I've seen lot of question on the topic of DPI size when doing large print jobs and some about the actual workflow. The problem is that I can't decide how to proceed in my situation:
I have to design a large map/panorama of a ski resort - very similar to this one. Maximum print size will be 2.5m x 1.25m, but it will be used on smaller posters as well (probably down to A4 format).
The problem is that the client also wants to use the work on a website where you will be able to zoom in and he want it to be more detailed than on the picture from the first link. He imagine something like this
To make it even more interesting the map/panorama should be in 2 versions - winter and summer one. Now what is the best workflow in this situation and what tool should I use (Photoshop/Illustrator available for me) to do this in a smart way?
My current approach is that I decided to design only one map (one level of details) in Illustrator in smaller scale using trees as symbols so I can easily modify them all at once (for winter/summer version). The rocks will be the same and changing the color of snow to grass won't be a problem either.
The problem is that the resort is quite large (approx same as on the first linked image) and there are many large forest areas which means I will have possibly few hundreds if not thousands of trees. You can also imagine that there will be quite a lot of other objects. Can Illustrator handle so many vector objects? Also designing such detailed picture in Illustrator is quite slow and would be probably much easier in Photoshop, but is this reasonable in my situation? - the panorama will be viewed from close distance (as seen on example in second link) but also on printed materials of large size.
I'm also thinking that I would do one version for print in Photoshop with fewer details and one detailed one for the website? Or should I do the same with Illustrator? I'm afraid I would do a double work here because in the end I have to do the detailed version no matter what.
Is there any better approach? This is the first time I'm doing on such a large project so thank you very much for your help.