Asked to demo mapping in digital art class.

[RjBeals]

Thought I would share this..

A concept artist friend of mine just got a job teaching at a local college, Digital Art and Design, mainly using the adobe suite. He asked me if I would do a class on mapping, demonstrating real world applications for all the flashy bells and whistles he'll show them. No-pay, but I think i'll do it. I just have to come up with a 1-hour demo. That will be tough. As I commit and move forward with this, I'll update this group, and maybe some of you have experience with teaching and some tips/advice for me

[ravells]

Wow, what fun!!! I'm sure your maps will blow them away. What is the age group of the class?

[RjBeals]

thanks rav. it will be fun, but I'm already nervous. I assume the class will be normal college age students, late teens early 20s. but could be a handful of older folks as well.

I'll have to demo the techniques I know. No GIS or anything technical. Basically starting with a google maps screen grab and tracing it. yikes!

[Hai-Etlik]

I'll have to demo the techniques I know. No GIS or anything technical. Basically starting with a google maps screen grab and tracing it. yikes!

Why not use a PDF or SVG export from Open Street Map? You can get it straight as a vector format and it's under an open license. Where tracing over a Google map may be OK in this case as an educational exercise, it wouldn't be if the map were going to be distributed.

[DevinNight]

I teach Illustrator (used to teach Illustrator and PS) first off... an hour will go by like 20 minutes if you like what you are teaching, second most awake students will throw questions at you, so don't feel like you have to have an hours worth of work, keep it simple and have the entire project saved in multiple stages. You never know what tech issues you will run into so if you can make sure version numbers and everything is in place.

If you are lecturing more than teaching, you will accomplish more in your time... I tend to have the students follow along, if you do this expect delays since the slowest person will constantly be behind and will slow everybody down.

Mostly though if you are excited about doing it the students will be excited too.

[Ascension]

I teach stained glass classes for the local colleges and the one thing that I've found most helpful is this: the more you act like you know what you're doing, the more they will think you know what you're doing. Oh and also try to look the part. Then you just dazzle them with a few techniques, show a few secret tips and tricks, show some finished works, and then let them think their way through things on their own and answer questions. With only 1 hour you won't be able to go into too much detail so just paint with broad strokes on some topics you know like the back of your hand. The more you go outside of your comfort zone the more you look like a novice so do what you know and it will flow so naturally that you'll automatically come off like an expert.

[RjBeals]

good point Hai-Etlik. I normally warp the hell out of my maps though. I normally map for board games, and have to compromise geographical accuracy for gameplay and userability. (real word?). I just don't have the experience using vector bases.

It's just what I'm used to. But I think it's a good reference point for the common person to know. zoom in and trace borders from google maps (or the likes). I also plan to show the tapered brush settings to create tapered rivers. Awesome technique I learned here. And the follow brush direction for buildings, with bevel. and certainly layer effects and layer blending options.

And Ascension - great points. I'm not the greatest public speaker. But when i'm prepared, and someone initiates conversation (questions) I do much better. I hope I can influence some of them to try a map. I will certainly drop a plug for this site as well. Anyone interested in mapping, I don't care if it's goverment or D&D'er, this website is a great resource.

I'm glad you all posted and showed interest. It's why I joined this community in the first place.

- end cheese now.

[Hai-Etlik]

good point Hai-Etlik. I normally warp the hell out of my maps though. I normally map for board games, and have to compromise geographical accuracy for gameplay and userability. (real word?). I just don't have the experience using vector bases.

Well you can export to PNG as well if you prefer a raster map: either way, you just drag out a bounding box, pick a scale, pick Mapnick or Osmarender for the renderer, and out pops an image file. It's simpler than using screenshots, and avoids the legal issues of tracing Google's maps (You do have to comply with the OSM license, but that's better than not having license at all). If you're using Illustrator rather than Photoshop, the vector output just saves you the work of tracing it.

[Aenigma]

Hey, I wanna be in that class! xD

[Ramah]

Good luck with that then RJ.

My word, one hour is nothing. In that time I might just have finished deciding the shortlist for the name of the map. Hehe.