Asked to demo mapping in digital art class.

[RjBeals]

good point Hai-Etlik. I normally warp the hell out of my maps though. I normally map for board games, and have to compromise geographical accuracy for gameplay and userability. (real word?). I just don't have the experience using vector bases.

It's just what I'm used to. But I think it's a good reference point for the common person to know. zoom in and trace borders from google maps (or the likes). I also plan to show the tapered brush settings to create tapered rivers. Awesome technique I learned here. And the follow brush direction for buildings, with bevel. and certainly layer effects and layer blending options.

And Ascension - great points. I'm not the greatest public speaker. But when i'm prepared, and someone initiates conversation (questions) I do much better. I hope I can influence some of them to try a map. I will certainly drop a plug for this site as well. Anyone interested in mapping, I don't care if it's goverment or D&D'er, this website is a great resource.

I'm glad you all posted and showed interest. It's why I joined this community in the first place.

- end cheese now.

[Hai-Etlik]

good point Hai-Etlik. I normally warp the hell out of my maps though. I normally map for board games, and have to compromise geographical accuracy for gameplay and userability. (real word?). I just don't have the experience using vector bases.

Well you can export to PNG as well if you prefer a raster map: either way, you just drag out a bounding box, pick a scale, pick Mapnick or Osmarender for the renderer, and out pops an image file. It's simpler than using screenshots, and avoids the legal issues of tracing Google's maps (You do have to comply with the OSM license, but that's better than not having license at all). If you're using Illustrator rather than Photoshop, the vector output just saves you the work of tracing it.