Last time, you learned how to import GIS shapefiles into Adobe Illustrator. Today, you’re going to use those imported shapefiles to create a custom map in Adobe Illustrator.

Where We Left Off Last Time: Importing GIS Shapefiles into Adobe Illustrator

In the previous tutorial, we began the process of creating custom maps in Adobe Illustrator. That tutorial focused on importing GIS shapefiles into Adobe Illustrator, which consisted of several steps.

1. Load several shapefiles into QGIS to create vector outlines
2. Export those vector outlines from QGIS into SVG Format
3. Import the SVG Map into Adobe Illustrator
4. Scale and Position the Map to Fill our Illustrator workspace

What We’re Going to Learn Today: Finishing Your Custom Map in Adobe Illustrator

Today, we’re going to finish the process of creating a custom map in Adobe Illustrator. In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to do the following:

• Extract parts of the vector and sort them into layers
• Add titles, labels, and the background imagery
• Set up your map for animation

At the end of the day, you’ll wind up with a beautiful final map product that looks like this:

1. Extract Your Custom Map Features from the SVG File in Adobe Illustrator

To make it easier to manage your custom map assets in Adobe Illustrator, put each feature (or group of features) into their own layers. We covered this briefly in the previous tutorial, but I want to go over it in much more detail. First, let’s recall where we left off. We had just imported the SVG (vector image) file into Adobe Illustrator using File > Place.

Before we do anything in Illustrator, make a list of the features you will be extracting from the SVG file. For the Utah National Parks, we want to extract the following:

• The Utah State Boundary
• Zion National Park Outline
• Bryce Canyon National Park Outline
• Capitol Reef National Park Outline
• Canyonlands National Park Outline
• Arches National Park Outline

If it helps, you can also make a list of everything you want to exclude from the final map. For our map of the Utah National Parks, we only need to exclude the rectangle that bounds the SVG image, which is outlined in blue in the above screenshot. Don’t worry about colors at this point. We’ll address them shortly.

Scale and Position Your Custom Map in Adobe Illustrator Before Extracting Any Features

Before you extract any features from the imported SVG file, I highly recommend that you scale your custom map and move it into its final position on the Adobe Illustrator artboard. You can always make minor to its position and scale as you go. However, it’s much easier to do any major moving and scaling while it’s still just a single entity.

To scale the SVG file in Illustrator, simply grab any of the anchor points on the corner or side of the SVG file and drag it to its desired size. To prevent image distortion, hold the Shift key down as you scale it, which maintains the original aspect ratio.

The green rectangles in Illustrator mark the boundaries of your artboard, so scale it to fill as much of the artboard as possible. If you need to scale the SVG beyond the boundaries of the Adobe Illustrator, that’s perfectly fine. Illustrator will crop everything to fit the artboard when you go to export it.

Additionally, make sure that you leave room for any titles, subtitles, and labels you’ll be adding to the map later. You should also center the map horizontally in the frame. Your scaled and centered custom map of Utah should look something like this in Adobe Illustrator.

Extract Each Feature of Your Custom Map into Its Own Layer in Adobe Illustrator

On the initial extraction, you should put each feature into its own layer in Illustrator. We do this for two reasons.

1. It best sets the map up for animation
2. It’s much easier to merge multiple layers into one than it is to separate one layer in several.

To begin your feature extraction, first open the Layers panel. Click on the carat to reveal the components of the SVG layer.

Despite there being so many components, the features you want to extract are only going to be in a small subset of those components. The easiest way to find your map features is to click on the eyeball next to each component in the layers panel. If your feature disappears from the map, that’s the component you need to extract.

To extract the component you’ve identified, create a new layer to put it in. Don’t worry about the order of layers for now. The new layer button is in the bottom right corner of the main Adobe Illustrator window. Give it an easily identifiable name, such as “Zion Boundary” or “Canyonlands Outline”.

Click and drag the component from the original SVG file to the layer you just created. You should see the feature now listed under the new layer. Do note that your feature may be divided into several components in the SVG layer. In that case, drag each component of your feature to your new layer.

To confirm everything copied correctly, click the eyeball to show and hide your new layer. Your feature should disappear from and reappear on the map.

Finally, repeat the process for each feature you will be putting on your final map. Once everything is extracted into their own layers, you can hide or delete the original SVG layer. We will not be using it anymore.

A Note on Dealing with Complex Features

If you have a complex feature you are trying to extract or if two features you want on your map are combined into a single component of the SVG file, you can still extract them. Use Illustrator’s Eraser tool to delete any unwanted parts of the SVG components. You can separate multiple features from a single SVG component with Illustrator’s Direct Selection Tool. Please consult the Adobe Illustrator documentation for more details.

2. Add a Background Image

Next up, we’ll add the background image. In our Utah National Parks map, the background image is of the hoodoos at Bryce Canyon from my trip in 2017. Your background image should be a high enough resolution to fill the artboard of your Adobe Illustrator project. Remember that while Illustrator is a vector editing program, your images still consist of pixels. If you scale them up beyond their full resolution, they will become pixelated and grainy.

Before you add your background image, though, you will need to do a couple things. These are both optional, but I highly recommend doing them.

1. Crop your image to match the aspect ratio of your artboard in Adobe Illustrator. For videos, that aspect ratio is 16:9. I do this mainly for my own sanity so I don’t accidentally put features outside of the artboard boundaries that will get clipped off.
2. If you plan to use a background overlay that’s any color other than black or white, make your image black and white. Colored overlays can do wonky things to the colors of your image, often with undesirable results. If you’re using your own branding, black and white images help ensure that the map stays the recognizable colors of your brand.

Use Illustrator’s File > Place function to embed your background image into Illustrator. The features you imported in the previous step may disappear from view, but don’t worry. They’re just underneath the image. We’ll correct that shortly. Then, drag each corner of the image to the corners of your artboard to fill it.

3. Add a Background Overlay

A background overlay is a solid color, semi-transparent overlay that goes on top of your background image. Its primary purpose is to make the content of your map easier to read. Not only does it increase the contrast, but it also makes the background image much more subtle. Remember, you want your viewers’ eyes to be drawn to the content, not to the background image.

Use the slider below to see the difference between having a background overlay vs having nothing. The difference in readability is night and day.

Background Overlay Setup in Adobe Illustrator

You should put the background overlay either in the same layer as your background image or in its own layer. The easiest way to add the background overlay is with Illustrator’s Rectangle Tool.

After creating the rectangle in Illustrator, drag the corners so the rectangle fills the artboard.

Background Overlay Color and Opacity

Your background overlay should never be anything besides a single color. It will be too distracting otherwise. If you want to use a secondary color, make the text and content of your map that color. Remember, color can be very powerful for invoking emotions in your audience. Use it wisely.

So what color should you make your background overlay? I recommend one of three options.

1. Your Primary Brand Color
2. Black
3. White

Unless you want to put more emphasis on your background image, you should use your primary brand color for the background overlay. For example, Coca-Cola would use red, UPS would brown, and John Deere would use green.

Start with the opacity set at 75 to 85%, and adjust it as needed. You should be able to see your background image through the overlay and be able to immediately recognize what it is. However, you don’t want the background image to distract from the content on your map.

Interestingly, you may have a situation where you want to emphasize the background image a little more. It comes up more often than you’d think. I use it on the title screens of pretty much all of my videos.

In that case, you should use a black or white background overlay, and set the opacity to 30 to 50% to start. Like before, you’ll need to adjust it as necessary. I also recommend using a color background photo, because the black or white overlay won’t distort the colors of your image.

4. Add Any and All Map Titles, Subtitles, Labels, and Branding

The final elements to add are the title, labels, and branding. Like the background overlay, most of these should go either in the same layer as the background image and/or overlay, or in their own layer. However, there is one distinct exception. All feature labels should go in the same layer as the feature itself, or in their own layer. If you plan to animate the feature labels independently of the features themselves, each label must go in its own layer.

Use the text tool in Adobe Illustrator to add text to your custom map. Set the font to either match your brand fonts, which I highly recommend, or, to an easy-to-read font. The last thing you want is your viewers struggling to read the beautiful map you put such effort into.

5. Arrange the Layers in the Correct Order

Now that we’ve got all of the elements of our map in place, it’s time to put the layers into the correct order so you can see all of your features. If you’re not familiar with the concept of layers, it’s very similar to making a sandwich. For example, the layers of a ham sandwich, from top to bottom, would be something like this:

• Bread
• Mayo/Mustard
• Cheese
• Veggies
• Ham
• Mayo/Mustard
• Bread

Likewise, we can arrange the layers of our map in a similar order. From top to bottom, the layers of our map are as follows.

• Features and Feature Labels (unless they overlap, the order of each individual feature layer does not matter)
• Titles, Subtitles, Labels, and Branding
• Background Overlay
• Background Image

To rearrange the order of your custom map layers in Adobe Illustrator, open the Layers panel. Then, all you have to do is click and drag the layers into the correct order. Make sure you don’t accidentally put one layer into another. However, if you do, a Ctrl/Cmd-Z is all it takes to undo your mistake.

6. Set the Colors of Your Custom Map Features in Adobe Illustrator

All right, we’re almost there. All that’s left is to set the colors of our map features. And thankfully, that’s an easy, straightforward task. On the map, hold down the Shift key and click on all of the features you want to color to select them. To set the color, go to the properties tab and set the fill and stroke colors. You can also add opacity to each feature if you wish. On the Utah National Parks map, we left the opacity at 100% for all features.

Congratulations, you’re all done! You should have a final map that looks similar to the one below.

Conclusion

Creating a custom map in Adobe Illustrator is a fantastic way to increase brand awareness. And now, you’re completely ready to take the next big step into the world of map animation. You’ll learn all about that in the next installment of this series.

Additionally, custom maps are much easier to read and will put you leaps and bounds ahead of your competitors who are still using Google Maps. They’ll also make you look way more professional. Are you ready to get started with your own custom, branded maps? Get in touch with us today and get started with a free info session.

Top Photos: Hoodoos in the Late Afternoon Sun
Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah – May, 2017

The post How to Create a Custom Map in Adobe Illustrator appeared first on Matthew Gove Blog.

Which begs the question…why are so many people still using Google Maps screenshots in their videos, presentations, and other content? Yes, Google Maps is an incredible tool, but they were not designed to be used in videos and presentations. Worst of all, they tend to flash on the screen for such a short time that it’s next to impossible to tell where you are, where you’re going, or what you’re doing. In which of the following maps can you locate Utah’s “Big 5” National Parks faster?

Creating custom maps in Adobe Illustrator can fix all of that. Put your own branding and style on the map. Remove everything that’s not relevant to the story you’re trying to tell. Give it a breathtaking design. Make it uniquely you. It’s such an easy way to look very professional and really stand apart from everyone still using Google Maps.

Finally, and best of all, you don’t have to spend a fortune to achieve incredible results with your maps. In this tutorial, the only thing you’ll need to pay for is Adobe Illustrator. Everything else is available free of charge. Let’s go.

What is a Shapefile?

A shapefile is simply a geospatial vector data format. Vector data formats in GIS and mapping applications are incredibly fast and efficient because of their small file size. You can put an enormous amount of data into a pretty small file, which also makes vector data formats ideal for web-based applications.

ESRI originally created the shapefile for its ArcView GIS software back in the early 1990’s. Today, shapefiles are widely used and nearly universally supported throughout the GIS world. However, I do want to point out that despite their widespread use, they are still a proprietary format. As a result, if you prefer open source file formats, I recommend using either GeoJSON or CSV to store your data. Both can be used as vector formats and you can import them into Adobe Illustrator using the same method we’ll use for shapefiles below.

Shapefiles exist for just about every type of feature out there. You can store data as points, lines, or polygons. Indeed, I’ve used them for everything, including severe weather warnings, road trip routes, National Park boundaries, and much more. Because of their widespread availability, both ESRI and government entities (federal, state/province, and local) maintain extensive databases of shapefiles. If you can’t find what you’re looking for there, you should be able to find it with a quick Google search. While this tutorial only uses the geometry of the shapefiles, you can easily add your own data either directly into the shapefile or through region mapping.

Why Import Shapefiles into Adobe Illustrator?

If you’re just looking to plot data on a map, then by all means, a GIS program is the best way to go. However, GIS programs definitely have their limits. That’s where Adobe Illustrator comes in. When you import your shapefiles into Adobe Illustrator, you get much finer control over the final map design and look. The end result is a much more polished and professional-looking map, especially if you’re putting them into videos or presentations.

Furthermore, Adobe Illustrator provides the bridge to animating your maps. If you’re a content creator or giving a presentation, fully animated maps will put you in a class above your competition who are still using screenshots of Google Maps in their videos and presentations. Don’t believe me? Have a look at the maps below. Which one is easier to identify the “Big 5” National Parks in southern Utah?

While GIS software does support the bare basics for animation, you can make far more powerful animations even just using Illustrator itself. However, to unlock its full potential, you’ll need to use something like Adobe After Effects.

Unfortunately, animation is a topic for another day. We’ll cover that in a future tutorial. Let’s get back to learning how to import shapefiles into Adobe Illustrator.

1. Download and Install QGIS, a Free GIS Program

As a content creator myself, I know how critical it is to keep the cost of doing business to a minimum. And as a GIS specialist, I also know how expensive some proprietary GIS software can be. As a result, I’ve designed this tutorial so that the only piece of software you need to pay for is Adobe Illustrator.

If you’ve used ESRI’s ArcGIS before, you may be aware that Arc has an “Export to Illustrator” option built into it. That will export your shapefiles directly into a .ai Adobe Illustrator file. However, the desktop version of Arc also costs a bare minimum of $700 per year to use. Instead, we’ll use QGIS for this tutorial. QGIS is open source and, best of all, completely free. And unlike Arc, it runs on MacOS, Windows, and Linux. You can download QGIS here.

2. Prepare Your Shapefiles in QGIS

Before we can import our shapefiles into Adobe Illustrator, we first need to prepare them in QGIS. Using QGIS will ensure that each feature appears on your map in its proper location. You can try to eyeball the correct location once it’s all imported into Illustrator, but trust me, that never ends well.

Create a New Project in QGIS

First, you’ll need to create a new project in QGIS into which you’ll load your shapefiles. You’ll also need to change the default map projection, which will prevent your shapefiles from becoming distorted.

First, open QGIS and select Project > New Project. This will open a blank project. Then, in the bottom right, click on the text that says “EPSG:4326”. QGIS will open a window so you can select a new projection.

In the search bar, search for “Pseudo-Mercator”. You’ll likely see multiple results returned. Select the result labeled “EPSG:3857”.

Click OK to confirm your changes. The text in the bottom right should change from “EPSG:4326” to “EPSG:3857”.

Finally, if you want to include a basemap to confirm your features are both properly projected and in the correct location, double click on the OpenStreetMap option in the browser on the left-hand side of your QGIS dashboard. Please note that you should only use the basemap should a reference and never import it into Adobe Illustrator with the rest of your shapefiles.

Load Your Shapefiles into QGIS

When you prep your shapefiles in QGIS for import into Adobe Illustrator, you can include as many or as few as you want. When you export them to Adobe Illustrator, they’ll all get exported as a single-layer entity, so you don’t need to worry about keeping track of a ton of layers.

Adding shapefiles to your QGIS project is easy.

1. Select Layer > Add Layer > Add Vector Layer from the top menu. A window will open.
2. Under the “Source” section, you’ll see an input labeled “Vector Dataset(s)”. Click on the three dots to the right of the text input.
3. Navigate to the folder with your shapefiles and select all the shapefiles you wish to load into QGIS. You only need to select files with the .shp extension.
4. Click the “Add” button at the bottom of the window to add them to your QGIS project.
5. Repeat steps 2-5 until all of your shapefiles are loaded into QGIS.
6. Close the window.

Once everything is loaded into QGIS, make sure that all of the features in the shapefiles that you want to import into Adobe Illustrator are visible. You may need to re-arrange the layers in the Layers panel on the left hand side if you can’t see something.

Finally, hide any features or sublayers in the shapefiles that you do not want to import into Adobe Illustrator. Simply uncheck the feature in the Layers panel to hide it. If you need finer control for removing an individual item, you can easily do that once we import it into Illustrator.

Don’t Worry About Appearance in QGIS

Don’t worry about what the map looks like in QGIS. There’s no need to adjust colors, line thicknesses, or anything else. We’ll do that in Illustrator. Adobe Illustrator gives you much better and finer control over the look of the map than QGIS does. The one exception would be if two features are blocking each other and you need to remove the fill of one so you can see the other.

Finally, if you’ve used a basemap, uncheck it from the layers panel on the left to hide it. The basemap will create all kinds of headaches if you import it into Illustrator. Alternatively, if you’re having issues with white features on a white background in QGIS, just change the background color. You can easily delete that solid background once you get it into Illustrator.

To change the background color, follow these steps.

1. In the top menu, select Project > Properties. A window will open.
2. Click on the “General” tab in the upper-left.
3. In the fourth row down from the top, click on the white box to the right of “Background color” and select the background color you wish.

3. Create a Layout in QGIS to Easily Export Your Shapefiles into Adobe Illustrator

First, zoom and pan the map in your QGIS project to the exact level and position you want to display it in Illustrator. It doesn’t need to be exact, but you should include a little more than you intend to use. It’s easy to clip off the extra after importing the map into Illustrator.

Once your map is zoomed and positioned correctly, it’s time to create a layout so you can export it out of QGIS. In the top menu, select Project > New Print Layout. Follow the prompts to create your new layout. For best results, make sure the layout size is set to either US Letter or A4. Then click the “Add Map” button on the left-hand side.

Finally, click and drag your map so it fills the blank layout. You should see your map appear. If you didn’t get the entire page filled, simply click and drag each corner of the map out to the corners of the blank layout.

Congratulations, you’re ready to export your map out of QGIS. Don’t close the layout window just yet, because you’ll still need it in the next step.

4. Export Your QGIS Layout into SVG Format

Scalable Vector Graphics, or SVG, is an open-source XML-based framework for defining two-dimensional scalable vector images. It’s the most common type of vector image used in web-based applications today. The main advantage of vector images is that they can be scaled infinitely up or down without losing quality or becoming pixelated. As a result, you can cram a huge amount of data into a very small file. And best of all, Illustrator can automatically convert your .svg image into its default .ai format on import.

To export your shapefiles into .svg format, go back to your layout window. In the top window of the layout window (not the main QGIS dashboard), select File > Export Image as SVG. Follow the prompts to save the .svg file to your local hard drive.

One thing to be aware of is that QGIS may give you a warning about some SVG’s not being exported correctly. I have not had any issues with SVG exports, but if your SVG’s do not export correctly, simply export your shapefiles as a .pdf file instead. In the layout window, select File > Export Image as PDF. PDF files are also a vector format, and you follow the exact same steps to import everything into Illustrator, regardless of whether your file is an SVG or PDF.

5. Place Your Exported SVG File into Illustrator

All right, we’re almost there. All that’s left to do is to import our shapefiles (in SVG/PDF format) into Adobe Illustrator. Once that’s done, let your creative side take over and have some fun.

First, open Adobe Illustrator and create a new file. You can use any size artboard you want. However, because I create these maps for use in my travel videos, I’ll use a 4K (3840×2160) artboard.

Second, create a new layer that will hold only your SVG file. Putting the SVG file into its own layer allows us to filter, parse, and extract specific elements of the SVG file into our Illustrator project. Then, once we’ve extracted everything, all we have to do is delete or hide the SVG layer to remove all of the extras.

Linking vs. Embedding Images in Adobe Illustrator

When you import any kind of image into Adobe Illustrator, you can choose whether to embed the file in Illustrator or just link to it. Linking the image file means that Illustrator will reference it from wherever it is on your computer. If you move or delete the image, it will disappear from your Illustrator project. Embedding, on the other hand, copies the image into Illustrator and saves it as part of the .ai file. That way, if you move or delete the original image file, it will still be in your Illustrator project.

Because your exported shapefile vectors are so small, I highly recommend you embed the SVG into Illustrator. Embedding the SVG into Illustrator is easy and straightforward.

1. In the top menu, select File > Place.
2. Navigate to the SVG File you exported from QGIS. Click “Add”.
3. Click anywhere in your Illustrator window to place the SVG.

You should now see the SVG file that you exported from QGIS. However, it’s probably not in the right place in the Illustrator window, nor is it scaled correctly.

A Note on Moving and Scaling Your SVG File in Adobe Illustrator

Adobe Illustrator automatically separates the features in your SVG file to mirror the original shapefile. That’s a good thing, as it makes incredibly easy to separate out each element in Illustrator. However, if you’re not careful, you can easily move or scale features of your map out of place. Thankfully, it doesn’t take much to prevent things from moving out of place.

The easiest way to move or scale the SVG as a whole is to lock all of the other layers first. Because the SVG is in its own layer, then all we have to do is just hit Control + A on Windows or Command + A on a Mac to select all. With the other layers being locked, you’ve selected your entire SVG file without bothering anything else in the Illustrator file.

Second, make sure you hold down the Shift key when scaling the SVG. Doing so maintains the aspect ratio of the SVG. Without it, your map will become distorted and misshapen.

Positioning Your Map in Adobe Illustrator

it’s best to center your map in your Illustrator project, filling as much of the artboard as possible. However, make sure you leave room, particularly at the top, for any titles, headers, labels, and legends you would like to include.

At this point, it’s still perfectly fine if parts of the map extend beyond the boundaries of the artboard. We’ll delete those parts in the next section. And remember, you’re working with vectors, so you can infinitely scale them up or down without losing quality or pixelating.

6. Organize the components of the SVG into Layers in Adobe Illustrator

Depending on what you’re using the Illustrator map for, this can be one layer or many. It’s entirely up to you. However, do note that if you’re animating the map, every individual item or group of items that you’ll be animating as a single unit needs to be in their own layer. In other words, you can’t animate pieces of a layer. You can only animate the whole layer.

Additionally, if you have roads or routes on your map, make sure that you join the pieces of each route together so the route can be a single entity on the map. Having a route in several pieces can be an absolute nightmare if you’re trying to animate it. But even if it’s just going to be static, it’s still much easier to manage a single route than several pieces of it. To join paths in Illustrator, select each element of the paths you want to join and go to Object > Path > Join.

How to Extract SVG Components into Adobe Illustrator Layers

1. Click the New Layer button on the bottom right of the Illustrator window to create a new layer.
2. Go through the components of the SVG layer and find the ones you want to extract. This may take some trial and error by showing and hiding each piece.
3. In the Layers panel in Illustrator, click and drag that component from the SVG layer to the new layer.
4. Adjust the line width, colors, fills, strokes, opacities, etc. to set the final look or design of the feature you just moved.
5. Add any features to the layer that were not in the SVG file. These are most often the feature labels you can add with Illustrator’s text tool.
6. Repeat steps 1 through 5 for each feature layer you wish to create.

When you finish extracting the SVG components you’re using in your Illustrator map, there will likely still be features left over in the SVG layer that you’re not using. Putting the SVG file in its own layer makes it very easy to clean up the leftovers. If you know you’re not going to be using anything else in the SVG layer, you can go ahead and delete the layer. On the other hand, if you know you’re going to be using the leftovers or are not sure, simply hide the SVG layer so you can access it later.

Conclusion

Being able to export ESRI shapefiles into Adobe Illustrator opens up a whole new set of opportunities for content creators, artists, and other creatives to use maps. Creating professional branded, elegant, and easy-to-read maps in Adobe Illustrator will put you leaps and bounds ahead of the masses that are still using screenshots of Google Maps in their videos and presentations.

In future tutorials, we’ll go over how to put the full Illustrator files together like you see in my travel videos. Then, learn how to animate your maps using both Adobe Illustrator and After Effects. In the meantime, we’d love to help you get started with your creative maps and animations. Please get in touch with us today to discuss your project and how we can bring your mapping visions to life.

Top Image: Warm Later Afternoon Light Provides a Dramatic Contrast Against Grey Winter Skies
Canyonlands National Park, Utah – December, 2021

The post How to Import Shapefiles into Adobe Illustrator appeared first on Matthew Gove Blog.

Before you begin, however, you need to figure out the point-of-view you from which you will tell your story. Will it be first person from the one of your characters’ points of view? Or perhaps you prefer to tell it through the third person as an ousider. There are plenty of viewpoints you can use to tell your story. Regardless of what you pick, your decision will influence all elements your story.

Use Freytag’s Pyramid to Write Better Story Elements

Freytag’s Pyramid is a five-part dramatic structure showing the elements and flow of a story. It’s the brain child of 19th century playwright Gustav Freytag. He theorized that there are five key stages of a story that are used to conceptualize or write an engaging story from start to finish.

Below, we’ll go over each stage of Freytag’s Pyramid in detail. I’ll also share some real-world examples of Freytag’s Pyramid in action. Finally, we’ll use the example of climbing a mountain as the perfect metaphor to demonstrate Freytag’s Pyramid.

1. The Protagonist

One of the most important elements in your story, the protagonist is the main character, or good guy in your story. They’re the one who will be going on the journey that your story tells. While many stories have just a single protagonist, yours certainly doesn’t have to. You can have multiple protagonists, or a group of people that function as a single protagonist. For example, if you were telling the story of a trip you took with a tour group, the group would essentially function as a single protagonist.

In the context of travel stories, you (the traveler) are nearly always the protagonist. And since traveling is literally going on a journey, you should be able to pretty easily identify the parts of your journey and how they relate to the parts of stories we’ll cover below.

Interestingly, there is one notable exception, which you’ll find if you’re traveling for a cause, such as to do volunteer work. In that case, the protagonist is often the people or group that you’re helping with your volunteer work. However, you shouldn’t overlook the fact that volunteer work can have a profound impact on the volunteers as well. In that case, I encourage you to include yourself as a protagonist and share your side of the story. On the other hand, you can also re-tell the same story from your point of view. That can be a very powerful way to raise awareness to causes you’re passionate about back home.

2. The Antagonist

Sometimes referred to as the ”anti-protagonist”, the antagonist is the bad guy in your story. The antagonist actively opposes and provides resistance to your protagonist on their journey. One of the most famous protagonist/antagonist pairs is Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader in the Star Wars series.

In many stories, the antagonist is a person or a group of people. However, the antagonist can be anything that stands in the way of the protagonist accomplishing their goal. This is particularly true for telling stories about travel.

But Wait…Travel Stories Don’t Usually Have Clear Cut Good Guys and Bad Guys the Way Star Wars Does. How Do You Identify the Antagonist in Your Travel Stories?

Good question! For travel stories, antagonists don’t always take the traditional forms that they do in many Hollywood movies, or even in the world of news or sports. In fact, in some contexts, the antagonist can be one of the more difficult elements of your story to identify. Take solo travel as an example. You’re just out documenting your adventures, and having a blast doing it. How can there possibly be bad guys when you’re having so much fun?

It turns out that you’re right, in that there are physically no bad people getting in the way of you having fun. Instead, the antagonist takes on different forms. Often times, the travel itself – the act of going from Point A to Point B – is the antagonist. Here are just a few examples of possible sources of resistance, or antagonists, you may encounter while traveling.

• Traffic Jams
• Border Crossings
• Language Barriers
• Natural Barriers such as Mountains or Rivers
• Bad Weather
• Vehicle Breakdowns
• Missed Buses, Trains, or Flights

Interestingly, if you’re traveling for a cause and/or doing volunteer work, the antagonist is the hardship of the group you’re helping out. Some examples include poverty, hunger, war, disease, natural disasters, and much more.

3. A Conflict

We’ve all heard it a million times. Every story needs a conflict. You can’t have a story without one. Yes, it needs to be said. And no, I won’t beat that dead horse any more than I already have.

The conflict is where the protagonist and antagonist cross paths in your story. Remember, each side has opposite goals, so there is a natural conflict there. Your story can have a single conflict, or it can be comprised of a series of conflicts. That’s completely up to you.

How to Identify Conflicts in Your Travel Stories

Like antagonists, conflicts in travel stories don’t always come to life in traditional ways. Indeed, it’s no surprise that so many travel bloggers, photographers, and video storytellers struggle to find conflict in their story. It turns out that you may need to dig down to find the conflict, but it’s there.

If you’re having trouble identifying the conflict in your travel story, go back and re-read the previous section about the antagonist. Look at the bulleted list of examples of antagonists in travel stories and see if you can identify them in your story. Once you know who or what your antagonists are, finding your conflict is easy. Any time you run into or have direct interaction with those antagonists is where your conflict occurs.

Don’t Forget to Provide a Hook for Your Audience

Have you ever binge-watched a show on Netflix? I know I have. And do you know what makes a show bingeworthy? The hook. It’s one of the most critically important elements of your story. Bingeworthy shows are incredibly good at ”hooking” the audience in, leaving them not just wanting to see what happens in the next episode, but craving it. And introducing conflict is one of the best ways to ”hook” your audience.

The best audience hooks usually take the form of teasers, plot twists, secrets, and cliffhangers. Go back and watch one of the shows you’ve binge-watched in the past. Pay particular attention to how they end each episode. They often introduce a new conflict without providing any idea of how it will be resolved. And do you know when they’ll resolve it? In the next episode. That’s how they keep bringing their audience back. And you should try to do the same thing when you tell your stories. At the very least, it will make the story more engaging, dramatic, and gripping.

Finally, you should introduce the first three elements we discussed here (the first or primary protagonist, antagonist, and conflict) before your main character even sets off on their journey. Giving your audience the proper background to the context of your story will better engage them, and keep them coming back for more.

4. Rising Action

As soon as your protagonist sets off on their journey, the rising action begins. Throughout the rising action, each step of the protagonist’s journey should put them into more and more direct contact with the antagonist, as well as the conflict. As a result, there is an increasing escalation each step of the journey. By the end of the rising action, there should be a dramatic build-up to the climax. But don’t reveal too much. You don’t want to give anything away before the climax. Use powerful words, vivid imagery, and/or dramatic music in your final build-up to the climax.

Climbing a mountain is the perfect metaphor for the rising action. Your journey up the mountain starts out pretty easily. The weather’s nice, the terrain isn’t steep, and you feel good and fresh. As you make your way up the mountain, though, conditions begin to change. Not only does the terrain get steeper, but the weather starts to turn. Winds pick up and temperatures start to drop. Furthermore, there is less air to breathe at higher elevations, tiring you out that much quicker.

The most difficult part of the ascent is the final push to the summit. The terrain is treacherous, making for slow progress. Icy winds and heavy snow only compound the problem. Finally, the rarified air leaves you gasping for breath every step. But you keep pushing forward because you know there is an incredible reward at the summit. That’s exactly how the final build-up to the climax of your story should work.

Short Example of a Rising Action in Action

In the short video below, you’ll find an announcement video I made for the next chapter of my life and business. In the first 30 seconds of the clip, I go over my history and accomplishments as a still photographer. At the end of that rising action, you’ll see a build-up to the big reveal that I’m adding video to my arsenal of visual storytelling. Take special note of the music, imagery, and words being used. Notice how the tension and drama builds up a lot quicker right before the reveal than it does at the beginning.

5. Climax

This is the moment everyone’s been waiting for, and the most exciting of your story elements. Tension is high coming out of your rising action as the audience sits on the edge of their seats, eagerly waiting to see what happens. Then you make the big reveal.

The climax is the most pivotal and exciting part of the story. It’s the moment you reveal the resolution to your protagonist’s conflict. As the action of the story transitions towards the conclusion, you transition from the rising action to the falling action. You don’t want the climax right at the beginning of your story, but it can go anywhere in the middle or towards the end.

You should maximize tension, drama and emotion at the end of the rising action right before you reveal the resolution to the conflict. As a result, use your most vivid imagery and most powerful language to show your story’s climax. But your story isn’t quite over, yet. You’ll likely still have some loose ends to tie up, which you’ll take care of in the next section.

Going back to the metaphor of climbing a mountain, the climax occurs when you reach the summit. You can finally exhale, take a break, and soak in the spectacular views. It’s a well-earned reward after a grueling hike up the mountain. However, you shouldn’t relax too much. Your journey is only half-way done because you still have to get back down the mountain.

6. Dénouement or Falling Action

Now that you’ve unveiled the resolution of your story, it’s time to tie up those loose ends left over from the climax. Ironically, the word dénouement literally translates from French as ”the untying of the knot.” However, the context of dénouement refers to the conflict as a knot that you’re untying. Don’t confuse it with the fact that you’re also tying up loose ends in your story.

In addition to tying up loose ends, the dénouement should also begin to establish the main characters’ new normal. Reveal any last secrets or fates that were left over from the climax. The dénouement should not just end the story. It should validate it.

Unlike the rising action, tension, drama, and emotion should drop throughout the course of the dénouement, opposite to how it rose throughout the rising action. Using the mountain climbing metaphor, the dénouement is the descent back down the mountain after you summit. Just like the final push to the summit is the hardest part of the ascent, the first part of the descent is the hardest part of the way down. The descent gets easier as the further down you get. The terrain gets less difficult, the weather gets warmer, and there’s more air to breathe as you drop in elevation.

Finally, if you’re planning anything further, such as another chapter, episode, or sequel, plant the hook to that next segment at the end of the dénouement. Leave your audience quenching to come back and see what happens next.

7. The Characters’ Lives After This Journey

While many storytellers end their stories after the dénouement, I prefer to have one extra element, especially if there will not be any further chapters, episodes, or sequels. In this section, we dive in and fully immerse ourselves in the protagonist’s new day-to-day life. Bring the story full-circle and show your protagonist’s new normal and how the journey changed them.

• Did they learn a lesson from the experience?
• Do they have a new outlook on life? Why or why not?
• How else have they changed? What else are they doing differently?
• What, if anything, of relevance lies ahead for them?

Conclusion

Following Freytag’s Pyramid is one of the easiest and most effective ways to tell a story that engages, hooks, and even grips your audience. Without those elements, you really don’t have a story to tell. Storytelling is an art form, and it’s not uncommon to struggle with it, especially when you’re first starting out. But just remember, while telling is literally in the word storytelling, you want to show your audience, not tell them. And once you master the art of storytelling, it’s amazing the doors it will open for you.

Top Image: A Snow-Packed Road en Route to Grand Canyon
Flagstaff, Arizona – January, 2017

The post How to Use Freytag’s Pyramid Elements to Tell an Engaging, Gripping Story appeared first on Matthew Gove Blog.

Today, we’ll be using these essential story elements to tell the story of the EF-5 tornado that struck Moore, Oklahoma on 20 May, 2013. Even though we’ll be using maps and photography to tell the story, you could easily use a video, blog post, podcast, and much more, too.

Plan As Many Story Elements as You Can

It’s hard to tell a story if you don’t know the basic elements. As a result, you should plan out as many elements of your story as possible. If you’re planning a photo and video shoot, these elements of your story don’t need to be set in stone – there’s a lot if improvising in making travel videos, for example, especially if you’re going to be shooting in a location you’ve never been to before.

But you should have at least a general idea of how you’ll portray your story to your readers. Without that planning, you’ll likely miss shots while you’re out filming, and negatively impact the quality of your final presentation. Simply do your research and plan out your story before you go out on a photo or video shoot. This technique works, even for difficult-to-plan genres, such as travel videos.

1. Set the Stage in the Setting

At the beginning of your story, you have a very limited time to set the stage for your story. With video, you you need to both set the stage and hook your viewer in the first 10-15 seconds.

For the Moore tornado, the stage will be set on the morning of 20 May. It’s the third, and most dangerous day of a three-day tornado outbreak across the southern plains. The previous day had seen violent tornadoes in Oklahoma, including an EF-4 inside the Oklahoma City metro that carved a path from Norman to Shawnee. We’ll use the Day 1 SPC outlooks and discussions to set the stage (note the usage of the strong, long-track tornadoes wording), as well as storm reports from the 19th. Furthermore, when you stepped outside that morning, it just had “that felling” that something significant was about to happen.

2. Determine the Point of View From Which Your Story is Told

From whose point of view will you be telling your story? Consider a murder mystery. The story will have a very different feel being told from the murderer’s point of view vs the detectives’ point of view.

For an event like the Moore tornado, you could choose to tell it through the point of view of the news media. While there is nothing wrong with this approach, there is a much better way to tell the story. And that’s through the eyes of someone who was there when it happened. As a result, I’ll be sharing my firsthand account of my experience that day.

3. Introduce Your Characters

Before you begin telling your story, you should at the very least know who the main characters are. For the Moore tornado (and some of my travel videos), I am the main character. On the other hand, if you’re telling the story of a place or event with historical significance, you’ll need to transport your audience back in time. The people who lived through those historical events will be your main characters. But to fully immerse your audience in your story, try making them the main character. Tell your story in second person, and let your audience experience it.

If you’re planning the story of something that can’t be scripted – like travel videos or blogs – it’s perfectly okay to not know every single character. When you’re traveling, you never know the interesting people with colorful personalities you’ll meet along the way. This could be a random stranger you’re sitting next to at lunch or on the train. Maybe it’s the proprietor of an incredible hole-in-the-wall coffee shop you stopped at along the way. Or perhaps, it’s the local guide that you hired for that bucket-list experience. Once you get done filming your adventure, just make sure you know how every character works into your story. And if they don’t play a meaningful role in moving your story along, leave them out.

4. Every Story Needs a Hook

The hook is one of the most important elements of your story, if not the most important. As you set the stage for your story, you also need to dangle a “hook” to your reader or viewer. That hook is designed to draw them into the story. It shouldn’t leave them just yearning to see what happens next. It should leave them craving it. Have you ever binge-watched a show all at once? The writers of bingeable shows are incredibly gifted at creating effective hooks. Those hooks are what keeps you pushing forward to the next episode instead of turning off the TV and going to do something else.

A good hook gives a sneak peak of what’s coming, but doesn’t give the storyline away. It could be a review of the conflict, the resolution, or anything else in the story. For the Moore tornado, we can state what the tornado hit – two elementary schools and a hospital. Notice that we didn’t say how much damage was done or if there were any injuries or causalities. We could also show the radar and the tornado emergency that was issued for the City of Moore as the tornado barreled towards it.

5. The Plot

The plot is the most important of all story elements, by far. In fact, I could write an entire post (and I probably will) on how to structure your plot to keep your readers engaged and wanting to know what will happen next. Plots are broken into 5 elements, and we can use a Freytag’s Pyramid to illustrate those 5 stages.

Plot Elements for Your Story

1. Exposition. Set the stage for your story. Introduce your characters, give your audience the hook to draw them in, and begin to introduce the primary conflict.
2. Rising Action. In this stage, your protagonist addresses the primary conflict with a form of action. As you approach the climax, those actions should build and escalate tension, like approaching the top of a roller coaster.
3. Climax. This is the pivotal moment your audience has been waiting for. Your protagonist will encounter their greatest challenge of the entire journey. It’s the culmination of the buildup of tension during the rising action phase. Make it exciting for your audience!
4. Falling Action. Your protagonist will deal with the consequences and fallout – both good and bad – of everything that happened during the climax. Keep your audience engaged by setting the stage for the story’s conclusion. By the end of this phase, you’ll be well on your way to a (hopefully satisfying) conclusion. Additionally, you should start resolving any conflicts that arose as a result of the climax.
5. Resolution or Dénouement. You can go one of two ways here. If this is actually the end of your story, wrap everything up. Tie up loose ends. Give your audience a sense of closure so they know the fate of your protagonist. On the other hand, if you’re writing a series or sequel, you should introduce another hook to leave your audience craving the next episode. Cliffhangers work exceptionally well as that hook.

Now, let’s look at how we can apply Freytag’s Pyramid to the plot of the story of the Moore tornado.

The Plot Elements of the Moore Tornado

6. Without a Conflict, There is No Story

Your story’s conflict answers the question of why your character is embarking on this journey. Without a conflict, you don’t have a story. It’s as simple as that. In your story, the conflict is what causes your character to take action and move the story forward. Conflicts can be both physical and mental. For example, if you’re telling a story about climbing Mt. Everest, the physical or external conflict consists of all the dangers your character encounters on their way to the summit. From frigid temperatures to thin air to dangerous terrain to altitude sickness, one false move could kill your character as they ascend the mountain.

On the other hand, let’s look at a mental conflict. Mental conflicts are internal journeys, and often tend to focus on a single main character. The best example of a simple mental conflict is a character’s journey to overcome their fear of heights so they can go skydiving or bungee jumping. You could also tell the story of how your protagonist overcame their stutter to become a great public speaker.

Keep in mind that while there is usually only one primary conflict, most stories have multiple conflicts. Additional conflicts tend to come in two forms. First, they can be sub-conflicts, that when put together, make up the primary conflict. If you’ve ever seen Monty Python and the Holy Grail, King Arthur’s quest to find the grail is comprised of numerous smaller conflicts they encounter along the way. The conflicts escalate as they get closer to the grail, culminating with the Bridge of Death and the Killer Bunny.

Cascading Conflicts in the Aftermath of the Moore Tornado

Conflicts in the story of the Moore Tornado fall into the second category of multiple conflicts. In these stories, the primary conflict sets off a series of additional conflicts during the falling action. In Moore, the primary conflict is the tornado itself. But after the tornado levels the city, a whole new slate of smaller conflicts emerges.

• With the city’s critical infrastructure destroyed, how do search and rescue teams coordinate and communicate their efforts?
• Debris is everywhere, rendering roads impassable. How do search and rescue teams get into these areas and rescue survivors without using the roads?
• The damage path is 17 miles long and 1 mile wide. Where do search and rescue teams, as well as city and state resources, prioritize their efforts?
• What do survivors do and where do we send them once they’re rescued? How do we get relief to storm victims as soon as possible?

There are obviously many more conflicts than just this following a major tornado, but this should get you started.

Even the Simplest Stories Have Conflicts

When you tell your story, remember that you can find conflict in even the simplest, most monotonous things. Take going to the grocery store as an example. I can think of one major conflict we’ve encountered going to the grocery store recently: the COVID-19 pandemic.

But even without a global pandemic, you can still find conflict to tell the story of your trip to the grocery store. Maybe you’re looking for a very special ingredient and have to go to 3 or 4 stores before you find it. Perhaps your character has fallen on hard times and needs to stretch a tight budget as far as possible. Or what if there’s a major winter storm coming and you have to fight through treacherous conditions and low supply to stock up ahead of the storm.

Conflicts can be really anything you think of, but you need to know your audience. If you create a story that your audience isn’t interested in, they’re not going to listen to you tell it. If you’re stuck looking for a conflict, ask yourself why your character is going on this journey. The answer to that question is the conflict in your story.

7. The Resolution

At the end of your story, you should tie up all loose ends and give your audience a sense of closure for how your story ended. Regardless of whether your story has a happy or sad ending, your audience should know what the characters’ lives will look like now that their struggles are over and the conflict has been resolved.

However, if you’re planning on writing a sequel or another episode, you can easily leave the door open to another chapter of the story. While one conflict is resolved, your character may facing another one. In that case, dangle another hook or cliffhanger to leave your audience eagerly waiting to come back for the next chapter. Then you can go back to the beginning of this guide and start the journey all over again.

The Moore Tornado Story in Maps and Pictures

Conclusion

Regardless of what media you are using to tell your story, you’ll be using the same seven elements to tell it. Planning is critical to being able to tell an insightful and engaging story, especially if you have to go out and shoot photos or video of it. Without a plan, your story will wander and ramble, and your audience will lose interest. Set the stage, hook them in, and leave them craving to see what happens next. Because at the end of the day, you shouldn’t want to just tell your story. You should want your audience to experience it.

Top Photo: The Reward at the End of a Tough Hike
Sedona, Arizona – August, 2016

The post The 7 Essential Elements You Need to Tell Your Story appeared first on Matthew Gove Blog.