Question for Parallax Mappers

We have been looking at parallax mapping for VoltAge, however none of us on the team have the capability to do this, so we will probably end up bringing someone else on board for this.  We were just wondering, does it help if there is a "prototype" map done using tilesets? Or do most people prefer to just start from scratch? Anyone out there who does parallax mapping, your opinions / input would be greatly appreciated!

For me,I prefer starting the map from scratch so i can adjust what ever i want in the map.

I can't say that I am a good parallax mapping user but here is how I work, in three steps:

1 - Figure what I need to show and sketch it on paper (yep, good ol' paper never dies!)

2 - Map as much as possible inside the editor. I find it easier to use but some people just hate it. I take a screenshot of the semi-final map and then:

3 - Only add touches via overlays for things that cannot be done in the editor. Using the screenshot as a layer and a grid to guide me for exact coordinates on map.

My two cents, sorry.

I usually just do everything on photoshop.

I have all the tiles I'll use for the ground saved as patterns and I just start from there and get a rough idea of all the paths through the map as if I was doing it in the editor, then I start adding more details like scattering the ground patterns and blending everything together to look a lot nicer. From there I just start adding objects in after the base layer (which usually includes things like the ground tiles) and a basic overlay layer (which usually has things like treetops or mountains) are done.

Okay, cool. Thanks for the input everyone! :)