Greetings Fine People!

[Thexx]

Well hello there! It's an honor and very nice to meet everyone here. I've been a lurker without an account for a while now and it didn't make much sense to stay that way so here I am.
There is a ton of awesome work here and I am looking forward to seeing more and with any luck be adding some of my own.

I have very little experience with making maps although I would like to learn more. Basic hand sketches and copy/pastes in Photoshop that never get finished are my highest works.
I've been throwing around the idea of making a custom world for tabletop RPGs for many years now and a muse must have whispered in my ear the other night while I lay sleeping because I've got the itch.

Slight background about me. Quick flashback to a "better" time: 37/M/ID <---- If you remember that then I am in good company. Unless I am too disconnected and it's still being used. I haven't seen it in years though.
I currently work as a graphics designer for my local Pepsi distributor. So basically I get to play with the Adobe CC setup for free and get paid for it. Not much, but still. And I am writing this from there now so that's cool too.

I welcome any questions and any topics. Nothing is too taboo for me to talk about at least a little bit. DMs are welcome too.
I hope to get to know some of you more as time goes by. I'm just gonna poke around some more for a while now. Catch y'all on the flipside.

~Thexx

[Kellerica]

I'm always glad too lurkers joining us on the sunny side. You sound like you have a pretty good starting point for mapmaking, especially if you already have access to software like Photoshop and know how to use it. I'd still recommend looking through the tutorials if you haven't already, as you might not be used to using the tools that will be helpful to their full advantage. Or maybe you do, I don't know, but I personally have found that using PS for illustration/drawing and using it for photo editing are two very different beasts, even if there of course is a lot of overlap as well.

Well, in any case, I always get excited when people with graphic design background find their way into cartography. I look forward to seeing what you'll create. If there's anything you need help with, just holler. Welcome to the Guild!

[Thexx]

Thank you for the warm welcome Kellerica. Little things like that go a long way IMHO.
In the way of map making skills I like to think that I have the basics+ (basics plus) package. I know my way around but as you said, the skills for my work and the skills for this are not entirely the same. Although I am happy to let them bleed into one another so they both get stronger.
Truth be told I use Illustrator (AI) more than PS when it comes to my job. I've messed around a bit with making a vectored world map that could hold detail while zoomed in or out with AI. I find it lacks the grace and aesthetics that PS brings to the table when it comes to this though.

Indeed, it was the tutorials section that I was always lurking in. While doing Googling for tips about map making this place was recommend in more than one location. Lots of good stuff all over the place here.

Here is a very, very, very rough draft continent that I was working on yesterday. My D&D GM is needing a break and has been wanting me to run something that would take everyone from level 1 to 20. Hence biting off more than I can chew at this time.

Annotation 2020-02-06 083908.png

The color is just there to get a basic brainstorm about what climate I was wanting where. The gist is that the continent was once whole, more or less, but that a cult-type of magic users blew the damn thing up several hundred years ago. Their tower would have been right there in the middle where the dark part is.
But if my GM wants me to run something this weekend or next then I think it wise that I place this in the "later" pile and just work on a city instead. I'm a bit newer to that D&D group but I have know everyone in it for years.
There is standard with them, which I like and respect, of not really running official campaigns. It brings a lot of new flavor and excitement to things. I'm just not use to building it yet. Hence setting this aside for now and just doing a city/town for them to start in.

And in case anyone was curious. I made that using the render clouds>difference clouds>threshold method. I like it for slapping together something that looks a bit more natural and random than what my drawing skills can do in the same time.

[JoshStolarz]

Welcome to the Guild! That's nice that you have access to the Adobe CC so you can dabble in mapmaking. There are a lot of very talented artists here that use PS for all of their work. I use it for my labeling and texturing near the end of my projects.

All the best!
- Josh