# Community Participation > Mapping Challenge Archive >  Oct 2016 Challenge: Vampire's Mansion

## mat_r

Hey there,

guess I'm a bit late to the party, but I will still try this one. Let's see if I can finish this...
I thought this was the perfect opportunity to try something new and I wanted to make a map using isometric perspective for a long time. So the goal I created for myself to make this overview over a vampire's mansion, with a isometric view in the middle of the page, which will be surrounded by groundplans for the different buildings/rooms. 
In my head this made sense... I am curious if it actually works out the way I imagined.

So here are a few WIPs. First a suuuper messy sketch to sort things in my head, second a rough grid/layout I set up to help me and third the detailed linework for the isometric view.

----------


## Bogie

Very nice line work, the building is looking very good.  
One thing I question, at the peak of the roof facade, is that a small statue or is that a cross?  If that is a cross, I would not expect to find it on a Vampire's home.

Welcome to the challenge!

----------


## mat_r

Thank you, good point. I changed that. A similar thing I am still thinking about is that tree. I feel that design-wise it should probably be a dead tree (or at least one without foliage), but I am not sure if that would be a good choice visually. ... since all the tiny branches would add a lot of detail to the border of the image and maybe draw attantion away from the mansion.

Today I added some little details, a background and took care of the actual ground plans surrounding the building.

----------


## ThomasR

WOW ! Really nice start !

----------


## Voolf

Impressive illustration.
I dont see a reason to make the tree dead just because it is a vampire mansion, but if you want to make it all gloomy atmosphere, then it will definately fit.

----------


## Chashio

That is Very nice, mat_r.

----------


## fol2dol

I love it!!!
What a start!

----------


## mat_r

Thank you guys  :Smile: 

Did not change too much, today. Shifted some things around, added decorative stuff...
At this point the biggest question probably is, whether to color the drawing in the middle or not. Initially it was my plan to paint behind the lines, but now I think it might ruin the style...
I shall do some experimenting tomorrow.

----------


## Gamerprinter

I would add the interior and landscape colors, if it were me, but you're not me, so don't think I'm trying to persuade either way. I'd choose subdued water color palate (colors with 30+% level of transparency). It might also look good doing a gray scale version instead of color, again nice line work, but for me, I'd do a little more. I'd totally understand if you thought that is complete. Some nice skills you have.

GP

----------


## mat_r

Yes, I think you are right...
So here is a colored version. I guess it kind of works and I am inclined to call this finished, just because I know I sometimes tend to overwork things, but somehow I am not yet  100% satisfied with the result. Maybe I need to sleep over it.

Suggestions on how to improve this are appreciated  :Very Happy: 

### Latest WIP ###

----------


## Warlin

Great  building structure map, mat_r. Some interior stuff would be a nice add to this map. Also, you need to add the tag Latest wip to your map if you want it to be seen for the vote. It would be a pity if it doesn't.

----------


## mat_r

Woops, I forgot about that. Thank you!

----------


## kacey

This is looking good mat, when you first mentioned colouring this, I thought, like you said, it might ruin the style, but seeing it now I've changed my mind, and I really like how the colour turned out... Good job.

----------


## Bogie

Your black & white line work was excellent, but I do prefer colored maps & drawings.  This is great.

----------


## J.Edward

Oooh, gorgeous color work Mat  :Smile: 
Very nice and subtle choices.
This is very engaging.

----------


## Voolf

Perfect illustration !

----------


## ThomasR

Looks like it's coming straight out of a european comic book ! Really nice coloring skills !

----------


## mat_r

Thank you very much for your input, guys! =)
Yes I agree now, it is better in color. While it may take some focus away from the lineart, it's a healthy choice for the overall composition of the page, in my opinion.

Newest tweaks: Gave it some texture, a little more detail, added shadows. That's it, this is finished  :Smile: 

/edit: oops, a little rogue line sneaked in there. edited the image.

### Winner ###

----------


## foremost

Looks great!

----------


## DanielHasenbos

It's looking really great mat_r! 

-Dan

----------


## damonjynx

Nice work. I particularly like the way you've done the stairs and colouring, excellent job.

----------


## RjBeals

your perspective and shadows are amazing - I love this, great work!

----------


## Greg

Lovely illustrative work on this, Matt. Colours, shadows, perspective, I think you've just about got everything nicely done in this piece!  :Very Happy: 

I particularly love the breakdowns of the floors though, which although very simple, add a lot more depth to the piece. Great work here!

----------


## fol2dol

This is amazing, everything is so neat!
I love the colors and shadows!!

----------


## arsheesh

Fantastic work on the perspective.  The line-work is neat and the color choice is splendid.  All in all a fantastic entry.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

----------


## mat_r

You guys are so kind...  :Smile:  Thank you, everyone!
It has been great fun doing this and I am happy that everything worked out the way I had it in my mind before I started. (more or less, haha)

----------


## Ilanthar

Wow, fantastic work Matt! Nice colors, layout and clean floorplans. The illustration is really beautiful.

----------


## 7Sided

Wow! So awesome! Definitely loving the color. You did a great job texturing it so it doesn't make the image look too flat. I'm just curious how you did the line artwork once you had your isometric "sketch." Did you freehand this with a tablet or use vectors? The line work looks very sharp and very straight lines. The isometric circles makes me think it was vector. Just curious... Great job!

----------


## mat_r

Thank you very much Ilanthar & 7Sided

It is all drawn with a tablet, no vectors. At that level of detail, making a pixel based drawing is much faster in my opinion. However, Photoshop offers a couple of tools that greatly help your accuracy - the two most important ones being:

1. SHIFT + klick makes perfectly straight lines. This is extremely helpful in drawings where a lot of lines follow a fixed grid. (However, I think it is good advice not to overdo it with those and to throw some freehanded lines into the mix, since that makes the drawing more vibrant.
2. For ellipses/circles: There is the ellipse tool. This can create both paths, vector based shapes and pixel based shapes. It doesn't make much of a difference which one you choose in my opinion. I prefer pixels, since they are more convenient for editing in a drawing-workflow. (for example you can easily erase parts of them etc..)

----------


## Gamerprinter

> Thank you very much Ilanthar & 7Sided
> 
> It is all drawn with a tablet, no vectors. At that level of detail, making a pixel based drawing is much faster in my opinion. However, Photoshop offers a couple of tools that greatly help your accuracy - the two most important ones being:
> 
> 1. SHIFT + klick makes perfectly straight lines. This is extremely helpful in drawings where a lot of lines follow a fixed grid. (However, I think it is good advice not to overdo it with those and to throw some freehanded lines into the mix, since that makes the drawing more vibrant.
> 2. For ellipses/circles: There is the ellipse tool. This can create both paths, vector based shapes and pixel based shapes. It doesn't make much of a difference which one you choose in my opinion. I prefer pixels, since they are more convenient for editing in a drawing-workflow. (for example you can easily erase parts of them etc..)


Just so you know I prefer vector to image editors, though I don't use Illustrator, I use Xara Designer Pro x11. That said, it depends on your application. Xara allows me to erase or paint vector shapes, in addition to using the drawing tool, which I prefer. While my current vampiric star ship definitely shows its vector origins, especially in use of one-directional extrusion which I applied to the exo-skeleton hull shown on the top deck level, many of my maps look as if it could have been created in Photoshop, though again, I use vectors exclusively and no image editing in my work. Nothing wrong with your approach and application preference, I just wanted to note some of the reasons you describe in your post as to your preference using pixels instead of drawn shapes, I can do those same functions in vector as well - those techniques can be done in vector as well as image editors.

One of the main reasons I prefer vector (aside from the fact as a traditional artist I prefer to draw and not to paint) is that with vector, pixels are meaningless until I export to an image format (JPG, PNG, TIF, etc). The same map design can be exported to a 300 dpi printed map, or used as a 72 dpi virtual tabletop application at the same scale. I can also reduce a map's scale to export to a smaller format if I need it. With an image editor (such as GIMP or Photoshop) you have to commit to a specific pixel scale, and cannot really create 300 dpi output using a 100 ppi design scale.

While I am certainly skilled at using Photoshop (for other purposes than mapping), the only time I use Photoshop in map design process at all, is when a client publisher is using a Mac and expect a high resolution, layered PSD file as the final format. I create and export the file from Xara, then just to insure compatibility for Mac based PSD files, I open my exported PSD in Photoshop CC, and save it again - that's the only time I use Photoshop at all in my work. Also I often hand-draw line work, then import to Xara, apply a "merge layer" transparency onto the hand-drawn work, and place vector shapes beneath the line work, creating a kind of hybrid pixel/vector creation.

Incidentally, though I don't a tablet (though I have one) Xara works perfectly well with a tablet including using pressure to create shaped lines is completely possible and easy to do.

----------


## Bogie

Excellent, looks great!!

One Question though, What does the "Scale 1:125" mean?

----------


## mat_r

Bogie: Thank you! Well, it is a method of putting models or drawings to scale. You can often find similar declarations on (printed) maps like atlases or road maps. What this actually translates to is that the drawing is 1/125 the size of the real thing. Or: 1 unit (of any measure of length) in the drawing equals 125 units of the same type in reality. Meaning: A distance of 1cm in the drawing would be 1,25 meters in the actual building. Since there is no foreshortening in isometric perspective you should be able to measure almost any part of the building (somewhat) accurately. - Of course this type of scales makes no sense in a digital environment, since everybody will see the image at a different size, due to monitor resolution, etc. But if you actually print it to its intended format (which would be DIN A3 for this one, btw), the scale works out. 

Gamerprinter: Yes, agreed. A lot of this certainly boils down to personal reasons like experience and preferences. I just have been using PS for such a long time and I feel so comfortable with my workflows in PS, that it feels like the natural choice most of the time. Maybe someday I will have to force myself to explore some vector based techniques. At the moment I just don't feel a lot of pressure to do so, since PS does evreything I need and the scale-thing is usually not a severe issue, if you plan ahead. (I always work at a considerably higher resolution than I actually need... just in case ...  :Very Happy:  )

----------

