The Campaign Builder's Guild

Nobody posted in this thread for the entirety of 2008.

Now, I will bump it up, just to demonstrate my total inability to do these fancy computer maps you youngsters make so well.

[spoiler=Geographical map of Attu][/spoiler]

I drew a lot of different pictures on graph paper to get to this point. First the outline, then the mountains and trees and such on a separate sheet. (Also, political borders and towns on a separate sheet, so the same coastline can be used for political and geographic maps.) Finally, text labels.

I scan all the components individually, then combine them with an image editing program, resulting in the utter mess you now see before you.

That there is better than most I have seen done on computer. *clap clap clap*

Since we're sharing handdrawn maps... here's a very, very old draft of Calisenthe:





The scan didn't quite capture the lighter shading work that I did, and I've shrunk it beyond any sense of utility.  And due to the limit of my scanner, it's cut off on all four edges.

Ah well.  It's the map showcase, and I've got a map, damnit.

You do very nice, detailed maps. You must put a lot of time into them.

I dig it, Acrimone. Is that colored pencil?

Quote from: Luminous CrayonI dig it, Acrimone. Is that colored pencil?

You youngsters?  Baha.....

there is still a 64 color beryl primacolor set in my upstairs office.

Thank you, Ninja D!

ANd LC... It's a mix of colored pencil for all the shadings, ball point pens of various colors for most of the drawing, and felt tips for the water, forest, and mountain names.

And finally... I use Prang pencils.  The Berols are nice though... and I heartily approve of Vreeg's choice.
I have a Prismacolor double-ended marker set that I use for special projects.

Luminous Crayon, only thing to improve this map (small thing) would be to erase (digitally) the graphic elements behind locations you place your text. So that one could read the labels more easily. Think of "Mirkwood" label on J.R.R. Tolkien's hand-drawn map of Middle Earth.

Make it so its a bit more open then the needs of each letter, not much.

It would only enhance a great hand-drawn, digitally composited map. IMO.

GP

EDIT: I am referring to your B/W linked map of Attu.

Yeah, that bothers me as well. What I did for the labels is put them in as a separate layer, then give that layer a soft, white border that overwrites the inked geographical features below.

It would probably be a simple trick to make those white borders "harder" by reducing the fading effect, or just making them bigger.

I don't know why it never occurred to me to study Tolkien's maps for this sort of thing, since (as you can clearly tell) I'm so strongly influenced by that style. Thanks for the advice.

Okay, I finally found the time to get back to this. Amusingly enough, I seem to have decided when I first made these maps not to keep the image editor work files, just the end-result jpegs.

This stupid gaffe meant I had to do this again from scratch, starting from the scanned raw elements. I think it's a better result than the first map, though, because doing it all from scratch gave me plenty of opportunity to focus on and to make use of Gamer Printshop's advice.

Judge for yourselves:
[spoiler=New Attu Map][/spoiler]

I also decided not to angle any of the text labels this time. I couldn't figure out how to curve the text naturally (my original intention), and decided the straight-line angled labels looked clunky and dumb. I'd love to get a second opinion on that, though. (Compare to the map I posted a few posts up.)

Yesterday I did the pen and ink stuff for a map of another continent. I'll try to get that scanned in and fixed up to post soon.

Hmm.

[spoiler=Degawa Political Map][/spoiler]

The geographical map of the same continent has a couple of unresolved issues, but I'll get it done soon.

This map is the stomping grounds of an ancient dwarven empire's heartland, and the place is swarming with roads, bridges, aqueducts, and other infrastructure. I can't decide whether any of this needs to be shown on the map, or if so, how much. I don't want to fill it up with useless clutter, and I do want to leave individual GMs some flexibility with regards to where they need to place things.