Junior Cartographer - Post-Apocalyptic Maps

[Immolate]

Me too. Then I did one tutorial in Photoshop and I "got it". It was an epiphany pure and simple. I recommend Butch Curry's youtube videos titled "Fantasy Cartography using Adobe Photoshop". Pretty simple and basic stuff, but it will teach you all of the basic Photoshop principles at the same time you're creating something interesting enough to motivate you. I started with tougher tutorials first, but would have done Butch's stuff if I'd known about it then.

[Kyle]

There's no way that those tutorials could cross over to Gimp, could they? I've got a small budget and not much money to blow on software. Saving for a PS3, haha.

[Immolate]

I don't recommend learning Gimp by doing a Photoshop tutorial, though if you pulled it off, you'd surely know Gimp. The good news is that there is a whole forum here for tutorials and lots and lots of quality Gimp tutorials among them. Gimp has a strong following.

My wife uses Photoshop for her siggies, so I chose Photoshop just so we could offer each other tips.

[Kyle]

Hmm. Thanks, I'll definitely check it out. Right now I'm fooling around with photographs, seeing what I can do.

[RobA]

Hmm. Thanks, I'll definitely check it out. Right now I'm fooling around with photographs, seeing what I can do.

I would suggest for photos you head over to Meet the Gimp, as series of video podcasts now up to episode 121 primarily focused on photo manipulation with gimp (but has branched into constructed images as well).

I download then watch using smplayer and the add-on that lets you speed it up without chipmonking the audio.... I can blaze through 30 mins of video in about 18 now and still follow along...

-Rob A>

[wormspeaker]

Those are some pretty good looking maps for MS Paint. (The first one looks really good.) Though when it comes to maps made with MS Paint it's not about how good they look, but rather how well they convey the information intended. In this case you do an exceptional job relaying the information with your maps. I understood exactly what I was looking at and how to use it to make plans and decisions based on that information. Excellent work.

As for people with post-apocalyptic interests here, I for one am currently running a WWIII campaign. And though I do like Fallout, I don't intend to run a campaign with that mix of retro-future technology and excessive devastation. (Frankly if you were standing in the corn fields of Ohio ten years after a war where every nuke on the planet was used, you'd have a hard time telling the difference... until the gang of looters rolled by to steal your boots. It's a far cry from the desertification of Washington DC presented in Fallout 3. The original Fallouts and their predecessor Wasteland were deserts simply because they are set in desert locations not because of the devastation of even a full out nuclear war. I do love the game-play of the various Fallouts however.)

Umm.. I have an expedient map for my WWIII campaign here.
http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=6933
It's not much to look at, but it's what I gave out to my players to give them a tactical/strategic picture of their current surroundings.

[Kyle]

Thanks again guys. I'll definitely check that out, Rob A.

Believe it or not, wormspeaker, the first map of the three is set in Wisconsin (lol)
I've been working on a game set in a future Republic of Nevada. It's set more in modern times, but the previous games were set in the 60s and 70s.

[Gregorus Prime]

I'm sorry, did you say MS Paint?

You win. Everyone else should just go home when you're making such great maps in the worst image creation program ever.