Welcome!
The Cartographers’ Guild is a forum created by and for map makers and aficionados, a place where every aspect of cartography can be admired, examined, learned, and discussed. Our membership consists of professional designers and artists, hobbyists, and amateurs—all are welcome to join and participate in the quest for cartographic skill and knowledge.
Although we specialize in maps of fictional realms, as commonly used in both novels and games (both tabletop and role-playing), many Guild members are also proficient in historical and contemporary maps. Likewise, we specialize in computer-assisted cartography (such as with GIMP, Adobe apps, Campaign Cartographer, Dundjinni, etc.), although many members here also have interest in maps drafted by hand.
If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ. You will have to register before you can post or view full size images in the forums.
In addition to learning Fractal Mapper, I'm also trying to learn techniques for map-making in GIMP. Right now, I'm working through two different tutorials: one by Butch Curry (which uses Photoshop, so I'm adapting it to Gimp as I go), and one by RobA here in Cartographers' Guild. I haven't gotten very far with Curry's method, but here is a shot of what I have. I created a forest pattern, and put it on a mask layer, so that I can very quickly paint in areas of forest on my map. ...
I am attempting to learn how to use Fractal Mapper. I like the Fractal World Explorer, and supposedly you can import and export images between FWE and Fractal Mapper. In v7 however (the one I have), the interface is clunky and the results are often not the best. Still, I've been making some amount of progress by using a hand-drawn map as a background image, and building on top of that. I'm starting with a continent map and a small regional map that I had drawn by hand. In this post ...
I didn't realize I had a blog on this site. But I suppose it's a good way to showcase your work. Right now, I'm working on adapting a video tutorial series on map-making, which was originally designed for Photoshop users. I'm adapting it to Gimp. That effort is taking up quite a bit of time, but it's also rewarding because I'm learning a LOT about Gimp by doing this. My next efforts will involve learning more about how to use Fractal Mapper. Right now I only have ...