Map drawing stuff

Artimidor Federkiel

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Map drawing stuff

« on: 05 June 2008, 04:24:42 »

As promised to Smee, here's the map in the original scale of the Manthrian map: Scattersand Shoals. The isles are still rather small to draw something decent on it, so if you try your hand on it, Smee, you could still make it a bit larger to draw on it properly. On a full Santharian map with Manthria being reprsented 1:1 on it as it was drawn, we'd need to reduce the size of the map at any rate to this point.

BTW, side note: If you look at the Manthrian map (here) and press the third button on the top left, you'll see the map without any text. Quite useful to copy stuff from it and integrate it wherever you feel it fits.


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Smee

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Map drawing stuff

« Reply #1 on: 05 June 2008, 04:32:21 »

Lovely... thanks

I only have a free copy of Paint Shop Pro 4 at the moment, and a couple of hours spent earlier determined that it isn't quite good enough (the spray-can is awful).

I have PSP 8 arriving in a few days (only £20 from Amazon), which I know has layers, and other good stuff that 4 doesn't. Hopefully that'll be able to perform on a similar level to Photoshop 5/6. Today was a good practice anyway.

If not, I'll see if EBay has a copy of Photoshop 6 or 7 for a reasonable price (the official Adobe site is only interested in selling me the very latest version for £500+ shocked

).

I'll be in touch


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Ta`lia of the Seven Jewels

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Map drawing stuff

« Reply #2 on: 05 June 2008, 05:38:07 »

Smee, have a look at Photoline 32

That one is relatively cheap as well. It is the one I use and others say it is as good as photoshop, it can open PSD and save as PSD. And they have a forum where the developper answers your question within a day!


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Map drawing stuff

« Reply #3 on: 05 June 2008, 15:33:40 »

I will do, thanks Talia.


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Artimidor Federkiel

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Re: Map drawing stuff

« Reply #4 on: 06 June 2008, 03:35:46 »

I've now split the topic of the Scattersand Shoals entry, so that this thread deals with map drawing stuff only (as Smee and Judy asked some questions).

Some more things are now available for download:

The Santharian Monstersize Map (2.58 MB) - you can download this and take the piece you want to draw in detail. Once it is done, it can be pasted back into the overall map.

Map Elements (2.59 MB) - This Photoshop source file contains various single houses, trees and texture stuff that is used in the Manthrian maps and can be grabed and pasted on new maps. Note that other detailed maps can serve as well as great resources to grab a bit of a mountain, a waterfall or whatever. In this context I recommend to have a look at the textfree version of the Manthrian map and the Silvermarshes map, which contains e.g. hobbit holes, waterfalls etc.

And here's another one - the Northern Sarvonian Monster Map (2.60 MB in zipped form) - this version fits exactly in size to the Southern Sarvonian one.

Hope that helps, Judy & Smee!


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Azhira Styralias

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Re: Map drawing stuff

« Reply #5 on: 06 June 2008, 03:40:48 »

Us Northerners could use a monstersize map, too...

And thanks for the map elements. They'll prove useful!


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Artimidor Federkiel

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Re: Map drawing stuff

« Reply #6 on: 06 June 2008, 03:43:44 »

I don't have one available yet, but I'll try to make one so that you can get an idea of the size and can plan detailed stuff as well already.


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Re: Map drawing stuff

« Reply #7 on: 06 June 2008, 04:24:59 »

Okeydokey - I've now uploaded a Northern Sarvonian monster map, which is also available in the above thread. Note that these maps are purely to get the size and relations right in comparison to the Manthrian map, nothing else.

- Have fun!


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Re: Map drawing stuff

« Reply #8 on: 06 June 2008, 04:36:38 »

Awesome stuff, Arti. Thanks

... can't wait for PSP8 to arrive (it was dispatched today).

If I'm lucky it'll arrive tomorrow, so I can fiddle over the weekend. Otherwise I'll have to wait until Monday's post.

EDIT:

Ooh, I like how you've fitted the Manthrian map on to the monster South map. One day, the whole thing will be like Manthria.

One day


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Takór Salenár

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Re: Map drawing stuff

« Reply #9 on: 06 June 2008, 06:34:07 »

I'll have the distances done soon


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Re: Map drawing stuff

« Reply #10 on: 06 June 2008, 09:19:29 »

(smooches Art)


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Re: Map drawing stuff

« Reply #11 on: 06 June 2008, 23:50:10 »

Woo - it arrived. grin

*Starts playing with maps*

EDIT : Early days, but the spray-can works how I want it to at least, and it can save as .PSD


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Re: Map drawing stuff

« Reply #12 on: 07 June 2008, 03:02:36 »

Ok - A brief sample of progress so far.

I've shrank it down to proper size, and put it next to the original. It's rough, but I'm learning. Seems to be going well.

Click for full size.

This is fun - gonna take ages though.


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Artimidor Federkiel

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Re: Map drawing stuff

« Reply #13 on: 07 June 2008, 04:41:40 »

The isles are nicely made according to the tutorial, the top left one however doesn't look that convincing yet... - Note that it is definitely not easy to start with an island that is extremely small, because you don't have much space to operate. I like larger areas much better, because there you can draw more or less at will and apply textures in a very cool way.

Texture stuff isn't explained yet in the tutorial BTW, but it isn't that difficult. It makes maps look pretty cool however. If you have a texture (like in the resource file I've provided), you can paste it on the target map and then play around with transperancy of the texture (or more precisely: the layer) - this will help to blend it into the background.

To get textures fit precisely into a selection use the lasso tool with 3-5 feather (that's explained in the tutorial) and then just move the selection itself to the second picture where you have your texture shown. Then copy the texture with this selection and put it on the first picture where you actually made the selection

- As already said: A larger area makes all this much easier!

We would really need some sort of tropical tree image here that fits to the other tree pics.


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Smee

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Re: Map drawing stuff

« Reply #14 on: 07 June 2008, 04:56:40 »

Thanks for those tips. I'll likely be starting again on the terrain but it's all good practice, and I'm pleased that PSP 8 seems to be up to the task.

Ok - tropical trees... how about :

(obviously next to the current two types of trees you have as comparison).


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Map drawing stuff