ZNG Cartography

ZombieButch · Aug 21, 2007

Even though the podcast is on hiatus til next week, I'm not quite resting on my laurels. I've got a quick Photoshop cartography tip up at my website. You can check it out here.

JDragon · Aug 21, 2007

palehorse said:
Even though the podcast is on hiatus til next week, I'm not quite resting on my laurels. I've got a quick Photoshop cartography tip up at my website. You can check it out here.

Very cool, I tried it out and was happy with the results.

I just read the instructions as I went, and then realized at the end why I had a huge # of islands instead of large land masses. :lol:

I had set my resolution to 300, and got really mixed up clouds.

Thanks for the project, looking forward to your book.

JD

ZombieButch · Aug 21, 2007

JDragon said:
Very cool, I tried it out and was happy with the results.

I just read the instructions as I went, and then realized at the end why I had a huge # of islands instead of large land masses. I had set my resolution to 300, and got really mixed up clouds.

When I need to work in a higher resolution and I want to use this technique, I just select individual islands and move them around and combine them into larger ones if needed. If you try to scale them up, the edges just get pixellated all to heck.

meleeguy · Aug 23, 2007

Thanks!

I just found this thread, is is much appreciated.

Aristotle · Sep 5, 2007

Okay, so I finally sat down and ran through the the entire first chapter of podcasts. This is definately harder than it looks, although it would be impossible for me to replicated without such a well made tutorial. I got a copy of Adobe CS when it came out a couple of years ago (I got a good deal) but haven't really done anything in photoshop or illustrator since 1995 (which makes my past experience useless). The tutorials kind of 'click' for me. I'm already browsing non-cartography tutorial sites and looking for techniques that might be adaptable, and thinking up how I might use patterns/brushes and so on to recreate other "real media" techniques that I enjoy (i.e. crosshatching, stippling, etc..)

Such a great resource. I'm looking forward to the next chapter, and I'll be picking up any cartography products palehorse sees fit to release to us. Thanks for rekindling my interest in something that I forgot how much I enjoy.

ZombieButch · Sep 5, 2007

Thanks all! I don't really think of myself as a great cartographer, but I am quite the Photoshop power user and, if what I'm told is true, a pretty decent teacher.

(I owe much of the latter to working for so many years on the phones in tech support! )

I'm sorry for the delay on the latest episode. As I mentioned over on my site, I'm getting over the flu right now. I'm feeling a LOT better today, and as long as my voice holds out (I'm making some hot tea with a lot of honey right now, as a matter of fact!) I should be able to sit down and record it shortly.

Boss · Sep 5, 2007

Palehorse,

I have to admit, I have been using CC2 and Autorealm for all my mapping needs but have been very dissatisfied with them, or at least my personal ability to use them properly. I hadn't used photoshop much for gaming purposes, more for photoediting/cleaning for my paintball team. Your podcasts have me doing maps that are MUCH better than anything I could produce with true mapping applications. Thank you very much for your hard work and yes, I agree, you are an EXCELLENT teacher.

BTW, my favorite so far wasn't on the podcast, but the use of the clouds filter to create landmasses. I have created a number of maps using this short tutorial alone. I also took note of your use of the same basic technique to create a cavern system. Pure genius!!!! Yes, you can put me down for the book when it is ready.

D*** looking at this post, I would seem to be your newest fanboy. :lol:

Hope you get to feeling better soon.

ZombieButch · Sep 5, 2007

Thanks!

Boss said:
BTW, my favorite so far wasn't on the podcast, but the use of the clouds filter to create landmasses. I have created a number of maps using this short tutorial alone. I also took note of your use of the same basic technique to create a cavern system. Pure genius!!!! Yes, you can put me down for the book when it is ready.

You should like the newest podcast then; the first half is a slightly more advanced version of that same technique.

It's recorded, and up at YouTube, but Revver is still processing it before it goes up for review. So it should be up over there in the next hour or so, and on iTunes a bit after that.

And you're right, it IS terribly handy. I've used it to create the basic shapes for caves, lakes, forests, and the like; whenever I want an organic shape but I'm in a hurry or am not too picky about it's exact shape, it's always there for me!

If you play around with Clouds, Gaussian Blur, and the (surprise surprise) Trace Contour filter, you can probably figure out how I added the contour lines to this one (still a work in progress; I'm still playing with a few things):

Aristotle · Sep 6, 2007

I dig those trees, and I don't see a pattern. Draw those in by hand? Use the same technique as in the tutorial? I should be patient and wait for the tutorial or book that covers that mapping method?

ZombieButch · Sep 6, 2007

Nothing fancy; there are two Solid Color layers, one for each color tree, with a Stroke layer style to add the outline around them. I made a custom brush to add the trees, increasing the Spacing and adding some Size jitter, Angle jitter, and just a hair of Roundness jitter to give them some variation.