Interplanetary Shuttle, Space Suit and Crash Site...

[Gamerprinter]

Just a short jaunt into sci-fi. First I created a Five Minute Map of a shuttle crash on some lonely moon. Then I decided to create a ship deckplan for it, but before I finished, I created a PNG object of a space suit, all posted below. All created in Xara Designer Pro 9 - enjoy!

moon-crash.jpgspace_suit.pngshuttle.png

[Psylence]

That's a pretty cool five-minute map! Probably a bit silly but I like the craters - specifically how you used the line to define the inner edge but it's not a clean line - as they have a nice look that fits with the overall feel of a quick map, but not too perfect in relation to the rest.

Kind of curious, your spaceship has 4 beds, but only three chairs up front? I ask because it almost looks like a segmented craft that's designed to have the front as a sort of 'life boat' which can separate; however if that's the case, 4-beds, 3-chairs... someone's gonna have a bad day. Love the space suit!

[Gamerprinter]

Thanks, Psylence!

There's a chair in engineering in the rear, someone has to care for the engines. The ship itself is kind of a lifeboat for a larger ship - I don't see a lifeboat for a lifeboat.

[Psylence]

Ahhh gotcha! Indeed it would be silly to have a "lifeboat for a lifeboat". If you don't mind me asking, I've always wondered where people build up the symbols for some of those ship/area layouts. Is there any place in particular that you like? Or do you create them all yourself from scratch? How about that space suit? You nailed the look and proportions pretty darn spot on, did you use a reference for the drawing or was it straight from mind to paper?

[Gamerprinter]

I found a pic of the space suit used in Armageddon (movie). I didn't want something bulky like a real space suit, Google offered the Armageddon space suit (as a costume for a kid to wear), so I used it for reference. The deck plan is something out of my head, I tried to think of the minimum amount of space for some comfortable living aboard a small ship for 4. The cabins are very small, but at least each has their own cabin.

If I made maps for games only (as part of game prep), I'd probably use pre-designed map objects for expediency sake. However, since I make maps as illustration content for a map tutorials book series I'm writing, as commissions for publishers, and not really for personal use, I create everything from scratch - I never use existing map objects, except for my own.