Cartographer Newbie - Interested in D&D fantasy maps and SCA historical maps.

[teryl_brat42]

I was pointed here by a friend to get information on using GIMP to make some really nice maps for my D&D campaign. I have found loads of information! Y'all are amazing! So far I've been making all my maps by hand (just sketch paper-type maps with limited detail). I used to be able to do a ton of stuff in Photoshop CS but after I left college I couldn't afford to get any of the newer versions. I think I will do well with GIMP, though, particularly with such thorough guides as I've found here (did I mention y'all rock!?).

Additionally, I'm part of the SCA and just learned a couple days ago that my new kingdom has a handful of cartographers, and one is even in my barony! I'm hoping to learn a thing or two about hand-made map making as well as digital. I won't have time to hand make every campaign map, but for historical recreation and making modern world maps with historical techniques it will be a fun skill to have.

I'd love to chat with folks about either of these topics and get new ideas and tips and tricks, so don't be shy!

TB42

[Chick]

Hello TB42! Welcome to the Guild!

There is a great tutorial in the sticky section of Tutorials, called Quickstart Guide to Fantasy Mapping: http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=4276

From there, go to Hand Drawn Mapping for the Artistically Challenged: http://www.cartographersguild.com/sh...ad.php?t=10655

Once you have completed those two tutorials, you'll be well on your way!!

[teryl_brat42]

Thank you very much for pointing me in the right direction! Here is the map I drew by hand that I'd like to digitize so I can remove the lines I used to make sure everything was at the same scale. Plus when I drew it, it encompassed 5 pieces of 8x11 paper. >_<

World Map.pdf

[teryl_brat42]

Since I already have well-defined coastlines that I spent hours (2 weeks of evenings) getting exactly the way I want, are there any tutorials out there that aren't "start from scratch" types? Something to just embellish a hand-drawn (pencil/paper, not wacom tablet) map to make it pop a little more? I'm thinking I'd like to add some coloration, emphasize the cities and roads, and of course add all the labels. It would be nice to remove the lines as well. Those were to allow me to draw across many sheets of printer paper and keep everything correctly aligned.

[Coreyartus]

I think what you do next depends on how far you want to take it... You could literally redraw the whole thing digitally, but I'm guessing that's not something you want to do... I would suggest using a graphics program (Photoshop/Gimp/Whatever) to erase the alignment lines, but that's not necessarily a "cartography" thing as much as it's an application thing. When scanning in a drawing, people usually use it as a reference tool/layer to then re-draw everything on top it, add color, make subtle changes, etc.

Interestingly enough, as a Costume Designer, people in my industry and in Fashion Design work with "scanned in" drawings all the time. So I would suggest you actually (weirdly enough) look up some Youtube videos on what is possible when colorizing your own drawing in a graphics program and what one needs to do to scan it in properly so it can be used without redrawing it. Or comics--there are lots of comic artists who scan in their own work and then work over the top of it. It can be as simple as adding watercolor "washes" or blocks of illustrative color... Perhaps you approach it like you're "colorizing" a film?

Torstan has some awesome tutorials on his own blog, and if you skip ahead a few steps in some of them, you might be able to distill some of the methods he's demonstrating and apply it to your own map without having to redraw it. But sadly, I would venture to guess that most cartography folks don't use their original renderings in a way that prevents redrawing things... I'm sorry...

That being said, I bet there are some examples of doing just that in the tutorials section of this site. It may take a little digging (I can't point you in the right direction as I have just barely scratched the surface).

[teryl_brat42]

This is wonderful information, thank you! I did a search (yes, amazing little feature that not enough people use on forums) and found a few great resources for hand-drawn maps (not so much tutorials, though). I actually found a style I truly love and want to imitate as best I can, but that will require me to re-draw all the features on my blank coastline copy. I'm going to attempt to "ink" a current finished copy to see if that helps me scan it in more easily. I created a logo for a club in college that way -- hand drawn then scanned into photoshop to add layers of solid fill color, very stylized, not intricate, think stained glass -- and gave it a proper sharpie inking first and it turned out marvelously! I think this detail is far too fine to use sharpie (too much bleeding) but I can certainly research what comic artists use and get those. I'll check out Torstan's blog when I get home from work. I'm going to spend my 23 hours off sleeping, cleaning the house, and trying out my first happy-fun-time-with-maps in GIMP. I'll start a WIP thread if I make any suitable progress.

[Coreyartus]

Try Micron pens. They come in different weights, and they don't bleed like a sharpee might. A lot of it has to do with the paper, not the pen... A heavier weight paper that you can print out on your computer, then trace it, might be your best bet--say 24 pound or heavier. You also might see if there's a difference between inkjet paper and laser print paper...

Having a good, solid black line when you scan in your work is what you want. Anything "sketchy" or with gradations of shade will cause problems.

[teryl_brat42]

Perfect tips! I'll be hitting up my local office store soon for sure. Night shifts make errands difficult but I'm too impatient to wait for online order delivery, haha!