Converting WotC Maps

[dmontgomery32]

I have been looking through these forums (and others) but cannot find an easy answer:

If I want to use the images provided by WotC (like say Dungeon Magazine or maps from a module I puchased) but I want to get rid of the markers placed for the GM...Is there a way to do this?

I've heard that the images are placed in layers, but my import of the files into Photoshop shows only a single layers (I am, by no means, a photoshop expert)

I'm currently running Seekers of the Ashen Crown and would love to use the images available from DDI, but with those tokens on them, they are useless to me.

Anyone have thoughts, tips, tricks, etc?

If this is posted in another thread, can you please leave a link to it? I've not found anything.

Thanks

Dahanana (dmontgomery32)

[gmkieran]

Unfortunately, Dhanana, the images you're likely to have access to won't be the layered files provided to the printer that might allow you to remove specific features using Photoshop or GIMP. You *might* get lucky and find versions someone has already edited (or re-created without the tokens) by search for specific maps or modules online. Other than that, you're left manually editing the images to remove what you don't want; depending on the number and placement of markers, that may or may not be feasible.

Wish I had better news!
GMK

[Griogre]

It should be mentioned that the later dungeon issue adventures tend to have maps that don't have room numbers that you can download. There really isn't a easy way to get rid of room numbers or secret doors on a map. However, many art programs have a "clone" tool that allows you to brush on a displaced area or you can just copy and paste a blank part of the floor over the number. Generally its a fair amount of work. Personally, if I have a map like this I've gotten to the point I won't usually bother with cleaning up room numbers I'll just fix secret doors and traps.

If you don't have time to do this, ie the game is in several hours you can just use the map as a template and put a mask on top of it and use the map underneath to trace a map during the game with the build in pen tool like I did in the picture below:



The advantage of tracing is its fast and easy to do, if not very pretty and best of all takes no prep time. It also is a way to deal with maps that have grids that are not true squares.

[Invictys]

The layering is inside the .pdf, so in the later issues of dungeon the image inside the .pdf will ave the room numbers and monster placement on it but if you extract it out of the .pdf the image file itself will often be clear of the clutter.

Just to clarify the layering thing you heard about

[Trenloe]

If the PDF layers Invictys mentions are not available for the maps you want to use, you can use an image clone tool (or something similar). Xorn covers this in his "Map Rescaling" video available in the "downloads section at the top of this page, under "Archived Video tutorials" (scroll down to the bottom right). Have a look from around 2:50 in the video... If you don't have access to Photoshop, you can use GIMP (which is free) and use the "Clone" tool.

[Xorn]

https://www.wizards.com/dnd/Archive....y=mapgalleries

Every map in Dungeon can be found here, without the symbols and markups.