Illustration Tutorials and Advice Superthread

[Alvar_13]

Yeah, it's just Inkscape.

Then I don't know what could you do, but if you have file saved you could restart either Inkscape or computer.

I'm just trying to help but I don't know stuff myself. But if your image size is pretty large it might be slower than usual, it has happened to me with oversized images.

 

[Krall]

Is there a Paint.NET tutorial floating around?

Is there a tutorial for how to do Wikipedia infoboxes?

In both cases, not that I'm aware of I'm afraid. I've also never done either of these (well, I use Paint.NET, but I've never made a map only using Paint.NET), so I probably can't provide any advice on either.

There are AH.commers who make maps solely in Paint.NET, and of course there are AH.commers who make Wikipedia infoboxes, but I don't think they frequent this thread. You might have better luck posting in the map thread/alternate Wikipedia infoboxes thread respectively.

Working on the map for MotF, Inkscape is lagging so much it take me ages to trace a river (or do anything else, rly), any advice?

Ah, Inkscape tends to do that if you're making a complicated and detailed map, due to all the path nodes it's got to keep track of. The only way to actually reduce the lag would be to remove path nodes, which I assume you'd rather not do.

You could open your basemap image in a new file without all the bits you've already traced and trace the rivers separately in there, then copy the rivers and paste them in place (there's an option for that under the Edit menu, alternatively "Ctrl + Alt + V" works too) in the original file. It'll still take a while to copy and paste the rivers over, but you'd be able to draw them without any lag at least.

Edit: One other thing I will note is that - for some reason - if you zoom in then move your view Inkscape starts to lag more than if you just zoomed out and zoomed back in. I don't know why that happens, but if you zoom out and zoom in when you want to change your field of view instead of scrolling whilst zoomed in it can prevent a significant amount of lag in more laggy files.

 

[Nanwe]

In both cases, not that I'm aware of I'm afraid. I've also never done either of these (well, I use Paint.NET, but I've never made a map only using Paint.NET), so I probably can't provide any advice on either.

There are AH.commers who make maps solely in Paint.NET, and of course there are AH.commers who make Wikipedia infoboxes, but I don't think they frequent this thread. You might have better luck posting in the map thread/alternate Wikipedia infoboxes thread respectively.



Ah, Inkscape tends to do that if you're making a complicated and detailed map, due to all the path nodes it's got to keep track of. The only way to actually reduce the lag would be to remove path nodes, which I assume you'd rather not do.

You could open your basemap image in a new file without all the bits you've already traced and trace the rivers separately in there, then copy the rivers and paste them in place (there's an option for that under the Edit menu, alternatively "Ctrl + Alt + V" works too) in the original file. It'll still take a while to copy and paste the rivers over, but you'd be able to draw them without any lag at least.

Edit: One other thing I will note is that - for some reason - if you zoom in then move your view Inkscape starts to lag more than if you just zoomed out and zoomed back in. I don't know why that happens, but if you zoom out and zoom in when you want to change your field of view instead of scrolling whilst zoomed in it can prevent a significant amount of lag in more laggy files.

Thanks! I think I'll do that I guess, my only fear is that I'll have to do that for every extra detail of the map :/

 

[Reagent]

Thanks! I think I'll do that I guess, my only fear is that I'll have to do that for every extra detail of the map :/

If you want to try reducing the amount of nodes while keeping the general shape, try "Crtl + L". It might smooth things a bit too much, but if you use it on rivers not making up national or sub-national borders (since I assume you want those as accurate as possible) it won't be very noticeable (but it will reduce the number of nodes a good deal).

 

[Nanwe]

Thanks guys! So I've been drawing the rivers in a different file. i also think I found the reason for the lag, I was playing with the glow of the map's outline and then forgot to remove, but I didn't realise, which I suppose caused the lag, silly me

 

[Opunium]

Is there any good tutorial out there on how to make a metro (or any public transport system) map?

 

[LSCatilina]

No, but it's quite simple.
All you need is circle tool and lines, depending on the style you want to do. Have you a particular problem for making it?

 

[Opunium]

No, but it's quite simple.
All you need is circle tool and lines, depending on the style you want to do. Have you a particular problem for making it?

I am doubting which editor I should use. I think I prefer Inkscape (but that's mostly because I dont understand the other programs), do you think that is a good choice?

 

[Dr. No]

I am doubting which editor I should use. I think I prefer Inkscape (but that's mostly because I dont understand the other programs), do you think that is a good choice?

See for yourself.

 

[LSCatilina]

I am doubting which editor I should use. I think I prefer Inkscape (but that's mostly because I dont understand the other programs), do you think that is a good choice?

Probably. It's simple enough to be used for relativly sober maps (metro maps being usually red dots and lines on a white background, regardless of the finition and decorum put afterwards)

 

[Krall]

Is there any good tutorial out there on how to make a metro (or any public transport system) map?

I am doubting which editor I should use. I think I prefer Inkscape (but that's mostly because I dont understand the other programs), do you think that is a good choice?

I don't know how I continue to forget about this thread for weeks and miss posts in it, so sorry for the very late reply.

But yes, I would recommend Inkscape - I've found it easy to use and understand, especially since it includes nigh-exhaustive, interactive tutorials, and I think vector graphics would work very well for a metro map. Also, as it's the main program I'm well-versed in, I can provide help and advice if you get stuck or need to know how to do a certain thing. If you do end up using Inkscape, feel free to PM me if you have a problem with it.

 

[Petike]

Name change of resource page

Just a heads-up:

http://wiki.alternatehistory.com/doku.php/resources/tools_for_creating_illustrated_ah_content

The resource page for software recommendations and illustration tutorials had changed its name and therefore also its adress. I've decided to change it to something more general-sounding. Also, all other links to the page on the wiki have been adjusted to the new name and new adress.

This has been a friendly PSA by Petike...

 

[Dr. No]

I have a question: My Inkscape just fails to open this SVG map of Berlin that I'd like to cannibalize whereas it's no problem to watch it in Internet Explorer. What's wrong?

 

[Krall]

I have a question: My Inkscape just fails to open this SVG map of Berlin that I'd like to cannibalize whereas it's no problem to watch it in Internet Explorer. What's wrong?

Well, I've no idea what's wrong - it won't open normally in Inkscape for me either - but I've figured out a work-around.

Instead of opening the file by clicking on the file itself, open Inkscape then go to File > Open, navigate to the file and open it from there. That should open it (it might take a while, as it's a very large and detailed map) and if you save it as a separate file under a different name then that new file should open normally.

Let me know if that works or not.

 

[Dr. No]

Negative. I already tried that.

 

[Krall]

Negative. I already tried that.

Strange, going into Inkscape and opening it through File > Open works for me. Just renaming the file doesn't work - but it does mean that Inkscape gives me an actual error message when I try to open it (something about failing to allocate a certain number of bytes, which suggests it's some sort of memory issue), but that's not really helpful as I can't find any solutions to that error online.

Hmm, when I opened the file in Inkscape and saved it without any changes, it appeared to increase in file size. I'm guessing opening it in Inkscape changed the file in some way, which means it can now be opened in Inkscape normally - if I'm right, then a version of the file that I've already successfully opened should work for you.

This is a version of the file that I've already successfully opened - try downloading and see if it opens properly for you too.

 

[Dr. No]

Thank you very much! What a terrifyingly enormous glory...

 

[Krall]

Thank you very much! What a terrifyingly enormous glory...

Ah, it worked? Awesome!

 

[Seraphiel]

Is this thread still active?

Anyways Im wondering how to make mountain ranges with inkscape?

 

[Krall]

Is this thread still active?

Anyways Im wondering how to make mountain ranges with inkscape?

This thread isn't active, but it's stickied so it's fine to post in it whenever (though I keep forgetting about it, hence my late reply ).

What do you mean by making mountain ranges? I mean, obviously you mean on a map, but do you mean something like this, or something like this?