The Terrain of Costa Rica

By John Nelson

Hello! Here is a hillshaded terrain graphic of much of Costa Rica, made in ArcGIS Pro with raster functions and blend modes (and of course some delicious DEM images and the glorious World Imagery Basemap). I’ve never been to Costa Rica, but I’d like to see it someday; for now, these pixels will have to do.

Terrain relief map of the area around Cost Rica

Some closer looks…

Here’s a link to a full-sized (10MB) version. Or if you are feeling dangerous, here it is as a georeferenced GeoTIFF file (97MB) that you can add to your map project.

And if you’re feeling especially dangerous, here’s a mercifully narration-free video walking through its making…

The handshake of fast and efficient raster functions with the adventure of blend modes makes making rich custom hillshades in ArcGIS Pro so simple and so fun.

Feel free to download this source DEM image (52MB), and get started painting with light and shadow in your map project.

Happy Shading! John

John Nelson

I have far too much fun looking for ways to understand and present data visually, hopefully driving product strategy and engaging users. I work in the ArcGIS Living Atlas team at Esri, pushing and pulling data in all sorts of absurd ways and then sharing the process. I also design user experiences for maps and apps. When I'm not doing those things, I'm chasing around toddlers and wrangling chickens, and generally getting into other ad-hoc adventures. Life is good. You might also like these Styles for ArcGIS Pro: esriurl.com/nelsonstyles

Article Discussion:

4 Comments

Oldest

Newest

Inline Feedbacks

View all comments

Sergio Rodriguez(@srodriguez)

June 20, 2022 5:06 pm

Thank you for sharing this arts of my country. I will share with the National Cartographic Agency (IGN)

Linas J(@mlsauron)

June 29, 2022 6:36 am

Best of Art & Science fusion‼
Thank you.

Christian Brogaard Pedersen(@cbp_geus)

August 4, 2022 5:40 am

I simply love the style of this map! Do you think or know if it is possible to make a ArcGIS Pro map with a Miniature Model Effect using some sort of tilt shift effect?

John Nelson(@j_nelson)

August 4, 2022 6:36 am

Reply to Christian Brogaard Pedersen

Thanks Christian! If you are working in a 3D scene, then you can apply a camera effect called “depth of field.” It might get you closer to what you are trying to achieve.