Mapping Software??

[Banestorm]

I really like the maps for "A Tale of the Dinor" specifically the "cathedral_basement" and "mines_deep". Does any one know how these were created? They are very simple and there is not a lot of clutter of objects but yet it is high quality. I like what they did with the walls where there is a distict boder that blends in the with the background the futher from the wall you get. I have been trying to duplicate these types of maps using dunjinni but with no luck. Does anyone have any suggestions.

Thanks

[wavecutter]

I think they used Dunjiini

[darkivel]

I was able to get a similar effect using photoshop, and I think you could use my technique with any paint-style program that had layers and some variety of brushes.

I set the base later to my neutral color -- whatever color the walls fade to.

The second layer, I used a very light color. This was my tunnel interiors. For this, I used a sharp brush with defined edges.

The third layer I used my wall color with a very large brush with diffuse edges. With this, I traced around the outside edge of my tunnels. At this stage, don't worry about being exact, and don't worry if your tunnels get covered by your wall color. That's supposed to happen.

Then the last step, I brought the second layer to the front so it was on top.

If anyone is interested (or confused), I can upload some more illustrative images of the technique a bit later. About to run a game now. :)

Barbara

[Banestorm]

Thanks barbara, I was thinking that it must have been done that way. I will try it out possibly using dunjinni for the main mapping export it to pgn and edit it using the stadard Paint Bush. Which I will then use the spray can tool to blend the walls in with the background.

[kepli]

I highly doubt DJ was used for those maps, but something like Photoshop seems likely. DJ doesn't have the shadowing for the walls like that yet. By that I mean that such maps will be possible in DJ 2 ;)
Doesn't mean you cannot create such maps in DJ, but you will have to do some extra work to create the necessary art, or you add the shadowing afterwards in Photoshop or another drawing program :)

[SirJoe]

For the past 5 years I have been using ProFantasy's Campaign Cartographer suite of products, especially their Dungeon Designer. The recent version 3 of these products give fantastic and quick results, as the the new sheets function allows the automatic creation of wall shadows, paper texturing, etc, and negates to a large degree the need to port maps into photoshop for touch up.

I've tried Dunjini previously, but keep going back to the ProFantasy suite.

Hope this helps. (And, no, I'm not affiliated with ProFantasy in anyway... I just like their product. :D )

Best regards,
Joe

PS. Check out the CUSAU mapping resources available for both ProFantasy's CC3 and also Dunjini. Well worth the downloads!

[Illrigger]

You mean CSUAC, which is down at the moment as they move and rebuild the Dm's Parlor site that hosts it.

[kepli]

The GM's Parlor is back up, so the CSUAC is also available again. The CSUAC archives contain loads of art from the Dundjinni site, collected and sorted by Cecil Solomon from the GameMaster Syndicate/GM's Parlor. He will add more archives soon (I hope). At the GM's Parlor you can find more free art-packs as well. All the art is based on usage in Dunjiini, but since the release of CC3 also usuable in the CC3 products.


Happy mapping :)

[heruca]

Yes, the GM's Parlor site is back up, but no, the CSUAC files are not yet available for download. Not sure why it's taking so long.

[kepli]

That's weird ... :(