First item I've sold - 3D lake map

As this is only my first one, I don’t really have a “source” for the depth maps yet.

This map in particular came from a fishing book that I had already owned personally. Michigan has several fishing books for different sections of the state that include depth contours for the lakes. If someone orders a map for a lake not in this one book that I have, I’ll likely just purchase another book for that area and hope I keep getting orders.

I scanned the lake image and then traced the contours and roads into paths in Inkscape.

2 Likes

Does anyone have tips or tricks for making one of these bigger than the bed size?

Would I just have to finger joint the pieces together and hope they don’t show too much in the final project?

I assume you don’t have a Pro?

You could try using features of the map to break the top layer into segments.

You could also try making the breaks a feature of the design - i.e. deep scores for lat/long lines, with cuts where necessary.

Fitting, filling and finishing the colored layers would be trivial but I am guessing you know that.

3 Likes