Share your DM drawing tools, etc.

[jimmifett]

Helix&[URL=http://www.enworld.org/forum/misc.php?do=dbtech_usertag_hash&hash=174]#174 Angle & Circle Maker ~ Circle Makers ~ Drafting[/url]

Freaking awesome for drawing angles and circles!

 

[Diamond Cross]

My favorite program for digital art is Corel Painter X.

If you want to, you can even overlay a grid for making dungeons, and use other features for making maps.

 

[nedjer]

For digital stuff it's maybe worth considering where you want to go. Anyone, and everyone, uses a pixel-editing Photoshop or clone. However, if you want to avoid a lot of repetition and processing time vector drawing is the way to go. Not least because you can still put the results into a Photoshop alike, but it's hard to go the other way.

Inkscape is excellent and free, CorelDraw has a great interface, and Illustrator is wildly expensive with a tiresome interface, but prep for any plans to go into professional design. (I tend to useCorel and then transfer into Illustrator for output). If you're any kind of student, and it can be worth signing on for something short just for this, you can get whopping discounts on Adobe and Corel products). I should add that Painter is very cool, but it's a natural media paint pack with a steepish learning curve.

Off screen, love Faber Castell Pitt Artist pens and Rotring Ticky Graphic pens, but they're non-refillable and pricey. Though that can be offset if you're selling any art, as you just claim the materials off your tax.

 

[Stormonu]

Can anyone recommend a good 2d architectural drawing program? I don't need 3d (too much work) ... just something simple to illustrate floor plans.

Dunjinni is pretty good, as is Campaign Cartographer, though the latter has a steep learning curve.

Also, at one time on the Wizards web site, there was a downloadable web tool that could be used to build dungeon floor plans using the dungeon tiles. I think if you google the name (dungeon tile mapper), you might be able to find it.

 

[howandwhy99]

Actually, permanent marking tools used on thicker transparencies can be useful. Draw some scale-sized doors (regular or secret), stairs (spiral or straight), fountain basins, columns, rocks and trees- anything you'd use a lot of- and then cut them out. When needed, you just lay them in place.

That is a cool idea. I've printed out terrain icons to index paper before. Transparency may be even better, if I can cut the image out to a clear background. (not too hard). The only real drawback is cost of the transparencies. They do add up.

Here's my thoughts on map-making tools of the trade:

Excellent thoughts! I often use folders with brads, but a binder for the campaign. All the maps go in page protectors. Now if only I could think of a simplified means of storing the myriad shapes and sizes of handouts and counters. (can't really afford much beyond special occasion minis)


[MENTION=34175]Thunderfoot[/MENTION] - I used to own a pad of 2'x3' butcher paper and a same sized grid transparency overlay I picked up 20+ years ago at Gencon (I haven't seen them sold in that long too). It all walked away somehow in college. Handouts-wise, great advice. I've done similar stuff myself for "treasure map" treasure, NPC journals, etc.

Helix&[URL=http://www.enworld.org/forum/misc.php?do=dbtech_usertag_hash&hash=174]#174 Angle & Circle Maker ~ Circle Makers ~ Drafting[/url]

Freaking awesome for drawing angles and circles!

Oh yeah. I think that's exactly what I'm looking for. How's it work for markers though? Those lines look awfully thin.

 

[Thunderfoot]

<SNIP>
Excellent thoughts! I often use folders with brads, but a binder for the campaign. All the maps go in page protectors. Now if only I could think of a simplified means of storing the myriad shapes and sizes of handouts and counters. (can't really afford much beyond special occasion minis).<SNIP>

Go to your local bait and tackle shop - one of the new things anglers are using are plastic zip-top folders similar to pencil bags that slip inside binders. I wish I had a picture of it, but I use a soft sides tackle box to carry my minis (in the sinker/jig boxes) counters in the folder, index cards, encounter cards and initiative cards in the mesh line card holder slots and my books and notes in the open top section.

Even without all of the other stuff, the bait binders sound like a solution to your problem.

Found a similar product but this is a two ring binder system here

 

[jimmifett]

Oh yeah. I think that's exactly what I'm looking for. How's it work for markers though? Those lines look awfully thin.

I use ultra fine tip colored sharpies on paizo maps.

My Vis-A-Vis wet erase for my chessex just barely fits the circle holes.

regular fine tip dry erase are a bit too big