Comments on: On map making…

By: Claus

Claus — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 01:49:36 +0000

I am more interested in the middle ground of local landscaping. I have a nice grasp on how tectonic plates work, so I like my world-scale maps. But when it come to country-sized/region sized maps, I get a bit lost with limits between forests, swamps, rivers, deserts, plains, hills, etc.

By: Richard

Richard — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 18:37:58 +0000

For city maps, check out architectural land planning books. I work in an architectural office so I come upon land planning a bit better than world landscaping. Hopefully the web has resources that can be tapped for land planning.

By: DrOct

DrOct — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 14:29:09 +0000

I’m certainly interested in just about all aspects of map making, from large geographical maps to city maps. But my personal main interest is in making battle maps with grids etc. I like the concept of dungeon tiles, but find them to be a bit more expensive than I want them to be for what they are, I’d love to be able to make my own (what software to use, how to set up the grid, draw the terrain etc), and to learn a bit more about how to put them together in interesting ways to make a good battle.

By: Spenser

Spenser — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 17:44:20 +0000

In my personal experience, world maps are relatively simple. I’d be far more interested in articles on city mapping.

By: Anarkeith

Anarkeith — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 15:29:51 +0000

Don’t hesitate to pull terrain from the real world and drop it into your map. Drop by the library and pick up a kids picture book on geology or geography. It’ll be a quick read, and explain runoff, uplift, and the other forces that sculpt the land. And there will be pictures. I use these a lot for flavor in describing places like swamps (grab a book on wetlands). Just pick three or four tidbits, change names, and run with ‘em.

Recently I’ve been just using existing landforms and relocating them to my gameworld. The Phillipines has become my Atlantis, for example.

By: Bog97th

Bog97th — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 15:20:34 +0000

Articles on creating map icons for your CC or Fractal mapper software.

Many sites list how to make maps with different software but I have not seen any on creating symbols used for the software alone.

By: jonathan

jonathan — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 11:37:56 +0000

@NewbieDM – Nevermet Press is currently looking for amateur or professional gratis cartographers looking to work as part of a team on individual small projects. So, drop me a line if you (or anyone else) want to get involved.

By: CC

CC — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 07:51:55 +0000

Before you get too far, you should check out the excellent podcast “Fantasy Cartography with Photoshop”: http://www.zombienirvana.com/?page_id=67

By: xerosided

xerosided — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 06:43:32 +0000

I’m interested in the same issues you have: appropriate placement of mountains, rivers, forests, and other geographical features. I can handle the rest.

Aside from that, there are so many different ways to draw/render the actual maps that no tutorial can be definitive or comprehensive… but that doesn’t mean another tutorial or two won’t be appreciated by newbie mapmakers. And I’m always looking for a few new techniques to add to my repertoire.