Salutations.
I am currently trying to get better at creating and utilizing Photoshop, illustrator and InDesign for creating documents. Im still really new at it however.
Basically im wondering if anyone knows of any templates or anything like that for gaming documents or help videos, etc.
I would like to be able to make my own backgrounds and everything, but im not sure were to start.
What specifically are you looking to do? What are you looking to create? How do you want to use it in your campaign?
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Those three applications are, hands down, the best out there. They are also professional level and very tough to learn, let alone master.
They are also pricey. Out of curiosity, since it sounds like you are a novice, what caused you to opt for such high end software? There are a number of perfectly decent, much less expensive alternatives for what you want to do ...
In any case, there are some great books out there to get you started - I'm a big fan of the For Dummies books for beginners - I'd recommend checking them out.
for basics Digital Tutors is worth the money
Those three applications are, hands down, the best out there. They are also professional level and very tough to learn, let alone master.
They are also pricey. Out of curiosity, since it sounds like you are a novice, what caused you to opt for such high end software? There are a number of perfectly decent, much less expensive alternatives for what you want to do ...
In any case, there are some great books out there to get you started - I'm a big fan of the For Dummies books for beginners - I'd recommend checking them out.
Far from the best, but they are the industry standard. I would take MangaStudio Ex 5s vector options over Illustrator for tracing lineart anyday for instance.
The Creative Suite 2 is now free to download from the Adobe site, they lack some features of the newer versions, but they are still quite powerful applications.
Wow, i need to post in this sub-forum more often. heh.
Well, i want to create better background images to use for documents i create. I would also like to have more freedom for layouts and be able to create and use images fluidly within my documents.
I have both word and publisher but they both feel a little restricting. I heard that Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign were a tad bit more open. I was also under the impression that Photoshop is excellent for editing maps. To be blunt, i am a perfectionist when it comes to writing and Art. Which makes things take a wee bit longer, but I'm working on compromise.
So i would like to better understand the process. I have also heard people have made templates to make things easier.
Well for page layout, InDesign is hands down the best for doing. While I would agree that Photoshop is used by many professional cartographers for game maps, I use Xara Photo & Graphic Designer which costs about $88, so is significantly less expensive than Adobe products, at the same time having greater beveling and transparency options than either Photoshop or Illustrator. Note: I'm a pro cartographer having done the City of Kasai map for Paizo Publishing, many recent maps for Legendary Games, EN Publishing, Rite Publishing, Stormbunny Studios, FASA Games and many others. I never use templates, but whatever design I put in place for a 2 column page-layout on page one, I copy to each subsequent page using Xara.
Far from the best, but they are the industry standard. I would take MangaStudio Ex 5s vector options over Illustrator for tracing lineart anyday for instance.
And I would call you an absolute LUNATIC because I despise the vector brush settings for MS5, and would whole-heartedly use Illustrator over them all day, any day, for the rest of my natural life.
The Oil and Watercolor brushes, however, are hands-down much better than Photoshop's.
Photoshop still has a ton of utilities to it that MangaStudio doesn't that makes it all-around a better buy, but if you're looking to do standard Illustration work, then Illustrator for linearts and MS5 for color & shading is what I'd recommend.
What documents are you making that need backgrounds?
Well i have a friend who is trying to publish his own game, and i would like to help him out until we can hire a professional. I also like creating documents for my players for my own homebrew setting.
I would like to get better at these and i am just looking for some guidance.
For homebrew documents, I always recommend keeping things simple. One of my pet peeves is reading a PDF of someone's homebrew material and they use a really annoying parchment background or try too hard to stylize their formatting. If you want your material to look professional, focus on improving your technical writing skills.
I'm not sure what level of skill you have now, but I recommend learning some graphic design basics rather than focus solely on using programs. Certainly, you want to play around with Photoshop, but a tool is only as good as the hand that uses it.
One good way to learn is look at professional work. When looking at most game books, you will notice they actually do not decorate the background very much. They keep the fancy stuff (if any) in the margins. They take the minimal approach because it's cheaper and makes the book much easier to read. A book that is annoying to read is an epic fail.
Well, first off, you generally want to use Vectors as much as possible, especially for things like logos, etc.
Vector art has its own shortcomings (the gradients aren't as subtle, etc.), but the fact that it can be expanded or shrunken pretty much infinitely and still retain its clarity is a huge boon.
If he's looking to publish a gamebook, InDesign is pretty much the only program you'll want to use. While publishing in Word IS possible, it's not even "not recommended" - most layout artists would call it "completely offensive" due to how limited and wonky the program is.
If you want to do illustrations, the major three are Photoshop, Illustrator, and MangaStudio.
Anytime you create a work, even if it's a Vector work, set the settings and output to 300dpi at least (that's the standard), and work on a larger scale than what you're going to print at (maybe get 11x17 artboards and work in Light Blue penciling, then scan in the pictures for lineart inking on forward).
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I will say this - any of these programs and methods are both fairly monetarily- and time-intensive.
So before you go diving into getting these and committing to doing anything, make sure 1 of the following is true:
1) Your buddy is absolutely, 100% committed to getting a game published, even if through a place like The Game Crafter
2) Even if your buddy flakes/gives up and ends up not publishing a game at all, you'll make extensive use of these programs and/or materials. Nothing's worse than spending several hundred dollars on a program or materials and then never using 'em.
There are a lot of people in all creative fields that start out really passionate about producing something, and then nothing comes of it - usually, sadly, after a fair amount of cash has been spent. Be sure you know either you or he are in it for the long haul before spending money.
The problem with using full graphic backgrounds is that unless your book is going to be professionally printed, full bleeds (image all the way to the edge of the paper) is accomplished by creating graphics larger than the final page size which gets cut-off. However, if like most PDF files that are printed on laser or inkjet printers, there is a deletion area (area that cannot be printed where rollers inside the printer move the paper) usually at least a 1/4 inch all the way around the edge of the paper. If you have background graphics all the way to the edge of the paper, it will get cut off in the deletion area.
For Rite Publishing Kaidan products which I do all the page-layouts for, I include a graphic border, interior illustrations, and graphic titling, but never include background graphics. And consider that I'm also old (52) and background graphics behind text sometimes makes it hard to read. I prefer white page backgrounds as a reader and as a designer.
There are a million things that can be said about each of adobe products you mentioned and the majority of them, in my opinion, are tools to make things easier for the designer.
- For desktop publishing those products are best used in conjunction with eachother:
- I personally use Illustrator as much as possible for logos, but I also use Illustrator for almost everything I do, it’s what I am most comfortable with and I don’t do much desktop publishing.
- Photoshop for backgrounds, borders, and photo manipulation.
- Then bring everything in to InDesign to lay everything out. Link, or place they do the same thing, to the things you created in the other programs. This way if you decide to make a change to your logo all you have to do is update the link and each instance is changed.
- Master Pages: By creating Master Pages for the common look of your pages, backgrounds/borders, logo placement, and page numbering, if a change is required you change the master and it applies that change to the rest of the document.
- Character & Paragraph Styles: Using these allows you to create rules for the way text appears in your document. By creating rules for titles, body, charts, tables, etc., if a change is needed you can edit the rule and the change is applied to all text using that rule.
- Text Wrapping: This is a fairly simple tool, but knowing that you can draw specific shapes and use that to influence your text wrap is pretty helpful.
- Text Overflow: Another fairly simple thing to get the hang of, but very important in desktop publishing.
I personally believe if done right backgrounds on the page are wonderful, especially if the product will also be released digitally as a PDF, black text on a white background strains eyes after a while when viewed on any kind of screen. Which brings me to my next point…
Do your best to design for print, learn about bleeds and crop marks, gutters, binding options, and how page count affects spine size, but plan an initial PDF release. Not only is this far cheaper than attempting a print run, but unless you’re planning a Kickstarter, it can help fund a print release of the product, and you can use it as a kind of beta test for the product. Get feedback and make changes BEFORE spending money on a print product.
Words of Advice:
Templates are great, and a quick Google search will give you tons of options, but learning how to take the template and make it you own thing is priceless.
While I’ve never attempted to layout a game book, or any high page count document for that matter, I don’t think there is any big secret to gaming books. It’s all about putting things in a logical order and readable format.
I dropped a lot of info into this post, but if you pay attention to the keywords you’ll find more tutorials than you’ll know what to do with just by doing a quick Google search.
Lastly, if any other graphic designers are watching this thread and notice something I may have messed up, or wish to elaborate on something I mentioned, please speak up. I’m always looking to learn new stuff.
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There are a million things that can be said about each of adobe products you mentioned and the majority of them, in my opinion, are tools to make things easier for the designer.
While I’ve never attempted to layout a game book, or any high page count document for that matter, I don’t think there is any big secret to gaming books. It’s all about putting things in a logical order and readable format.
Not bad advice all-in-all!
I would say though, doing the graphic design and layout of a large, full-color RPG book so that it is correct from a technical / prepress standpoint, organized in a logical way AND is visually pleasing is actually pretty involved and not for the faint of heart!
Just saying :)
There are a million things that can be said about each of adobe products you mentioned and the majority of them, in my opinion, are tools to make things easier for the designer.
While I’ve never attempted to layout a game book, or any high page count document for that matter, I don’t think there is any big secret to gaming books. It’s all about putting things in a logical order and readable format.
Not bad advice all-in-all!
I would say though, doing the graphic design and layout of a large, full-color RPG book so that it is correct from a technical / prepress standpoint, organized in a logical way AND is visually pleasing is actually pretty involved and not for the faint of heart!
Just saying :)
I wasn't trying to minimize what it takes to do desktop publishing in any way. Just that, from what I know, RPG book vs. Other high page count publication, shouldn't be too different.
I've been interested in getting into desktop publishing for some time, would be great to add to my resume, I just don't have any projects that require that skill set.