Design of the Game Board

Brilliant. Thanks for the Photoshop tips, Seo and Jpfed. Learning a lot.

Yogurt

I'm not sure what you mean with "preview the size before you print".

You can set the size in real world measures (cm or inches) with Image,Image size. There you can set the size you want your image to print. Resolution is also set here. 250-300 ppi is a good resolution both for inkjet and laser printers and for further film output for offsett printing if you plan to use the image for commertial publishing.

Usually you will rather create your image with the desired size and resolution from the start, as each time you resize in Photoshop (or any raster program) you loose some image quality. If you're not sure of the exact size you're going to need, work with a higher size/resolution then downsample, as enlarging the image will create more noticeable artifacts and quality loss. Lack of sharpness due to downsizing can usually be compansated applying the unsharp mask filter afterwards.

If you mean how to view the image on screen matching the real world size, that will change depending on the size of your monitor and the resolution you have set. The easiest way is simply pplace a ruler in front of the screen to check the size of the image, and press +<+> or +<-> to enlarge/reduce the onscreen size until you approximately match the desired size. 1:1 in Photoshop means one image pixel matching one screen pixel, not one inch measuring one inch on screen.

When not at 1:1, image quality on screen will vary a lot depending on the screen pixels/image pixels ratio. at 50%, 25%, 12.5%, etc you'll get a good quality on screen, while at any other % image quality on screen will suffer. This doesn't affect printed quality, just onscreen quality.

To place it on MSWord you just save the tile as a TIFF file, then in Word Select Insert, Image, From file. Once placed, click on it and drag the corner handlers to resize proportionally. But if you set the right size in Photoshop, you shouldn't have any need to resize in Word.

Seo

Try this places, maybe one of the pictures fits your idea:

http://www.raven9.freeserve.co.uk/witchway/WWcrystals.htm
http://pia.alscher.ch/
http://www.arco-iris.com/George/microscopes/quartz_04.jpg

A hint for placing the crystals on your tile: crystals have some transparency, and unless you find crystal pics taken with a background similar to your tile, once placed they will look like this:

rather than this, which is probably more credible:

To acheive the effect, once placed, resized and sharpened, follow this simple steps:
1. Duplicate the crystal layer twice. Now you have three copies.
2. To the one on the top, set the opacity to something around 35% (slider on top right of the layers palette). You won't notice any change yet.
2. To the one on the middle, set the blending mode (drop menu on top left of the layers palette) to multiply, opacity to about 75%
3. To the bottom one, change blending mode to Hard light, and adjust curves (CTRL+M) as in the picture below:

That's it. You might need to play a bit with the opacity values for the top layers and the curve adjustment on the bottom one to acheive the right effect for the crystal pic you're going to use.

Seo

Alright, I just finished my tiles. Let me know what you think.

http://www.bgdf.com/files/My_Uploads/DSfan/terrea2.tif

The above file is the tile I posted earlier but I added the Moonbeam patch in the center.

http://www.bgdf.com/files/My_Uploads/DSfan/maria2.tif

The above file is the rocky terrain tile called Maria.

http://www.bgdf.com/files/My_Uploads/DSfan/basin3.tif

The above file is the Basin. On the basin is a base, because this is where units are produced and Moonbeam is returned. I stuck with a neutral white color for the base, but I might change it so that there will be four colors corresponding to the player colors in the game.

Again, let me know what you think.

-Justin

Isn't that base picture from Star Craft?

Oh yes, a couple questions before I forget them.

1. Currently I am just going to use some stuff I found at an arts and crafts store that has a core of foam in the middle to place the tiles on. Do you think this would look good or should I go with wood?

2. Should I cover a tile with a whole printout or should I leave a bit of white showing around the sides?

Thanks again,
-Justin

bizarre... I was doing some research on Google for work... I do props & signage for TV commercials, and sometimes need to compile visual reference for design choices....

I'm looking for samples of small-town "welcome to" signs, with one of those plaques underneath that reads "home of the 2001 Baseball champs" or some variation thereof.. so I type in "home of" on Google and select "large images only".. page 4 of the results, I see a beautiful render of a map that looks somehow familiar... Click on it and here I am!

Seems like the BGDF hunts me down wherever I may be!

~Josh

Can't help you but most prepress and wide format printing companies have removable disks that they use for cases like yours. Maybe you should ask the people with the printer if they can help you.

Another option would be a digital camera. Most work also as USB discs.

HTH,

Seo

Thanks. :-)
I was just helping with minnor tips, the real merit is from crabclaw, who made the original map.

Seo

Crabclaw, I can't believe the beauty and clarity of the board-- I'm amazed it was a physical model. There are so many techniques to give you something like this in PS, but there's an uncanny intangible which comes from your technique... definitely got me thinking.

In any event, you can revise it fairly easily now that it's virtual, using rubber stamp cloning and the like.