Had a couple of questions I've responded to this week. So:
• A quick explanation of Blend Modes
• How to draw grasslands
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Here's a recent map I added to my old flickr account.
There some other, older stuff on there, as well. Including a very piss poor city map.
Hey there - that looks like a fun dungeon. What did you create it with?
Also today: How To Draw Forest and some news.
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It's been a while, but my site's back up and a couple of new tutorials have been added.
• Converting a Phone Photo to Digital Line Art
• Drawing Realistic Coastlines
The realistic coastlines tutorial now also comes as a video!
At work right now, so posting to dot for later. I've tried using GIMP many times and gotten frustrated - I don't understand what I'm doing at all. I'll look at your stuff, try to figure out what everything in mapping software is/means, try to UNDERSTAND, then I can be one of the people that posts about how awesome you are.
I want to draw set piece battle maps. That's it; just set piece battle maps. Come to a forest ambush? Battle Map. Small ruined shrine? Battle Map.
Now a buddy of mine off the cuff said "use GIMP." No other info than that. So I downloaded a free version, tried playing with it...and suddenly realized when it comes to ANY graphic design program of ANY kind I'm older than my Grampa yelling at the TV.
I don't know what a layer is. I don't know what ANY of the settings mean or how they impact the finished piece. I don't know how to fill a single square of the grid with the paint bucket instead of hitting the whole grid.
At this point, if it's going to take me hours to teach myself all these basics, then hours AFTER that to physically produce and print the maps, they are not worth it and I shall instead free hand all my stuff on real paper. Yes, it's not environmentally sensitive or at all pretty, but it gets the job done in minutes instead of hours.
Mark - I feel your pain with Gimp - it's not an easy program to pick up at all. There are some conventions in graphics software that takes some getting your head around.
I was asked a while ago to create a tutorial on creating a battlemap from scratch in Gimp and I tried to make it as clear and exhaustive as possible. This *should* be accessible to someone who's never used Gimp before, but if you have questions, send me a note at jonathan@fantasticmaps.com and I'll help out.
And as for paper - there's really nothing wrong with paper and pens at all. I usually sketch my battlemaps on paper first and then take it into gimp/photoshop because I game using avirtual tabletop - so I need digital maps.
YellowDingo - great map tutes! I love the Google Maps tips :)
This week:
• How to create a ripple texture
• How to turn a map into an underwater landscape
And both together come in video form!
I just noticed a couple days ago your site was back and running. So glad to see it again!
Will also check out the GIMP tutorial. I do my maps in CC3 but knowing how to use the GIMP better is always useful.
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Some good information at world building links . The document on world building has a lot of good pointers for creating maps.
I used to draw, paint, and do calligraphy by hand.
I started DMing for a DnD 4e group a couple of years back and began using my copy of Campaign Cartographer, because the 4e system is so tied to square, consistent layouts.
See some of the maps in this introductory video.
In service,
A quick one for a Saturday afternoon - how to draw water on battlemaps.
Simple but effective. I also like the collection of maps you linked to in that article. :)
Yes, Mike's got some truly lovely work.
I've added a couple of video tutorials to the list now:
• How to draw water video tutorial
• How to draw mountains video tutorial
And a video on how to draw/colour flagstones.
Handy video. It's always nice to pick up on a few additional texturing tricks. :)
Quick one this morning - Grids in Photoshop
Given it's a snow day I thought I'd get a little caught up with my tutorials. Here's a long one on how to create icons in photoshop, and it comes with an accompanying video, and a free ship icon!
I've always struggled with the Path tool, so it's helpful to actually have a video reference. Thanks! :)
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The video only has straight lines. I'll put a proper path tutorial on the slate in the near future. I'm hearing a lot of people having some concerns with that.
Somehow I've never noticed this thread. Great stuff!
M
Today, a very quick one on rivers.
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Today - how to design a town
I'm putting together a list of future tutorials, and I'm taking suggestions. Any requests?
Maybe some GIMP Based Tutorials?
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There are a few already - but I'll see what else I can pull together. There's this monster Gimp tutorial I created on battlemaps. That might be handy?
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Thank you for this! I really need some good mapping tutorials.
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Here's a quickie - how to draw swamps.
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Jonathan et al: It only took a year and updating to a newer version of Photoshop, but some kind and helpful people on the Adobe forums were able to solve the problem I posed in this post.
With that problem overcome, I'm happy to present a Photoshop CS6 template that should allow anyone to create fully textured relief maps similar to this with very little effort! It was a long-time in the making, but hopefully all the sweat and tears that went into making this will benefit other GMs and worldbuilders here. :)
Link: Terrain Template & Tutorial
Enjoy, and let me know if it helps or if there's anything that needs more explanation.
Very nice! That's a fantastic tool.
A quick change of tack - as well as tutorials I create commercial map packs, and right now they're on sale!
Last day for my GM's Day Sale - map packs (almost) all $1!
Includes (but is not limited to):
• Pirate Ships
• Crystalline cave
• Sunken river
• Lave filled dragon's lair
• Customisable pirate isle
• Hill-top keep (thumbnail below)
• A Dragon locked in ice
• Snowbound stockade with subterranean dungeon
• City locations carved into a glacier
The sale runs until 5pm EST tomorrow. Surprising your players has never been so cheap!
Each map pack comes with:
• high res jpg - with and without grid (mostly, there are a couple that are only gridded)
• maptool files
• printable multipage pdf in A4 and Letter size, colour and printer friendly greyscale
• many also have individual .png elements that can be re-used.
Don't worry - normal tutorial service will be resumed shortly.
/public_service_announcement
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Nice. Helpful to know for GIMP... and it makes it occur to me that when I make maps in CC3, it might be actually easier to draw in some buildings manually with the myriad vector tools there than try and make the sometimes fussy street tool work for me (as useful as it can be sometimes).
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Yep, CC3 is powerful, but it can be a bit of a faff at times.
Today - a different method - using dynamic brushes to lay in buildings.
Today - how to use mountains to define the scale of a map (and a look at hw to draw mountain ranges rather than individual mountains) as well as a quick discussion of the difference depicting forest and jungle
And some tips on drawing featured buildings - in this case an Inn, a Temple and a Castle.
These are really helping my ASoI&F RPG group. Thank you so much.
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Jonathan: Just wanted to say thanks for the Pen and Grid tutorials. Combining those with masked pattern-fill layers made it a cinch to create the basic floorplan for a mansion one of my PCs is moving into. :)
Keep up the great tutorials! :)
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I'm loving these.
I can't draw worth a damn, but I've got a browser window at home devoted to these tutorials as I try to make a halfway decent prototype map for a world in progress.
They make a huge difference; I can't draw, but these are all the components of the map style I want. Along with the maps essay you wrote in the Kobold Guide to Worldbuilding, I feel like I can make a map that shows a sensible and plausible geography, and the right illustrative style. Even with my total lack of art skills.
Thank you so much.
I love how the methods are easy to do with a Pencil and some basic art skills.
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Hey guys - you're welcome! I'm glad they're coming in handy. And yes, a lot of the work in mapping is figuring out a symbol set that tells a story quickly and clearly.
Today - in honour of all the old-school posts floating around - three different line art wall styles for dungeons.
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A couple recently:
First - a post on using a map as an aid to worldbuilding, and my process for quick and dirty worldbuilding
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A couple more up today:
A simple guide to labeling maps
Gimp guide to placing icons on a map
I didn't know you posted here! I've been following your blog for a while. Thanks for everything you have shared, it is truly awesome info. I was especially encouraged to see that a pro is using GIMP! That's all I have for now (well that and inkscape which I can't figure out at all)
I have seen some of the maps people have drawn to show a world and that is great. I am just not that kind of artist. If you are looking for a way to dress up a table top mat, you could go to an Arts and Crafts store for things like fake trees. If you know where there is a model shop that sells background for model trains, you could get trees and other things meant for a train background and use it on your table top.
This is the old way. Another way is to get a Modeler magazine and search through it (or Dragon magazine for that matter) and find someone that sells such things. But I would search for the cheap first.
You probably have used this, but for elevation, those clear boxes that dice come in are very nice for showing that you and/or and enemy is flying or on a higher elevation. They can also be used to show that someone is invisible.
Very nice topic indeed. Great tips and advices, Jonathan.
I love making maps myself. I'm currently working on a map for one of my homebrewn settings, Flammarion. Since I'm accustomed to drawing maps by hand, this is the first time I go neck-deep into digital cartography, so to be honest I've been improvising and experimenting with all sorts of techniques, throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks. So there might be inconsistencies and oddities across the map!
This is what I have so far, depicting the Known World:
Full-Size Version of the Area I'm Focusing On
The reason for the oddly-placed graticule is that, on one hand, Flammarion is a flat, disk-shaped world (the whole thing was inspired by the Flammarion Engraving, hence the name) and the map is drawn from the perspective of the locals, who subjectively put the centre of the world on a big metropolis located where the graticule is anchored.
Also, though still not really noticeable, weather patters run roughly horizontally on the map, as the sun (a flaming disk hauled by a charriot of flaming titans) circles the world across the left segment of the map (so the full right of the map is all frozen, while the left is a hot tropical region).