Dundjinni vs. Photoshop

punkorange

First Post
I know Dundjinni is built specifically for making scaled maps, but I was just curious if it's better than using Photoshop. I am not an expert, but I would say that I have a decent grasp on Photoshop and its use, so I think I could do maps just as easy in Photoshop.

I was just curious what some of the other people on here use (I’m always impressed with user art and maps here). Also if you do use Photoshop, what's the best way to get it to print to a 1 inch grid scale?
 

log in or register to remove this ad

Its been awhile since I needed to print something at an exact scale from Photoshop so this may not be correct but I remember just setting the "pixels per inch" to be what I wanted and printing at 100% scale. For example if I was making a 8" x 8" square room and I wanted 100 pixels per inch resolution I'd just pick 100 pixel per inch and make the image 800x800 pixels or 8x8" inches.

Dundjinni is a neat program for people who either either lack the skills or time to make maps of that quality any other way. The best looking Dundjinni maps rely heavily on photoshop or gimp for either touchup work or for creation of the various elements used. This is not a knock on Dundjinni at all, it is a great tool for an average person to produce exceptional results with. It just relies on people wth exceptional skills to generate the content everyone else uses. The user art submissions are great on their site are a great asset and can be used in photoshop just as easily as they can in DJ. So purchasing the DJ software or their art packs are a good value even if you don't plan on using DJ to actually map with. You get alot of art you can either use directly or use to hone your own skills in trying to replicate or alter.

Personally I use Map Tool for playing on my creations since it skips the whole printing out or taping together large maps. I even have access to an HP designjet 500 24" wide roll printer but I like to stay digital :)

Overall I my graphics art collection includes Photoshop 6, Photoshop Elements 2.0, Corel Painter Essentials 2, a Wacom tablet, Bryce 5.5, Poser 5, DAZ Studio and wings 3d. Since I am a mechanical design engineer I do 2d and 3d work all the time as well using both AutoCAD and Solidworks, both of which are able to output formats I can work with in the more artsy programs. I use AutoCAD for my vector work like doing ship deckplans and occasionally will model things in solidworks that would be a pain to do in a subdivision surface modeller. I also have Campaign Cartographer with all its add-ons but the Fast-CAD system they use as a core has got to be one of the buggiest and slowest vector apps I've ever used. I'd use AutoRealm before I'd waste any time with CC Pro if I didn't have AutoCAD.

I only mention the 3d modelling aps because it seems like that it what most people who submit art to Dundjinni's website are doing. Making or buying 3d poseable models and rendering them from a top view and them cleaning the result up in photoshop and adding the alpha channel and shadows to smooth edges. DAZ Studio is a free download by the way and you can find lots of free 3d models on the net to plug in, pose up and render away for making your own png content for photoshop or DJ.
 
Last edited:


The problem is that once you have done your map in photoshop either a) it has an absolutely huge file because of all the layers required. or b) its not editable.

For pure art you cannot beat Photoshop or some similar powerful art package but maps have repeating elements in them which very likely will be reused and modified. Photoshop will not store them as a single entity used more than once - it will store multiple copies of the image in the different positions. This in turn imposes huge restrictions on how large a map you can make in a single session.

There are other limitations of using Photoshop as the final layout tool for a map. The combination of a mapping program importing and using images made with photoshop would give the best results.
 

chrome_gnome said:
Dundjinni is a neat program for people who either either lack the skills or time to make maps of that quality any other way.
And that's precisely why I use Dundjinni. While I have time, I just don't have the skills -yet-.
 

Remove ads

Top