|
Post by bytor on Feb 2, 2016 2:15:10 GMT
I'm interested in learning how people make their illustrations, especially awesome mapmakers like ToixStory or zalezsky. What software do you use, where do you get your basemaps from and other data? How long does it take to make a map? I've been an AH fiction reader for decades, and when I was kid I made my own maps of alternate timelines by tracing maps from atlases and making some pretty implausible timelines. :-) But in April last year I decided to take the plunge and start producing "good" maps for the TL that I've had brewing in my head ever since reading 1632 by Eric Flint. Much of that time was spent learning how to effectively use Inkscape to build upon the SVG basemaps I had found in WikiMedia and figuring out how to warp and twist otehr maps that I added a temporary 'tracing' layers that didn't quite match the projection of my basemap. The first map I made was not terribly artistic but it was of decent resolution, clear to the eye and, to my mind, effectively portrayed the information I wanted to show. I was intermittently employed at the time as a contract IT consultant so I had plenty of time and I spent 4 to 6 hours a day for about 3-4 weeks working on it. I then went and started a series of following the geopolitical developments over the time from my PoD - North America 1837, 1845, 1849. This went much more swiftly as each one was really just a modification of the previous one with a few changed borders and filled sections. Then I decided it was time to tackle adding some "artistic" features like the fancy borders one sees on old maps, and textures. I figured out what I needed to do, mostly, but my colour choices weren't the best. Then I went back and redid North America 1849 in the same style as Europe 1849 but with better colour selections that almost matched what I had been seeing in my mind's eye: an older map printed on heavier paper, some of the inks faded with time, with signs having been used. SO how do you make your maps?
|
|
|
Post by Kubo Caskett on Feb 2, 2016 3:41:23 GMT
Me, I use Paint.Net for worlda maps and Inkscape for non-worlda maps (like that Malay-Thai War one). My svg skills are basic, but hopefully I like to make more fancier maps and such but then again, I have other artistic priorities as an illustrator.
|
|
|
Post by Krall on Feb 2, 2016 10:05:10 GMT
I use Inkscape almost exclusively now, though I use Paint.NET for some effects occasionally, mainly adding a crumpled/aged paper texture to some maps. There aren't any tutorials or guides on this site yet, I'm afraid, but I can direct you to some on AlternateHistory.com, and if you have any questions about how to do stuff in Inkscape I'm always open to questions (seriously feel free to just PM me about anything in Inkscape).
|
|
|
Post by bytor on Feb 2, 2016 12:02:22 GMT
Oh, I forgot to mention that the last few months I've been learning how to use GIS software (QGIS and ArcGIS) to draw my maps with, due to a chance Google result about plugins that can export your maps to a webpage that will zoom and can do different things like hide labels or features based on zoom level, make features into clickable links and all sorts of other dynamic stuff. As someone who has done web development professionally in the past, this appealed to me. Oh, yeah, and the potential for far more accurate maps and the ability mix 'n' match datasets far more easily than you could ever swap layers from paint applications. My goal was to generate everything in GIS and then export to SVG to add artistic elements alongside a dynamic web version.
However, GIS software, as I discovered, is very, very different from paint software like Inkscape or Photoshop. Because GIS reaches back to the pre-GUI mainframe and minicomputer days of the 60s and 70s, the UX of the software is absolutely horrible. ArcGIS, the most popular paid GIF software, looks prettier than QGIS (the most popular F/OSS software) but both of them act like they are a badly thought out graphical shell on top of command-line programmes with the toolbar buttons acting as aliases for scripts that may have made workflow-sense in a CLI environment but are counter-intuitive to how we work in a graphical environment.
It's a path I would only recommend for the very tech savvy AH mapmaker, as even I with 20+ years of IT experience found it to be a steep and frustrating learning curve. I only kept with it because of the amazing possibilities.
|
|
|
Post by bytor on Feb 2, 2016 12:09:21 GMT
I use Inkscape almost exclusively now, though I use Paint.NET for some effects occasionally, mainly adding a crumpled/aged paper texture to some maps. There aren't any tutorials or guides on this site yet, I'm afraid, but I can direct you to some on AlternateHistory.com, and if you have any questions about how to do stuff in Inkscape I'm always open to questions (seriously feel free to just PM me about anything in Inkscape). What I'd love to know is where you get your basemap data from, like for your Peru-Bolivia map. That thing is awesome.
|
|
|
Post by Krall on Feb 2, 2016 13:42:57 GMT
What I'd love to know is where you get your basemap data from, like for your Peru-Bolivia map. That thing is awesome. That's one of zalezky's maps, I'm afraid, not one of mine. I honestly just get basemaps from google image search - it sometimes takes a while and you have to set it so it only shows large images to actually get decent maps, but it works.
|
|
|
Post by ToixStory on Feb 2, 2016 17:35:08 GMT
Funny you should mention GIS, as yesterday I completed my very first map with QGIS, though I admit the program seems scary and I'm somewhat doubtful I'll do anything with it. For most of my maps, I use Inkscape. Basically, I find a basemap usually on davidrumsey.com, whip out the pencil tool and set its smoothing to 35 or 36, and go to town tracing every little bit of the map. From there I choose colors, put on labels, sometimes trace the topography, and so on until I get what I'm looking for. It's definitely time-consuming but I've found it works pretty well. I've played around with Photoshop, Illustrator, and GIMP as well for maps but I've found Inkscape to definitely be the best for them, through sheer usability and being able to mess with the way the map looks in a much easier, more efficient way.
|
|
|
Post by bytor on Feb 2, 2016 23:11:24 GMT
What I'd love to know is where you get your basemap data from, like for your Peru-Bolivia map. That thing is awesome. That's one of zalezky's maps, I'm afraid, not one of mine. I honestly just get basemaps from google image search - it sometimes takes a while and you have to set it so it only shows large images to actually get decent maps, but it works. Whoops! Sorry! (I'm horrible with names, even in the real world.)
|
|
|
Post by bytor on Feb 2, 2016 23:32:43 GMT
Basically, I find a basemap usually on davidrumsey.com, Wow! That place looks awesome! Pardon me while I go curse at Google for never giving up that link to me...
|
|
|
Post by MinnesotaNationalist on Feb 2, 2016 23:36:16 GMT
I personally use GIMP for most of the map, but use Inkscape for words if I want to be fancy (and if I don't want to be fancy, I'll just use GIMP for that as well)
I have a video of me making a map (using a base) Warning, it's extremely long:
And here's Zalezsky making a map while interviewing Aven and Fenn:
|
|
nanwe
New Member
Posts: 32
|
Post by nanwe on Feb 14, 2016 19:23:40 GMT
I mostly use Inkscape, although I feel like the way I do maps is very rudimentary given how advanced the programme (and compared to how others use it), like I don't actually use layers and there's a lot of stuff I don't know. But Upvoteanthology made a tutorial you might find enlightening:
|
|
|
Post by zalezsky on Feb 29, 2016 21:23:51 GMT
Sorry for the late reply, only saw this now. I use inkscape exclusively now-a-days. I am currently working on a tutorial which will look almost identical to that of Upvote's as it turns out hahaha. I will finish one more map and work on it more so that others can see my process.
|
|
|
Post by huojin on Mar 16, 2016 20:58:11 GMT
Anyone ever use GIMP? I've got that and was wondering if it'd suffice. Though if Inkscape is better I might dip my toes.
|
|
|
Post by Krall on Mar 16, 2016 22:49:52 GMT
Anyone ever use GIMP? I've got that and was wondering if it'd suffice. Though if Inkscape is better I might dip my toes. I haven't used it myself, but I understand a fair number of excellent map-makers do.
|
|
|
Post by MinnesotaNationalist on Mar 16, 2016 22:59:03 GMT
Huojin, I use GIMP, it's a completely viable option. Maybe some time soon I'll make another video tutorial using Gimp.
I do recommend you get Inkscape though, just because writing on a curve is a bitch to deal with in gimp and relatively simple in Inkscape
|
|
|
Post by ToixStory on Mar 17, 2016 4:14:53 GMT
Anyone ever use GIMP? I've got that and was wondering if it'd suffice. Though if Inkscape is better I might dip my toes. Try this tutorial.
|
|
|
Post by huojin on Mar 17, 2016 14:46:19 GMT
|
|
|
Post by huojin on Mar 17, 2016 21:03:04 GMT
Oh, and just to turn this into a general questions thread, does anyone have suggestions for how to portray dispute/unclear borders? Where two sides claim different but overlapping borders that's one thing, but I'm drawing a map where there are undefined borders, and not sure how best to portray them.
|
|
|
Post by Krall on Mar 17, 2016 21:24:51 GMT
I don't know the fonts, but using Inkscape you can get that border effect using the offset tools under the Path menu - you can copy a country's shape, paste it in place using Ctrl + Shift + V (or the option under the Edit menu), and use Inset to make one smaller, then make the larger one a different colour. I hope that made sense. Oh, and just to turn this into a general questions thread, does anyone have suggestions for how to portray dispute/unclear borders? Where two sides claim different but overlapping borders that's one thing, but I'm drawing a map where there are undefined borders, and not sure how best to portray them. You could have the border be a straight line/series of straight lines between the two "known" parts of the border and have the straight, unclear border be dashed or absent, like this:
|
|
|
Post by huojin on Mar 18, 2016 1:30:18 GMT
Oh, and just to turn this into a general questions thread, does anyone have suggestions for how to portray dispute/unclear borders? Where two sides claim different but overlapping borders that's one thing, but I'm drawing a map where there are undefined borders, and not sure how best to portray them. You could have the border be a straight line/series of straight lines between the two "known" parts of the border and have the straight, unclear border be dashed or absent, like this: Yeah, but this makes more sense where there is any known part of the border. My map covers a substantial area where there is no border of any kind. There are large swathes of land claimed by two sides, but with no crossing, no claimed mark on either side, merely the asserting of territorial rights over broadly defined areas. For example, if France and Germany both claimed the entire Rhine drainage basin as the extent of their respective borders (France, obviously, to the east, Germany to the west) - there's a pretty huge area of overlap there. Undoubtedly there are points where each side has more control than the other, but equally there would be ill-defined and entirely unclear areas where either might stake a claim to authority.
|
|