N00b! (Me that is)

[Gamerprinter]

I use a little bit of everything. Really depends on what I'm looking for as an end-of-result map.

I have CC3, Dundjinni, and Fractal Mapper 8, I have Illustrator, Micrografx Designer and Xara Xtreme, I use Photoshop, Painter, ZBrush and dabble with GIMP, I use 3D apps like Nendo, Raydream, Carrara and Cinema4D. I also use little software apps like the Random City Generator, PD Particles and many others. It really depends on what I'm looking to make.

Often I mix and match. Because of Xara Xtreme's versatility and ease of use, I almost always use it for compositing, applying fonts, grids, some special effects like shadowing (when not using actual 3D shadowing) as Xara is an all-purpose Desktop Publishing app.

I like to experiment and having access to a big toolbox of software - note, however, as you'll see in several of my map challenges, I like to work with straight hand drawing, digital scanned, cleaned up in photoshop, converted to PNG and imported to Xara to finish it up.

There is no one best way to map and very many styles you can apply... use what's best for you!

Note: I'm a pro graphic designer with my own shop - so that's why I have so many tools at hand.