# Maps



## Lace (Jun 30, 2014)

I am needing to create a map of my world. Any recommended sites or programs to do this?


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## acapes (Jun 30, 2014)

Hey Lace, I used to use a program called 'autorealm' and it was pretty cool.

AutoREALM | Free Games software downloads at SourceForge.net

'Basic' graphics I guess, and the program does take some getting used to, but I made some good maps some years ago.

Here's a pic (not mine)


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## Lace (Jun 30, 2014)

Oh, this is perfect! Thank you!


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## acapes (Jun 30, 2014)

Lace said:


> Oh, this is perfect! Thank you!



My pleasure! I imagine there are heaps of others out there but that's probably a good place to start - and it gets addictive too, lol


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## IrelandBeaver (Jul 1, 2014)

I've used this site: donjon; Fantasy World Generator for world building. Sometimes, I don't use the world as is, but it did give me some inspiration for landmasses that I could use in my own world. Also, I have seen people use photoshop by rendering clouds to create landmasses. I've never done this, but this video is a good example of at least creating landmasses: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0auHYGnTS8


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## ThinkerX (Jul 1, 2014)

I use plain old MS Paint.


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## Terry Greer (Jul 1, 2014)

I use a program called worldmachine to generate the terrain: 

World Machine : 3D Terrain Generation
There is a free version.

And photoshop and indesign to manipulate it afterwards and lay out the labels.

Here's one I did for my novel:


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## Shreddies (Jul 3, 2014)

You can poke around Cartographer's Guild a bit and see what they use. There are some real gorgeous maps posted there.


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## thecoldembrace (Jul 3, 2014)

I use the programs from Profantasy myself. They are not hard to master and turn out some awesome work, especially cities.

-Cold


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## Lace (Jul 3, 2014)

I watched a few tutorials on YouTube last night and was finally able to play around a bit in AutoRealm. It was difficult to use at first but I think I'm getting the hang of it. I did go to donjon and get some ideas. I think I might try some of the other ones next time, but for now AutoRealm is working for what I'm needing.


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## Mythopoet (Jul 3, 2014)

I use paper and pencil.


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## Jabrosky (Jul 3, 2014)

Mythopoet said:


> I use paper and pencil.


This. Though I often ink the drawing, scan it in, and color it in Photoshop CS6.


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## Lace (Jul 3, 2014)

Oh I never thought of scanning it into PS!


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## Mythopoet (Jul 3, 2014)

Yes, I also ink in the lines (once I'm SURE I won't need to change them again) in various colors. I don't worry about coloring it in. Maybe someday. 

I'm still working on filling in my current map iteration. There's a lot of blank landmasses that I just haven't gotten around to exploring yet. It's a big world.


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## Terry Greer (Jul 4, 2014)

Mythopoet said:


> I use paper and pencil.



Yes  well said.

The simplest is often the best.

I certainly always start that way - depends on the final 'quality' you want to achieve and the hand-drawn look is often the best for fantasy.

Other tools (like worldmachine) are only really useful when you need (or want) a specific realistic look.


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