It’s been a summer full of side projects here. Which is a very good sign — I used to do many, many side projects, but for the last couple of years, poor health has left me with reduced energy…| somethingaboutmaps
Gentle readers, I have just wrapped up a fun side project that will be of great interest to a very small number of you. The result of one of the most technically demanding efforts of my career, I a…| somethingaboutmaps
Friends, you might remember that, last year, I wrote to you about how I was finally able to see a dream I’d had for many years come true: bringing together a bunch of map creators onto a sing…| somethingaboutmaps
Though it’s been about a week since we sent it out there, I just recalled that I haven’t alerted all of you to the 2025 edition of the freelance cartographer survey that Aly Ollivierre and I conduct. Due to popular demand, we are going to try conducting it annually, rather than biennially. This survey is … Continue reading 2025 AFC Freelancer Survey→| somethingaboutmaps
Friends, I’m excited to share that I have just completed a world physical map, in my new asymmetric monstrosity projection. Daniel Huffman is not liable for any sanity damage you suffer in th…| somethingaboutmaps
I know it’s short notice, but I wanted to let you all know that I’m doing a livestream tomorrow. It’s been well over 2½ years since my last one. CHECK IT OUT ON YOUTUBE I’ll…| somethingaboutmaps
Nearly five years ago, I completed a project that, to my mind, remains the most significant of my cartographic career: An Atlas of Great Lakes Islands, manually printed in cyanotype, with a hand-st…| somethingaboutmaps
I know lately I’ve been in commercial mode, pointing you toward various projects of mine that you can support by giving me money. And I promise I’ll get back to less commercial musings …| somethingaboutmaps
For the past several years, I’ve enjoyed the process of cyanotype printing, and have released a number of projects based on this technique (including my favorite item I’ve ever made). Now, I’ve decided to take my recent work in developing terrain sketches, and turn it into a new series of prints. For this, though, I … Continue reading Kickstarter 3: The Return→| somethingaboutmaps
Friends, earlier this week I mentioned that I’d completed a whole bunch of terrain sketches using some novel techniques that allowed me to create a hachure drawing style from digital elevation data. If you’d like to see the whole set, I’ve now assembled them into a quick eBook for your perusing. Click the image below … Continue reading A Free eBook of Terrain Lines→| somethingaboutmaps
Gentle readers, I have some exciting things to share with you. After several months of tinkering and toolmaking, I have created a series of posters of iconic peaks (and other terrain), illustrated …| somethingaboutmaps
Previous Chapter: Blender Basics As I mentioned earlier, Blender is like a virtual photography studio. We’ve got our camera, our light source, and the object we want to take pictures of. Let&…| somethingaboutmaps
Previous Chapter: The Plane Now it’s time to turn our attention to the virtual camera which we will use to capture our relief image. Let’s switch our Shader Editor back to the 3D Viewpo…| somethingaboutmaps
Previous Chapter: The Sun Vertical Exaggeration One decision when making in a shaded relief, whether it’s done in Blender or elsewhere, concerns how much vertical exaggeration to apply to the…| somethingaboutmaps
Previous Chapter: Getting Set Up Now you’ve got Blender and your heightmap, and so we’re ready to get started. First we’re just going to familiarize ourselves with some of the bas…| somethingaboutmaps
Previous Chapter: Final Adjustments Now that you’ve done a basic relief, I offer some parting thoughts about where to go from here. Extra Light First off, there’s nothing that says you …| somethingaboutmaps
Welcome! This is the long-awaited text version of my Blender relief tutorial, following on the video series I did a few years back. If you’ve already seen the videos and are returning for a r…| somethingaboutmaps
I seem to have accidentally come up with a method for duplicating a centuries-old terrain representation technique. From a 30m DEM of Churfirsten, Switzerland. If you’ve looked at old maps, y…| somethingaboutmaps
Friends, it’s been a long while since I last wrote up a walkthrough of one of my mapping projects. So, today, let’s break down a piece that I made earlier this year for Scientific Ameri…| somethingaboutmaps
(Edit: sign-ups are now closed. I received over 150 responses for 4 available slots, which has been great but overwhelming. I may offer this again in the future if it goes well, so make sure to fol…| somethingaboutmaps