Illustration Tutorials and Advice Superthread
- Thread starter Krall
- Start date
A very small question.
First, a lot of the mapmakers that I look at use numbers to mark important features. They do all of this in fonts that look good even when they're small. However, on GIMP, all the fonts try look horrible and blurry. I figure that I need to download some online, but which ones do you recommend?
First, a lot of the mapmakers that I look at use numbers to mark important features. They do all of this in fonts that look good even when they're small. However, on GIMP, all the fonts try look horrible and blurry. I figure that I need to download some online, but which ones do you recommend?
I think that means you have to make the font aliased (anti-aliasing disabled), it makes lines and stuff not blurry. I feel like you can do this on GIMP, though I have refused to touch it in ages.
A somewhat esoteric question for people what use GIS and other programs that turn numbers into pictures: I have a set of coordinate data that I'd like to turn into a vector image so I can mess with it in Illustrator. I've tried using spreadsheets to just create a scatter plot but a) there's enough data points that the program pretty much soft-locks and b) no matter how I try to fight it I can't get the grid to square up properly. Does anyone have any suggestions on software for a relative-to-complete neophyte that might at least reduce my angst?
Paint and i forgot the name but is quite famous.
Sorry but work and thesis drive me away from digital paint.
You want your text to be as large and as simple as possible. Often people think fancy map = fancy text but you want the opposite. Text should be read without being noticed. You want immersion in the map first. In my IRL work (as a cartographer) I use fonts mostly from Google Fonts: https://fonts.google.com/. Merriweather, Lato, Roboto and Bitter are all good choices.
Try to follow a series of thoughts when placing text. First, know what you dont need to label. Anything you dont need text on, is more space to make the text you do have more legible. If you have a map with a lot of provinces, dont say "province of..." 15 times. Just use the name, for example. You don't need a legend entry for what mountains are. Assume your audience has a general understanding of what ...things, should look like and you'll rarely go wrong. No need to sacrifice good design out of worries you'll alienate some mythical idiot reading your map.
Then, place your text in the most open areas you have. Or, alternatively, where they are most central in the feature they describe.
Then, size your text to fill up as much space as possible without being so large it covers the thing its supposed to describe.
Then, color it. Black, White, or a slight off-shade of either. No need to get terribly fancy unless you have lots of differently colored features that you want to accentuate in contrast to each other. For stuff like labelling mountain ranges, oceans, roads, etc. keep it basic.
Then, highlight it. A very moderate drop shadow / a light outer glow around your text does wonders.
For stuff like legends, titles, descriptions, all the same rules apply. Focus on readability, always, above everything else. If someone can't read something, they won't care much how fancy the letters are. And really crazy fonts 99% of the time look like shit anyways.
Hope this helps!
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@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!
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.
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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).
