A Quick Map Tutorial (using Photoshop)

weem

First Post
Hey all,

I made a map while I was on a lunch break earlier today and was just thinking (here on a break) that I might as well make a very quick tutorial for the heck of it - since it was all right here in front of me.

I use Photoshop for this and this tutorial is basically the process I use to crap out a map when I want one done in a hurry) less than an hour. Because it is so quick, that means I could drop a tutorial in here that isn't TOO long. So again, this is very quick n dirty, no touch up or detail work - just the basic idea ;)

So, here we go...

First things first, you need a floor. I work from the floor up. You can find textures online and then lighten/darken them as needed - but an image with some kind of texture is best...

step01.jpg



Next up, we put some lines down on a new layer. These I do dark-ish grey and place them every 50 pixels. I then apply a layer style "strok" (layer > layer style > stroke ) of 1 pixel width and a light/white color. I then set it's transparency down to 50% or so. This gives the squares a slight beveled look...

step02.jpg



Next, we add a new layer and fill it with a dark grey or brown. This will be the walls once we cut out rooms. You want to see the grid below so lower the transparency down on this layer to 50% (see here). Once you do this, you can use the marquee tools to select and cut out hallways, rooms etc...

step04.jpg



Once you have your rooms cut out, bring the transparency back up to 100% on the "walls" layer.

step05.jpg



Then, you will need a "rock" or "stone" texture of some kind (or even parchment). This image you will drag into its own layer above the wall layer.

step06.jpg



Set the blend mode to "overlay" (or play with it to get the desired look). Once there, use the Magic Wand tool (see it in the image below, it's the selected button on the left toolbar) and highlight the empy area of the walls layer (layer 1).

step07.jpg



Once highlighted, select the "rock" layer (layer 2) and hit "delete"

step08.jpg



At this point, I might throw in some details. I grab the paint brush with a small point and dark color - I then scribble lines along the walls. Don't worry about staying in the lines - you can use the Magic Wand again, select the empty areas of the wall layer, then move back to the sketch layer and delete that extra stuff...


step09.jpg


and poof...


step10.jpg



Spending more time in the varying stages and really giving it your all you can come up with even cooler looking maps - this is just the skeleton process to show point A to point B as quickly as possible. After upping the brightness a bit (and adding some bevelling) to the rock layer, I ended up with this...


full.jpg



Enjoy ;)
 

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We have an internal SVN repository for the commercial plugins but I think it would be hard for us to open that server up for external users. But we might add some nightly build access in the future. :uhoh:

Very cool ;)

Hehe :p

---edit---

Yes, I am assuming the post is a bug ;)
 
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Shouldn't this be in Maps/Cartography? Or does this only work for 4e maps?

(I can't imagine why it's in this forum and not Maps, or even General Discussion.)
 


nm - bad response by me.

Thanks for the heads up Nell. I was hoping that you were just trying to let me know about a "better" place to post it - and not telling me, in a condescending way, that I must be stupid for posting it here (which is how I am reading it). I forgot about the art forum (which I found by following a link in your sig) which is indeed another place this could go, though I have not had issues posting these kinds of things here before - my post doesn't say it, but to me this is indeed a 4e map as that's what I DM, and play in - it's got the grid thing, and the wotc style look.

Whatever your intentions were with that post, my initial response was not one I preferred (though I did state that I could just be defensive and that your intentions could have not been intentionally condescending). I have had a thing recently with people correcting each other for the sake of one-upping the other person (over very petty/minor things), which irritates me greatly, despite not generally being the victim of it.

So with that, I thank you Nell, and will perhaps see you over there in the near future.
 
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It's pretty easy.

In the second image, you see the marquee tool selected (in the toolbar on the left). Instead of a box, you can choose a marquee column which is 1 pixel wide.

You then, while holding SHIFT, click down once every 50 pixels (easy to do with the rulers up).

Once you have a number of those you can fill them with the color creating columns 50 pixels apart - then you duplicate that layer and rotate it 90 degrees (creating rows 50 pixels apart) - then duplicate THAT layer and move it down to cover the rest of the image.

Then you simply merge the layers and apply the effects. It's very quick even if it doesn't sound like it, hehe.
 
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