It's pretty much in the title...
I'm seeking for advices to improve my mapping beyond the meh frontier
I'm seeking for advices to improve my mapping beyond the meh frontier
What differentiates MEH maps from good maps
- Thread starter Mina-van-Mako
- Start date
From an observer pov I'd suggest avoiding world maps especially anything in worlda style.
Do things of smaller locations. That will allow you to concentrate on city and river placements.
Use simple keys.
Avoid too many colours - shades of 3/4 will do.
Do things of smaller locations. That will allow you to concentrate on city and river placements.
Use simple keys.
Avoid too many colours - shades of 3/4 will do.
Honestly if you're a beginner, there is no secret, just copy the style of an already existing map (either a real map or some made by another member of the AH community).
It helps getting your hand until you can do better stuff.
Also yes, avoid worlda, except if you can have some nice aesthetics and put nice pixel art, imo worldas are at their best as just piece of art rather than detailled maps.
For detailled worldmaps, either copy an actual worldmap or do a Qbam, they usually end up looking much better than worldas, also you can put regional minimaps and long descriptions on the side.
Finally i suggest keeping a folder of interesting/good looking maps and try to "reverse engineer" them, try to understand how someone did a particular effect and make something similar, even if it isn't part of a larger map.
It helps getting your hand until you can do better stuff.
Also yes, avoid worlda, except if you can have some nice aesthetics and put nice pixel art, imo worldas are at their best as just piece of art rather than detailled maps.
For detailled worldmaps, either copy an actual worldmap or do a Qbam, they usually end up looking much better than worldas, also you can put regional minimaps and long descriptions on the side.
Finally i suggest keeping a folder of interesting/good looking maps and try to "reverse engineer" them, try to understand how someone did a particular effect and make something similar, even if it isn't part of a larger map.
Isaac Beach
Banned
I disagree that Worlda can't be anything more than 'just a map' or 'meh'. Some of the best mapmakers can make beautiful Worldas; some of my most popular maps are Worldas, as opposed to my work in Inkscape. In fact I know my most popular map on Deviantart is a Worlda, statistically speaking. You'd think that must count for something. Although I do agree that taking a Worlda map to the next level requires some more adventurism, pixel art and little tags that don't appear on the average map.
That aside, try Inkscape or GIMP, or even Paint.net. Those let you make the super detailed, area specific maps. At first it's incredibly tedious (I still can't figure out GIMP so it's Inkscape for me) but if you listen to music or a podcast and know what you're making then you eventually just start flying through maps.
I never said worlda were only meh you just need a very good mapmaker to make them good. Hence why, to someone just starting out making maps and wanting to improve I suggested not doing worlda.
A lot of your paint work is decent, and honestly it's a treat to see hand-made maps. I also know a trick or two with paint that can really make some difference, especially with watercolor/gouache (ink as well).
I fucking love paintings, but as @TheKutKu said, try emulating the style of others who came before. There are lots of very creative interpretations of mapping as an art, and the level of realism or abstraction is varied. Amy Park is someone I admire, though her art is mostly architecture. But there are loads of folks out there, be open to any inspiration and experiment a bit
I fucking love paintings, but as @TheKutKu said, try emulating the style of others who came before. There are lots of very creative interpretations of mapping as an art, and the level of realism or abstraction is varied. Amy Park is someone I admire, though her art is mostly architecture. But there are loads of folks out there, be open to any inspiration and experiment a bit
iSorry if there was a misunderstanding but i didn't say that worldas are always bad, it's just that IMO most mapmaker tend to jump onto them first and the result isn't great, there are a lot of great worldA, but to "take it to the next level", you need either some nice alternate earth/planet , some *very* original scenario (and even then a qbam would be better), some nice pixel art, some very good colour combination or some original way to organize and display the map and the information.
It's just that i think that QBAM are generally more powerful and more mapmakers should directly jump onto them even before making worldAs, that or as you said, vector maps.
Also yes @Mako-Tochan I really like your paint work, they are a breath of fresh air among the various qbam/wordas/vector maps here.
Personally i have a several GB heavy map compilation folders (mostly AH but also IRL) with a good thousand maps that i regularly browse to get inspiration, maybe you should try that.
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Thank you for all your answers ^^
So :
Try new techniques so I learn new useful tricks
Search for new artists and maps, so I find aesthetics and techniques that can feed mine
Avoid to rest too much on worldA, because it's hard to unmeh a worlda map
Well, apart from the last one that's pretty specific, it's pretty solid advice for art in general
I'm going to train and improve ! >:3 Thank you guys, now I'm motivated to get up early tomorrow and try stuff
So :
Try new techniques so I learn new useful tricks
Search for new artists and maps, so I find aesthetics and techniques that can feed mine
Avoid to rest too much on worldA, because it's hard to unmeh a worlda map
Well, apart from the last one that's pretty specific, it's pretty solid advice for art in general
I'm going to train and improve ! >:3 Thank you guys, now I'm motivated to get up early tomorrow and try stuff