I'm asking professionals and amateurs alike. What software do you use to make the beautiful maps we see published in the modules?
It is all done by hand, then sent to the cartographers :)
Creative Director
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I'm asking professionals and amateurs alike. What software do you use to make the beautiful maps we see published in the modules?
By and large, I believe the majority of the cartographers we use in Paizo products use Adobe Photoshop to make the final maps.
Personally, for map turnovers I'm doing for my own adventures (or for fixing maps submitted by other authors... you know who you are!), I draw them by hand and then scan them in and add a few final touches (like filling in areas with water or solid stone) with Photoshop.
I do something very similar to James. He gave me some tips at GenCon and I've been following them ever since my Serpent's Skull maps. First I draw them in pencil (.5mm lead pencil to be exact) on graph paper. Then, I hold onto them until I finish most of my manuscript. That's because in case I change something, I can go back and modify the map if needed. Then, once I'm sure I'm not going to change anything, I ink them with a fine-point ball-point pen. I recently picked up a pack of Pentel fine-point pens with 5 different colors (black, blue, green, red, and purple) so I can highlight different effects like water, plants, fire, etc.
After I'm done inking them, I scan the maps into Paint Shop Pro (an older program, but it's what I know). And then I use the paint and fill function to drop in areas of solid stone and outline the scanned map so I can crop it down to just the area of the graph paper I need the cartographer to depict. Lastly, I adjust the canvas size to give me some blank areas all around it so I can drop in labels and short lines to various sections on the map to help the cartographer understand what each room or area is supposed to be...and why.
So far, it's working really well, I think. Though I've never spoken to any of the cartographers who had to work off my maps. So I don't really know what they think of the method I'm using.
I use campaign cartographer and their dungeon map tools. I have experience with AutoCAD so this was a very easy transition over to their great program.
Jonathan Roberts who does our Fantastic Maps line and worked on the Pathfinder Module From Sea To Shore for Open Design works does his digitally and uses GIMP
He has a nice Tutorial over on the Newbie DM Blog
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Creative Director
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I use campaign cartographer and their dungeon map tools. I have experience with AutoCAD so this was a very easy transition over to their great program.
Campaign Cartographer is a GREAT program. I used to use it all the time. It does require some experience to get full use out of, but the end results are quite good. I would still use it today if I hadn't sacrificed them upon the block as part of my switch from PC to Mac, in fact.
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Creative Director
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I do something very similar to James. He gave me some tips at GenCon and I've been following them ever since my Serpent's Skull maps. First I draw them in pencil (.5mm lead pencil to be exact) on graph paper. Then, I hold onto them until I finish most of my manuscript. That's because in case I change something, I can go back and modify the map if needed. Then, once I'm sure I'm not going to change anything, I ink them with a fine-point ball-point pen. I recently picked up a pack of Pentel fine-point pens with 5 different colors (black, blue, green, red, and purple) so I can highlight different effects like water, plants, fire, etc.
After I'm done inking them, I scan the maps into Paint Shop Pro (an older program, but it's what I know). And then I use the paint and fill function to drop in areas of solid stone and outline the scanned map so I can crop it down to just the are of the graph paper I need the cartographer to depict. Lastly, I adjust the canvas size to give me some blank areas all around it so I can drop in labels and short lines to various sections on the map to help the cartographer understand what each room or area is supposed to be...and why.
So far, it's working really well, I think. Though I've never spoken to any of the cartographers who had to work off my maps. So I don't really know what they think of the method I'm using.
Your maps are among the best we get from any of our authors, so I'd say that the method works VERY well! :-)
Awesome :)
Jonathan Roberts who does our Fantastic Maps line and worked on the Pathfinder Module From Sea To Shore for Open Design works does his digitally and uses GIMP
He has a nice Tutorial over on the Newbie DM Blog
Used to be Gimp - but I upgraded to Photoshop - mostly because it can handle larger canvases without running out of memory.
I do mine by taking a nice textured background - usually something like parchment. Then draw in the lines (I use a tablet - they're pretty cheap now, and invaluable for getting a nice hand drawn feel). At that point the important bit of the map's done. All the information should be in and the remaining bit is making it pretty. I do that by adding a couple more layers and building up colours. I use transparent colour layers to allow the background texture to show through. This makes it more painterly and the texture ties the whole map together.
At the end it's a matter of adding the text labels, borders, decorations, compass, scale and other details. It's worth taking a lot of care over these as it can really define the style of the piece. Jared Blando is particularly good at nailing these elements and blending it with the style of the piece.
I think this is close to the workflow of most cartographers, but I'll let them jump in with the specifics. The most important step for me comes with the line drawing. Once that's done the map works, everything else is added eye-candy.
If you're interested in more detailed advice I can't recommend the Cartographer's Guild highly enough - www.cartographersguild.com. There's lots of good tutorials and walkthroughs on there for pretty much every type of mapping software around.
1 pencil, 1 piece of graph paper...sometimes a straight edge.
Help! I'm stuck in the middle-late 20th Century!
This is my preferred method. Kind of archaic, but it works enough for me to get the parts right for my games.
I would say the best solution is whatever would be best served for the party at the table. If it is a large group (7 or more players) then some map work and bending and pulling might be necessary if you are going for large piece battles. Then again, for the haunt ridden hell of the Skinsaw Murders, the cramped quarters for 8 people was wonderful.
I'll use Photoshop or GIMP to tweak an image, alter or adjust it, but not as my 'go to' mapping application. I'm pretty much alone among pro fantasy cartographers in that I rely in Xara Xtreme to do all my work.
Xara Xtreme (now called Xara Designer) cost about 1/4 the price of Illustrator, which it is comparable with, so like CorelDraw as well. Its a vector based drawing program, with some great effects that can be done to raster images as well (raster being images like those created in Photoshop).
I create 3 types of maps:
1. Completely created in Xara, using photo textures, beveled shapes, drop shadows, fading, transparency and layers - this is the fastest and easiest way for me to create maps.
2. Composited in Xara, but using elements created in Photoshop, PD Particles, and varying 3D applications for various map objects. When I shoot for a photo-realistic map, this is the way I go.
3. Created/composited in Xara, but relying on hand-drawn pen work (I never use pencil) that is digitally scanned, then using a water color palatte all coloring, beveled shapes, drop shadows, transparency use is created as objects placed beneath the hand-drawing, such that is becomes a hybrid mix of hand-drawn and digital creation. This is my preferred method of mapping.
As Jonathan Roberts mentioned, lots of mapping tuts, resources, even free downloadable maps are available at the Cartographers' Guild. If you look you'll find I have over a hundred maps of my own on that site.
Most members there are GIMP or Photoshop users. I think I've managed to inspire a handful of Xara mappers, but less than the fingers on my hand. So professionally, I'm still pretty much alone in my software of choice.
GP
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After I'm done inking them, I scan the maps into Paint Shop Pro (an older program, but it's what I know)...
Funny, that is what I use. What version? I have decided PSP7 is the one for me, though I did use PSP5 before that. The only downside is there is no RGBK and Photoshop files convert weird...or is it the other way around?
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I use Photoshop CS4 exclusively, as I can't afford to buy graph paper, and Photoshop already lives on my PC. I start with my grid as a top layer, figure out how big the map's gonna be, and begin adding layers until things appear. I still haven't really done a lot of building/structure/vehicle maps much yet, but it's a pretty similar process.
Here's a few examples:
Dark Sun Athas Map
Kingmaker Map
Asian Pirate Junk Ship
I'm available for cartography work, BTW. Just sayin'. :D
Funny, that is what I use. What version? I have decided PSP7 is the one for me, though I did use PSP5 before that. The only downside is there is no RGBK and Photoshop files convert weird...or is it the other way around?
I just have a really old install CD for PSP 5.1. It's what I've used for years and years. Sometimes, I consider upgrading to Photoshop, but I never really had the need for a higher end application like that. It seems to handle importing any image just fine for me, but I don't think I've ever tried pulling in a proprietary Photoshop file. I just play with .JPG, .BMP, .GIF, or .TIF files for the most part.
Your maps are among the best we get from any of our authors, so I'd say that the method works VERY well! :-)
Very nice of you to say, sir. I would like to chat with some of the cartographers who wind up working with my turnovers, though. Just to see if the notes help. Or if I'm cluttering the maps with too much detail? Using too small of a scale? Etc. In other words, I get feedback from you guys all the time on the writing end of things. But if I can track down Jared Blando or Rob to get their feedback on the maps, I still think I could improve in that area. I want to make their jobs easier if I can, basically.
While I own Campaign Cartographer, its mostly used to print peoples CC3 files when saved only in its native format and not exported to JPG or BMP.
Funnily enough, though I still haven't seen the release of SS3 Modern Map Objects, I created 300 map objects from wrecked cars, furniture, bodies, weapons, dumpsters, helicopters, every possible thing as a commission to ProFantasy for CC3.
Every object was created in Xara Xtreme...
GP
I use a pencil on paper to sketch out my map, a nice waterproof pen to get the lines nice and dark for the scanner, then finish coloring and texturing in Photoshop.
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Creative Director
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I use campaign cartographer and their dungeon map tools. I have experience with AutoCAD so this was a very easy transition over to their great program.Campaign Cartographer is a GREAT program. I used to use it all the time. It does require some experience to get full use out of, but the end results are quite good. I would still use it today if I hadn't sacrificed them upon the block as part of my switch from PC to Mac, in fact.Campaign Cartographer runs fine on a Mac. I use VMWare Fusion for the Mac to run a virtual WindowsXP desktop that has Campaign Cartographer installed. You then save your output to the Mac file system from there.
Easy and fun.
Every time I've tried to install/run Windows on my mac, the result has been frustration and agrivation with the process, and all that's really done is (worst case) wiped my hard drive and (best case) simply reminded me of how frustrating and annoying Windows is to manipulate compared to OS X. (And this isn't a Mac Fanboy sniping at Windows... this is a guy who used Windows from version 3 back in the early 90s all the way up to the tail end of Windows XP a few years ago...)
Awesome history reference! Lets go smash the machines before they take our jobs.
Dey turk ar jarbs!