Just had two sessions today where I DM'd for the first time. It was very exciting despite how nervous I was. One of my players/partymembers recommended checking you out on here. Glad I found you so easily. Thank you in advance for all the help I'll carry over into Lost Mine of Phandelver!
I use Dungeon Painter Studio for this. It’s cheap, easy to use, and pretty powerful! If you want something less hardcore than Photoshop/GIMP to do this, you may want to check it out.
pro tip, if you hold shift with the pen tool it will draw straight vertical, horizontal or 45º lines. no need for correcting lines that are not perfectly straight
Never once had I even considered this method. and I've been making maps of about this quality by hand on 5:1 graph paper, and i'm not even the DM but the current DM is fine with any of our players making maps for him.
select a box off the size you want the squares to be (as in px per square) then draw a vertical and horizontal line on the left and top respectively, going from corner to corner. Then click Edit in the top bar and click Define Pattern. Give it a name, hit OK. Grid made. Now apply it. go to your map file, make a new layer, select that layer, click Edit again and click fill. select pattern and then the pattern you just made. hit OK again and Voila. a Grid layer. Now you only have to make a pattern once. And the size of the grid depends on how big you want your map to be and how detailed you want it. I hope this helped! Good luck!
Great video ! Question: What dimensions (canvas size ) do you all use? DPI settings etc? I have made maps that I use on VTT and when I get them all imported they look okay until it’s time to zoom in. Things get blurry and resolution drops. I vent seem to find a balance of resolution vs file size. Any advice ? Thanks in advance !
I didn't know battle maps in Photoshop went up this quickly. Im going to dust off my drawing tablet and get to it. I have a new campaign that needs maps Lastly, 3 cheers for more Ps hotkeys. Thank you!
is it possible to design dungeons using GIMP? Photoshop is not free not anyone can access it, also great video you inspired me to use more methods than the old pencil-papper method
I've followed along in GIMP for all of his Photoshop videos so far. It's definitely possible. I actually have no experience in Photoshop, and there are only a few features that photoshop has that GIMP doesn't, so it being the free option, and the one I am familiar with, I prefer it.
There is a far better way to design a map : using Inkscape, an opensource *vector* software. Photoshop is for bitmap, photo and so on. Drawing is for illustrator or InkScape. It's faster, way faster than this vid With vector you can zoom in at infinity and export it in PDF and it's lighter
Depends if you are printing or online. For print you probably need a ppi of 300 or minimum of 150 for online. In terms of image maps the bigger the scale the better i.e. it's better to have a big area with thicker lines to scale than a small area with 1px lines. You don't want to be so zoomed in that you are seeing pixelation. I don't do smaller than 2k x 2k pixels.
Using a bitmap software for this kind of task is a big mistake A vector software is the right tool for this : try illustrator or InkScape (opensource) It's lighter, it's faster, you can zoom in at infinity and use free SVG vector icons.
Maybe it's just because I've caught up on all of your videos but I feel like your new videos are coming out more few and far between. What if you started doing videos on the lore of Dungeons & Dragons and other tabletop games? Like talking about the different planes of existence or the lore of certain monsters excetera.
You cannot ever jump onto stalactites. Stalactites hang down from the ceiling. The things that rise from the ground below a stalactite are stalag_mites_.
Just had two sessions today where I DM'd for the first time. It was very exciting despite how nervous I was. One of my players/partymembers recommended checking you out on here. Glad I found you so easily. Thank you in advance for all the help I'll carry over into Lost Mine of Phandelver!
Your normal content is great, but this is the type of stuff I haven't seem very many other places. This is really useful stuff!
Literally just finished DMing my session. So the timing of this video is good for my unwinding process.
I use Dungeon Painter Studio for this. It’s cheap, easy to use, and pretty powerful! If you want something less hardcore than Photoshop/GIMP to do this, you may want to check it out.
pro tip, if you hold shift with the pen tool it will draw straight vertical, horizontal or 45º lines. no need for correcting lines that are not perfectly straight
Another tip - if you single click your start location then shift + single click your end location it will do a line between the two points.
Never once had I even considered this method. and I've been making maps of about this quality by hand on 5:1 graph paper, and i'm not even the DM but the current DM is fine with any of our players making maps for him.
Hold the phone right there. How did you do the grid?
select a box off the size you want the squares to be (as in px per square) then draw a vertical and horizontal line on the left and top respectively, going from corner to corner. Then click Edit in the top bar and click Define Pattern. Give it a name, hit OK. Grid made.
Now apply it. go to your map file, make a new layer, select that layer, click Edit again and click fill. select pattern and then the pattern you just made. hit OK again and Voila. a Grid layer.
Now you only have to make a pattern once. And the size of the grid depends on how big you want your map to be and how detailed you want it.
I hope this helped!
Good luck!
thank you
Great video ! Question: What dimensions (canvas size ) do you all use? DPI settings etc? I have made maps that I use on VTT and when I get them all imported they look okay until it’s time to zoom in. Things get blurry and resolution drops. I vent seem to find a balance of resolution vs file size.
Any advice ? Thanks in advance !
I don't need to lift my mouse to shake. My hand does so naturally. Straight lines are foreign to me. ;)
Is this campaign real?
Or is it photoshopped?
Useful video while commuting
I didn't know battle maps in Photoshop went up this quickly.
Im going to dust off my drawing tablet and get to it. I have a new campaign that needs maps
Lastly, 3 cheers for more Ps hotkeys. Thank you!
This was awesome! I need to grab photoshop
is it possible to design dungeons using GIMP? Photoshop is not free not anyone can access it, also great video you inspired me to use more methods than the old pencil-papper method
I've followed along in GIMP for all of his Photoshop videos so far. It's definitely possible. I actually have no experience in Photoshop, and there are only a few features that photoshop has that GIMP doesn't, so it being the free option, and the one I am familiar with, I prefer it.
Or try Pixelmator.
There is a far better way to design a map : using Inkscape, an opensource *vector* software.
Photoshop is for bitmap, photo and so on. Drawing is for illustrator or InkScape. It's faster, way faster than this vid
With vector you can zoom in at infinity and export it in PDF and it's lighter
What is the size/dimensions of the file you've been working with, my dude? Also, will it fit on Roll20?
Depends if you are printing or online. For print you probably need a ppi of 300 or minimum of 150 for online.
In terms of image maps the bigger the scale the better i.e. it's better to have a big area with thicker lines to scale than a small area with 1px lines. You don't want to be so zoomed in that you are seeing pixelation. I don't do smaller than 2k x 2k pixels.
Using a bitmap software for this kind of task is a big mistake
A vector software is the right tool for this : try illustrator or InkScape (opensource)
It's lighter, it's faster, you can zoom in at infinity and use free SVG vector icons.
How did you get the squares?
Maybe it's just because I've caught up on all of your videos but I feel like your new videos are coming out more few and far between. What if you started doing videos on the lore of Dungeons & Dragons and other tabletop games? Like talking about the different planes of existence or the lore of certain monsters excetera.
You cannot ever jump onto stalactites. Stalactites hang down from the ceiling. The things that rise from the ground below a stalactite are stalag_mites_.
Yeah no just hold shift and click point by point with the brush tool, way faster ^^
I Wish That I Where Able to make cool Maps
Anyone else getting Bob Ross vibes?
Yeah, if you want some really good Bob Ross vibes, check out this guy's World Map tutorials. Really quality content.
ConriDubhghail “here we put some traps... ill pull a little sneaky on them, you see...”
Should I say first?
"The mist is causing the creatures in the graveyard to rise up" We call them creatures people, unless it's a hampster graveyard
No thanks, paper and pencil work just as well.