I am new here! Just learning about maps and making them! Help would be appreciated!!

[Worcestor]

I just joined this forum, and I want to get into making maps, then maps that are zoomed in parts of the big map. I don't really know how to do any of this, besides a couple videos I have seen on YouTube. Any help explaining how to do things, or tutorials would help me a lot!

P.S.
I prefer to hand draw maps, since I do not have access to a very good computer, and because I like the feel of some hand drawn maps I have seen online.

Thanks for your help!!
-Worcestor

[Redrobes]

Welcome Worcestor, There are a few options for zoomy maps which basically fall into two camps. Either a) do it through and app or b) use a browser. You can use an app with vector lines which scale easily and almost any of them will work - inkscape etc. Or you can use an app like Fractal Mapper or Map Tool or you can mess about with Celestia or maybe Google Earth etc. I used to write one like that but its not available any more. The other option b) was to use the browser. You need to break up bitmapped images like scans of hand drawn maps into tiles. The tiles are 256x256 pixels normally and you have tile sets which are in zoom layers from zoomed right out to zoomed right in. So google maps is like that. There are a number of libraries written in Javascript which will handle the shuffling of the tiles to show the map. We use LeafletJS here and I wrote some smallish scripts which use leaflet to run zoomy maps.

We have a number of zoomy maps here for the community based mapping projects. Were currently doing Guild City but we recently did Guild World which is more complete:

https://www.cartographersguild.com/l...ype=guildworld

If you look at one of our old ones tho like the community world building project 1 (CWBP1) then I linked up some sections together so that you can zoom in a very long way. Look out for the scroll icons and click on them. With an app potentially you can have infinite zoom but the web is a bit more limited.

https://www.cartographersguild.com/l...php?type=cwbp1

So thats your two basic options. Theres a bit of work involved in either way tho.

Just thought - I hope you can see those. I know you need to be a member but I am not sure if an applicant will allow it. When you get to 5 posts you will become a full member.

[Mouse]

Hello Worcestor

There are loads of tutorials here in the Tutorials/How-To forum, but if you can't find what you want just there you might want to visit a few of these on YouTube.

I picked the ones that are specifically on hand drawing maps. Some may be more useful than others

Fantastic Anatomy tut - part I
Fantastic Anatomy tut - part II

Medieval City map - time lapse (not so educational but really fascinating)

How to draw D&D Landmarks

Improved Mountain Drawing for your Fantasy Maps

Honestly! there are hundreds of similar vids. If you just search YouTube for "Hand Draw Maps" or some similar term, you will come up with all of these, and a whole lot more.

I hope that helps

EDIT: Oh dear, it appears that I spent rather a long time watching all the vids myself! Ninja'd by Redrobes (that's when someone else gets their answer in between you starting and finishing your own). LOL!

[Worcestor]

Thank you guys both for this!! I think these will help me out! Thanks ! Just one more question, how do i directly reply to other people who posted on my thread? Thanks

[Mouse]

Oh, you mean how do we quote each other?

That's quite easy. If its only one person its probably fastest just to click the 'Reply With Quote' button at the bottom right of that person's comment.

If there's more than one just scroll down the page clicking each of the "+ marks at the extreme right hand bottom corner of all the comments you want to reply to.

EDIT: Of course if you mean how do you reply privately, then you will need to make another 3 comments before you qualify to use it, but there is a Private Messaging system you can access from your account settings page

[Worcestor]

Thanks! I appreciate it!