- #Make fantasy maps in gimp on mac how to
- #Make fantasy maps in gimp on mac software
- #Make fantasy maps in gimp on mac windows
The resulting maps will be somewhat ugly unless you take time to import pixel-based images or vector art and incorporate them as part of your scenery, but I think the end results will be much easier to use in-game. This is obviously a direct fit for square-grid games, but it would work for hex-grid games as well, if you have the patience to pick a system for mapping the hex grid onto the square grid. This means that you can, for example, tell the program that you want to snap everything that you draw to a grid, and then proceed to draw all of your map elements with reference to that grid. Vector drawing programs don't work in terms of pixels they work in terms of lines and shapes. Illustrator, which sadly you won't be able to just dig out) and you'll get an idea of what I mean. In my opinion, and based on the local-map assumption, you need a vector graphics program.ĭig out a copy of Draw or another vector drawing program (e.g. GIMP strikes me as the wrong tool for the job.
I've answered under the assumption that you want to make small-scale tactical or local maps - on the scale of city streets instead of the whole city and surrounding countryside. Try a search for "city streets" for pages of discussion and pro-looking maps to get an idea of what's out there.
#Make fantasy maps in gimp on mac how to
This tutorial on creating fantasy city maps at the Cartographers' Guild is an excellent place to start even if it is written with Photoshop in mind.įinally, the unquestionably-best way to learn how to create fantasy city maps in GIMP (if you haven't already guessed from the festival of links) is to sign up at the Cartographers' Guild forum so you can read through the reams of material there. Another sources of "street-like images" you can trace is stock photography of broken glass.įor a less street-dense map, working on improving your map-centric image manipulation skills has more payoff for the time invested than experimenting with plugins to do the job. I haven't been able to find any others, though.Īnother method is to use something other than a plugin to generate a network of lines: this tutorial uses a city-generating program to create a street network image, which is then imported as an image and traced by hand.
#Make fantasy maps in gimp on mac windows
If you're on Windows using the GIMP, there is a Voronoi diagram plugin binary that can randomly generate street-like lines ( as seen here) suitable for a city map, but it's an old plugin that isn't maintained anymore. If you've got a small city or are drawing only a high-level view of it you can get away with hand-drawn streets, but for more complex streets like in this city map that would be mind-meltingly tedious. The hardest part of making a fantasy city map is laying down the streets-everything else (city walls, surrounding terrain, water, building fill, text, etc.) is the application of more basic cartography techniques. However, depending on what you're going for, there are plugins that can help.
#Make fantasy maps in gimp on mac software
You don't exactly need plugins for this sort of thing: the most important skill for using raster software like the GIMP for map-making is learning how to use the existing functionality to get the effects you're interested in.