Monument Valley

[calibanX]

Splime: Thank you Splime. Glad you stopped by. I've been keeping an eye on Barsalargonia and you seem to enjoy placing your trees as well.

Battlecat: Thanks again Battlecat. Nice to have you back.

Sorry for the delay in posting updates. I got a little busy and the spare time went into map making. I hope this update will be worth the wait for those who are stopping by. I love map making and had planned this map for the CJ right from the start. I'll add detail as we go through the region, but there's quite a bit to look at as it stands right now. As always please give me your thoughts.





5.1

Just a short update this time. I'll post the entire map shortly.

Thanks again to all for stopping by. For those who lurk, feel free to say hi. All are welcome here!

Take care.

Geoff

[thundercrack83]

Wow! What a map!

Amazing work, Geoff--the amount of details on it are outstanding! Would you mind sharing which program you used to create it?

Can't wait to see what's next!

Dustin

[calibanX]

Dustin, I'm glad you enjoy the map. The short answer to your question is that I used Adobe Photoshop and Adobe InDesign to create the map. The process is pretty easy actually. I was looking for a way to make a map of the entire region I was working on. I then wanted to be able to take snapshots of parts of the map to show the features I wanted to display in the forums. The map is pretty big, and a second objective was to keep the file size to a minimum so I could work with it fairly easily. So here is a little tutorial to show my solution:


6.1
The Data View with all of the information displays off gives a very nicely detailed land formation display. I just cropped the image and pasted it into Photoshop.


6.2
When assembled in Photoshop the tiles join to reveal the region.


6.3
If you use the Bezier tool to draw around the base of the land formations you can create a crude relief map.


6.4
Drawing around the land formations at increasing elevations will give you more land detail when the map is finished.


6.5
This is the first layer I created in Photoshop after tracing around the land formations at the lowest level.


6.6
I wanted to keep the land formation information to a minimum. The map is primarily a road map. Two levels of elevation are what I settled on.


6.7
Add the water.


6.8

The roads were done entirely in Adobe InDesign. I don't have Illustrator or Freehand. Once the roads are completed I exported the InDesign file back to Photoshop as an EPS file and cropped it to show only the individual tiles that make up the region.


6.9
This is the final cropped image showing the individual tile called Big Fork.

Take care and happy mapping!

Geoff

[JBSimio]

I'm really enjoying this, Geoff!  There are any number of great pictures here already.  I especially liked the railroad picture (2.3 I think it was) and the newspaper in update number two.  The maps look great... I wish I would have thought to add even a couple elevation levels to mine.     You're off to a great start and I'll be looking forward to the next update!

JB

[Battlecat]

I like the technique you used for your map there.  Nice simple way to reduce the complexity of your terrain map. 

[art128]

Thanks you for that little tutorial, that will help me with the map I'm created. Also, You have a beautiful region. The pictures you're showing to us are just fantastic ! Your mix of maxis trees and CP's one, outstanding !
Take care,
-Arthur. 

[calibanX]

Jon (JBSimio): Nice to see you here. I owe you a great big thanks for your work. Without your Smalltown USA series of buildings and your schools I wouldn't have nearly the interest in doing small towns. What fun those have brought! I'm thoroughly enjoying Covington too. I recently went into one of my old regions and thought about retrofitting it with the new RHW and curved roads. I thought about it for about .000001 seconds before I threw the idea out. Kudos to you my friend.

Battlecat: Thanks for the encouragement on the map. I'll try more in the near future. I love the new maps you've posted too. I think I see the resemblance

Arthur (art128): Thank you for that Arthur. I'll be keeping an eye out for your map. Congrats on 500!





Monument Valley is a leader in the high-tech industry. Technology represents a major part of the economy in the region.


8.1

Monument Valley has invested heavily in education, and its highly educated population has made the area a mecca for the high tech industry. Many of the technology industry's cutting edge names have come to take advantage of the brainy Monument Valley sims. A few of those firms are listed below.

Initek – Software Engineering Firm.
Initek is a small software engineering company specializing in mobile applications. The team at Initek will work with their clients to develop software solutions for any mobile device. Small and large corporations have benefitted from the expertise at Initek. Initek takes a structured, engineering-based approach to developing business solutions, whereas others may take a more incremental approach, where software evolves as it is developed piece-by-piece. Initek's development cycle is outlined below.

•   Market research
•   Gathering requirements for the proposed business solution
•   Analyzing the problem
•   Devising a plan or design for the software-based solution
•   Implementation (coding) of the software
•   Testing the software
•   Deployment
•   Maintenance and bug fixing

Initek has benefitted recently from a restructuring of personnel which brought great efficiency to the organization. An outside consulting firm trimmed staff and payroll costs. The firm, run by a pair of experts in cost-cutting known as 'The Bobs', brought Initek the efficiency it needed for it's great success. Initek recently recovered from a disastrous fire which nearly brought the company to its end.


8.2

Molecular Nanosystems – Nanotechnology Engineering Lab

Molecular Nanosystems is a Nanotechnology Engineering Laboratory. Engineers at Molecular Nanosystems work at designing and handling nanoobjects at a nanometric scale. Engineers work to design functional molecules and supramolecular structures. The current focus is autonomous molecular self-assembly and self-organisation. The ultimate goal of the engineering efforts is to create self organizing machines. Recent breakthroughs are rumored to be quite extraordinary.


8.3

MVA Technologies Corporation – Avionics Design

MVA Technologies designs aviation electronics for commercial, business, and military aircraft, artificial satellites and spacecraft. It's systems comprise communications, navigation and the display and management of multiple systems. It also includes the hundreds of systems that are fitted to aircraft to meet individual roles, these can be as simple as a search light for a police helicopter or as complicated as the tactical system for an Airborne Early Warning platform.

There are several major vendors of flight avionics, including Honeywell (which now owns Bendix/King, Baker Electronics, Allied Signal, etc..), Rockwell Collins, Thales Group, Garmin, Avidyne Corporation, and Narco Avionics. Monument Valley's high level of education in technology and engineering make it an ideal location for MVA Technologies.


8.4


8.5

Take care my friends.

Geoff

[danielcote]

Nice job how did you get the fighters looking like they're taking off?

[art128]

Excellent new update Geoff, I really love those two military planes taking off the ground on the picture of the airport. Also, the newpaper is greatly done my friend. Also, those threes BATs of technologies research are goodly choose.
Take care,
-Arthur. 

[Nexis4Jersey]

interesting update , i love the 2 fighters taking off!

[Battlecat]

Nice update!  The fighters taking off is a really cool effect!  Nice variety of buildings in this update as well. 

[girlfromverona]

I love the way you've laid out your towns, especially the suburbs. Thanks for the map tute, also - it's very inspiring. 

[Tomas Neto]

Yeah,very nice update!!

[dedgren]

Extraordinary mapping of beautiful terrain to begin with.  Professional grade stuff, my friend.

One to watch here, that's for sure.


David

[calibanX]

danielcote: Thank you, but I have an admission to make. I Photoshopped 'em. Don't think badly of me 

Arthur (art128): You're very kind my friend. Thanks for the compliments.

Nexis4Jersey: I'm glad you liked the jets. Great to see you again.

Battlecat: Thank you for the great compliments. It seems that the jets are quite popular. The airport is coming up soon, and I'll try to do something unique there as well.

girlfromverona: It's great to see you here. Suburbs and small towns are my favorites. I'll post lots of suburban sprawl, I promise.

Tomas Neto: Thanks for the encouragement!

David (dedgren): I'm glad you stopped by David. Thank you for your kind words, and for taking time from your remodeling project. Your maps inspired mine.



9.1

A final look at the city of Big Fork. We'll soon be moving on to the rural Township of Arcadia.

Thanks again!

[art128]

That's a nice overview of Big fork, I like where is placed the downtown, looks excellent.
Looking forward to more.
-Arthur. 

[Nexis4Jersey]

Interesting preview , looks like Pittsburgh or Portland 

[kwakelaar]

You have made some very beautiful maps, and Big Fork is looking quite impressive from a distance. I like that you seem to be zooming in and out. Always nice to get both details and an overview.

[jmyers2043]

Hello CalibanX

At first I moused through the diary quickly. At the end I thought, Wow, this is different. I was left with a good feeling deep inside me so I back tracked to the beginning and read every single word and examined every picture. All I can say? This truly is a wonderful diary.

Example is the picture with your logging industry. You've lotted some trucks parked along the road much like real life. Your dead end street trails off with those Chris Adams dirt tracks. Your attention to those and similar small things are what makes each and every picture come to life. Head over heels is all I can say about your first banner with the placement and selection of the trees. A good depiction of Monument Valley at the very beginning. The real life 1905 photo and your attempt to create and mimic a similar Sim City is well done. The mini tutorial on how you did your maps has inspired me to try the same. Gee - seems so easy. Why didn't I think of that?

Cheers - Jim Myers

[Tomas Neto]

Nice teaser and very beatiful city!