James,
I read the mapper open call in the blog and I have a question or two. You posted 4 maps in the blog, are we suppose to tweek them to make them better or are we to totally reimagine them while still being recognizible or ... something else?
Thanks
Dale
Director of Brand Strategy
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I read the mapper open call in the blog and I have a question or two. You posted 4 maps in the blog, are we suppose to tweek them to make them better or are we to totally reimagine them while still being recognizible or ... something else?
I think we're supposed to use those as examples of what a map turnover looks like and then make up our own maps to show what we can do. So design a dungeon map of your choosing, or an overland map or a city. And make it look nice.
Gotcha, thanks.
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Creative Director
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James,
I read the mapper open call in the blog and I have a question or two. You posted 4 maps in the blog, are we suppose to tweek them to make them better or are we to totally reimagine them while still being recognizible or ... something else?
Thanks
Dale
Nope; I'm looking for raw talent. I want to see new maps; the four I posted are examples of map turnovers we use here for our adventures (I used maps from my own and Wes's adventures because I wasn't comfortable showing off maps of other authors whom I didn't have time to get permission from). I want to see new map turnovers of new stuff that look as good or better than the four sample maps.
...look as good or better than the four sample maps.
Uh huh
<---wonders if this kind of work would pay for the WACOM board.
I guess you guys have asked Maldin. I'd really like to see him do a big city map in Golarion.
I guess you guys have asked Maldin. I'd really like to see him do a big city map in Golarion.We haven't "asked" anyone to do anything yet. I'm still doing the talent search portion of the mysterious secret project I'm REALLY working on.
Haven't asked, eh... Someone should hint at him. Secret project. Cooooool.
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Creative Director
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James, I suppose, as well as having map drawing talent, ability to turn-over pretty quickly would be an issue for this?
I can draw maps of similar or better standard (city and dungeon anyway), but I'm not sure that I can do them quickly...
Being able to turn over cool maps quickly helps... but if you can draw awesome maps but need more time, that's also good to know. Since this might be something leading into more than ONE secret project.
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Being able to turn over cool maps quickly helps... but if you can draw awesome maps but need more time, that's also good to know. Since this might be something leading into more than ONE secret project.James, I suppose, as well as having map drawing talent, ability to turn-over pretty quickly would be an issue for this?
I can draw maps of similar or better standard (city and dungeon anyway), but I'm not sure that I can do them quickly...
Duly noted, thanks James.
Mothman, do it!
Do the maps need to be keyed, or not?
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Creative Director
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Do the maps need to be keyed, or not?
Up to you. The sample maps we posted included keyed maps and unkeyed maps... but in the end, since these maps are for mapping skillz only and not adventure stuff, spilling a bunch of encounter location tags all over a map isn't really necessary. But labeling streets and rivers and major geographical features and continents and cities and the like is probably a good thing. Not required, though, but it DOES show that, as a mapper, you're keeping in mind the fact that parts of your map will be obscured by text.
By this extension, it's best to include a title for the map, a scale, and a compass rose... if only so you don't fill the map so full of details that there remains no place to put those three elements without covering something important up.
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Creative Director
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Are you after a full, accurate graphical representation of textual descriptions which is passed onto a professional artist to draw (in a house style)? - in which case the style of what we would draw would be largely unimportant and possibly confusing to the artist who finally draws the map, so I would guess that the simpler the map style the better for the artist.
Or are you after a particular style of mapping?
What I'm basically after at this point is just to look for folk who can render maps that are clear, concise, and interesting. The style isn't important, since we already have cartographers we go to regularly for final maps and currently aren't producing more maps than our cartographers can handle...
The maps I'm looking for would be rough drafts for those cartographers; map turnovers that don't see print themselves, but show the cartographer what to do.
Maps that are TOO polished or photorealistic or "finished" looking aren't really useful in this case, as a result. That's why I posted the four example map turnovers. They're detailed and clear and concise, but they're not to the standard of quality that Paizo prints in RPG products.
So yes; the simpler the style, the better, I guess. But when you get to something like a big city... don't confuse "simple style" with "simple map."
Darn, I was hoping to get some finished map work. Was a fun thought though.
Darn, I was hoping to get some finished map work. Was a fun thought though.
If you read the blog post, it says to send your cartographic resume to the Art Director (whose information is here). :D
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Creative Director
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Is there a limit to the number of submissions?
Not officially.
But it's best if you limit yourself to 3; a city map, a dungeon map, and a wilderness map. I'm gonna try to give feedback on all maps, letting folks know what works and what wouldn't, were the map in question be something we were going to send to a cartographer as a map turnover, and the more maps you send in, the less time I'll have to send out feedback. ;-)
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question for you...is the purpose of the maps to guage our ability to make quality maps? or for possible use.
I ask because Ive created quite possibly a few hundred maps based in the competitions old FR setting. They are 'blow ups' of certain areas with more details and placed a few 'towns/cities of my own there.
If you're are looking for comething new to possibly use as well as guage capabilty...Ill whip something up using Golarion as a basis...but if you just want to see 'style' and capability I can send you some right away...
:D
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Creative Director
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question for you...is the purpose of the maps to guage our ability to make quality maps? or for possible use.
I ask because Ive created quite possibly a few hundred maps based in the competitions old FR setting. They are 'blow ups' of certain areas with more details and placed a few 'towns/cities of my own there.
If you're are looking for comething new to possibly use as well as guage capabilty...Ill whip something up using Golarion as a basis...but if you just want to see 'style' and capability I can send you some right away...
:D
The purpose of the maps is to find people who can draw maps. Because in many cases, authors cannot. For adventures, we'll generally need to just take our lumps (and perhaps favor adventure writers who can draw at least passable maps, which is what we've been doing). But in cases for products like a city guide book or a Pathfinder Companion of a region... we already KNOW that we'll need a map of a region or a city, and therefore it'd be cool to get that map done early by someone who can create a clear and legible turnover that we can then supply to the author, in cases where the author's strength is writing, not cartography.
So, to be honest, it's not really the content of the maps that I care about. I'm looking for people who can draw, but aren't necessarily doing the job as cartographer in a professional or freelance cartographer already.
But doing maps of your own design are generally more valuable since creativity and imagination are important as well.
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Ive been wanting to whip up some maps for a homebrew Pathfinder/ Golarion Scenario Ive been thinking of...so Ill jump right on it and make it my 'pre-Superbowl' task On Sunday.
1 Town
1 Wilderness
1 Dungeon
Ill set it in an area of The River Kingdoms..
Ill get you maps early next week. ;)
This'll be fun
OK, I've submitted my 3 maps along with a link to my map portfolio and look forward to your response.
As an aside I find it exceedingly difficult to create less than a complete map ready for publication. I've never conceived of the idea for an intermediate cartographer in the publication process. Though I can understand the situation of authors who can't draw.
I think the on call idea would be more practical to provide the prospective written information that doesn't have a map, and to create from that, rather than to create random maps and expect to fulfill your needs.
I've done my best to create an "intermediate map" though I am sure I failed miserably - they are too finished, though each took me less than an hour to create. The town map took 4.5 hours though.
Anyway, I look forward to your response, if any.
Gamer Printer
Whens the close date?
Whens the close date?
This past monday.
Ah, damn, I knew I'd leave it too late.
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Creative Director
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Hey, James, I've got one question: when are we going to hear back from you?
Yes, the map open call is closed as of last Monday. I got a LOT more maps than I was anticipating (over a hundred in a week!), and although I've responded to some of them with feedback, I've only been able to respond to about 5% of the total so far. I'll get to the other 95% eventually... and those mappers whose maps most closely match the needs for my SECRET PROJECT will hear back first (hopefully by next week).
Project Alicesaurus - activation code word: Suppertime.
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Creative Director
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It is, unfortunately, looking increasingly unlikely that I'll be able to give feedback on everyone's maps in a relatively timely manner. I HAVE contacted several folks already for the current project I have in mind, so if you haven't received email from me yet, chances are good that the maps you provided weren't what I was looking for, or the email didn't follow the open call guidelines to include maps as attachments to the email (sifting through websites of maps is not something I have time for—that's why I asked for folk to send a small number of maps that best represent their work as attachments in the email, and why I asked people to limit their submissions in number).
One thing I should note, though. I received an awful lot of maps that were of publishable quality. A lot of maps from professional cartographers. As I mentioned in the open call... that wasn't what I was looking for. That said, I HAVE forwarded on the best of those to our art directors, but they're even more overworked than the editorial department is these days.
Anyway, I'll be sending out responses to the maps maybe 5 to 10 a day (or more if I have the time), but again... there were more than 100 submissions so it'll take a while to get to them all.
Thank you for the update. Well done to those who got their maps through and I look forward to hearing more about this SECRET PROJECT when it becomes a little less secret.
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Creative Director
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Will there be another call for mappers in the future perhaps?
I got a late start and wasn't able to submit mine on time...
At this time, I've no plans to do another mapper open call. If the SECRET PROJECT works out well, maybe I will, but we'll need to see how things work out for that one first.
Do you have any recommendations for submitting cartography solicitations directly to Paizo's Art Director? Some publishers request weblinks only and frown upon email attachments. Some want a concise resume describing recent work for other publishers while others prefer to review maps alone. What would Paizo's Art Director prefer?