Best map maker?

[kitsune9]

Hi there,

I'm starting up a new campaign and thinking about all the maps I'm hungry to make (I love maps as a player and want to extend that to my DMing.) We play in an apartment with projection capabilities and I plan on extensively using it to display artwork but also maps of the area, cities, etc.

Problem is, I'm not much of an artist. In the past, I've hand drawn maps and then scanned them in order to project on the wall. They were passable, but not awesome. For this new campaign, I want the maps to look good but also want them to be edited and generated easily. I don't have tons of money but I'm willing to purchase something if I think it's warranted.

I'm soliciting the EN crowd for the experiences you've had with map making software. I've looked at a few, but it's hard to tell their success without some anecdotal evidence.

What do you think?

What's the best map maker out there?


Greg

In my own experience in owning Campaign Cartographer 2 and 3 (along with the Dungeon Designer add-ons) and Dundjinni, I would say Dundjinni is the better one because I found it way easier to make maps that looked half-way cool than with CC.

CC3 does have it cool perks and do a lot more in terms of shading, transperancy, layers, etc., but I always find it really hard to work with and so far, my dungeon maps look terrible compared to the Dundjinni ones I created.

If you're looking for a simple-to-use software, I'd check out Dundjinni though CC3 is decent if you have the time.

 

[Bold or Stupid]

Does Dundjinni do world mapping?

 

[ki11erDM]

Does Dundjinni do world mapping?

Not the last time i looked at it.

 

[Jinglehopper]

You have to find the best one for you, download the demos and give all a try. Find the one that you are going to use!

Definitely true. I was just wondering about other DMs experiences with mapping tools. Sometimes software can be frustrating at first but worth it once you get the hang of things. Others are just plain bad.

The Cartographer's Guild is a great resource but I'm worried that I will never have the chops to match their best maps.

 

[ki11erDM]

That is exactly the problem I was worried about. Is it really that difficult to make great looking maps with CC3?

Please keep in mind that I have next to zero visual artist ability, I've tried to make things in photoshop but it just looks awful.

With illustrator at least you can go buy a book and learn it... you might even be able to use those skills in RL. Is illustrator perfect? heck no. but i do feel like i have control over what i am doing.

If you are going to be making large campaign sized maps you really need to use a CAD program or a Vector Graphics program so you can keep the size down and zoom in and out quickly and easily. If you want to just make small maps that don’t need to scale then photoshop or Dundjinni will do well.

 

[Mercutio01]

You can force Dundjinni to make campaign maps. There are add-on user art packs created with that in mind, and there are also ISO map objects it that's your bag.

Here's a link where someone made city level maps.
http://www.dundjinni.com/forums/forum_posts.asp?TID=2085&PN=3

I've attached one I made in fairly short time. It's nothing fancy, and it doesn't look half as good as the battlemaps made in Dundjinni, and I'm not a good cartographer, but this served my purposes.

 

[Jack99]

Old School Maps FTW

 

[Ashrem Bayle]

Wow. Those are seriously impressive. Like, professional game cartographer impressive.

Thanks!

 

[Bishop Odo]

There is no one best program, there is a thread at the Cartographer’s Guild that discusses just that. Also there is no short cuts, every program has a learning curve, and so be forewarned unless you want to invest time and lean it, best stick to paper and pen, or buy your maps, and demos are nice but they can just lead to being overwhelmed.

CC3 has a lot of support geared toward mapping, tutorials and such. Photoshop has just as much if not more information out there but applying to mapping might take a little creativity. From what I can see, most people who become proficient in one system then branch out and learn other styles and programs to add to the first style. Some at the Cartographer Guild are versed in multiple programs and used them for little things.

However remember if you become an expert in say Campaign Cartographer 3, what application to the real world would you have, compared to Photoshop? But them again, there are elements that all these program share.

 

[Nellisir]

I've recently started a masters in landscape architecture, so computer-illustrated geography is a Big Deal. Our core four are Photoshop/GIMP, Illustrator/Inkscape, AutoCAD, and Sketchup. I think Photoshop has an ease of use that GIMP lacks, and documentation is a hundred times better, but much of the photoshop documentation can also be applied to GIMP, and GIMP's pricetag (free!) is hard to beat.

I had some issues with Inkscape crashing, but Illustrator rocks. Again, though, for the price (Free!) Inkscape is pretty awesome. And not much beats Sketchup for simplicity, ease of use, and awesomeness of price (again, FREE!) I'm going to start playing around with it for dungeon mapping.

AutoCAD was designed by human-hating aliens, and gradually turns you into one of them. Awesome if you know it, but learning involves ritual scarification.

Now that I've gotten more experience with photoshop & illustrator I'll probably try Gimp & Inkscape again over the summer, just to compare.