You'll find a little of everything here. Genres covered in this blog include (so far) prehistorics, fantasy, old west, swashbucklers, pulp, Blood Bowl, Ghostbusters, gladiators, nautical, science fiction and samurai in 6mm, 15mm, 28mm, 40mm, 42mm and 54mm sizes. You'll also find terrain, scenery, basing, gaming, modeling, tutorials, repaints, conversions, art and thoughts in general about the hobby.


Monday, June 27, 2011

How to make your own map (just some basics)

Ok, folks have asked how I did my map, so here's a little photo tutorial I put together. These are some real basic tips, and you'll need a somewhat general knowledge of Photoshop (or your own photo/art software) as well as a little bit of artistic skill. Here goes:













8 comments:

  1. This was SUPER helpful. I have an old copy of Photoshop 7 which I've used for a lot of basic work, but I've been wanting some easy instructions to make a map for a LONG time. Thanks for posting this.

    You mention for trees to add a ground shadow - is there an easy way to do this for those of us that aren't artists and don't have a steady hand?

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  2. The shadow doesn't need to look like much; a fat line that quickly fades off is about all you need to suggest a ground shadow. You can do this by painting a short brush stroke and then erasing (use the brush setting) a bit of the end of the stoke; or you can put a spot of paint at the bottom of your tree and use the smudge tool to pull the color in the direction you want your shadow to fall.

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  3. Very nice looking maps, and seemingly easy to do as well.

    The only pity is that I struggle with the various open source versions of programs instead of coughing up for the real thing.

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  4. Evilcartoonist - Thanks! That's very helpful.

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  5. You can get Photoshop Elements on Amazon for around $70, or at any electronics store for around $100.
    So it's still a small investment, but it's not as expensive as its $700 big brother.

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  6. Carmen let me say something... Dude, that was AWESOME!!! I really find this kind of explanations not only useful but trully helpful. I see many friends of mine that make pieces of art from this program and I allways wondered how the did those things.
    Maybe I could try to read some manual but to be honest, I have one or two and I wasn't capable of just reading 2 pages.
    But you made it really easy to learn, so thank you very much for taking your time and making this tutorial.
    ;)

    Hoplon

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  7. Interesting post. Thank you for sharing.

    Tony
    http://dampfpanzerwagon.blogspot.com/

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