General Question

[Janherbergh]

Wow... There's so much to try and learn In dungeon and City map I see the use of token-based software. As Redrobes said in the crates example, it should be more easy to manage such task. I wasn't much sure about token-based programs, but I see I'll have to give them a try

About atlas maps, I'm not so sure about tokens... Doesn't is more easy to just draw things like mountains, valleys and such that use tokens? I mean, they are flexible enought to seem "real"? Sorry if I'm asking dumb questions.

In any case I should begin downloading and trying evaluation versions of the programs and judge by myself!

[Redrobes]

Token apps, well I make one but its not free and windows only but I think its quite good. There is dungeonforge which I think is free - cant remember if its cross platform or not... Dundjinni is a commercial one too and popular with a lot of tokens floating about for it tho since they use normal PNG's you can import these into mine and dungeonforge too so thats no biggie. CC3 seems to be mostly token based with vector drawing stuff. It can do vector tokens with the SVG format I think but you dont seem to see as many token based maps from CC3. Dont know why that is tho - the lure of line art ? Dunno.

Gimp and Photoshop seem to duke it out a lot here for a raster paint package. Pros and cons of each but the big pro is the free nature of Gimp cos PS is real dear. I use PSP tho but I wont say its any better. Its just that I know it better I think. Familiarity.

Inkscape is the free alternative to Illustrator and same rules as above. A lot of people like doing their text labels in inkscape.

Xara is used by Gamerprinter and combines the vector and raster nature of both. Tho its pretty good by all accounts theres not a lot of take up of it. You should not dismiss it tho.

And for 3D theres a lot. Google sketchup is fast and easy to use but limited in style. Blender is free open source and very hard to use - so hard noone on here regularly uses it in anger. We all dabble now and again. Lots of inbetweens of varying quality. Its the one of the 4 most up for grabs for anyone to make a good cheap easy to use app. 3D is not for everyone tho there are some things where your mad not to do it in 3D.

[Mark Oliva]

Wow... There's so much to try and learn

My suggestion (because it's so easy to learn):

Go to http://www.nbos.com and download the free demo version of FM8. Then stay on the NBOS web site and click the menu option "Resources." Under "Items," go to page 5. Download the item near the bottom of the list "Fractal Mapper 8 Tutorial PDF - 18.38 MB." This is one of the easiest, fastest, best tutorials I've ever used. Work your way through it.

When you're done, if you think a cartographic program is the right thing for you but FM8 doesn't fill your bill, go to http://www.dundjinni.com and download the free trial version of Dundjinni. If that still isn't what you're seeking and you're up to a steep learning curve, go to http://www.profantasy.com and try the test version of CC3.

If you still aren't satisfied, then you probably need the GIMP (free), Paint.net (free) or Photoshop (very expensive).

In all cases, however, you'll get off to the easiest start with FM8 and the FM8 tutorial.

[jaerdaph]

The only thing I would add is that the learning curve in CC3 is much less steep than it was in previous versions of the program, but it is still there nonetheless. If you do download the trial version, be sure to watch the tutorial videos by Joe Sweeney: http://www.profantasy.com/community/user_tutorials.asp

[Janherbergh]

My suggestion (because it's so easy to learn):

Go to http://www.nbos.com and download the free demo version of FM8. Then stay on the NBOS web site and click the menu option "Resources." Under "Items," go to page 5. Download the item near the bottom of the list "Fractal Mapper 8 Tutorial PDF - 18.38 MB." This is one of the easiest, fastest, best tutorials I've ever used. Work your way through it.

When you're done, if you think a cartographic program is the right thing for you but FM8 doesn't fill your bill, go to http://www.dundjinni.com and download the free trial version of Dundjinni. If that still isn't what you're seeking and you're up to a steep learning curve, go to http://www.profantasy.com and try the test version of CC3.

If you still aren't satisfied, then you probably need the GIMP (free), Paint.net (free) or Photoshop (very expensive).

In all cases, however, you'll get off to the easiest start with FM8 and the FM8 tutorial.

Thanks for the advice and for pointing me to a progression of software. As soon as I get my Wacom, I'll begin working on FM8 and it's tutorial. I would like to do something for the weekend.

About 3d software I'm still not confident enough to try one. I was thinking use a program to create a landscape and then use that image to draw over. As I said I'm very bad drawing, so a little help would be nice

Thanks to everyone for helping me and soon I'll post something in the WIP section!