Cartography: How do they do it?

[d20Dwarf]

I use Photoshop for my maps as well, though I'm not nearly to Ed's level. I start with my grid and draw the room shapes, then lay room textures and environmental features underneath it, then put objects, walls, doors, etc. over the grid. Voila!

Mostly I just pay Ed to do it.

 

[kenjib]

Where do the objects, textures, and such come from?

 

[d20Dwarf]

You have a few options, you can steal them from online, you can create them using scanned textures and images, or you can draw them yourself.

I won't say which method(s) I prefer.

 

[Fast Learner]

Plus, with sufficient Photoshop experience you can create just about any texture you can imagine.

 

[shadowlight]

The grid lines in photoshop are pretty easy. You can do them several ways:

With the Cave maps, I added black lines to the lighting effect's alpha channel I used to make the stone texture (Ctrl-H is your friend for creating the lines).

For outdoor maps, I just turned on grid lines (Ctrl-H) and drew a black grid on it's own layer. From there you can add layer blending effects, adjust the opacity, etc. to make it look however you want....

I've been thinking about posting a full-on tutorial for creating maps in Photoshop, but I'm not sure if there's interest (it is a pretty expensive program) or if there's already something out there...

Thoughts?

 

[Paylryder]

I think a tutorial on how to create maps in Photoshop would be
fantastic! If I had a starting point for creating/enhancing maps
using this program I would definitely go and buy it. Just my 2
cents... (and my FIRST 2 cents at that!)

 

[Lordnightshade]

Shadowlight, I have PhotoShop 6.0 and I would LOVE, I mean LOVE a full on tutorial on how to create maps with it.

So far I have been unable to find anything like it out there. I looked high and low for one, and since I didn't find one I posted this thread here.

So once I turn on the grid lines in PhotoShop, it looks good. However, I am unable to get the grid to print out? Do you have to trace over the lines?

I guess I'm not quite understanding how you are saying to get the grids to show up on the print outs?

I'm pretty familliar with PhotoShop but I am finding that this program is so vast that I still have so much to learn!

 

[d20Dwarf]

Yeah, just turn the grid on and then trace lines over it. Using the line tool, it will automatically snap to the grid lines, making it easy. If you go under Preferences>Guides and Grid, you can make sure the scale is correct. I think it defaults to 1 line every 1 inch.

 

[Lordnightshade]

WOW, ok that was easy! Learn something new every day!!

Thanks!

 

[Tyrant]

I do maps of buildings and dungeons, so I almost always start out with Autocad to get the base look and feel. After that, I import it into Photoshop and manipulate the color. I love the way I can set up units in Autocad so that I know my locations are properly proportioned. Of course, if I didnt have it at work, Id never be able to legally afford it. There are some cheap cad programs out on the net though, and one could always use Autocad LT.