@dontfearme22 That helps a lot, and thank you for the font recommendations. I've been making do with defaults and I want to try and find something more elegant (in the sense of being simple but appealing, as opposed to too heavily serifed or stylized) for the future. Also never considered the shadowing idea!
Illustration Tutorials and Advice Superthread
- Thread starter Krall
- Start date
Your best friends are vector lines (pen tool) selection and masking. It also helps to have a good grasp of layout tools like setting up grids, cropping and good folder layout. In fact, if you are patient enough there isn't a design I have seen on this website yet that you could not recreate without a drawing tablet.
The best tutorials for making flags are going to be how to use Photoshop in general. Here are some ones that might be a good start:
Draw with Pen tools in Photoshop
Learn about the different pen tools in Adobe Photoshop and how you can use them to draw lines, curves, shapes, and paths.
A Complete Beginner’s Guide to Masking in Photoshop
Several years ago a friend of mine asked me to teach him how masks work in Photoshop. This is my incredibly late response. We’ll go over the basics of what masks are, what they’re used for and how wielding them properly will take your Photoshop skills to an entirely new level. ...
designshack.net
Using grids and guides in Photoshop
Learn how to use guides and grids in Adobe Photoshop to precisely position and align images or elements. Smart Guides, which appear automatically when you need them, help you line up your shapes, slices, and selections.
The best way to get clean, crisp details is to make vector lines. Vectors calculate shapes based on a mathematical equation while rasters (the sort of stuff you would ordinarily make if you were 'drawing' in PS) assign values to pixels. Practically, this means that a vector line will always be crisp at any resolution while a raster will get blurry and messy if you zoom too much. You can make straight lines with rasters, but its a bitch. With vector tools you can crank out perfect straight lines, curves, shapes etc. left and right. Use vectors to draw, masking and selection to color and/or correct your designs, and fit it all inside a well-proportioned grid.
For actual flag designs, it really depends on what the actual design is. For basic stripes, grids, I dunno...flag of Japan, you can stick with basic tools. Photoshop lets you make stars, circles, squares etc. natively:
Draw shapes with the shape tools in Photoshop
You can use the Adobe Photoshop shape tools to draw all types of simple and complex shapes. The Adobe Photoshop shape tools can help you easily create buttons and other navigation graphics for your web pages.
More complex designs can be made by applying these simple shapes repeatedly , drawing with the pen tool or copying existing artwork. I suggest using files with the .svg type (thats a vector type) if you can get them, or transparent .png (no background).
Last point. One of the easiest ways to make a flag design look more 'legit' is color. Historically colors were a bit more restrictive than our modern color-palettes. A good trick is to actually copy pictures of real period artwork and use the eyedropper tool to sample those colors directly. It will keep your palettes more realistic and in the end, a touch more visually appealing as they will blend together more nicely.
Last edited:
thank you very much for the fast and great replyYour best friends are vector lines (pen tool) selection and masking. It also helps to have a good grasp of layout tools like setting up grids, cropping and good folder layout. In fact, if you are patient enough there isn't a design I have seen on this website yet that you could not recreate without a drawing tablet.
The best tutorials for making flags are going to be how to use Photoshop in general. Here are some ones that might be a good start:
Draw with Pen tools in Photoshop
Learn about the different pen tools in Adobe Photoshop and how you can use them to draw lines, curves, shapes, and paths.helpx.adobe.com
A Complete Beginner’s Guide to Masking in Photoshop
Several years ago a friend of mine asked me to teach him how masks work in Photoshop. This is my incredibly late response. We’ll go over the basics of what masks are, what they’re used for and how wielding them properly will take your Photoshop skills to an entirely new level. ...
Using grids and guides in Photoshop
Learn how to use guides and grids in Adobe Photoshop to precisely position and align images or elements. Smart Guides, which appear automatically when you need them, help you line up your shapes, slices, and selections.
The best way to get clean, crisp details is to make vector lines. Vectors calculate shapes based on a mathematical equation while rasters (the sort of stuff you would ordinarily make if you were 'drawing' in PS) assign values to pixels. Practically, this means that a vector line will always be crisp at any resolution while a raster will get blurry and messy if you zoom too much. You can make straight lines with rasters, but its a bitch. With vector tools you can crank out perfect straight lines, curves, shapes etc. left and right. Use vectors to draw, masking and selection to color and/or correct your designs, and fit it all inside a well-proportioned grid.
Glad to help. DM me if you need more detailed walkthroughs. I'm actually pretty new to making flags myself too (plenty of Photoshop experience though).
I use Pixlr, which is a free website. It's not great for complicated maps but it's perfectly compatible with Worlda. It's also pretty simple, just use the one pixel paint brush to draw borders. If you do plan to use this and need help just ask me.
would you still be able to provide an easy how to guide - I want to create very simple map - western Europe with sort of actual borders and maybe to be able to add 'nato' style army symbols
any suggestions for a newbie map maker gratefully appreciated - the main effort will be on the AH narrative rather than the maps
Sure! I still use the old Pixlr Editor software, but if you’re using a WorldA map you’ll have to use a 1x1 square pixel for your borders and you can download already existing WorldA maps as layers to trace over for OTL and realistic borders.would you still be able to provide an easy how to guide - I want to create very simple map - western Europe with sort of actual borders and maybe to be able to add 'nato' style army symbols
any suggestions for a newbie map maker gratefully appreciated - the main effort will be on the AH narrative rather than the maps
Hey y’all!
I’m just curious as to what software is available on iPads that is could use to make Wik—worthy maps in a variety of projections and whatnot. Bonus points for being user-friendly. I’ve already tried GIMP and a few others, found them too unwieldy and frustrating to use.
Thanks!
I’m just curious as to what software is available on iPads that is could use to make Wik—worthy maps in a variety of projections and whatnot. Bonus points for being user-friendly. I’ve already tried GIMP and a few others, found them too unwieldy and frustrating to use.
Thanks!
How are Puppet states now depicted in maps? take for example these puppet states during WW2: Manchukuo, Mengjiang, and Mongolian People's Republic, which is the correct way to depict them, the first, or second?
I personally prefer the first one because it makes it less confusing to discern different countries.
,
I personally prefer the first one because it makes it less confusing to discern different countries.
,
thanks - anyone got a good site to get 'nato style' symbols - you know these ones (picture from http://niehorster.org/000_admin/009_symbols.html)
The first version is better.
The second version is rather uncommon today.
Here is a tutorial from Crazy Boris, and his THICC 2.2 color scheme (one of the best color schemes used today)
answering my own question - found www. maps.army which I think allows me to create own map import it and overlay with all the MSS symbols you could ever want
Personally, I'd use 1. for less controlled puppets, and 2. for more heavily controlled puppets.
NATO Joint Military Symbology is listed in APP-6, now up to version D.
The source document is here: http://nso.nato.int/nso/zPublic/ap/PROM/APP-6 EDD V1 E.pdf
You can find large versions of the symbols here: https://spatialillusions.com/milsymbol/docs/milsymbol-APP6d.html
Version A (from a few years previously, but most of the symbols are identical or very similar), is available as a font here: http://www.mapsymbs.com/app-6a.html