Tutorial on mapmaking in Photoshop
The hardest part of this is not making the graphics, when you get the hang of it that goes very smoothly, but rendering a decent shot of the area you want to map. There are several ways of doing this, and you need to choose wisely depending on how big the area is you want to map, and what kind of information it contains.
The tutorial below shows how to make a detailed street map, that can look something like this:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi109.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fn65%2Femilin_2006%2Fwestendinlet3.jpg&hash=40544655421b998f6f554a5705aa29e9e823b1bf)
If you are going for a larger overview you need to work with more layers of information, and that is complicating the process a bit. But the basic strategy for me was the same when I produced this map (BIG file!): http://img296.imageshack.us/img296/7/eastlazarus7webbfa7.jpg (http://img296.imageshack.us/img296/7/eastlazarus7webbfa7.jpg)
Here goes:
1. Get a screen shot of the area you want to map. Use a "zone" shot for a clean street map. (an alternative way to get a good shot if you don't have a lot of parks and buildings to keep track of is to take shot of the traffic overview window. In that case you don't have to skew the picture, but you lose some information.)
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi109.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fn65%2Femilin_2006%2Ft1.jpg&hash=d088d1dd1bfbd8b6bde016a3ba22be7430f87f28)
2. Double the canvas size so you have work space.
3. Scew and rotate unill it's fairly straight. It doesn't have to be perfect, but the larger the area the better it has to be to get accurate lines later.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi109.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fn65%2Femilin_2006%2Ft2.jpg&hash=b380a7e5057de180cb601bf895abbbbfc7fc024e)
4. When it looks something like the picture below, crop it and make a new layer (call it "background or something").
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi109.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fn65%2Femilin_2006%2Ft3.jpg&hash=6333c2ae3dc43e2cea3350c33196702e5b5bd703)
5. Pick a nice background base colour (#F5F5F5 is nice). Select All and use the bucket to fill the area. The image should turn grey now.
6. Lower the opacity of the new layer to ca 30% and chose the pen tool from the tool bar.
7. Make a new layer and call it "big roads", "avenues" or whatever. Mark the big roads with pen lines.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi109.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fn65%2Femilin_2006%2Ft4.jpg&hash=adafafb9eaba63521bea5edd974dc31cae46ba3a)
8. Chose the colour you have decided for big roads (in this example I use a clear blue called #4A61BF). Change the brush size to whatever fits the scale you are working with (in this case I landed on 24 pts).
9. Stroke the path once with the blue brush. Now switch to pure white (#FFFFFF), change the size of the brush by 2 pts EXACTLY and stroke it again.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi109.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fn65%2Femilin_2006%2Ft5.jpg&hash=d53a221b1740de1ed9d3ea27c4a0249df5519dc5)
10. Go back to the background layer (the grey layer that is!) and turn the opacity up to 100% again to chek the result. If it looks like the picture below you're alright. Delete the path and turn the opacity down again.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi109.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fn65%2Femilin_2006%2Ft6.jpg&hash=ac686c5780f30d8df9b01a0de48ae496f0a876c6)
11. Make a layer inbetween the background and the big road layers- Call it "roads".
12. Repeat the process of marking all the roads with pen lines. Mark ALL roads in one session since it saves a bunch of work later.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi109.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fn65%2Femilin_2006%2Ft7.jpg&hash=6363dacc24990662e25460410ed331ee7d7fce38)
13. Pick another colour for the outlines (I used #7C7C7C) and change the brush size to about half the size of the big roads. ALWAYS use an EVEN number. In this case I will use 12 pts.
14. Stroke the path once in that colour, then switch to white, change the brush size by 2 pts EXACTLY (that's why you wanted the even number in the first place) and stroke it again.
15. Go to the background, turn up the opacity and check how things look. If they are ok (something like the picture) then delete the path, turn the opacity down again and make a new layer below the road layer and call it "streets". I won't do that now but it's just to repeat the process with another outline colour and maybe another brushsize if you feel like it. This is what my map looked like when I quit working on it:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi109.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fn65%2Femilin_2006%2Ft8.jpg&hash=2e05c5975c1a0da178f322b79664c92fa501a6e4)
16. When you are all done with the road network you should merge those layers before adding additional information.
As you can see there are still things that needs to be done. You have to brush out the ugly borders between the big roads, roads and streets for instance. But thats just work, not fancy moves. As you can see from my example I wasn't very thourough with the angles of the street but that was just because I was rushing it. Anyone can make straight lines with the pen tool. That is the secret, actually: pen tool-brush-pen tool-brush-pen tool-brush, etc.
If you want to add parks and stuff that goes all the way up to the roadsides just place them in a layer below the road network. Buildings, rails and road names obviously goes above the roads.
[Note: this tutorial was originally posted in my CJ over at ST (Province of Lazarus), but since the purpose of this site is to make stuff like this more accessible and easier to find, I thought it might be a good idea to post it here too.]
:o :o :o :o :o :o
;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
Oh, yes! Wow, I know only too many people who will benefit from this tutorial (me being one of them)! So many thank you's to you emilin for posting it here for all to see!!
Hello emilin, this is a great starting contribution :thumbsup: !!!
I just cant imagine how long it took you to create the San Lazaro map ???
This is a very useful tutorial for CJ makers !!!
emilin
Excellent tutorial. What a way to start :thumbsup:
just need to get photoshop ::)
This will be handy in the future. :thumbsup:
Kettle's on for you dude ;D
:satisfied:
omg emilin this is just too cool. &apls look what u have made me do now -> :computer:
Glad it was appriciated. Thanks for the nice respons to my small contribution. &blush
Great tutorial, emilin!
This is awesome. Thanks heaps for the tutorial Emilin
This is cool. Thanks for sharing this with us emilin &apls
University of Lazarus: that is were I went :party: *hickup*
Hi, emilin-
As a huge SC4 mapping fan, I have to say that I learned stuff in 15 minutes of perusing this tutorial that I didn't figure out in three months of T&E on my own. That's what I get for just not asking, I guess- I was too focused on how good the "Telegraph Road" bit was to pay attention to the outstanding tech stuff in Lazarus (although your thoughts on ports should have tipped me off that a far closer look was warranted).
Anyway, next time I start mapping, I know where I stop first.
David
very useful tutorial. thanks for taking the time to impart some of you mapmaking knowledge to us!
Great tutorial, but might I suggest using "stroke" under "blending options" for each different transit layer. You will get the same effect, but it is adjustable for later zooms.
That is a brilliant idea, actually! I wish I had thought of it myself. Good thing you did. :thumbsup:
I did a quick search and did not find anyone who has used this site: Plainglobe.com (http://www.planiglobe.com/)
So I will assume that this is new to the site. I did not research other SimCity sites.
They have an entire globe in vector format. It is dynamic so that the closer you get the more layers of detail included. It gives you a custom vector file in Adobe Illustrator format which you can edit and publish. You can filter for what info you want.
They use Creative Commons License 2.5 so using it here I believe is kosher. #?¿?¿?$
This example of the Los Angeles Area has 14 layers of info.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg263.imageshack.us%2Fimg263%2F7033%2Fplainglobesamplexh3.png&hash=e431aa62f4f49a8e0e1ed3d2156999acc43c4c90)
All I did to make this map is click and save. :D :D :D :D :D
The file is in an older version format of Illustrator and the fonts are not standard. Otherwise it is a dream come true for Sim Map Makers.
Emilin, you are awesome. Thank you so much for this tutorial.