This is a map of the City of Melekhir that is from a series of Fantasy novels I am writing. The background was done in Autodesk Sketchbook and inserted as a bitmap into CC3+
Here is a tighter view of the map. I am mapping a square mile of space and adding lots of detail. There are three statues in the city that I created symbols for in SketchBook. Last count I was up to 234856 entities. I am pushing CC3+ pretty hard. I plan to map the areas on the other sides of the river in separate version of the map, them combine them when I finish.
Here is an even closer view of one section of the city. The area on the NE side of the canal was inspired by a section of the City of Utrecht. I viewed it in Google Earth and replicated building and building clusters. For higher resolution images and to see the progress of this map from the start you can view it here https://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=42269
Some additional details:
I have the City Designer add-on. I am using house styles from Bitmap B. All houses are drawn using the drawing tool (except the ones placed by the Random Street tool). I have made several PNG images I used for symbols where none of the supplied symbols worked. The small walls in the city (not the city walls or walls of the garrison) and barrier walls on the canals are the same PNG symbol I created in SketchBook. I used the Random Street tool to layout the houses you can see on the SE corner of the last image, but for the majority of the houses on the map, I had to do them manually the create the desired clusters. I really like the Random Street tool, it just doesn't work for most the houses on this map. The trees are from the Jonathan Roberts City style I believe.
Monsen,
Thank you. This map has taken much longer than anticipated. I ended up double the scale after I started which resulted in a fourfold increase in size. I have become quite comfortable with the CC3+ interface and really like the software, but I believe this map is pushing it to its limits.
Sue,
Thank you. I have viewed some of your work over on Cartographer's Guild and I am blown away. You have produced some truly amazing maps.
I am glad you liked it, Sue. I started that as a result of all the symbols I was making in SketchBook for CC3+. I discovered there was more of an artist in me than I realized.
Thank you for the comments, Quenten. If the city is any good, a lot of the credit has to go to constructive critiques by some of the members over at the Cartographers Guild that helped me correct some of the mistakes I made early in the process of creating this map. It is always good to see your work through other's eyes.
My latest update.
The wide road running East-West is Broad Street. The wide road running SE off the intersection is High Street and heads to the palace. Melekhir is the capital of Elandia and the palace is home of the king. You can see the Old Market Square at the lower right area of this view. If you follow High Street to the west, past the intersection, you will arrive at the (New) Market Square which is approximately 800 years old. You can see part of the old city wall that still stands and serves as the western border of the wooded area around the lake. At the southern end of this run of wall is the Old Broad Street Gate. Just north of the Old Market Square is another portion of the old wall and another gate the has survived. It is known as the Old Market Gate. Most of the blue colored buildings are taverns or inns. Most the flat-roofed buildings are ones that survived the great fire that destroyed most of the city at the beginning of the reign of King Melek. At the time, the city had much more of a Middle-Eastern flavor. The canals that run through the city were constructed by King Melek to ensure water would be readily available to respond to any future fires.
Sue,
I have learned a great deal about the world of my novel through the maps I am making. I discovered King Melek as a result of this map. I say discovered and not created because it feels more like discovering than creation. The King didn't exist before the map, and now he plays a major part in the history of the city. On my map of Tarkas, while shading a hill, I noticed it looked a little like a gnomish face. I purposefully made it look more like a face as I continued to shade. Now I have a terrain detail my character will notice and comment on. I have discovered so much about my novel's world while mapping that I stopped the revision of book two while I map out several important cities.
Jensen,
Thank you for the comment. It has been a lot of work, but I am enjoying the journey. I can't imagine doing a map this large with this level of detail without CC3+.
Thank you for the kind remarks, Lorelei. One of the things I have done to try to produce a map that has the appearance of authenticity is look at authentic maps from the period and taking note of their details. I also view cities on Google Earth that have old sections that date to the period I am trying to replicate. I take measurements of buildings and street widths and block dimensions. This gives me some guidelines to go by when I begin to layout my city. I also take note of how buildings are clustered and try to capture this as I place structures.
Thank you, Shessar. I don't think what I have done here is beyond the ability of most people on this forum. It is about attention to detail, research, and the desire to learn and stretch your ability. There are lots of ways to make a good map and CC3 is certainly one of them.
Added more buildings as I work my way east on Broad Street. Redid some buildings in the area around the large pinkish building with the walled courtyard to narrow the street.
Is the amount of buildings slowing your computer down? I had this one time with much lesser buildings than on your map. Or does this depend on which houses (styleset) one is using? and of course of the power of the the PC, but mine is not too bad.
This is obviously a labour of love - and a great city. I am fascinated about where it might stop... if it does
Jensen - there are a couple of ways to cope with the slow down when working on a very large city like this. Just briefly, you can either put different districts on different sheets and hide all the sheets you aren't working on, or even better you can make use of layers the same way. If you use a different layer for each district you can still have all the buildings on one sheet, which has the added advantage that they will all share the same set of sheet effects and none of them will be casting shadows over the tops of their neighbours (which can happen if you use separate sheets).
So if you have a city with 5 districts you could put each district on a different layer with the name of that district - including all the trees, other symbols and bits and bobs in that district, so that when you hide that district everything in that district is hidden, and not just the houses.
Some people work with sheet effects off, which can speed up zooming and moving around a lot. It depends if you have sheet effects that you need to be able to see while you are working.
thanks Sue, next time I use the layer option you suggested, that sounds reasonable. Usually when I work on a map I have everything on (sheet effects, layers), because I want to see ‚whole picture‘ to make sure everything comes together nicely. But for the houses it seems I need to try new approaches.
Sue,
Thanks for the info. I believe you solved a major dilemma for me. I was going to do the map in multiple version showing different parts of the city then paste them together. Your solution is mush better and I hadn't thought of it.
Jensen,
Yes, my computer feels the strain. It is more a strain on CC3+ than on the hardware.
Just checked: 243114 entities occupying 16462.70 K of memory.
Here is my latest installment. As I approach the wall, the spacing will open up some as can be seen on many historic maps from the 1400-1600s. I like to add small details to the map. I think they do a lot for the map as a whole. Take away the trees and footpaths in the courtyards of this map and I believe you strip away much of its character. If you look at the lake, I added small bits of beach along the waters edge in a couple of places. I try to include many of these little bits of detail that will reward the viewer who takes the time to look a bit closer.
Some of it is copying what I see on historic sections of cities in Google Earth. The Old Port District has several clusters copied from Rothenburg, Germany. The area in the view above, along the north side of the canal, is based off Utrecht. I was having real problems doing anything that looked right until I started duplicating sections of Rothenburg. After that I got a feel for it. I have layers for different floor levels with different shadow settings. I like to stack building to create multi-storied structures
Added the Broad Street Market Square where more exotic and upscale goods can be found. The blue building that is on the south side of the square is one of (if not the) finest inns in the city. I have not come up with a name for it and the proprietor is open to suggestions.
Really a great city map, i don‘t think I would have the patience to build such huge cities like this one or Hadrians and Quentens cities. Buildings, streets, markets, everything is well done, really fantastic.
A name for the Inn? hmmm ... I am better in names for ugly Inn, not for expensive ones and my English is not that brilliant. Maybe something for the native speakers.
Here is a shot of the Old Port District and below it is a image from Google Earth of Rothenburg ob der Tauber. Can you identify the building clusters I copied. The copies aren't exact.
Comments
I have the City Designer add-on. I am using house styles from Bitmap B. All houses are drawn using the drawing tool (except the ones placed by the Random Street tool). I have made several PNG images I used for symbols where none of the supplied symbols worked. The small walls in the city (not the city walls or walls of the garrison) and barrier walls on the canals are the same PNG symbol I created in SketchBook. I used the Random Street tool to layout the houses you can see on the SE corner of the last image, but for the majority of the houses on the map, I had to do them manually the create the desired clusters. I really like the Random Street tool, it just doesn't work for most the houses on this map. The trees are from the Jonathan Roberts City style I believe.
Thank you. This map has taken much longer than anticipated. I ended up double the scale after I started which resulted in a fourfold increase in size. I have become quite comfortable with the CC3+ interface and really like the software, but I believe this map is pushing it to its limits.
Sue,
Thank you. I have viewed some of your work over on Cartographer's Guild and I am blown away. You have produced some truly amazing maps.
I was wondering if you were the same Texas Jake as over on CG!
I do sometimes still drop by the Guild, and I rather like your Village of Tashev...
Way to go!
The wide road running East-West is Broad Street. The wide road running SE off the intersection is High Street and heads to the palace. Melekhir is the capital of Elandia and the palace is home of the king. You can see the Old Market Square at the lower right area of this view. If you follow High Street to the west, past the intersection, you will arrive at the (New) Market Square which is approximately 800 years old. You can see part of the old city wall that still stands and serves as the western border of the wooded area around the lake. At the southern end of this run of wall is the Old Broad Street Gate. Just north of the Old Market Square is another portion of the old wall and another gate the has survived. It is known as the Old Market Gate. Most of the blue colored buildings are taverns or inns. Most the flat-roofed buildings are ones that survived the great fire that destroyed most of the city at the beginning of the reign of King Melek. At the time, the city had much more of a Middle-Eastern flavor. The canals that run through the city were constructed by King Melek to ensure water would be readily available to respond to any future fires.
You really have done the layout extremely well. It looks very believable - makes a lot of sense.
I have learned a great deal about the world of my novel through the maps I am making. I discovered King Melek as a result of this map. I say discovered and not created because it feels more like discovering than creation. The King didn't exist before the map, and now he plays a major part in the history of the city. On my map of Tarkas, while shading a hill, I noticed it looked a little like a gnomish face. I purposefully made it look more like a face as I continued to shade. Now I have a terrain detail my character will notice and comment on. I have discovered so much about my novel's world while mapping that I stopped the revision of book two while I map out several important cities.
Jensen,
Thank you for the comment. It has been a lot of work, but I am enjoying the journey. I can't imagine doing a map this large with this level of detail without CC3+.
This is so stunning that anything I say will seem trite. I can't imaging the time it has taken to create this. I am awestruck...
Jensen - there are a couple of ways to cope with the slow down when working on a very large city like this. Just briefly, you can either put different districts on different sheets and hide all the sheets you aren't working on, or even better you can make use of layers the same way. If you use a different layer for each district you can still have all the buildings on one sheet, which has the added advantage that they will all share the same set of sheet effects and none of them will be casting shadows over the tops of their neighbours (which can happen if you use separate sheets).
So if you have a city with 5 districts you could put each district on a different layer with the name of that district - including all the trees, other symbols and bits and bobs in that district, so that when you hide that district everything in that district is hidden, and not just the houses.
Some people work with sheet effects off, which can speed up zooming and moving around a lot. It depends if you have sheet effects that you need to be able to see while you are working.
Thanks for the info. I believe you solved a major dilemma for me. I was going to do the map in multiple version showing different parts of the city then paste them together. Your solution is mush better and I hadn't thought of it.
Jensen,
Yes, my computer feels the strain. It is more a strain on CC3+ than on the hardware.
Just checked: 243114 entities occupying 16462.70 K of memory.
I like the way you are so inventive when it comes to creating specific buildings
A name for the Inn? hmmm ... I am better in names for ugly Inn, not for expensive ones and my English is not that brilliant. Maybe something for the native speakers.