The Difference Between "Telling a story" & Being LAZY
by
, 10-28-2012 at 03:05 PM (7705 Views)
Ah yes the story... If you follow my work you know that for me a map is just another way to tell a story. I fill them with bits and bobs and all kinds of "fluff" that helps the viewer see my vision. I'd like to think I'm pretty good at it. One of the things I'm not so good at is making it all fit together and make sense. My worst most immediate problem is scale. I hate it I struggle with it and it makes my most "clever" maps at best useless and at worst garbage. I do a lot of "encounter" maps. Small maps that depict a small area (usually a building or some other kind of structure) Oh sure I fill them with weeds and crates and all kinds of things to give them a sense of "life" but do they make sense? Can my maps actually be used for anything other than saying "That's a nice map, Too bad the windows are 40 feet tall and the bar is 6 inches long..." I know it isn't always that bad but If I'm going to make encounter maps they should at the very least make sense. Either that or I'll call them "Digital Dioramas" and post them somewhere else. It's TOO easy for me to explain away my mapping shortcomings with my usual" Well I'm trying to tell as story..." That's just lazy there should be no excuse for a 30 foot tall weed and a 4 inch tall castle wall. None. I can still tell the story and have everything in proportion to everything else. Time to cut it out and join the real world of mappers who take the time to figure all of that stuff out.