[General] Siramix's Mapping School

[Siramix]

elcome OpenTibia Land to a Mapping School by Siramix.

First of all, I'm going to go through a bit of my past in mapping, as well a lot of introductions about myself will be spoiled here, so hold your breath!
Well, I've been mapping for a few years now, and then most of you check my join date, in fact. I've been under the name, Merchant & Icetear in the past, so you can now get the puzzle complete!

But I'm sort of bored of mapping, of course not permanently, but for the moment. So I decided to create a mapping "school" or education, which will involve a several steps or chapters.

Every chapter will include two parts. First one explaination about how to perform this area of the lessons, of course pictures will be included. And then you are going to get some homework

Here's a schedule how the leassons are going to be layed out on the timeframe of the school:

• Lesson 1: Structures / Shapes
• Lesson 2: Planning
• Lesson 3: RME Functions & Shortcuts
• Lesson 4: Detailwork
• Lesson 5: Final Touches

As you can see, there are five leassons. Five lessons of everything that I judge is important for mappers to know about. Then you obviously thinks, why do we have to know about RME Functions & Shortcuts? Simply because a mapper have to do their job in a decent speed as well, not only in an artist way. But in a progressy way. :thumbup:

Requirments for this education:

• OpenTibia Land Membership
• Remere's Mapeditor Software
• Imagination

And where to get these requirments?

• Register at OtLand
• Download - Remere's Map Editor (RME) - An Open Source Map Editor for Open Tibia
• Google

Alright! Now before we jump in to the first lesson, I feel that some information is required to be known! This thread will have the same process as PAXTON's webcoding school. And I am the one who's going to give your homework hopefully a decent rate from 1-10, and of course a constructive critism about how to improve your mapping piece!

All leassons will be divided in to 5 posts, starting from below here. And then through the time I'm going to update this mainpost with the starting dates of every lesson, just to make it clear to you all when it's started.

Lesons Startdates:

• Lesson 1: Starts 12/11 - 2010
• Lesson 2: Starts -----
• Lesson 3: Starts -----
• Lesson 4: Starts -----
• Lesson 5: Starts -----

PS! Every homework that you are going to turn in, will of course be accepted through PM's. But please, post your homework here, using this layout:

Hello Siramix! I'm going to turn in my homework.
Leasson 1: This is my homework, that I've done. ---PICTURE----

And then the same on the other lessons. But include some informations about what you are turning in to me.

As stated, these dates will be updated when every lesson will be available!
Next posts will include the leassons! Good luck everyone.

Kind regards,
Siramix!

 

[Siramix]

odays lesson, Structures / Shapes;

This is a pretty wide area, as everything that's mapped, is based on structures / shapes.
Everything that you are going to map in the future, is based on structures / shapes, it's like a work of structurer engineering, but we're in Tibia. Everything is possible !

Alright, I'm going to begin with the mainpart of shaping, ground structures. All from roads, to water borders! So first of all, please open your mapeditor.
Go to RAW Palette, and then to "Borders", and we're going to go through how to make an island shape, at first place. So scroll down a bit to the borders with IDs; 4644 - 4655.
As you can see, the borders are connectable with eachother, so we're going to start to connect a few of them in to a very small island, just to see the results of the borders!

Something just like this:

Do you see that I'm not using the borders to create a squary but to create something more balanced and more natural shape, that will make it look a lot better when creating bigger shapes.
So, let us jump in to the first island shape:

There you can see that I'm still not using the borders to create a box, but something more natural!
You can try this as well, and then you can go for the next kind of structure part:

We're going to create some kind of dirt spot on this island, and therefore we need some borders around that. This will be some kind of "road".
Simply place out your borders, and think about to not place them in a box, and to use your opportunities to create something natural, such as this...

Try that kind of borders as well, and then head on to the next structure part:

Now, we're going to structure up a hut / house on this island. Therefore we are going to switch tileset from
RAW Palette tileset "Borders", to RAW Palette tileset "Walls", scroll down to the walls from ID; 1036 to 1046.
Then as you can see, the walls can be connected to eachother as well, so just try to do something for yourself, but then follow the instructions and my example:

I can see that I missed to add those corner pillars to this wall, DO NOT forget that!
That was your first island with shapes, only roof shape that's still missing, but that shape is always the same as the structure of the house, else it's looking pretty wierd.
As well people, keep in mind that we're only practicing the shapes now, so I'm not going to force you to fill anything with ground types. But you do as you want to!

As well, we're going to add a little mountain shape just to make you known of it's sprites. So first of all, move on from RAW Palette tileset "Walls" to RAW Palette tileset "Nature".
Scroll down to the IDs; 4468 - 4513 and IDs; 4826 - 917. These are in line, so you can't really miss them!

At this moment, you should know how to structure something, without making a box of it, so structure something similar to this:

But as you can see, this looks just too empty, so we'll add the thick borders to the mountain instead, this was just to see how the shape is going to end out..
Now add borders like this, and you can as well fill the area with item ID; 919 to make it more visible that it's a mountain.

omework!

You are going to create an island, only shapes of course. Almost the same size as the one of mine example, with some kind of borders and structures on the island of your prefer!
But your task has to include these required parts to be accepted:

• Water borders
• Road borders
• Wall borders
• Mountain borders

And then when your homework is done, post it in this thread, and I'm going to rate it and give you some constructive critism about how you can improve you shapes.

Good luck everyone!

 

[Siramix]

elcome back dear mappers!
First of all I'd like to offer my sincerest apologies for not bringing this tutorial until as late as now, and I'm not sure if you will follow the tutorial any longer, but I'm still going to bring you these lessons. I have not been able to continue with these lessons before this because of a various amount of reasons, mainly because I've had a lot in school to handle, exams and essays to be done. But to be honest, I've been lazy.

Okay, so let the lesson begin.

Planning your map:

First of all you should get yourself an idea of what you want to map. And if you are out of creativity, then I would suggest you to watch a lot of movies, mainly adventure movies (e.g Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings or even Finding Nemo). So if you are out of creativity, first of all watch some movies or some pictures just to get yourself an idea of what you'd like to map.
Usually I always know what to map from the beginning, so I'm not watching movies for inspiration that often.

Well, then we can begin to open our mapeditor, and then we're suppose to put some planning on the construction. Therefore I'm suggesting you all to begin at the BOTTOM floor of your idea, as it will be easier if you work on your map, from bottom to top. So just to be certain that you all understand, follow these steps:

• Out of creativity? Watch movies or exciting pictures.
• Open your mapeditor.
• Begin to work on your structures from bottom to top.

This is how I usually begin to plan how my structures will look like, and where e.g a mountain will be located, and where roads will be located. Keep in mind that I'm always mapping with purposes, I'm not adding something just randomly, I always go according to how real-life nature and how it's all buildt in real-life. But just as an example;

This is how I beging my mapping, I'm always starting to put ground tiles where I'm planning to put borders, and how to make the ambience of the spot. As well, I'm always combinating correct sprites according to how it's working to eachothers in real-life (e.g dried grass with mountains). Anyhow, this is mainly how I plan and structure my mapping when it comes to planning.

Minimap planning:
When planning a minimap you usually begins with continents. I'd suggest you to first of all do shapes, without borders, just draw ground tiles around to create a shape that you personally like, then you can post it on the mapping board to get some feedback! But well, then when you will begin to plan on mountains, deserts, rivers and towns I usually go with just drawing shapes of these as well, except for the cities. Here's an example:

NOTE: I just made this shape very quick, and the desert part went not that good, but if you feel the same. Upload a picture to the mapping board and we will give you feedback and opinions.
Download the shape from this attachment; View attachment shape.rar

omework!

You are going to create a shape of a minimap, organize the shape with different kind of elements, and I want you to be creative, but still a bit realistic so you don't mix desert with snow. And as well I want you to do a construction planning, as I did (picture 1). This is what you should do;

Construction Planning;

• Ground tiles.
• Mountain tiles.
• Stairs.

Shape Planning (minimap);

• Desert Area.
• Rivers.
• Mountains.
• Grass tiles as shape.

And then when your homework is done, post it in this thread, and I'm going to rate it and give you some constructive critism about how you can improve your map planning.

Good luck!
PS. Shape really sucks in my opinion. But I assume you got the point!

 

[Siramix]

Lesson 3. RESERVED!

 

[Siramix]

Lesson 4. RESERVED!

 

[Siramix]

Lesson 5. RESERVED!

 

[macedoon]

Sounds interesting, I hope it'll help a few new comers. Good luck with it!

 

[Zysen]

Here's my homework,Siramix!

 

[Siramix]

Alright, let me give you some improvements! First of all, keep your shapes in to ONE, else it looks too random!
And about your mountain, I've got nothing to improve, just that you might have to make it more accessable from the actual island! And your house looks very boring, unfortunately.
Try to make it a bit larger ! I think that the only matter is the size actually.

But well, for a first homework this is a 6/10. You kinda got the point, but still need to practice a bit on the outcome!
Keep it up !

 

[Siramix]

Oh, that looks really good! As I can see you are pretty experienced, I'm going to give you improvements on your grade!
Your mountain shape, looks too squary, and should be more smoothed out with all the floors. And you should put more small mountain edge borders under the mountain walls to the north!

Else it looks pretty good. Keep it up mate. 7.8/10

 

[president vankk]

Yes,i know... i make the map in 5/10 minutes


Waiting for more

 

[Blackstone]

Bump his post,
please continue the lessons.

 

[Siramix]

The next lesson will be released tomorrow!
Cmon, give me some more homeworks

 

[Peroxide]

Here's my homework for lesson one.

 

[Siramix]

10/10. Nothing more to say.

 

[M4t30]

Here is my homework..

 

[Clinten]

Inspired by Peroxide.

 

[Unholy Saint]

Nice way to teach us how to map Siramix . Love the idea, I gonna add something too in lesson 1. Will be first time I add a picture to OTland .

 

[Unholy Saint]

Lesson 1. My first more serious map .

[/IMG]

 

[sir viet]

handing in my homework!



took me couple hours