Re: [flasher] RE: how was this 3d map made?

[Gahlord Dewald]

> http://i-technica.com/streetmap.html


Looks like it was done with a ruler in black and white and then colorized in an

illustration app. I concur that it's pretty cheesy and not very well made. It's

a bit cartoony which is what leads me to the pen/pencil solution. The gradients

are the only thing that make me think the entire thing (minus typography) wasn't

done by hand.


For a map of that quality it would be much faster to make by hand than to create

the models of buildings and then place them on the map. Especially since many of

these buildings would be unique (like the church in the lower section); they

wouldn't be in a basic pack of spare buildings.


Probably used aerial photography for reference. Repeatable elements were only

drawn once (people, cars, trees) probably on a different sheet and then overlaid

digitally. I say this because the scale is so wacky (compare people vs red truck

vs cars in forground vs cars in background). 


The cars are a great point to look at: the sequence red, white, blue, pink is in

most parking lots only rotated 90 degrees to show the other side of it's

perspective--not requiring a redraw from another angle. These cars are also

rarely altered in size much. But the wacky size distortion is part of a map like

this; the distortion is part of its vernacular charm.


A real 3D program would've got the lighting right by default, which is what

drives me nuts about it. Notice the gradients on the tops of the buildings, they

go all over the place. A 3D artist would specify one light source (maybe a few

small ones from "source" lights if they're really good and there's a budget for

it) and place it; all the shadows would concur with the single light source. The

map posted has a different light source for every building, each with it's own

angle/height/luminosity/etc.


4 hours illustration, 1 hour scan/prep/clean, 3 hours colorizing. Your

"talented" resource would be the illustrator (apologies to comic book inkers out

there). The illustrator will work for much less than your 3-D modeler and

probably take less time. Plus maintaining your cartoony feel.


hth,

g


Gahlord Dewald

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