Quote from TheCakeIsASpy on November 29, 2011, 8:46 am

I'm seeing a lot of people here on TWP and in general, which made really messy and un-appeling first maps (Yes, that includes me). I'm not going to say names since I don't know all of them and even if I did, it will be disrespectful.

So, here's a little guide that will help you with the sources to learn Hammer and how to approch Hammer.

A thing to note though, this is not a 1-2-3 guide. You can pick what to do and not to do. These are the ways I learnt. These are all suggestions, of course.

Valve Developer Wiki
Valve Developer Wiki, as intiminating as it sounds, is a giant website that goes deep into basically every entity and function in Hammer and in general in any Valve game. If you go into the Portal 2 section, for example, you can view how to make Panels, Faith Plates, Funnels, Turrets and even how to make the Portal 2 Aethestics.

Expirements/Test Maps
In science, like in science, there's expirements. You can't just get to conclusions just by theories. Make little test maps, not anything fancy, to see how everything works. Expirents with the functions, entites and even make some concepts. A little example from personal expirence: I wanted a wall to break using func_breakable after I hit it. I did a little test map and figured out how do it.

Why do you need testing maps and not just try it right in a map you're making? Because if you have a giant map that takes a lot of time to compile, and you make tiny adjustments with the thing you're expirementing with every time, it's just a waste of time. Doing it in a test map will give you faster compile time and less crashes (in theory...)

Decompiling maps
If compiling is making a VMF to a BSP, then what's decompiling? Yup. Making a compiled map to a VMF. Take a compiled map you want to see how it's done: Technically, Graphically or any other reason, decompile it (I recommend BSPSource since it works on the newer games) and see how it works. I learnt A LOT from this, and I seriously mean that. I usally copy what I want to an instance, a prehab and/or paste it in a test map.

Commuilty Memebers
Thinking With Portals is a giant commulity of Portal 2 mappers and players. You can ask them for help, ideas or Beta Testing if you'd like. Worst case senerio, the person will just say "No", and who knows, maybe you'll make something together.

Another personal expirence example: When I just started out, I had some trouble in my first maps. I PM'd a commuilty member (LPFreaky90) and she helped me with all my needs. Today I'm working on a mod with her.

How can you help this guide?
Yup, not much to say here. If that's not enough ideas how to learn Hammer and you got your own, write it in a post and I'll put it here and of course credit you.

GOOD LUCK MAPPING!