When you hate your map...

[Meshon]

In the middle of Sarithus' amazing WIP thread for Va'Dum, I spotted a bit of despair. Fortunately it passed and the final product is an absolute delight. However, I was reminded of something Neil Gaiman wrote in a NaNoWriMo pep talk a few years back. Though he's talking about writing, I think this sentiment applies to all sorts of creative work:

The last novel I wrote (it was ANANSI BOYS, in case you were wondering) when I got three-quarters of the way through I called my agent. I told her how stupid I felt writing something no-one would ever want to read, how thin the characters were, how pointless the plot. I strongly suggested that I was ready to abandon this book and write something else instead, or perhaps I cou ld abandon the book and take up a new life as a landscape gardener, bank-robber, short-order cook or marine biologist. And instead of sympathising or agreeing with me, or blasting me forward with a wave of enthusiasm---or even arguing with me---she simply said, suspiciously cheerfully, "Oh, you're at that part of the book, are you?"

I was shocked. "You mean I've done this before?"

"You don't remember?"

"Not really."

"Oh yes," she said. "You do this every time you write a novel. But so do all my other clients."

I didn't even get to feel unique in my despair.

So I put down the phone and drove down to the coffee house in which I was writing the book, filled my pen and carried on writing.

One word after another.

As my ninja (he was actually pretty great, not weird or cheesy at all) teacher used to say (quoting, I think, one of HIS teachers),

"KEEP GOING!"

cheers,
Meshon

Edit: I really abused the quote tag, didn't I?

[Sarithus]

Indeed, I must have hated or at least disliked everything I've ever made before it was finished. Sometimes I still don't like the outcome, however, but it's always worth continuing as you say. On Va'dum I did come very close to scrapping it to work on something that was easier but I'm glad I didn't. (Thanks for the kind words, by the way!)

[Gamerprinter]

Well my cure for that during the mapping process is just to create your map at lightening speed and reaching completion before any despair can set in. I create most maps in a couple of hours, even if it takes longer the map is completed same day, usually. The only maps that ever take me more than a day are commissions where I don't have all the information and I'm waiting for something from the author or editor - or really complex maps that might normally take me 3 days that I have to complete in less than that (the video game strategy guide map commissions are that way.) If you can complete a map in short order, there isn't enough time to get depressed.

[Hai-Etlik]

With maps in particular I think it's safe to say that if you are ever satisfied with the job you did of placing labels, then you aren't being remotely picky enough to do a good job of labelling. So in that aspect of cartography this kind of thing is somewhat unavoidable.

[Chick]

With maps in particular I think it's safe to say that if you are ever satisfied with the job you did of placing labels, then you aren't being remotely picky enough to do a good job of labelling. So in that aspect of cartography this kind of thing is somewhat unavoidable.

I'm not sure I agree with that. Placing labels is easy for me, and I'm not sure why it is hard for anyone.

Of course, drawing mountains is easy for some people and I'll never ever get good enough to be satisfied with mine. So I think all of us have things that are fast and easy, and things that we'll never be satisfied with, but those things differ greatly from person to person.

[Hai-Etlik]

I'm not sure I agree with that. Placing labels is easy for me, and I'm not sure why it is hard for anyone.

Of course, drawing mountains is easy for some people and I'll never ever get good enough to be satisfied with mine. So I think all of us have things that are fast and easy, and things that we'll never be satisfied with, but those things differ greatly from person to person.

Your older mountains are fairly awful, but recent ones are good, probably because you are critical of them and made an effort to improve. Your labelling has not changed appreciably that I can see and I would say it's your current weak point. That's rather that I was getting at. If you aren't seeing things to be improved, you aren't improving. Weak labelling often gives a general sense of disjointedness and difficulty in reading the map as a whole rather than feeling like its a specific problem with labelling. That's why it needs special attention.

[Chick]

Your older mountains are fairly awful, but recent ones are good, probably because you are critical of them and made an effort to improve. Your labelling has not changed appreciably that I can see and I would say it's your current weak point. That's rather that I was getting at. If you aren't seeing things to be improved, you aren't improving. Weak labelling often gives a general sense of disjointedness and difficulty in reading the map as a whole rather than feeling like its a specific problem with labelling. That's why it needs special attention.

That surprises me, but perhaps you could give me some ideas or examples about why you think my labeling is weak?

[Hai-Etlik]

That surprises me, but perhaps you could give me some ideas or examples about why you think my labeling is weak?

You tend to mix curved and uncurved labels within a feature class which gives a disjointed feel to the class. Making labels look the same is one of the ways to indicate they label the same kind of thing.

You don't seem to be using spacing adjustment. Especially with curved labels this is important as curved text generally benefits from at least a bit of extra spacing. When labelling areas with curved labels it's a good idea to stretch the label to fill the extent using letter spacing (not text size). This can also help to traverse other features without colliding. Taking that further you can do manual letter kerning to adjust individual letters slightly for better effect.

You only ever seem to use single curves even where a double curves would work better.

Your labels often seem more vertical or more tightly curved than they need to be. Sometimes a fairly vertical label is warranted but if there's a choice, horizontal is better as it's more readable.

Going the other way, a few times I noticed what appeared to be labels running at straight diagonals, or possibly curves that are too loose. Diagonal labels should have enough curve to look curved or they break up the map.

More generally, there's just a 'fit' between labels and the features of the map that isn't as good as it could be. It's subtle and made up of many minor factors that make it hard to describe precisely.

[- Max -]

With maps in particular I think it's safe to say that if you are ever satisfied with the job you did of placing labels, then you aren't being remotely picky enough to do a good job of labelling. So in that aspect of cartography this kind of thing is somewhat unavoidable.

I completely agree. Labeling is one of the hardest part, if not the hardest, in map making. Right typography, right text hierarchy, right curves, right kerning, right placement, right legibility, right colors etc. This cartography aspect needs a lot of attention to serve the whole purpose of the map. Weak labeling can just turn a great map into a poor one. I often feel that I still have some room improvment on labeling on most of each map I'm doing. I tried a practise a few months ago: I took an old map of mine that I'm still pleased at (which isn't the case for all if them ) but entirely reworked the labeling. It was no contest, the same map with an improved labeling was way better to the eye. it really made a difference.

[Meshon]

A feature class is always either straight or curved

See, I haven't even gotten this far with labels. For whatever reason I'd just never considered uniformity of shape, or even the concept of a "feature class". I don't think I've ignored those things, but I just haven't consciously considered them as elements yet. I appreciate the pointers.

I would definitely be up for some highly technical label dissection, though I should probably go have a look at a few more maps with these things in mind before I start to form a personal aesthetic.

I tried a practise a few months ago: I took an old map of mine that I'm still pleased at (which isn't the case for all if them ) but entirely reworked the labeling. It was no contest, the same map with an improved labeling was way better to the eye. it really made a difference.

That is a cool experiment. I like your commitment!

cheers,
Meshon