The Map   How I did it:
      Overview: Well, it all began with some simple scans at 300 dpi.  I used Corel PhotoPaint10 for the image croping and then CorelDraw10 for the graph and print process.  I believe the map took me in excess of 50 hours to make and $50 in ink & supplies.  I would like to eventually laminate it, but thats work for another day, I want to play now!  Way too much detail below:


      This image shows the almost finished look of the map once I was done editing the scanned images in Corel PhotoPaint10. I wanted to show this image first since its the easiest way to show how it was done. Creating the map in sections was intentional to allow me to finsh one section at a time and feel like I was getting somewhere. I also didnt want to piece every little thing together for a perfect fit, since that would've just added more hours.





      The images to the left show the original image scanned from issue #1 where Doctor Doom first arrives at his soon to be base.  This was the best shot of his base, but it had that stupid yellow fog in front of it.  I used the Clone Tool to carefully remove the cloud (this copys the surrounding colors and pastes them over the cloud).  I then used the eraser to remove the entire sky and foreground.  I then used the Lasso Mask Tool to copy and cut out the entire base.  After I had a background ready, I could then paste the entire base onto it.

      I wanted the background to be unique colors since each section and base was meant to repsresent a different piece of a planet.  I choose the colors for the ground based on the green alien rocks.  These rocks are the first hint that everyone is on an alien planet.  Since I wanted Dooms base to be the biggest section, I choose these rocks for his corner of the world. After I got a few good rock images, I simplyed repeated them at several different sizes to create a mountain range.

      The map was left in seperate pieces to shave a few hours off the time and to help in the printing process. By printing them seperate, I was able to cut them down after they were printed and tweak the size a little bit as I taped each page together. For example, the Healers village in the lower left came out too big and I ended cutting the entire bottom row of houses off. This gave Galactus more room on his mountain for his big bad self.



      Magneto's base is what started it all. I loved the unique look of the terrain and I knew I couldn't do it justice by creating something from scratch.  The image on the left is basically the completed look at almost full size.  After I did the above Corel PhotoPaint10 edits, I saved the large images as Tifs and then went to a different program of CorelDraw10.  This program had a tool called Graph Paper Tool which allowed me to quickly draw out the black grid.  I took a few print tests to get the squares to the exact size of 1.5" inches (printing one page only for test).  Using the Print Preview, I was able to choose which pages to print and how to move the image around to get the most out of my paper.  After I was finally ready to print, it took almost 5 hours to print!  It also used an entire color ink cartridge.  I then was faced with cutting each of the 55 pages out.  I cut two sides flush with the images, and the other two sides I left white paper showing.  The white paper gave me room to put the double stick tape on and have a flap of paper under the next page for support.  I did one section at a time and then matched up the grid work.  It wasnt perfect, but close enough.  The finished map is rolled up (image out and not folded), and I made box to transport it in.

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