Star Wars Various Maps

[LunaticDesign]

Thanks, it is really nice to see work paying off like it has.

[LunaticDesign]

Z C Forest Scifi 1 Night.jpg

Someone's been living in a degree of isolation.

[Tiana]

A perfect place for a Jedi to be hiding!

[LunaticDesign]

Cyber City 4-1.jpg

Here's another one that I tried something new with colored lighting.

[twowolves80]

lmao My dude, trust me, you could have the world's crappiest map drawn on a napkin with lipstick, and so long as your story-telling is tight, the players would think it's straight out of Disney. Yes, map quality helps, but only to set the stage. Once that is done, your story-telling is what comes to the fore, and the rest fades to the background.

The details to focus on, graphically and only if you really have the time and are a masochist, are greebles. Boxes, clutter in the background, and after all that, shading over the top of it to create "light" spots to give the illusion of shadow and depth. Shading will do more for maps than all of the above, come to think of it, because of that illusion. Also, a good graphics editor suite like CorelDraw for $200 (Black Friday! Woo!) are worth their weight in gold. If you prefer hand drawing, I would go with Prismacolors for pencils, Sakura Micron pens for line work, and chalk and kneading eraser for back drop fills.

One other thing about the greebles: make them logical. Stuff tends to collect under staircases. Boxes accumulate in closets and dead end hallways. Think about where you'd end up putting things if you lived there for an extended period of time. There is no upper limit on the amount to add, either, so long as it all makes sense to your story and to the NPCs that live there. Elianora became famous as the Clutter Queen for her Skyrim mods for the exact same reason: more detail adds more depth, both visually and story-wise, and that in turn creates the illusion of immersion. That same principle applies to other franchises, too, like Star Wars (the EU) and Star Trek. The greater the self-referential detail within the macrocosm you create, the greater the depth in immersion.

Edit: Your newer ones are pretty good. Shadow is much better. In the last one, just add some dark spots on top, in the corners, around the periphery of the lights, and maybe give the color spots a little more transparency to blend them back a bit. If I had to guess, I'd say it's a random encounter map for a city setting?

[LunaticDesign]

It's been a while but I have still been drawing.

SciFi Room 2 15x15.jpg

[LunaticDesign]

Here's something that I've been working on for a bit now. It's the first Star Wars Map I posted on the guild and a newer version.

Hidden Rebel Base.jpg

Hidden Rebel Base.jpg

[Tiana]

Nice updated version, much cleaner!

[LunaticDesign]

And here's the finished redux!
Hidden Rebel Base Night.jpg

[Tiana]

Such beautiful shading!