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My dad's old compass taught me something new about digital maps
I was showing my nephew my latest map in Wonderdraft last weekend, and he asked why I bother with all the hand drawn coastlines when the software can auto generate them. I pulled out my dad's old Silva compass from his backpacking days back in 1987, and it hit me that I was losing the connection between real navigation and fantasy map making. The auto features are great, but they don't give you that feel of plotting a path yourself. Has anyone else gone back to paper and pencil just to shake things up?
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grayb6423d ago
I mean, this is a cool story but I gotta point out that Silva compasses were actually made in Finland back then, not Sweden like a lot of people think. I've got my grandpa's old one from the 70s and it says "Made in Finland" right on the dial. But yeah totally get what you're saying about the feel of plotting paths yourself, it's just that specific detail jumped out at me. The auto features in Wonderdraft are pretty good but idk, there's something about tracing a coastline with a pencil that makes you feel like you're actually discovering the land instead of just clicking a button. Maybe it's just me but I've been doing more hand drawn stuff in my notebooks lately and it definitely changes how I think about the geography.
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