Tiffany MunroMidgard Cyberpunk Megacity: Metropolis Map
This map was made for a client running a TTRPG campaign in a custom Norway megacity, in which an enormous sprawl of cyberpunk development has taken over a vast portion of Norway’s fjords! This cyberpunk megacity map is absolutely enormous! It was designed to be an A1 poster size. The cyberpunk megacity map has detailed vector roads when it’s zoomed in! Plus a point of interest system designed so my client can add new points of interests as the campaign progresses by placing the markers down! This makes it easy for the map to develop and evolve in actual play.
GIS data from Open Street Map
When I do a cyberpunk megacity map like this one, which is based on a Real Life Earth with development and catastrophe alike, I try my best to maintain real life data as a base. So we’ve used ©Open Street Map contributor’s data, which is available under Creative Commons for anyone to remix. I used this to pull the streets of contemporary Norway on top of the world outline from Natural Earth Data, a free data set for coastlines and rivers. These were put together in QGis and then exported for my use in Affinity Designer afterwards, as this map is a vector!
I converted all of the outlines I pulled from QGis into vector shapes using Inkscape’s auto-trace for the coastline. After this, I layered an SVG export of all of the existing roads, which I traced over to add thicker road developments. You can see this process if you zoom in all the way, because I didn’t manage to do it perfectly.
The Artist’s Physical Access to the Digital World: Tourbox Neo and Wacom Cintiq
I had two vital tools besides my programs: my Wacom Cintiq Pro 13 and my Tourbox Neo (which I got at a cheaper price by buying through a secondary storefront)! The Tourbox Neo is a relatively new tool to my art table but it’s invaluable to my every work from now on. I created a custom set for it to use in Affinity Designer so I could use its knobs to adjust road thickness as I added more and more vector roads to this incredibly dense map. Basically it’s a controller with three knobs and 11 buttons, all of which feel tactile different, and you can set up elaborate macro sets with the buttons for any program, giving you easy control without moving your hand away from the box. Much easier than mapping to shortcuts that sprawl over your keyboard. This is a cyberpunk device that changes the art game.
If you have one, grab the shortcuts I used on my Tourbox Neo for Affinity Designer! It’s still a work in progress. Once I finish polishing up my shortcut set I’ll add it to the Tourbox official downloads page. I already have released one shortcut set there (Other World Mapper) and I have a well-polished Clip Studio Paint shortcut set.
The Legend to the Cyberpunk Megacity Map
Finally, I made the legend! The legend showcases the symbols scattered around the world. I used several glyph fonts for the legend markers. This technique means my client could adapt new markers that match the aesthetic for a new kind of point of interest on the fly. Since it’s a cyberpunk megacity, it’s sure to have more locations yet to be discovered. While the legend itself is complete, my client can stamp on any new point of interests at their leisure.
Love this Cyberpunk Megacity Map? Get your own!
Pick up a print copy of the poster on my FourthWall shop!
Or commission me to make a custom map of your unique cyberpunk megacity setting! Just email me to get started with a no-obligation quote today!
Thanks for reading!
