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By: Damen

Edited By: A5chow

Coded By: Whydidijoin

Special Thanks To: A5chow, Flying Aero

Mapping is a fairly easy thing to do, and, with practice, it can yield quite rewarding results. On my very first map alone, I was able to produce a piece of work that I, to this day, consider among my best. Mapping requires three things: patience, free time, and determination. If you are missing ANY of these qualities, then quite simply, mapping is just not for you.

To begin mapping you are going to need a few very basic programs, which include:

Microsoft Paint
Quick Screen Capture Program
Adobe Photoshop (optional)

For quick screen-capture programs, there are many to choose from. I personally prefer Quick Screen Capture 2.2.28, but there are other programs out there.
Please note that the link provided above is not within the RuneVillage domain and we are not responsible for their content.

You can find many similar programs at sites like: www.download.com with a simple search.

Production

Taking Your Screenshots

Once you have all of the programs you need, open up your quick screen-capture program, grab a soda, turn on some of your favorite music, and head to the location that you will be mapping.

Once you have arrived at your destination, turn your camera angle as high as it will go and then turn it north. This may take a minute or two of key tapping, but in time, your lines should be straight and perfect, like so:

Correct

Incorrect

After you have your camera angle in the correct position, take a screenshot, then click on the other end of your Mini-Map and wait until the flag disappears to take your screenshot again. Repeat this process as much as needed to map the entire region.

Note: DO NOT move your camera angle, even if there was an obstacle that you needed to get past or a fancy Item you want to pick up. Any moving of your Mini-Map is disastrous, and will 99% of the time require a complete remapping.

Putting the Puzzle Together

Now that you have all your screenshots taken, you will want to put them together, so open up two new Paint documents. I recommend making one of them around 1,000 × 1,000 and the other about 3,000 × 3,000. You can change the size under Image > Attributes (or CTRL+E). Then go to Edit > Paste on the 3,000 × 3,000 document and find the Directory that you saved your files to and select the first one.

Click the Free Form select tool (dotted star), and select the area around the Mini-Map. Be sure to stay within the black space. Then go to Edit > Copy, or simply, CTRL+C. Now, click on your other Paint document (1,000 × 1,000) and go to Edit > Paste or CTRL+V.

Next, go back to your original document and paste the second screenshot you took. Repeat the same process that you used on screenshot one and paste it into the other Paint document. This is where it gets slightly tricky; you now have to align the second Mini-Map lines with the first one as accurately as possible. I recommend focusing on lines that hit the end of the map that you are fitting on rather than the ones that are in the middle or somewhere within the black area because it can be hard to tell if you are putting the pieces in the right places.

Repeat this process until your map is complete.

Fine Tuning

Editing the Lines

You should now have something like this:

Not so good looking, huh? Not to worry, the lines on the map which are out of place happens to the best of us and is virtually unavoidable. You are going to need to fix the lines, of course, and so, for this part, we are going to use the handy Zoom and the Pencil tool.

Zoom into the first part of your map and find where the map looks bad. The lines can easily be fixed by making them straight. To help you understand better, here are a couple of examples:

Wrong:

Right:

Wrong:

Right:

All you need to do is simply redraw the lines in the way that they should be, by adding or subtracting pixels, then going back and removing the extra old ones. It is recommended that you use the Eyedropper tool for selecting your black (outside), white (border), and in-between colors (inside), since it is faster and also gives you the accurate colors you are looking for.

Removing Monsters

Your map should now look like this:

It certainly looks better, but the yellow dots indicating Monsters are still there. This is actually quite easy to fix. Go to your Brushes on Paint, select the middle Circle, and then zoom into the Monster. Use the Eyedropper tool to select the color of the terrain next to the dot, and then use your own dot to erase it. It only requires two clicks: one for the initial monster, and then another to remove its shadow by moving your mouse icon down one pixel and click again.

After doing that, your map should look like this:

Adding Icons

This is the part where you add icons to your map. You can either make your own or use the ones provided on the RuneVillage Maps thread. The only thing to remember if you are making your own icons is that the white border of the icon is a slightly different shade than pure white. Here are a few small steps to adding icons:

Copy your icon on a white background.
Paste it onto your map.
Drag your icon over to the location the monster is.
Repeat until all monsters, and other info, are filled in.

Adding Text and Making the Legend

This is possibly one of the easiest, but at the same time, hardest parts of mapping; adding text. The first thing you will need to do is read the RuneVillage Mapping Rules. Then, using the appropriate text fonts and sizes listed there, start making your legend. Your text and pictures must line up perfectly. To do this, simply decide how many pixels you would like between each image and the text, then draw and copy a blue line that big and put it in. Zooming does help this process. Use about 12 pixels between each image and 15 between the image and the text. Remember to make sure that your text and images align vertically.

Here is an example of spacing:

Note: Typing your text elsewhere on the document and zooming into it about 6× or 8× then dragging it over to your legend helps.

Publication

By now, you should have a complete map looking something like this:

If you zoom into the legend, you will notice how the text is aligned.

From here, you have a few options. You may either:

Post it on the RuneVillage Maps thread in the forums.
Put it into a Guide, if appropriate.
Give to a website other than RuneVillage. (Do not do this if you have already submitted this map to RuneVillage!)

After you have done all these things, you can enjoy the fruits of your labor, kick-back, and relax.

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