Question for mappers
Superfly
Join Date: 2002-11-01 Member: 3485Members, Constellation
<div class="IPBDescription">What matters more artistic or technical Ability? Perhaps both?</div>Quick question for you seasoned mappers out there.
I am interested in knowing if you feel that your artistic abilities or your technical abilities have a bigger influence in your map making.
So should someone (read Superfly) who is fairly creative but artistically challenged bother trying to build a map for NS2? Or would it be a waste of time?
I am interested in knowing if you feel that your artistic abilities or your technical abilities have a bigger influence in your map making.
So should someone (read Superfly) who is fairly creative but artistically challenged bother trying to build a map for NS2? Or would it be a waste of time?
Comments
The artistic abilities can play a great role in map making with making things stand out and look nice, special effects, etc etc...
An example would be in Hammer to make a normal looking room with some kind of setting (let's say a space lab). You compile and run the map and go into the room and it still looks kind of bland...this is where the artistic abilities should kick in. Changing light settings, adding small particle effects, and adding sound can really spice up a small room to make it look amazing.
Also, don't forget the color correction.
I hope that makes sense...
It makes perfect sense; this is the kind of feedback I was looking for. I always struggle with the finer details, put perhaps using other quality maps as a guide would help overcome some of that.
Technically, it's not a waste of time, you'll just have to spend more time on your map.
You can create a really awesome map with just blocks and it's still helluvalot playable, and this is the most important thing about a map in my book.
After that comes the artistic visions, with each room having something for the players to navigate from, natural layouts to guide the player instinctively along a path without him knowing it and then miscellaneous things like adding capsules, broken machiniery and so on. Alot of things goes underneath the players receptive recognition, and that's where the map needs a nice touch in order to feel natural to the playerbase, but first and foremost you need the architecture. Period.
I'm not a leveldesigner but this is my opinion at least; you can create a map. If you're the greater leveldesigner architect than artistic mastermind I'm pretty sure the architect wins out in the end. You can put all the effort you want into making it look awesome; but if it's unfair, feels awkward or doesn't follow the mapping guidelines it won't really matter.
And if you're not that aesthetic I'm sure there's someone out there that can do it for you or help you along the way. You shouldn't underestimate yourself if you actually try.
Edit: If it's a waste of time? Depends, you'd really need to put some effort into doing it if you're not artistic. So it would probably require some training to get the map looking more visual or contacts to pull that off, and playtesters to test it.
But getting the foundation of a great map I'm sure you can start with without knowing too much artistic stuff.
If you are artistically challenged, then get a helper on board to do the artistic side of it.
Have a go at a basic artistic flair and then find someone who is willing to work WITH you on the look of things.
If you have ut3 or gears on PC, it comes with the unreal editor. You can use any prop in the game to make a map. Really it would just come down to, in large part, knowing where the prop you want is. The whole point of those is so that players can make the maps they want and have them look good. It's still a big undertaking, but really - artistic ability shouldn't be a big factor.
(Being an environment artist is a different story.)
The bigger requisites are an idea and the dedication to follow it through to its conclusion. If you have a good idea and allow it to permeate your map's decision-making process, allowing it both to spawn ideas and to mould itself around restrictions, you will probably end up with a good map. But you'll only end up with a great map if you stick at it and work beyond your original unveiling to improve it to beyond your original expectations. (See: <a href="http://www.johnsto.co.uk/design/making_dust" target="_blank">The Making of Dust</a>)
All of the technical details and artistic considerations can be worked out through listening to feedback and setting aside time to get to create parts of the map and then make revisions. If you visit the Mapping forum for NS you'll see a stickied thread where mappers have posted a room or multiple screenshots and other mappers have given feedback on a range of aspects such as lighting, navigation, textures and architecture (that's actually a new thread, the old one is probably 10 times the length). Every mapper has generally made a thread showing progress with much feedback given from the community.
Technical ability can be learnt, artistic flair can be imparted through advice. You can learn the ins and outs of the level editor (we will all have to, to a degree) and you can take your style from other influences (most mappers do this). I've seen work from great 3D artists that was done when they were taking their first steps in modelling; they looked awful and they are unrecognisable from what they have gone on to accomplish because they stuck at their craft.
It's also true that there have been map projects involving multiple people, but I've never seen any one of those succeed that wasn't based on an existing level. If you can find someone you work well with, fine, but beware of too many cooks spoiling the broth. Don't expect a team project to have more chance of success because it has more hands at work, in most cases it will incur an unneccessary degree of management and communication which will get in the way of progress.
So my advice would be don't worry about your weaknesses, the most important thing to do is to get your hands dirty and keep asking questions and keep at it.