Fantasy Map Maker

Campaign Cartographer Video Tutorials

john — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 21:46:48 +0000

If you use Campaign Cartographer to make maps, you need to check out these user-contributed CC3 tutorials.

Thank you Joseph Sweeney for making them!

–: Learn how to make your own fantasy maps

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Campaign Cartographer Video Tutorials

How a Severely Inartisitic Hack Managed to Make a Decent-Looking Fantasy Map

john — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 07:42:15 +0000

I’ll get straight to the point - I’m not very artistic. I’m color blind and I can’t even draw a straight line.

I enjoy looking at art. I like the process of creative self-expression (which I usually only express to myself!). I love map-making. But if you’ve found any of my previous maps pleasurable to look at, I can’t take much credit for it. It’s mostly due to the spectacular Campaign Cartographer software and a little bit of perseverance on my part.

I don’t say this out of humility (sorry, anyone who blogs has plenty of ego), but I say it to encourage those of you who are similarly inartistic. If I can make a decent-looking map, so can you.

The Power of Sheet Effects - Before and After

Let’s take this map as an example. Click on this image to enlarge it and you’ll see how utterly lame it looks. It’s just a bunch of bland text on random blobs of color. I’ve seen very few things this unexciting in my lifetime. To be honest, I can barely even tell that it’s a map.

Now, here’s where the magic comes in.

Using the Sarah Wroot style pack from the The Cartographer’s Annual Volume I, I was able to make my map look like this just by clicking the “Activate Sheet Effects” option.

Yes, it’s that easy.

Just one click of the mouse and we get beautifully blended terrains, dynamic oceans and vibrant text labels.

Granted, this map isn’t great yet - I only took about 10-15 minutes to lay down the colors. But if I took a little more time, I would have a polished map, ready for your scrutiny.

So if you’re not a great artist but want to make great looking fantasy maps, do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of Campaign Cartographer.

–: Maps made with CC3

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How a Severely Inartisitic Hack Managed to Make a Decent-Looking Fantasy Map

Greenville

john — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 09:46:27 +0000

Greenville sits at the edge of the kingdom, a small town with big aspirations.

Despite its small size and frontier location – and thanks to its fortunate proximity to unusual resources – Greenville has attracted the attention of a wealthy patron and the powerful Mage’s Guild. They have come to gain control of the rare spiritstalk, a magical herb needed as a component for the most powerful of spells.

Only the bravest of families live and work this deep into the Spirit Wood, where ’strange events’ occur frequently: wicked howling fills the night air; bizarre creatures forage on the town crops; apparitions lure children to unsightly demises. It’s not an easy way to make a living, but the opportunity for wealth far outweighs the inherent dangers.

This map was made with Campaign Cartographer.

–: Make your own fantasy maps

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Slipshod Inn

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Greenville

New Fantasy Map Maker Blog Feature - Rate My Maps

john — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 09:43:33 +0000

Most of you subscribe to Fantasy Map Maker via email or RSS feeds – and for that I am grateful. If, however, you wouldn’t mind stopping by the site, I’ve implemented a new rating system for my maps and I’d love to get your feedback.

Rating the maps will help me see what you like (and what you don’t like) so hopefully I can then give you more of what you like.

At the bottom of each post you’ll see five lonely stars waiting for your sweet caress. Click on the star that best expresses how much you like that map (or post).

1 star = horrible, 5 stars = awesome.

Abuse me. Praise me. Just don’t ignore me! =P

–: Learn how to make your own fantasy maps

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New Fantasy Map Maker Blog Feature - Rate My Maps

Fantasy Cartography - Find Maps from Your Favorite Novels

john — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 09:23:26 +0000

If you love reading fantasy literature, you know that most good stories require a good map. If you’re having trouble finding a map for the story you’re reading, try the Fantasy Cartography website. They have a great collection of maps based on fantasy worlds you’re already familiar with.

In their own words:

It happens all the time. You’re reading one of your favorite novels, and you wish you had a good map to use as a reference. Here you will find a collection of maps from various fantasy and science fiction works for your viewing. I might also include other goodies from literature, the Bible (not fiction), or television programs, movies, and video games.

Check out their maps!

–: Maps made with CC3

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Fantasy Cartography - Find Maps from Your Favorite Novels

The Battle of Mudbottom Bridge

john — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 12:56:42 +0000

In a previous map, Pleasant Hill, you saw how Photoshop can be used to create a parchment backgorund.

Fortunately, for those of us who aren’t Photoshop experts, this effect can also be quicly and easily achieved with Campaign Cartographer.

The kind folks at Profantasy have produced several parchment templates that you can use as backgrounds for your maps. You can even rejuvenate your old CC2 and CC3 maps by importing them onto a parchment background.

This map was made with Campaign Cartographer.

–: Make your own fantasy maps

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The Battle of Mudbottom Bridge

Fantasy World Map #5: Sarah Wroot Style

john — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 15:01:11 +0000

This map was made in the Sarah Wroot style. It’s a hand-drawn style with colorful shading that has an interesting and unique visual appeal.

It’s a large file (~500 kb), so prepare for a long wait if you’re on a slow connection. I wanted to make it big enough to see the details.

This map was made with Campaign Cartographer.

–: Learn how to make your own fantasy maps

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Fantasy World Map #5: Sarah Wroot Style

Subscribe to Fantasy Map Maker

john — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 12:49:58 +0000

Firstly, I’d like to thank those of you who frequent this website for your interest and words of encouragement. I enjoy the map-making process immensely and I’m grateful to be able to share it with you.

For those of you who are new to the site, and to those of you who come back often just by remembering the website address, I’d like to suggest you subscribe to the blog. Subscribing means you don’t have to come back every day to see if there’s a new map yet because the maps are sent to you. There’s no spam because you can turn off your subscription any time you like. There are two easy ways to subscribe – RSS and Email.

Subscribe by RSS

RSS is a technology which allows you to receive updates without actually coming to the website. If you read a lot of blogs, RSS is a life saver. Just sign up with a blog reader (my favorite is Google Reader) and then click on the “Subscribe via RSS” button in the sidebar. You may also see a similar orange RSS icon in the URL bar at the top of your browser - you could also just press that button.

Once you subscribe to the RSS feed, my maps will be delivered to your blog reader every time I post a new one. The nice thing about the feed reader is that you can track unlimited amounts of blogs from one location instead of trying to visit each site every day, which would take forever. I track a couple hundred blogs and the blog reader is the only way to make that possible.

If you’d like to learn more about RSS, I have a whole page devoted to it! Read more about RSS.

Subscribe by Email

If you’re not quite ready to adopt that newfangled RSS nonsense, email may be more your speed.

Just put your email address in the “Subscribe by Email” form in the sidebar and press the Subscribe button. Then, check your email for a message from us and click on the link in that email to confirm your subscription. From now on, you’ll get each new map sent directly to your email. How’s that for service?!

Just like with RSS, there’s no spam. If you decide that my maps suck or that I’m a deplorable wretch and not worth your attention, you can easily unsubscribe and never be bothered by me again.

Bookmarking Options

Another option is to bookmark this website. You could just bookmark it in your browser favorites, but there is a better way.

Online bookmarking services let you keep all your bookmarks in one location that you can access from anywhere with an Internet connection, which is handy if you’re traveling or spending an excruciatingly painful weekend with the in-laws. My favorite online bookmarking service is Delicious.

Other services, like StumbleUpon, combine bookmarking with community, so you can share what you discover with like-minded people.

At the bottom of each of my posts you’ll see icons for a few of these bookmarking sites. If you like the map, just click on one of those icons, sign up for the service (it’s free of course) and bookmark away.

If you have any questions about RSS, email subscriptions or bookmarking, please ask them in the comments section below. And thanks again for reading!

–: Maps made with CC3

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Subscribe to Fantasy Map Maker

Slipshod Inn

john — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 18:43:00 +0000

If you’ve ever walked down Boggy Creek Road, you know why it was so named. After endless miles of trudging and sloshing, even the heartiest of travelers needs a break.

So loosen your boots and grab a mug. The Slipshod Inn offers a warm hearth, merry company and a comfortable bed for the weary and trail-worn.

This map was made with Campaign Cartographer and inspired the Tendril Oak Inn, which can be found in their March ‘07 Annual on the Profantasy website.

Slipshod Watering Hole and Tasty Eats

Hearty drinking songs reach your ears well before you see the inn. As you near the gate, the aromas of roasted pork, mortrews, blackmanger and cinnamon custard pie tantalize your nostrils.

The Slipshod Tavern features plenty of seating and a cozy fire. Traveling bards often perform in front of the hearth, sharing music and tales from faraway places. And if they’re not around, an alcoholic local - Pete the one-eyed midget pirate - will enthusiastically recount some of his sea-faring adventures (which, of course, never really happened - but entertaining nonetheless). Some local ladies tend to do some entertaining of their own, which helps the Innkeeper keep the rooms full.

Aldous, the Innkeeper, tends the bar while his wife, Thea, works her magic in the kitchen. Their son Leofrick - a beast of a boy at nearly 6 1/2 feet tall and strong as an ox - serves as waiter, busboy and bouncer. The three of them share a small room behind the bar. Despite his size, Leofrick sleeps on the smallest bed, which his father made for him when he was eight years old. Now 23 years old, his legs dangle off the bottom of the bed, but Aldous promises to get him something bigger as soon as time permits (after hearing this for the past six years, Leofrick isn’t getting his hopes up).

Rooms

Two luxury suites and two deluxe suites can be found at the southernmost side of the inn, and this part of the building has its own private entrance to help keep out the riffraff.

The north entrance leads to a few more single bedrooms, a storage closet, a water closet and bathing area and the common room which uses bunk beds to take advantage of the vertical space offered by the high ceiling.

Courtyard, Stable and Shed

Past the tavern and inn is the courtyard, which is normally quiet except for the occasional brawl that spills out of the tavern or common room. A pigsty and chicken coop give the area a much less appealing aroma than the tavern, and a well provides fresh water.

Bryce the stable boy tends to the livestock and manages the stable. He sleeps in the hay on most nights, but is allowed a bed in the common room if there are any vacancies.

Behind the kitchen is a storage shed. A path leads from the shed out to the dock where Aldous and Leofrick fish and take shipments from a village on the other side of the lake.

This map was made with Campaign Cartographer.

–: Make your own fantasy maps

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Slipshod Inn

Pleasant Hill - Fantasy Town Map

john — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 13:08:28 +0000

Pleasant Hill is my first attempt at mapping with Adobe Photoshop. I was trying for a hand drawn style and I’m pretty happy with the results, though I think next time I’ll try to make the paper more wrinkled and give it better defined edges. What do you think?

This map was made by following Butch Curry’s excellent Fantasy Cartography with Adobe Photoshop podcast series. If you have Photoshop (not cheap!) and want to make fantasy maps, this is a must-see tutorial. I learned a lot - not only about making maps, but also about Photoshop techniques in general.

This map was made with Adobe Photoshop.

–: Learn how to make your own fantasy maps

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Pleasant Hill - Fantasy Town Map