Welcome to Mary-Sue's Dollshouse

[icosahedron]

This is some WIP that's been made possible by the skills I picked up by entering the April Lite competition.

C n C please.

Copyright: Since I'm hoping to publish this with a book one day, I'd appreciate it if you don't distribute this plan or derivatives, though you're welcome to use it for your own personal games if it's any use.

My writing skills are not necessarily better than my drawing, but I'm attempting a sci-fi story, a sort of Sam Spade in Space with a retro vogue reminiscent of Terry Gilliam's Brazil, and this is a floorplan to go with it. It's a sleazy downtown 3 storey building.

The ground floor is the workplace of several young ladies who do nightshift. There are a couple of waiting rooms, a WC and a small kitchen in addition to the main rooms. This floor incorporates a rear extension, providing a total of four bedrooms.

The middle floor is our hero's office. Nothing to write home about, an office/waiting room for the secretary and an inner sanctum, along with a storeroom/kitchenette and a bathroom. I'm fascinated by the way Viewingdale allows you to zoom in and read the letters on the desks, but unfortunately this Jpeg doesn't have that facility.

The top floor is the premises of a tailor. This guy does his paperwork in the small room, leaving him a large workshop and a sales/storage area with changing cubicles.
Dunno why he's a tailor, maybe it's some subliminal carry over from watching the Man from Uncle when I was a kid.
Guess what? I can't find any top-downs of industrial sewing machines - there's a surprise.

Some of the elements are home-made and some are lifted from various free archives.

The arrows in the blue circles are a feature of Viewingdale. They're jump links - when you click on them it opens a link to another map, so you can go to the foot of the stairs, click the link and you get the next floor in a new tab.

[Gandwarf]

I like the maps! The only weird thing I see are the couches. They look overly blurred compared to the rest of the furniture.

[icosahedron]

LOL. The couches are my own - and my kindergarten artistry is severely tested by soft furnishings! Any tips?

[Gandwarf]

Hmm, not sure. I never create my own art.
You could try and make the seating areas one solid color. They make the whole couch look a bit blurry I think.

[Redrobes]

Getting pictures of home furnishings is a doddle. Getting them pictured from above is hard work so I think your limited to the free art libraries or making them.

Sofas tho are really easy to make in a 3D app cos you don't have to be all that fussy with the dimensions and shape. Its unfortunate that there isn't a really easy 3D app other than sketchup. AFAIK, all of them that try to do a bit more go massively overboard.

Heres something I knocked up in a few minutes - could be better of course. You can tint it, and stretch the image (icon) to suite.

[icosahedron]

Yeah, I think I'm using too much shadow - and I'm using a blur command to create the shadow, hence the blurry look.

I'm not gonna learn this overnight, am I?

Anything else stick out? Textures? Layout? Design?