Can I emulate photoshop's results with free software?
Hi there, I'm looking for direction on what software to learn to create maps for a world I'm creatively fated to complete.
So, I want results like those seen on the front page of the Guild site; they're beautiful and I'm willing to take the time to learn new software. However, every one of the maps on that I'm gazing lustfully over was created in Photoshop, and while I'm willing to spend time, I'm not willing to spend that much money on software.
Can I realistically get those type of results (providing the requisite talent, practice and patience) using tools like Gimp or Inkscape? I'm even willing to part with, say $100 to get a program like CC3 and add-ons; though it seems more limited and I don't know if it's really capable of that level of detail, shading, lighting, etcetera seen in those 'best of' maps. Am I even considering the correct programs? Or am I going to need to buy CS5 and explain to my sons that they didn't have Christmas because daddy needed to make maps of places that don't exist.
(Great site by the way. I'm always amazed that there are so many people with my particular long list of obsessions.)
Welcome!
I personally (well rather my parents) would be loathe to part with $100, but that's the way it goes.
I have no clue, but the smart guys who made these threads do:
This and this may well help you, but I'm just copying and pasting, I'm not helping much at all, hehe
(Yeah, this site is awesome...it astounded me the moment I first visited)
Short answer: yes.
Long(er) answer: you can do in GIMP almost anything that you can do in Photoshop. You have to adapt your workflow though... GIMP and PS work a little different in a number of things. So if you are following tutorials, you can't always just copy the steps from PS to GIMP.
On the other hand, people have claimed that in some ways GIMP offers even more options than PS. (I wouldn't know: I don't have PS)
If you browse this forum carefully, you with find tons of (beautiful, artistic, perfect) maps that were made with free programms like GIMP, Inkscape... or even MS Paint!
One of my favorite tutorials for making maps in GIMP is Gidde's Hand Drawn Maps tutorial
You can achive amazing result with relatively minor effort.
For other styles, both Tear's Saderan tutorial, or Ascension's Atlas Style can be adapted to GIMP.
imo (and that is very subjectively qualified) there's no point in bothering with ps past 6.0, when they added the liquify filter. old ones run a bit faster, easy to find for $100. may not have the easy text wiggling stuff, but i don't think it's worth the difference.
of course, why pay? i mean, why pay?! last year, or maybe the year before, adobe apparently ballsed up their download page and left the full version of cs3 and all the other products of that generation to download with serial keys. many people were puzzled and enquired on adobe's forums, there was never an official word "we're giving this away" but the downloads stayed posted for months.
they may still be there. if not, might be easy to find if you ask around your friends. you can probably find old references to it on many mm related forums.
It was CS2, and the reason was because they were taking the serial verification servers off-line, but they didn't want to cut off the existing CS2 users. As to why they left the download page exposed to the public, there was a lot of winking and nodding going on, but as you said, no official word about it. Officially, you're supposed to have a legitimate license for CS2 products in order to use the unlocked versions they made available.
Later editions of the software do have some killer features, such as smart objects/filters, which can finally make your Gaussian blur non-destructive. The 3d functions let you wrap your map around a sphere without having to leave PS, and even paint on the sphere, which can be handy for sanity-checking an equirectangular projection. And the content-aware fill is simply amazing for doing things like removing a road from a satellite image. Although most of the time the Patch tool can do that just as effectively, if not as quickly.
Anyway, yes, the Gimp can do probably 95% of the things Photoshop can do, and you'll honestly have to get pretty deep into it before you find something you just can't accomplish with it. And yes, it does have some features that Photoshop does not, such as customizable fractal noise and the image pipe. It's also got a much more responsive scripting community, which is a huge asset. Inkscape is not quite as good a replacement for Illustrator, but you'd still have to be a pretty advanced user before you'd notice the limitations.
I always say that if you have a small budget, you should spend it on a tablet and use free software.
Bryan Ray, visual effects artist
http://www.bryanray.name
I got the Free CS2 download when I went to register an old copy of CS1 and was directed to that site. That was just a couple weeks ago.
My Battlemaps Gallery http://www.cartographersguild.com/al...p?albumid=3407
I want it!
Any quick links?
Technically, making the software available to people who don't have a license for it is piracy, so we can't post a link. That said, it's very easy to find the download page. The only concession to hiding it they've made is the presence of a robots.txt file that prevents Google from indexing anything other than the page title.
Bryan Ray, visual effects artist
http://www.bryanray.name
I just had a look on the download page the german text reads ...
In short - "This is old software, not longer supported - it should only be downloaded by customers with a valid license for CS2 or Acrobat7."Originally Posted by adobe.com
I'd assume, they left it online as a teaser, so young artists find it, use it and once they are actually freelancers or working in a design firm, ask for a current license and do not work with free software. As once you learned a specific software you really want to keep working with it.
To the question, I use mainly Inkscape and Gimp for all my graphics works and it is ok.
My photography teacher used to say: "Having a great SLR camera does not make you a good photographer. A good photographer can create solid works using a crappy compact camera. But a good photographer using a high-end camera will create real art.
You need to understand the art. You have to know, what colors will do, if you overlay them in specific ways, how layering and blending modes work. You have to grasp the concepts behind basic filters 'edge detection, color curves, blurs, ...' After that, the software you use is secondary ...
You can use any program you want, the thing is know your tools develop a workflow that works for you, and mainly above all LEARN Program and what it can really do which unless you sit down and follow the manual step by step its gonna take some time. Best bet if you want to make maps like the featured ones, is start studying iconography, calligraphy, perspective, landscapes and architecture. DOODLE a lot, and start trying to figure out the best way to make representation of things. The best thing to do is just jump in head first start leaning what ever system you feel comfortable with, it can be photoshop, gimp, pen and paper, or even like that one guy did for the monthly challange this month and physically make some objects. Everything you do will help you get closer to your goal, and will change your though process tword completing something to the level you expect.
The simple answer, any method will do... but to make professional artist type maps, you need to have a stoke of genius or yourself become an professional artist (which takes a lot of personal dedication and people will think your "wasting" a bunch of time) in order to make something that you would consider adequate. At that point the tools become less and less and issue.
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