Hello and some questions

[Highlieche]

Hello to all on this forum. My name is Highlieche. I am a wanna-be Alt History buff. As such whenever i either post in TLs or read them, maps are generally a requirement. As such i have found my way here, in order to learn how to make maps that dont suck. For a while now i have been using programs such as Paint.Net to make my maps. However five minutes on this site has shown me that at LEAST Gimp is required to make such non-suckage maps. Therefore can anyone point me in the direction of some simple Gimp mapping tutorials plz?

[NeonKnight]

hello and welcome!


check the tutorials section for some cool GIMP tuts

[Sapiento]

Welcome Highlieche! And thanks for the comment on my Postapocalyptic North America!

[Steel General]

Welcome Aboard!

As NeonKnight pointed out check the tutorials forum - RobA's Regional Map with GIMP is a great place to start, then you can expand out from there.

[Korash]

Firstly, Welcome to the Guild

Secondly, Paint.Net (or as some call it PdN) can make some nice maps too. It is all about finding the fuctionality that you aree looking for with your prog of choice. We do have some users of PdN here (PeaceHeather for one, and there are others) who have had good results. While most of our tutorials fall under either the GimP or Photoshop umbrella, you can still use the tutorials with PdN, but you will need to do some "translating" to find what commands to use to simulate the results of the tut. Some ppl don't bother, but I find that suprising results can develope out of trying to do the translation. If you prefer, you could also check the PdN sites for tuts to see what it can do and how, and then translate the Gimp or PS tuts using that knowledge. Either way, the best way to learn mapping, regardless of prog, is to post your progress from the begining in a WIP thread and try out the suggestions that will come your way.

Long winded I know, but it really doesn't matter which prog you use 'cause you still need to learn it. Once you have the technique, the rest is easy. True, some progs are easier to use than others, but that is an individual sort of thing. Don't sell PdN short. If you do continue to use PdN, we would really like to see the results and post some tuts on how you did what you did too.

[Coyotemax]

Korash is totally correct.

Don't let your choice of software keep you from posting your work.

heck, we have someone doing a map in Word format, of all things. It's not the tool, it's the creativity you put in to whatever you're doing that matters most.

The worst that will happen is that you get "what if" suggestions for elements, and information or directions to information that will be helpful

[NeonKnight]

Yeah, I have seen people post: CC3 sucks cause you are soooooooo limited, but I have found that I can often do things in CC3 that people think you cannot, simply because I find 'work-arounds'.

Now, this is not to say don;t try GIMP, but it IS to say, don't sell short any graphics program.

We have actually had people on here do beautiful maps in MICROSOFT WORD, and MS Paint of things.