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    HeavenGames
    Creating Instruction Maps

    The big picture is now lots of little pictures

    Starting with one square at a time copy the map from your atlas onto your bit map. I worked at 6 x magnification and drew in the coastlines one pixel at a time, finishing each square before moving on to the next one.

    If you make a mistake and remove to much land, refill the land area with the “Erasure Black”, as when you put the map into a scenario it will disappear along with all the grid lines. After finishing the coastline, place your cities and other features onto your map.

    Inserting text into your map

    You can now put the city and place names in the bit map. When choosing the font to use, remember that some fonts are difficult to read at small sizes. You might experiment with some different sizes to see what looks good. Same thing with the color of your printing. You want your printing to contrast with the background for better visibility.

    There are many different fonts available on the net. So, if you don’t have a font you like you can easily find more to choose from. Fonts can be found that look like handwriting, ancient runes, etched stone, or stoneage scawls. You can be creative here if you like. The right font can add to the appeal of your bit map. Above is a low res image of a few fonts I’ve found on the net.

     

    Putting AOE images into your map

    To put AOE images into your map, you need to take a sceenshot of an AOE game or directly from the AOE editor. Load the scenario editor and place the units and buildings that you wish to import into your map in the scenario. Then press Control + F12 to take the picture. The sreenshot will appear in your AOE directory under AoE0001 for the first, AoE0002 for the second and so forth. Now double click on the screenshot to load it into your Paint Brush program. Use the upper left function in the tool box to cut closely around the part of the screenshot you wish to import into your bit map. Under the edit menu choose “cut”. Then go back to your AOE directory and load your bit map. When you have your bit map loaded click on “Paste” under the edit menu and drag the image onto your bit map.

    You may need to clean up the image a little, but if you cut it closely it won’t be too much. Remove the unwanted part of the image by painting over it in “Erasure Black”. Once again this black will disappear when you put the map into a scenario and start it. At this time, you might also want to remove the unwanted grid lines that appear over the colored areas of your map. Don’t worry about those that appear over the parchment areas as these will all disappear anyway.

    That’s about it. I put in a hand drawn compass and signed my map and it’s ready to go.

    All of the images in this article are low res versions of the originals. This accounts for some of the illegible writing.

    I hope this article helps clarify some of the more detailed points of introductory bit map creation. So have fun, be creative, and put bit maps into all of your works.

    Article by Frank Steidel August 17, 1998

    Pages: 1 2 3

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