Maping Concepts Options

[TheCableGuy]

So, I've been really getting into Maping in RPG XP and I keep coming up with nagging issues that I'd like to heard some additional insight on.

I've watched a LOT of Anime and, as much as I try not to I can't stop designing my maps with Anime Influences. I know know Nothing about Japanese design outside of Anime and I can't help but feel a little pretentious doing so. Anyone else have moments like this? I guess it doesn't help that I started with a Japanese tileset which I've heavily Edited but it was the only tileset that had a clean drawing style that I liked. But is it Pompous of me to continue designing Anime style maps without any personal concept of Japanese Artistic style?


Another Issue I've come up against is the Question, How Much Detail is too much? I've become somewhat Obsessive Compulsive when is comes to detail that I'm completely redrawing my Tilesets constantly trying to get everything Perfect, with everything being understood at a glance of what it's suppose to be without the viewer needing to use their imagination trying to figure out what they're looking at (Something I personally Detest having to do in most games.)

Needless to say, I rather Like the Way I've done my Maps ..... the two that I've been working on for the past year. Now I'm working on the sub maps for them and with each new map, the same issues crop up.

[supercow]

if you can make tileset according to what you want , great , i dont see any problem with that.
i absolutely have no idea what you mean by anime style, as long as it doesnt look out of place and had weird colour, it doesnt matter.
there cant be enough detail if you want to make something , go for it.

[Knot]

It's pretty hard to judge whether you've gone too far or not, it would be much easier if you posted a screenshot. Although, as for my general thoughts on mapping, I think it's a fine balance between speed and beauty. It's great to have really beautiful maps, but if they bog down your project or mean that you never finish, it becomes a waste. OCD has killed more than a few projects so be careful!

[Kaust]

But is it Pompous of me to continue designing Anime style maps without any personal concept of Japanese Artistic style?

Another Issue I've come up against is the Question, How Much Detail is too much?

Firstly there's nothing wrong with a little hybridity; Picasso had african influences in his art but he wouldn't have ever visited there, the only way to truly understand a culture (I believe).

Regarding detail (and I'm no artist), when you're mapping don't feel the need to put something on every tile, the absence of something can be as effective as the inclusion of it. Specifically with your individual tilesets remember that there's a strong likelihood the player is only going to appreciate what you've done in their first glance when entering an area, after that their probably just going to focus on their story, quest, whatever. So yeah, give 'em a breathtaking first view, but don't beat yourself up if you cant get it perfect.

[TheCableGuy]

It's pretty hard to judge whether you've gone too far or not, it would be much easier if you posted a screenshot. Although, as for my general thoughts on mapping, I think it's a fine balance between speed and beauty. It's great to have really beautiful maps, but if they bog down your project or mean that you never finish, it becomes a waste. OCD has killed more than a few projects so be careful!

Yeah, I figured I was going to need to show my work but was kind of hoping I wouldn't need to but I guess I wanted to get some input on it anyway eventually so why not.

[Show/Hide]
So, this is my house Loosely Inspired by (but not Necessarily based on) the Tendo house from Ramna 1/2

[Show/Hide] And this is my School which I think turned out fairly well concidering how many times I redrew the walls.

Of course, the actually maps are all Conciderively larger then the Pics and have a lot more Detail but I think I got the important parts.

[Knot]

I think they look really nice. They definitely have a non-western feel, but that works fine depending on what your game is about (e.g you can't be setting it in San Francisco). As for the detail, I think that's fine too. It never gets in the way but adds life to the scenes. I especially like the flowers. Although, I would add more detail to the grass in the house scene. Even when you're inside, I find it makes everything come more alive.

[Shaddow]

I think it looks really nice, as someone who loves anime but also Japanese culture as a whole, I think you are getting the style down well. This is more of a small town style of course, or someone who lives in the country side. Japanese cities are just as big and active as any cities near where you live if not more. That's about the only thing to keep in mind.

[supercow]

2nd and 3rd map , the house feels kindda empty, its better if kitchen near a window.
bathroom too big
judging from the map the toilet is 3x3 it must be a rich house.

1st map , judging from outside gate the house looks quite big but it emphasize small garden, its very weird.
you already got good compact garden from outside gate to inside , the left and right empty space feels kindda weird, why not put another house there and make the gate wall smaller (unless its a rich house, but judging from inside house its middle class).
*ranma house is a dojo so its got big area for the dojo, if you wanna utilize that space, the garden might be better not there.
taking care of flower in a house thats surrounded by fence without way reaching it is weird, if still want to use fence its better using smaller fence because from the looks of your map the fence is quite big.
the gate door looks like came from vx by its constrast ( vx has higher contrast than xp) so it stands out than the rest of map.

school map 1, umm....maybe put desk inside the window from outside? so it doesnt look empty.
the cherry tree need some root/shadow?
map 2, why not make fence for all the poor flower? its too wide space for my taste, but maybe theres a reason for it.

i made a few changes for the inside house , thought it might help , i made it using ur pict so forgive a few error
the hallway to me is still kindda big but too lazy for it, there still some error (like position of refrigerator) but im to lazy to change it again.
that stairs is looking mighty weird... i dunno how to make it look better.

becarefull using vx combine with xp, the contrast of vx is quite high so it look out of place.

[TheCableGuy]

Wow, those are some very interesting changes and gives me quite a bit to think about though the reason I had for the Dimensions of the Rooms was because I was keeping the as close to the Outside Dimensions as possible without adding too many rooms so an otherwise simple house.

See, I started drawing this as an experiment to see if I would draw an accurate representation of the Tendo Home but after a few tries, I started getting more and more Divergent from the original floor plan and more simplified after countless revisions so I started downsizing the interior without downsizing the Exterior (the Yard originally was big enough for the whole Tendo Home with Dojo. Now it just has a Koi Pond in front but still pretty big.

[Show/Hide] Here's my External view

The "Garden" wasn't meant so much as a Garden but rather just to Frame the Path up to the Door, which was rather bare in the beginning.

And I completely agree that the Kitchen should have window. Originally, the Kitchen was where the Bath was but I had to move it as I wanted the Master Bedroom/Living Room (Keep in mind, this house is designed using shoji for rooms except where not applicable) where they are now and I didn't make much sense putting the Bath near the Front door. So, I planned to put a Lightshaft shining in from the Left meant to show the Window on the left wall instead of over the sink. Like much of my Maps, it was planned but I just haven't do so yet (hence my problem with details....more Planned then I can reasonably implement with how slow I can draw.)

[Show/Hide] Here's my second floor:

As you can see, Each room is Measured 6x6 Tatami Mats (Or at least as close as I could get it without leaving other distortions or discrepancies that have Plagued me because of my custom walls, which I drew trying to keep them as thin as possible) but also Leaving as much room as possible to allow freedom of movement (because movement in RPG sucks.) I still need to redo the flooring on the Insides of the house but again, I've been redoing them for months now.


Also, Yes I know the Risks of Using VX with XP but regardless of where I've searched, there just aren't as much resources for Modern housing tilesets as I'd like. Fantasy tilesets are too numerous to count and I've even found many futuristic ones as well but nothing what I was looking for. You wouldn't believe how much I had to redraw from scratch.

BTW, could you provide whatever set those pieces there you have for the Bathroom are from. Been trying to work on a Water facet and fail but what you have there works great.

This post has been edited by TheCableGuy: Jan 29 2012, 03:20 PM

[supercow]

BTW, could you provide whatever set those pieces there you have for the Bathroom are from. Been trying to work on a Water facet and fail but what you have there works great.

i made it using pict that you provided on the spot.


external view house is so big, it looks like a castle , and the dojo is too far wide ,its like football field.
cut the house by 1/3 and the dojo by 3/4 , a dojo probaby not big right? does it need 2nd floor?
from the house to the dojo dont make channeling house, it makes it looks even bigger, instead make it 2 seperate building, but can instead make wooden floor path that has roof (not house roof) a simple one ( might need to edit roof for this).

2nd floor:
dont they have carpet or something? it looks bare. everything looks bare and empty, maybe put plants / give it some colour to give it some life?
people live there...right?
if theres a girl they probably want some privacy, make a door that has lock and probably give it some cute sign on it.
put carpet in her room/at least make it different than the rest of the house floor.
if theres someone living there thats not very neat you could put books/trash all over the place / messy bed / poster of idol that they like/etc , it needs more life.
putting desk in middle of the room made it looks ....very strange, furniture usually put near wall to give more space.

sorry if i sound nagging.

[amaro57]

Yeah, I figured I was going to need to show my work but was kind of hoping I wouldn't need to but I guess I wanted to get some input on it anyway eventually so why not.

[Show/Hide]
So, this is my house Loosely Inspired by (but not Necessarily based on) the Tendo house from Ramna 1/2

You know what would make it a bit better in my opinion? For the in-door maps, try making everything outside the walls black (as you did with the updated indoor map). If you want the outside to show, then I suggest actually replicating the outside when in an indoor map, but of course without NPCs, events, and such.

[TheCableGuy]

i made it using pict that you provided on the spot.

Nice. Should of noticed that.

external view house is so big, it looks like a castle , and the dojo is too far wide ,its like football field.
cut the house by 1/3 and the dojo by 3/4 , a dojo probaby not big right? does it need 2nd floor?
from the house to the dojo dont make channeling house, it makes it looks even bigger, instead make it 2 seperate building, but can instead make wooden floor path that has roof (not house roof) a simple one ( might need to edit roof for this).

Actually, that's not the Dojo but rather the rest of the house. But I have since been downsizing both the Exterior and interior sigificantly though it's going to require me to edit my tileset once again. Much of my Roofing Tiles are formatted for it's original Dimensions.

2nd floor:
dont they have carpet or something? it looks bare. everything looks bare and empty, maybe put plants / give it some colour to give it some life?
people live there...right?
if theres a girl they probably want some privacy, make a door that has lock and probably give it some cute sign on it.
put carpet in her room/at least make it different than the rest of the house floor.
if theres someone living there thats not very neat you could put books/trash all over the place / messy bed / poster of idol that they like/etc , it needs more life.
putting desk in middle of the room made it looks ....very strange, furniture usually put near wall to give more space.

sorry if i sound nagging.

Mind you, much of the "Lived in" Look would of naturally been added, as soon as I think about who actually lives here (Took me forever just to figure out which room which bed fit in better.) But while Carpet's not a bad idea, I was stressing the presence of the Tatami Mats in the Bedrooms, partly to remind myself of the size of the rooms and also to express a Simple yet elegant look to the rooms. Prior to starting this (and Prior to all my constant editing) I had studied many Photos and Drawings of (in addition to Watching Anime of) Japanese Rooms and I was trying to keep to those as much as Possible. oh, and you probably couldn't tell because I posted the RPG Editing Screenshot but many of the events add much to the rooms such as the Doors, which are sliding patterned doors, though I'm thinking about trying different doors for them.

And the Desk in the center of the room like that was because this is a Study with the desk pointing straight at the door and well, I had numerous problems with this room originally and I thought that I came to a nice balance. But, I've managed to find a way to shave off several feet from each room, inside and out.

And I tried Blacking out the outside in on the internal maps but I didn't much care for the way it made everything look Cold and disconnected. For some games it works because it's better not to be distracted by the outside but I've think that a house should make you feel like you're inside a house with the world just outside the house adds Life to it. So I'll work on that.