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Post by catcharlie on Dec 28, 2015 19:14:29 GMT
So I'm supposed to be DM'ing for some family members (Wife, Brother and Mother), but my brother was meta gaming (we were playing the 5e starter box that he got for his birthday so I'm pretty sure already knew everything that could happen in the adventure) as he wants me to run more D&D adventures I thought I would have a go at building my own world, I'll be starting them on a small island as a short adventure to get them settled into their characters and to give me some time to build some more of the world. As I can never do anything the easy way I've started mapping out the starting island in G.I.M.P, what I want to do is create a layer in GIMP for every 10ft (or so).
As I've lost my original start that I made, I will be restarting this tonight (once my child goes to sleep) and if I actually manage to achieve anything I'll post it here. I can't promise quality or quantity but I'd be interested to hear people thoughts, on the map, campaign or method (or anything else related).
Anyway, Fingers crossed the child goes to bed soon, and I manage to get something done.
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Post by DM Kiado on Dec 28, 2015 21:41:28 GMT
As I can never do anything the easy way I've started mapping out the starting island in G.I.M.P, what I want to do is create a layer in GIMP for every 10ft (or so). Explain more of what you mean? 10ft higher? 10ft squares like a grid? Seems like a beating to make, unless I am not understanding something. |
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Post by catcharlie on Dec 28, 2015 22:05:56 GMT
As I can never do anything the easy way I've started mapping out the starting island in G.I.M.P, what I want to do is create a layer in GIMP for every 10ft (or so). Explain more of what you mean? 10ft higher? 10ft squares like a grid? Seems like a beating to make, unless I am not understanding something. Yeah, height, so every layer would be a cut of the world at that height range (it would be more effective for the more urban areas and cave systems). I am a glutton for punishment. I've just finished a very slap-dash version of the whole island, I haven't put in any cave systems or any real detail into it, and I doubt that I will be able to until I sort the scale out correctly, but as a test run it was enjoyable to make and I'm proud of it (note: While my last post on this was over 2 hours ago, I haven't been working on it for the last two hours) Also, very glad that someone replied and I wouldn't have to Double post. lol Link to the GIMP file: GIMP FileImages behind spoiler tags |
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Post by DM Kiado on Dec 28, 2015 22:29:45 GMT
Ok, I get what you are saying now. Make sense. Be careful with that idea though. I would use that technique only when needed so it doesn't become something you have to do for every map, or your players expect with every map. Now with simple (I don't mean this as an insult) designs like this, it wouldn't be too bad. Guess it depends on the detail level you end up at.
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Post by catcharlie on Dec 28, 2015 22:43:16 GMT
Ok, I get what you are saying now. Make sense. Be careful with that idea though. I would use that technique only when needed so it doesn't become something you have to do for every map, or your players expect with every map. Now with simple (I don't mean this as an insult) designs like this, it wouldn't be too bad. Guess it depends on the detail level you end up at. It's more of a project for me I highly doubt any players will ever get to see it like this. it would all be printed individually if I ever printed it. I wouldn't take that as an insult, though I would love to create it as a full map, where you could print it zoomed out and it be the local area map, but if you zoomed in you could use it as a battle mat style map, though I am no where near artistically skilled to be able to do that; Also I just opened a new GIMP file on my laptop (I could do it on my desktop but that means working at a standing desk and not a sofa) to have a go at making a town, and I made the canvas too big as GIMP crashed when I tried to render a grid on it. lol |
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Post by DM Kiado on Dec 29, 2015 17:35:05 GMT
Well, we would all love to have a map that we can look at from afar and zoom into a battle grid right on the surface. Definitely a possibility in the future with the power of gaming that is right around the corner. For now though, you wouldn't be able to do anything like that with GIMP, even if you had the artistic ability. You would need vector based graphics (Illustrator CC, CC3) as a raster based graphics program (Photoshop, GIMP, Print Shop Pro) doesn't allow for scaling of images like that. Well it does but the image size would be huge! Plus you are talking about resolutions most peoples machines wouldn't be able to handle. This is totally a possibility in the future with a desktop style (Roll20, Fantasy Grounds) applications that can utilize computing power to do this.
(I am totally envisioning a map, that looking at it at the highest level is a world view, down to 5 ft squares on the surface, like Google Earth, but with a grid. Google Earth is easy to do with pictures of Earth, drawing whole map at this scale would take so much time.)
I wish I could say I have a wealth of knowledge on drawing maps in PS/Gimp, but from watching videos and reading articles I have found that everyone does it differently. When you start looking at artists work, then trying to duplicate it, that becomes frustrating because they are professionals. So my opinion, is develop your style to your own liking and it will be less frustrating for you. Check out how others do it for ideas and tips, but don't try to duplicate complicated techniques. This is frustrating and can often be done far more simply to the same effect.
Good luck! I am currently big into mapping, because I am trying to kick off a game on Gamersplane, and I scrapped all my PS work due to frustration with it, and switched to Campaign Cartographer, which is made for making maps, but I can still import my own art out of Photoshop to it if needed. So not dropping the PS part, just using a tool made for making maps instead of drawings to make my life easier, and map creation faster.
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Post by DM Kiado on Dec 29, 2015 20:44:15 GMT
Don't let me last post discourage you either. That is just personal experience. Map making is great, even when frustrating, because eventually you work it out, and it's rewarding as hell.
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Post by catcharlie on Dec 30, 2015 0:36:26 GMT
Well, we would all love to have a map that we can look at from afar and zoom into a battle grid right on the surface. Definitely a possibility in the future with the power of gaming that is right around the corner. For now though, you wouldn't be able to do anything like that with GIMP, even if you had the artistic ability. You would need vector based graphics (Illustrator CC, CC3) as a raster based graphics program (Photoshop, GIMP, Print Shop Pro) doesn't allow for scaling of images like that. Well it does but the image size would be huge! Plus you are talking about resolutions most peoples machines wouldn't be able to handle. This is totally a possibility in the future with a desktop style (Roll20, Fantasy Grounds) applications that can utilize computing power to do this. (I am totally envisioning a map, that looking at it at the highest level is a world view, down to 5 ft squares on the surface, like Google Earth, but with a grid. Google Earth is easy to do with pictures of Earth, drawing whole map at this scale would take so much time.) I wish I could say I have a wealth of knowledge on drawing maps in PS/Gimp, but from watching videos and reading articles I have found that everyone does it differently. When you start looking at artists work, then trying to duplicate it, that becomes frustrating because they are professionals. So my opinion, is develop your style to your own liking and it will be less frustrating for you. Check out how others do it for ideas and tips, but don't try to duplicate complicated techniques. This is frustrating and can often be done far more simply to the same effect. Good luck! I am currently big into mapping, because I am trying to kick off a game on Gamersplane, and I scrapped all my PS work due to frustration with it, and switched to Campaign Cartographer, which is made for making maps, but I can still import my own art out of Photoshop to it if needed. So not dropping the PS part, just using a tool made for making maps instead of drawings to make my life easier, and map creation faster. Seriously! You have all the brain waves and words that I am lacking, how stupid of me, why did I not think of doing it in Vector *Grabs you by the sides of your head and kisses you before running off to look for Vector based drawing programs and Layers* Yeah, I've not tried to do anything complicated in GIMP yet and I'm not currently artistically talented enough to draw anything, though I follow a few Cartographers on DA and YT, so hopefully I'll be able to practice enough and get decent. Maptools (my prefered VTT) has quite a lot of useful artwork to import onto maps. |
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Post by DM Kiado on Dec 30, 2015 17:18:48 GMT
Man, I totally encourage you to keep going at it. Try complicated stuff, try things you aren't sure what they do and see what the effect is. Play, break, mess up, fix, and keep going because you will learn fast that way.
We need to get all us map loving people on a Google Hangout or something similar one night and just have a big discussion on the stuff we use and how we use it, etc. Be fun and interesting.
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