Map design inspiration / ideas

[Dokujisan]

OK that's enough of Ryan's stuff...let's move on to another artist...
James Clyne at http://www.jamesclyne.com

From Transformers...





From X-men 3





From The Fountain

[Dokujisan]

More from James Clyne...

From Poseidon

Hmm....a cruise ship map perhaps? G_G





From Minority Report








From A.I.

[Dokujisan]

Here's from Mark Goerner
http://www.grnr.com










From Superman






From Constantine







From The Terminal




From X-men 2

[Strahlemann]

nice collections you got there.
From a mappers point of you the most useful images are the ones which show details of the architecture like the ones you just posted (corridors, doors, arenas etc).
The epic pictures that show whole cities or too organic and round stuff (arches, tubes etc.) won't make it into a playable map (fps eaters ) but give a nice impression on atmosphere and are indeed inspirational.
Realizing some of this stuff would also require a huge amount of time and work. Creating the textures and the models to get near some of the pictures would really require to work full-time on a map if you'd want to finish it before the end of the year
Still some of these are very doable and others really show of very well how atmosphere can be created through good lighting, composition and attention to detail where it's necessary.
So keep 'em coming.

You may also want to check out the galleries over at cgsociety.org: http://forums.cgsociety.org/index.php?
Not only architectural stuff there but also a lot of character studies.
Characters also can be very inspirational if you think in what a world such a character could live (regarding level-design).
Especially the award galleries are superb: http://forums.cgsociety.org/forumdisplay.php?f=138

I also like to check out photographs of abandoned places. There are several sites on the net where you can find those. They don't really fit the Nexuiz theme, but show off very well how architecture and lighting can create moody environments.

My favorite artistic sites (besides cgnetworks) are:
http://www.opacity.us/ <--great photographs of abandoned places
http://www.dubtown.de/ <--and more (in german)
http://www.philipstraub.com/Concepts.htm <--artist
http://www.gfxartist.com/community/elite_galleries <--a lot of professional deign work there
http://sparthconstruct.blogspot.com/ <---my favorite artist and former designer of q3maps
http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings.html <---a lot of different architectural styles

this thread over at doom3world.org addresses the same topic as this one: http://www.doom3world.org/phpbb2/viewto ... f=1&t=1649

and of course not to forget the demoscene: http://www.scene.org

[Dokujisan]

From a mappers point of you the most useful images are the ones which show details of the architecture like the ones you just posted (corridors, doors, arenas etc).

Yeah, I was originally just aiming for any imagery that could help inspire a mapper. At first, I was thinking of mostly structural concepts derived from architecture. Then I hit the motherload and found those movie-based illustrations which give a good amount of detail as well as ideas for structure.

The epic pictures that show whole cities or too organic and round stuff (arches, tubes etc.) won't make it into a playable map (fps eaters ) but give a nice impression on atmosphere and are indeed inspirational.

Yeah, I knew that. I skipped a lot of the "city" views because I didn't think they were helpful, but some of them were just too good looking to pass up.

Realizing some of this stuff would also require a huge amount of time and work. Creating the textures and the models to get near some of the pictures would really require to work full-time on a map if you'd want to finish it before the end of the year

It is my understanding that the texture creation is the hardest part of map making (that is, with just mapping with brushes....not creating models in blender). But another difficulty that I've heard some mappers mention is to come up with conceptual ideas for maps. Some have the skills but don't have any decent ideas that inspire them. That was mainly what I wanted the pictures to help with. Maybe they would see an archway, a bridge or some style of architecture that gives them the spark to conceptualize a whole map. If they end up getting something more out of it (like texture references), then all the better.

I'm happy with the last batch of images that I found and I'll probably just remove the earlier ones I posted on here (the links) or update those with better images.

I also like to check out photographs of abandoned places. There are several sites on the net where you can find those. They don't really fit the Nexuiz theme, but show off very well how architecture and lighting can create moody environments.

Ahh, good idea. So far, I've searched keywords: architecture, science fiction, futuristic, illustration...and things of that sort. I didn't think of "abandoned". I also wanted to search for cave imagery. I still have quite a few sites to sort through with just science fiction, but I'll sort through the ones you posted as well. It gives me something to do on my breaks at work

Since I can't map yet, I thought I might as well do what I can to help those people that can.

[torus]

Thanks Doku, you rock. You will be seeing something very similar to one of these images in my next map

[kozak6]

Urban exploration would also be a good search term.

Gameplaywise, it's a shame that there's so few console gamers here.

Turok: Rage Wars (which could pass for Nexuiz's grandfather, at the very least) has some smalll, simple, but well designed maps along the lines of the Basement and the Slime Pit. They make for good inspiration, at the very least.

[torus]

I've played my share of console games. What do you have in mind?

[Fisume!]

[Rad Ished]

Holy hellpops, I've got to go lie down after all that.
Nice stuff Doku.