Let's see who hates me first.

[torstan]

/runs off to finish writing the tutorial before that list gets stickied.

Welcome megabyter5. You'll find that quite a few people here make maps for VTTs - so much so that there's even a forum for it. Last months competition was a VTT one so I'd have a look at the entries then go through the Work In Progress posts for the ones you like the style of. Best way to start is to find a map you want to draw and start a thread about it. Even if the first step is only a rough idea or sketch, we'll all chip in with advice to help you get where you are going.

[jfrazierjr]

Specifically, start with RobA's GIMP tutorials here:

http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=1142 (10000+ views!!!)

and here: http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=594

and here: http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=875

and here: http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=533

and here: http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=1048

and here: http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=874

ummm and here: http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=1397


These posted by pyrandon (Photoshop, but should be generic enough to do easily in GIMP): http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=547

and here: http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=1482

and here: http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=1150

It's a good thing RobA, ravells, and Pyrandon don't get a book icon for each tutorial they do, there would be no room for anything else on their sidebar for their avatars. heh.....

Ravells has: 6
Pyrandon has: 3
RobA has: 8

These are JUST the ones marked with the tutorial icon! Of course, no one is even close to beating RobA's number of views with his Regional Map tutorial at a whopping 10,100+ views in just over 8 months! pyrandon should feel pretty great about his Eneini: a medieval city tutorial: http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=530 with just over 3000 views also.

Joe

[Karro]

It's a good thing RobA, ravells, and Pyrandon don't get a book icon for each tutorial they do, there would be no room for anything else on their sidebar for their avatars. heh.....

Ravells has: 6
Pyrandon has: 3
RobA has: 8

These are JUST the ones marked with the tutorial icon! Of course, no one is even close to beating RobA's number of views with his Regional Map tutorial at a whopping 10,100+ views in just over 8 months! pyrandon should feel pretty great about his Eneini: a medieval city tutorial: http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=530 with just over 3000 views also.

Joe

And you are to be commended for digging these all up! I didn't even know some of those tutorials existed!

[ravells]

Hey jfrazierjr as you've got the bit between your teeth - if you want to make an ultimate list of tutorials for beginners with a short explanation as to what each tutorial is about, I'll make it a sticky for all our new users - and (if you need encouragement) you can have a tutorial badge for your work. Deal?

[jfrazierjr]

Hey jfrazierjr as you've got the bit between your teeth - if you want to make an ultimate list of tutorials for beginners with a short explanation as to what each tutorial is about, I'll make it a sticky for all our new users - and (if you need encouragement) you can have a tutorial badge for your work. Deal?

While I don't mind doing that (and will over the next day or so), what I would really prefer to see would be a new top level forum with subforums devoted to a few of the more specific software packages. I think that would help quite a bit

+Main
+Gallery
+Mapping Resources
+Mapmaking Discussion & Philosophy (WIP/Critique)
+Tutorials/How-to's
    +General Mapping techniques
        -Idiots guide to making mountains in any raster image editor or by hand
        -how to get nice looking forests without a lot of work
        -Making ISO mountains?  Make sure your forests have tree trunks, and heres how....
    +Photoshop
        -PS How to make a Regional/World map
        -PS How to make a Nice City map in PS
    +GIMP
        -GIMP Mountains made easy
        -Making nice map tree's in GIMP
    +Campaign Cartographer
        -Baz's super great CC Dungeon map Tutorial 
    +Other/Generic or multiple software tutorials
        -Using Inkscape and GIMP to make a foo style map
    +Hand Draw Maps
        -Bar's ultimate guide to totally hand drawn maps

Something like that.

Joe

[wacko76]

Hey jfrazierjr as you've got the bit between your teeth - if you want to make an ultimate list of tutorials for beginners with a short explanation as to what each tutorial is about, I'll make it a sticky for all our new users - and (if you need encouragement) you can have a tutorial badge for your work. Deal?

Uh, yes, jfrazierjr (what a nick, took me 5 mins to type it correctly) please do it. I'll be your personal slave.* Pretty please?





















* Applies only in the Republic of Mars, from Feb 29th, 2007, 23:59 till March, 1st, 00:00, 2007.

[ravells]

While I don't mind doing that (and will over the next day or so), what I would really prefer to see would be a new top level forum with subforums devoted to a few of the more specific software packages. I think that would help quite a bit

+Main
+Gallery
+Mapping Resources
+Mapmaking Discussion & Philosophy (WIP/Critique)
+Tutorials/How-to's
    +General Mapping techniques
        -Idiots guide to making mountains in any raster image editor or by hand
        -how to get nice looking forests without a lot of work
        -Making ISO mountains?  Make sure your forests have tree trunks, and heres how....
    +Photoshop
        -PS How to make a Regional/World map
        -PS How to make a Nice City map in PS
    +GIMP
        -GIMP Mountains made easy
        -Making nice map tree's in GIMP
    +Campaign Cartographer
        -Baz's super great CC Dungeon map Tutorial 
    +Other/Generic or multiple software tutorials
        -Using Inkscape and GIMP to make a foo style map
    +Hand Draw Maps
        -Bar's ultimate guide to totally hand drawn maps

Something like that.

Joe

Make the post and then let's talk

Bear in mind that we do try to keep the site software agnostic.

[Robbie]

We actually used to have forums broken out for specific software like that, but it was quite counter-intuitive, and didn't really promote mapping across the board...that was before we had all this activity we have now though. I'll put it up for discussion in the CL forum though so we can hash it out.

[Ascension]

Maybe just the tutorials section be broken down by software like jfraz said, that way I can see the various things I can do with what I already have and see things that I could do if I had this or that. If all the tuts state at the beginning what software it is for then I guess it's all moot but...

Anywho, my 2 cents

[RobA]

I personally like NOT having software specific forums. This way I can see what other software does (that I might not know about) and/or figure out how to achieve the same effect with other (often free/open source) software.

The techniques are often universal...

-Rob A>