3 replies to this topic

[wagglywheel]

Hi guys,

 

I'm seeing a number of seat maps in the gallery to complement an aircraft type. How do you make these?

There are probably more roads leading to Rome, but I can't find anything about creating these on the forum. Correct me if I'm wrong, if you have a link to a post that would be great!

 

So, do you create these yourself from scratch? Copy from somewhere?

Please share, thanks Oh, and excuse me if this is not the right forum to ask, I'm new here

[POTKC]

I don't know about others, but my seatmaps (and I've made quite a few, even more than I've posted) are all 100% original. I have never copied anything from anywhere.

 

I use multiple references (from real-world seatmap images to engineering diagrams to ACAPS documents) to get the shape and size of the fuselage right. After doing that, I basically have templates for each aircraft type that I can put different cabin configurations into depending on what airline I'm making a seatmap for. I then create seats by hand, turn them into smart objects, and fill the cabin with them as needed (organizing into groups by class and row, for convenience). It's all hand-made in photoshop - there are no ready-to-use templates, and as far as I know also no post on the forum telling you how to make them (well until this one, that is).

 

I'm not sure how other make their seatmaps. I know some take the lazy way out, and basically recolor an existing seatguru image or something. Personally, I have very little respect for that method. Then there are those who actually put in the effort and make fully custom seatmaps like I do - obviously I don't know exactly how they do it, but I assume it's something similar to what I described above. Looking through the gallery, you will probably notice that different creators have very different styles. Personally I love that, and I hope you find your own unique 'look' if you get into this seriously. Basically, making a good seatmap requires a effort and lot of attention to detail, but if you're ready to put that in, the results can be very very nice. Good luck!

[wagglywheel]

I don't know about others, but my seatmaps (and I've made quite a few, even more than I've posted) are all 100% original. I have never copied anything from anywhere.

 

I use multiple references (from real-world seatmap images to engineering diagrams to ACAPS documents) to get the shape and size of the fuselage right. After doing that, I basically have templates for each aircraft type that I can put different cabin configurations into depending on what airline I'm making a seatmap for. I then create seats by hand, turn them into smart objects, and fill the cabin with them as needed (organizing into groups by class and row, for convenience). It's all hand-made in photoshop - there are no ready-to-use templates, and as far as I know also no post on the forum telling you how to make them (well until this one, that is).

 

I'm not sure how other make their seatmaps. I know some take the lazy way out, and basically recolor an existing seatguru image or something. Personally, I have very little respect for that method. Then there are those who actually put in the effort and make fully custom seatmaps like I do - obviously I don't know exactly how they do it, but I assume it's something similar to what I described above. Looking through the gallery, you will probably notice that different creators have very different styles. Personally I love that, and I hope you find your own unique 'look' if you get into this seriously. Basically, making a good seatmap requires a effort and lot of attention to detail, but if you're ready to put that in, the results can be very very nice. Good luck!

 

Thanks for your quite detailed explanation POTKC! Your seatmaps look very clean and slick in my opinion, love them.

Just one question though: what is an ACAPS document?

[POTKC]

The full name of ACAPS documents is 'Airplane Characteristics for Airport Planning' (I actually don't know what the S stands for...weird). Amongst massive amounts of information, they usually include sample interior configurations, which tend to be very accurate and a good reference for getting the fuselage size and shape right when making a seatmap. All Boeing and Douglas/McDonnell Douglas ACAPS documents can be found here, and there's a page somewhere on the Airbus website that lists all the equivalent documents for various Airbus planes. But actually it's even simpler - most of these can be found by Googling "[aircraft name] ACAPS"!