Suggestions for Map-designing

[Planet_Traveller]

Hello,

I just have questions for basic digital map designing.

I have been writing fantasy/scifi stories for a while (just as my own personal hobby). I am currently in the making of an epic-length series. I have managed drawing a map and provide many, yet broad aspects of the world (geography, culture, races, brief history, etc).

Now for the past year and few months, on my spare time I have scrolled through this website and read little by little info on khoras. (And David I would like to say congradulations/great job on the astounding work and imagination you have put into this campaign setting).

I have read the page on the usage of photoshop to create the stunning details on the map, and I must say that's impressive.

I would like to state is that when it comes to the use of digital and photoediting programs, I have no experience, though I'm a fast learner. The other thing is that I have no artistic talent.

I want to digitally-edit my map though (a physical map), but that's it. So in this case, I figured its not worth buying the very expenisive and very complex Photoshop.
I'm not looking to make my map as enrichly detailed as a satellite image of Earth (or as detailed as Khoras) but I want to give it some decent and professional look.

Provided that I have a scanner,:P does anyone know if there are any basic and cheaper programs out there that can help me out with this?

[avisarr]

Hello Planet Traveller,

Thanks for writing. The answer is YES! There are ALWAYS cheaper (and often FREE) versions of programs. There is something called "Paint Shop Pro" which, I believe is by JASC Software. It's very much like Photoshop, but it's much cheaper. I've never used it, but I heard it has many of the features that Photoshop offers (though probably not all of them).

Actually, I just looked it up. Looks like Corel bought it from JASC. I see that they're on Version 10 and the price is about $80 for the full version. That's MUCH cheaper than the $500 or so for Photoshop.

I would recommend Paint Shop Pro for you. It's only $80 and it'd be money well spent. It's very useful to have a general graphics program. It helps in many ways.

Another cheap way to get graphics software is simply to buy it used. Quite often, you can find a used copy of Photoshop or some other program on eBay or Craig's List or whatever. usually, it's a few versions old, but that's fine. Photoshop is currently on version CS2 (which is basically version 9). However, you can do AMAZING things with any of the older versions all the way back to version 6. Which you can probably get pretty darn cheap these days.

Ok, I'm rambling. You hit a topic I know about.   Try PSP. Cheap and plenty of power. Probably do everything you need. Good luck and if you run into any problems or have any questions, feel free to post them here. We're a friendly bunch.

David

[avisarr]

And by the way, everyone, while we're on the topic of maps, I was recently able to acquire a copy of Flash 8 Professional for dirt cheap. (Yes, it's a legal copy). So, within a month or two, I'm going to begin working on the new version of the map. Once I've had a chance to learn Flash, I'm hoping to produce a really cool version of the Khoras world map, where you can zoom in, turn on and off different layers and that sort of thing. It'll be much more detailed and will let you zoom in right down to city streets. At least, that's my goal. We'll see how it goes.

The final Flash version of the map is many months away. But at least I've got the software now.

[tanis]

That sounds KOOL!!!

[Planet_Traveller]

Thanks so much David. Much appreciated.  :DI'll definitely look into the Paint Shop Pro.

And "wow" to the whole upcoming Flash8 upgrade...so it's going to pretty much be a "Google Khoras?!" Sweet!

[tanis]

yup lol

[Lance]

Photoshop Elements 3.0 is also a third choice. I think you can find it at at Wal-Mart, Target, etc. for around $60. I"m not sure about Elements 3.0 but the 2.0 version (which I own) is just a bit weaker than PSP. So if your looking to save an extra 20 bucks then check it out.

[Planet_Traveller]

Hello!

Here was my first attempt on the map, using the Corel Paint Shop Pro X, and I thought I'd show you guys.

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b137/Planet_Traveller/ArchsphereCopy.jpg

I had drawn out the map and continents, then I scanned it.
From there I filled in the major colors with the 'flood fill' tool.

From there I experimented with different shades of green, blue, grey, brown, etc.

I had no clue how to fugure out to use the 'layers' (I could not figure out the layers for my life...I probably tired to hard) so I took an improvised approach.

What I did was bloch on the different shades in an area.
For example with the forests, I bloch on different spots of green. Then I did the most time consuming part of this little project....I used the 'smudge' tool. Yep, all the different blends of colors and depths of the ocean on the map were all done smudging the the colors around...and boy was it a lot of smudging.

As for the mountains I would simply paint a grey line as the mountain range. I then had it highlighted and performed the 'Inner bevel' 3D effects on it. Yeah, I know scalewise the 3D of the mountains tremendously tremendously exaggerate the size of the mountains, but I just did it for the purpose of indicating the mountain ranges themselves.

I think I did a decent...job.

I probably could have discovered a more vivid realistic way to make the mountains and maybe the ocean layers are a bit obvious...but I might improve and improvise the effects some more, since I could probably so much more playing around with all the optins the thing has. I'm glad I got the Piant shop, cause I can do all this crazy things with my photos, haha.

Thanks again everyone for the help.

Oh and the name of my planet is 'Archsphere.'

[avisarr]

That looks great! Glad we could help. Keep experimenting with Paint Shop Pro and I'll bet you find all kinds of cool tricks to make the map look how you want.

[funny-popsicle]

hey good job on the map.

Heres what i do for my maps
Draw out your map, the key,
and the land marks, oceans, etc
( not a rough sketch, bold
lines, no shading, if you know
your art pencils, use an 4b-8b if
you have one )   
And then scan it in, or take a
photo of it ( if you got steady
hands for holding the camera )
onto your computer ( oh yeah,
only digital cameras hehe )
Now get adobe photoshop,
6-cs2 9.0 works, ( i just uhhh
got mine for free in a sort of manner,
that involves pirates... ) and
start using basic tools like the
nib tool to outline the maps
lines ( if you dont know how
to use adobes tools, i suggest
www.good-tutorials.com )
then you can go on to using more
advanced things, and using the colour
pallete to make it look nice , but
i just stick to black and white
for a small 10 page story heh.