element creation

[Vellum]

All of you who create mapping elements, would you care to explain how its done to a digital newbie? I was just looking at Schwartkruez's post on the village buildings, and then bogie does the colored stuff. Are these hand drawn and scanned? Digitally drawn and saved? How do you turn them into brushes? Ya all get the point LOL The sharp end with the point is what ya draw with right?

[- Max -]

If I understand clearly what you're asking for Vellum, you can both hand draw and scan your elements (basically what I've done on Sevindel's harbour) or digitally draw and turn the elemnts to brushes (what I've done on the Kingdom of Ereborn's mountains for example - well the lines were hand-drwan then scanned, then I added paint style shading digitally). To turn some elements to brushes on PS, be sure that you work in black and white or grey tones and make Image/adjustments/Threshold to fit the good contrast, then when you're satisfied, select your element, go to Edit/Define pre-defined form and voilà! You have your awesome brush. Well at least it's the fastest and the easier way.

[Vellum]

Thanks for the info Max, I need to step out of my comfort zone some more

[Kier]

GIMP has this great thing called copy and paste and it creates a brush , I love it. But yeah, elements can be created anyway, scan, drawn, mix and match. I generally start at CGtextures, and find something cool to work with. Right now I am carrying a hunk of gravestone around with me(virtually, not literally) and creating a sarcophagus, flaming pots, and the texture for statues.

[Vellum]

Oops forgot to state I'm using CS3 PS.

Kier If you carried the gravestone around literally you could get your daily workout to boot

[Bogie]

Since I can't draw at all, all my mapping elements start with either a texture ( often from cgTextures like Kier ) or a photo of an object that I took, and then it is all cut / paste / edit in PS.
In my case it is more about imagination and seeing what I can make out of something else than it is about talent. My photoshop skills are minimal, I just try stuff. You can to.