Can a newb actually do this?

[Gidde]

Go ahead and post your WIP in the WIP world/regional forum; usually if there's just a question about the tutorial you'd post it in the actual thread for the tutorial. The how to create a new gradient step is unfortunately the part that went MIA; when I had first translated the tut I created a Gimp gradient and posted that up with it but it's gone for some unknown reason AND I lost my hard drive Get your WIP started, and I'll chime in there with some help.

On the PS/Gimp question, I've found that both have just as steep of a learning curve, so I don't think it's any easier to learn. And we have a LOT of gimp users, so support shouldn't be an issue. Not sure about the percentages on tuts; you were right when you were talking about the MOUNTAIN of tutorials in there

[arsheesh]

Welcome to the Guild! Like allot of folks have already replied, the answer to your initial question is an enthusiastic yes. Many of us (including myself) were not familiar either with fantasy map-making, or digital art prior to coming to the Guild. However, though there is a learning curve, with a bit of fortitude you will be able to learn enough to create decent maps for your campaigns. There are some GIMP/PS tutorials that assume virtually no knowledge at all and enable the rank novice to produce maps rather quickly. The best thing to do is to select one that yields results you like and then jump right in. It sounds like you've already begun working on Ascension's Atlas Style (translated to GIMP by Gidde) which is an excellent choice.

As to the question about which software to go with, GIMP and PS are both excellent choices, each of which has allot of support here. PS might have a bit more however, and it certainly has some features which cannot be duplicated in GIMP. So if money is no option, it wouldn't hurt to have both. But if time is limited and you only want to learn one program, look through the tutorials here and choose the one that allows you to create the style of maps that you are most interested in.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

[Jaxilon]

I think you got it already but for me the choice was GIMP simply because I in no way had several hundred dollars to buy PS. There are evidently also some things that GIMP can do that PS cannot so it's a back and forth trade off sort of thing depending on what you like to do. I don't know PS so..

Regarding wanting a tablet check out Mouse-vs-tablet discussion. It goes on forever but you get the idea pretty quick. I don't care for drawing with my mouse and while I can scan in my pencil work it's just an extra step I would like to bypass.