So, I’m finally done. I created my own star map, covering Human Space as I will describe it in my science fiction series.
This image was scaled down considerably; the original is at 200dpi – 6622×4677 pixel. It’s 72MB in size as a PNG file. Here are some 800x800px crops from the main map:
I’ve worked on this map on and off for three years, taking some detours in between. In the end I learned a whole lot, and I think i can honestly say, improved as a mapmaker and graphics person. I will never compete with the true professionals, but just consider these early versions of the map:
First Version: The Milky Way Galaxy. This was actually a trace of a NASA image, and I was really just experimenting.
Second Version: Zooming In. An entire Galaxy is an awful lot of real estate. So I began to zoom in on the Region around Earth. It was still a very crude map.
Third Version: The Orion Spur. At this stage I began to nail down the setting. You see an early draft of the political situation in this image.
Fourth Version: Human Space, Revisited. As the old map wasn’t really working out, and was ugly to boot. I started a new version from scratch. It was based on a solid timeline and a detailed setting design. At this stage, the map was very basic.
Fifth Version: Let there be Color. The next two images are just later versions of the above; as you can see I added a great deal of detail over time. The second map probably has 200 named star systems – that’s a guesstimate, I did not recount them.
Sixth Version: Near Space Distraction. At one point, I began to doubt my design – and decided to go more small scale. I began to map out individual star systems near Earth based on Hipparcos data. In the end, I abandoned this approach – the setting wasn’t bad, but I felt it did not really match what I had in mind.
The Near Star Map’s styletests, of which this was the last, showed me that I wanted a map that was not just functional. Working on the style tests taught me a lot.
Seventh Version: Back to Square One, Just Prettier. After I discarded the Near Space idea, I reset certain things, changed some assumptions, and experimented with a galactic map. This was the result.
Eight Version: Full Circle. I liked the techniques I was starting to develop, but as in the very beginning, decided that an entire galaxy was just too much space. I zoomed in and concentrated on the Orion Spur. The rest, as they say, is Galactic history. Here is an early version of the map that I completed this week:
And the future?
This map is done – but that doesn’t mean I won’t work on it. The settings needs to be built, detailed maps for at least some regions need to be produced, and of course the entire thing will continue to evolve. In another three years this map will probably not look the same.
Update: Welcome, Reddit users – thanks for the compliments, you have no idea how happy it makes me that someone enjoys my work!
I love love love the 7th version! It totally looks like something straight out of BSG. I can imagine this being framed on the wall in Admiral Adama’s quarters – like a naval commander reminiscing on the Pacific Theatre. Or an army general spending hours of his retirement just staring at a worn old map of Sherman’s March. And you think you’re not a pro? Slap your mouth!
Well, thanks for the compliment – but I am not even close to being a pro. I think you know the cartographers’ guild – there’s some genuine pros there.
But that said, yes I liked the galaxy map, too. It’s just not what the setting needed. Too much territory to cover. Plus I thought that the purely black & white map looked too bland when zoomed in. That’s why I went for color. I’ll probably have to go for b&w anyway for regional maps, since it’ll be way too expensive to print color illustrations.
The BSG maps shown on the show were indeed an inspiration, by the way, a good catch on your part. 🙂
Yes I most certainly do know the carto guild. I love that place/site! I was cruising it again yesterday just for poops and giggles. I think you’re as good as some and better than many. I mean that.
And I understand completely about biting off more than you can chew. That’s kinda what killed my first world. I started with an area roughly the size of Texas…..then I went map crazy and 8 continents rose up from beneath the waves. Now I’m wondering what to put on all of them. That’s why your magnitudinal star system is so impressive. Worlds upon/within worlds. Good on ya!
Well, I am better than I was a few years ago. I’ll acknowledge that.
Anyway, building a galaxy – or even a tiny segment of one – means you’ll have to abstract and compress your setting, so to speak. You can’t hope to cover it in any deep detail, so I am not even going to try… Continents are really the same, except your level of compression is a different one.
Holy shit! Very well done.
Thank you Hugh.