Painting Mountains Alongside A Rainbow

Mapzen's novel Walkabout map mode uses a technique called sphere mapping to shade the superlative data. It is a a technique borrowed from video games in addition to VFX to inexpensively add together item to 3d objects.

The technique is explained in addition to illustrated amongst a divulge of interactive maps inwards this Sphere Maps weblog post. If yous aren't that interested inwards the explanation thus yous tin but skip to the goal of the weblog postal service to play amongst the Sphere Map Demo which allows yous to practice your ain multi-colored shaded relief maps inwards real-time.

The exhibit includes a color-picking tool. Just pick your color from this tool in addition to pigment into the circle on the lilliputian sail to a higher house the color-picking tool. As yous pigment into the sail the terrain map is automatically updated amongst your pick of colors. Try out the full-screen Sphere Map Demo for the best results.