December Entry: The Grotto of the Wicked

[rlucci]

Okay. The nube bites. I've never done natural caverns before, so this will be a good learning exercise. I think the key here is that planning time is not included in the four-hour limit. Perfect. If I plan the hell out of it, I should be able to get it done in the alotted time. I also need to keep the map fairly modest...

Here's a quick bubble design that I whipped up over lunch. I did it up in Microsoft Visio (it's quick and easy, and all I have to play with during my day-job).

[ravells]

ohhh very good! like it!

[rlucci]

Well, here's mine.

I had just finished up putting in the firepit and was about to start putting in some furniture when I realized I only had enough time left to add the room key. So there's not much in the way of furnishings or embellishments.

But, what an awesome project! I got to play with both water and natural caverns for the first time. And I figured out how to do quick and simple gradients to give the illusion of depth to the beach sand.

Thanks for the inspirational challenge, Don!

[Torq]

Very nice Rlucci. By the way how do you get that wave/ripple effect?

Torq

[Baziron]

Nice indeed... has a "clean and simple" feel about it.

[RPMiller]

Well done!!

[pyrandon]

Great going! I especially like that the rock walls are not straight black as I first thought, but have a slight texture to them.

PS: I'd also like to know your technique for the wave/ripples

[rlucci]

By the way how do you get that wave/ripple effect?

I'd also like to know your technique for the wave/ripples

I think I remember...

In Photoshop, I selected the water area and used Select -> Modify -> Contract by, oh 10 pixels or so. On a new layer, I filled the area with 50% gray and then used Layer -> Layer Style -> Bevel and Emboss on my gray blob.

I made the bevel very narrow and bright (high depth) and created a Gloss Contour map that was shaped like an inverted triangle with the bottom point being in the exact center of the map (see snapshot). This made the bevel highlight on both sides of my gray blob.

Let's see, at some point I did a Filter -> Distort -> Ripple (I think) on the blob, but I don't recall the specifics. Just played with it until it looked nice.

Last, I gave the layer a Blending Mode of Hard Light so only the highlights were visible.

I repeated this whole process two more times; each time I doubled the amount I contracted the selection and each time I reduced the brightness (depth) of the bevel.

It goes quicker if you copy and paste the layer style onto your subsequent blobs and the just tweak the specifics.