A dark street, lit with old English lamps.

A white sandy beach, sunny with palms standing gently like sentry's to the jungle ruins behind.

The pulse of hazard lights flood the halls of the ocean bottom observation center.

Fog swirls round the base of tombstones, dead trees mimic devils in the nights shadows.

These are a few statements which encompass a maps design theory.
Each statement paints a distinct picture in the minds eye. In the next few minutes I will hopefully show you a technique i like to use for map creation. There are 3 easy steps to creating the perfect map, so I'm sure you can remember them. Imagination is so vital to the map creation process. It flows there the life of design, of any art. Art is what we create, utilizing the visual, the audio, and of course the interaction. We use physics, and lightning, We can make it rain, snow or bubble ooze. We can build anything our minds can imagine.

Like any discipline, map designing skills are no different, the key is to juggle different skills in harmony.
The more graceful at this a person becomes, more balance and beauty is shown with ease.

Here are my favorite design skills;

*Concept art ||Click Portfolio||
*Real life stills/photography
*Smoke
*water
*displacements
*grass sprites
*glass
*func_breakable
*env_glow
*spot_light
*destroyed buildings and debris
*cell shaded effect
*env_fire
*env_explosion
*prop_static
*volumetric lighting
*light_dynamic
*light_environment
*env_cubemaps
*env_fog
*rain, snow, ash.
*trigger_push
*dust particles/dust motes
*moving brushwork, doors, platforms, walls etc.
*3d skybox
*gravity
*func_rotation
*prop_physics
*skybox texture
*Light emitting textures
*prop lighting
*Displacements as fencing, roofs and walls.(sample map .vmf)

the list could be so long...

The goal is to create a collection of skills and make them interact in harmony.
Choosing a few or allot will ultimately show if you are a master or a padawan. Combining the right effects together can be challenging on many fronts. The more complex your combinations
become the more frame rates can be harmed, the more intricate your knowledge will have to be. and of course there are the troubleshooting aspects of design work. Many a long nights have
been spent trying to get the fog just right, or the arches perfect.


Finally we are at our last stage . This is where you will take the helm and begin to design. You have imagined a theme, chosen which skills to combine to create the perfect map design.
It is now time for you to take the design to the next level. my favorite way to start a map is to do a tutorial and create it into the imagined theme i have in mind already.