Where do I go next?

[TheLonelyWolfie]

Hello, all! Since I dropped in I've been taking in tutorials like a madman, trying everything. I'm making decent maps - for a beginner. I can't seem to get past the basics. It seems like all the tutorials are either written to get you a simple working map, or the masters sharing tips on stuff a bit beyond my reach as of yet. I'll post a few of the ones I've done as examples, but I guess the gist of where I'm going is, what's next? You all were where I am at some point, so maybe someone knows where to go. I'm not sure how to take a map from a simple colored and shaped blob to a canvas with rivers and mountains and texture! I'm a programmer at heart so I guess I've been looking too hard at how to have the things I want generated and not putting enough stock in the work of my own hands, I'm a terrible artist honestly. I know what I want in my head, I can see the terrain and where things are, I'm just not sure how to get it off of my paper sketch and looking at least semi-realistic.

Now, that's enough rambling, here are a few examples, as well as a sketch of what i'm ultimately doing (for a start). It's colored a bit funny but that's because it was the DM copy and I wanted to easily differentiate regions for purposes of flora/fauna/climate, etc, also it's a lot low quality, I scanned it as an emergency measure to keep it safe from decay, the paper copy has seen better days, so I'm glad I caught it when I did.



Tutorials I've been through:
https://www.cartographersguild.com/s...ead.php?t=2557 (making maps in photoshop)
https://www.cartographersguild.com/s...ad.php?t=18280 (Eriond - A Tutorial for GIMP & Wilbur) (likely would help but I'm a bit stuck, waiting on a response)
https://www.cartographersguild.com/s...ead.php?t=1142 (Using GIMP to Create an Artistic Regional RPG Map)
https://opengameart.org/forumtopic/fantasy-world-map
https://www.cartographersguild.com/s...ead.php?t=4335 (simple mountains in gimp)
(a few others, leaving out for some semblance of brevity)

Anyway, thank you guys for your time and help, I'm crossing into a world I don't find myself in much, so any help is appreciated.

[Mouse]

Without a specific style example (ie a link to an existing finished map someplace either here or on another website) its really difficult to know what to suggest. There are loads of different general styles, and as many individual variations on those basic styles as there are cartographers.

I guess I might be tempted to send you to look at Fantastic Maps, and see what your reaction is to that - to see if that's the sort of style you want to be able to do.

If that's not what you want, then please show us the style you prefer by providing a hyperlink to a map that you admire and wish to emulate.

The other thing - that conviction of yours that you are a terrible artist is a mental hurdle you've put before yourself. Practice is the cure

[waldronate]

Even if you're just a programmer, you can still have Fun With Wilbur. For 15 minutes or so, anyway.



By that, I mean that if you can draw simple black and white masks (like the blue and green one), you can get something that looks like the above in less than ten minutes using my 14-step method as described in the Fun With Wilbur tutorials at https://www.cartographersguild.com/s...ad.php?t=29412 (especially the later ones on the page).

[Josiah VE]

Fantastic maps has a great tutorial called 'How to Draw a Map', and that's basically where I started. http://www.fantasticmaps.com/2015/02/how-to-draw-a-map/
Another place for tutorials I really like is a channel called 'Questing Beast': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5G_2...3PVzM-vtTgWPKU
Maybe those aren't the style you're going for, but that's where I started.

[ChickPea]

If you haven't tried it already, perhaps Gidde's Gimp tutorial 'Hand-Drawn Mapping (for the Artistically Challenged)' might appeal. It's a few years old now, but I think it's still mostly correct (Gimp's moved on a few versions since then). Although... I'm not certain when you say 'semi-realistic' if that's the map style you want (i.e. like a satellite image), in which case a faked 'hand-drawn' style probably isn't what you're after.

[DanielHasenbos]

Back when I started doing these I followed these tutorials:

Saderan - a tutorial by Tear: https://www.cartographersguild.com/s...ead.php?t=8086
Ascensions' Atlas style in Photoshop by Ascension: https://www.cartographersguild.com/c...e-in-Photoshop

And also the 'Making maps in photoshop' on that you did. Basically what you need to do is to get familiar enough with the software you're using (this is basically following lots of tutorials and also a lot of trail and error, that's just the way it is...). Once you're familiar with it I would suggest to pick a map you like and try to copy is as closely as possible, aiming for an exact duplicate. Try to figure out how to make a texture like the one in your example, or draw forests like it, or mountains etc. This will probably take hours, but once you figure it out you can probable reproduce it in a matter of minutes. This is how I learned most of my skills. Once you've figured it out you can apply it on your own map. Those are my two cents, hope it's any help!

[johnvanvliet]

if you code there is a very nice ( and a bit OLD) libnoise codding guides and tutorials
-- the code is fun to play with

http://libnoise.sourceforge.net/





and the older c code "planet" ( though the 2004 code got a bug fix in 2014
http://www.diku.dk/hjemmesider/ansatte/torbenm/Planet/

or
fracplanet
http://www.bottlenose.net/share/fracplanet/index.htm
this code NEEDS updating
the Normalmap map code for a sphere is in "world" and NOT " tangent"

also the iterations in the first few cycles are way too few -- not bad for a 2000 computer, but not now in 2017 .

then there is what i have been having fun with lately
Blender nodes

a rather complex setup

[TheLonelyWolfie]

I think something similar to this would work:

https://secure.profantasy.com/images.../gallery03.jpg

I don't need super detail, like if the trees are all similar, that's no big deal, I could likely make a gimp brush for that job, and the mountains. I think it's the coloring/texturing I'm most struggling with. It should be a bit like the above, i think I have a lot of good suggestions, thank you all so far! I'll be back with some updates!

(and definitely, I need to practice a lot! That's the big part! Experiment, try things, etc. I may struggle all the way through it, but I know I can make maps passable enough for the job. the next step will be city maps but we will get to that)

[Mouse]

LOL! how funny - I nearly suggested CC3 straight away, but decided not to be immediately biased towards my own main mapping app

That's a Campaign Cartographer 3 map, and its composed of filled polygon shapes and bitmap symbols that you paste into the map from a catalogue.

You can get CC3+ here, and I would very strongly recommend working through the User Manual before you even start to draw your first map, since there is something of a learning curve for anyone who hasn't used CAD-based software before.

Its not that expensive if you just get the core programme first and see how you go with it, and there is a 14 day money-back thing if you just can't get on with it.

Hope that was helpful!