.  :Smile:

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## Ilanthar

I concur, it looks great Abu. The Dovahkiin font is a very nice touch.

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## Abu Lafia

> I concur, it looks great Abu. The Dovahkiin font is a very nice touch.


Thank you Ilanthar, as stated already, your fantastic space-maps (which i discovered only recently in your album) have been a great inspiration for this. 
Didn't know that the font is from Skyrim (i haven't played it, only Morrowind back then  :Wink:  ). I downloaded it as "Dragon Alphabet" and it reminded me of the sumerian cuneiform script, which i thought might fit with the archaeological theme of the map.

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## Ilanthar

> *By Abu Lafia*
> I downloaded it as "Dragon Alphabet" and it reminded me of the sumerian cuneiform script, which i thought might fit with the archaeological theme of the map.


I may have done the same, but in my OpenOffice Writer, it says "Dovahkiin" (maybe the imaginary name for the dragon alphabet). I fully agree with you : it's clearly inspired by the cuneiform script and fits very well with your map's theme.

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