Photoshop Mapping

[Black Wyvern]

Well I decided to try my hand at using Photoshop to make maps. I was shocked that it was so much easier than Fireworks, the program I used to use. Here is the first level of a megadungeon just playing around with different techniques.

[greyarea]

Nice map.

How long did it take you to make? Did you use any special filters or tools?

[Black Wyvern]

Just using CS5 out of the box no extra tools. Found the graph layout online. It is hard to say I was looking stuff up online because I had never even touched Photoshop before. It probably took me around four hours. I have put together a few now though so I could whip this one out faster but as I get better I am trying to figure out how to do other things with it now so it takes longer.

Turgenev over at Dragonsfoot had a how to doc that I followed, though his doc had an expectation that you knew what the heck you were doing with Photoshop. That guy creates some crazy cool maps.

I recently did a remap of the Caves of Chaos, making each cave an individual lair in about two hours.

Now I am back to stocking it being the hard part.

[Mark]

Quite nice. That's pretty quick for a map of that scale. I'd probably flounder about in PS. The new subscription model makes it a lot easier to at least try without the massive investment.

[Black Wyvern]

Here is my remap of the Caves of Chaos from B2. I did this so that I could split the caves up for a planned run through the adventure this summer. Players are 3.5 kids that have never heard of the module.

[knightvision]

That bottom map is rather sweet. I mostly use Autorealm and Paint Shop Pro for my maps.

[Black Wyvern]

Thanks! It was harder than the whole rest of the complex put together. But it is the only one that is mostly original. Same connections and rooms as the original. I doubt even someone that had been through the module a few times would recognize it though.

[Black Wyvern]

Megadungeon level 2, complete with underground lake! The darker shades of water indicate the roof dips down below water level, resulting in the passage being completely submerged.

[knightvision]

A very nice shade of blue!

[Black Wyvern]

I just realized I forgot to draw in the stairs.