Mapmaking - From Paper to GIMP
I bashed my head against multiple mapmaking softwares for interiors I own to make a simple cabin for about two to three hours. I didn't find the right assets and got annoyed with too many different shortcuts. I wasn’t feeling myself with those softwares that evening, I guess. My first attempt was this one, using Forgotten Adventures assets, a little pixelized:
First one, using RPG Map Editor II, by Deepnight Games
It took too long to pixelize the assets (as their default appearance, in my opinion, didn’t match the program). After a while I gave up. Then I tried Dragon Map Maker... didn’t cut it. Dungeondraft... nope. Nothing seemed to work or at least feel “correct” for the map I was picturing. So I took my gridded notebook and just started sketching. I wasn’t planning on actually finishing the map; I just wanted to get it out of my head.
I liked the result, and then decided to scan it with my smartphone and give it some coloring through GIMP. I know many artists already follow a creation process like this, but I had never tried it until then. Maybe I thought it wouldn’t end up good enough. Thankfully, I guess I was wrong on that matter:
It surprised me how easy it was to transfer my drawing from paper to digital, and the results were nice enough for me to feel proud of it as well.
I think it will become something I do more often, for quick maps and ideas.