The Lighthouse (Tavern)

[sylven]

Well I suppose this would be the correct place for this. I suppose this was my first real digital map work. I realize the floor looks a bit different, but the tavern itself is built on a cliff constructed by an old lava flow. Rather than spend a great deal of money removing the stone, the tavern keeper had it polished and built into his establishment.

This first map is the main floor of the Lighthouse Tavern. Upon entry, patrons will enter what is known as the shield room. Beautiful shields adorn the walls here, all depicting griffons in some fashion. Also stored within this room is a large library of books collected by the tavern keeper.

The kitchen can be accessed through the shield room, which also gives way to access behind the bar, and a lower cellar area through a trap door.

The main bar room gives the Lighthouse its fame. Through the taverns large windows the fire pit and the glowing lanterns can be seen from the sea.

The Lighthouse

This next image is the lower section of the Lighthouse tavern. The ladder from the kitchen trap door leads to the brew storage area. Behind the large kegs is a secret passage leading to a ledge where a single griffon egg sits within a nest. A promise made long ago by the tavern keeper to watch over. To the west is a meat storage area. To the east is the tavern keeper's sleeping quarters. His money vault is to the south, locked at all times of course.

The Lighthouse Cellar

I have more on the storyline behind the tavern itself, but I wanted to get the general of the map itself down. I hope you enjoy, constrictive opinions welcomed!

By the way, the outhouse, is... well...outside.

Sylven

[Gamerprinter]

Excellent work for your first digital map!

The texture in the stone on the main floor map is showing a non-seamless tiling effect, but other than that, this is really quite good.

Photoshop or GIMP? Which did you use?

Nice job!

Have some REP for your first map post...

[Torq]

Great first map post Sylven. I really like it. I'm particulalry keen on the effect that you have used for the "dead space", that kind of dirty look. Its great. How did you achieve it. I agree with GP about the floor texture. Its a cool texture but the seems are showing a bit. Also you may want to add some shadows to the chairs, tables, barstools etc just to create a slight height illusion. They appear a little flat on the ground.

Fantastic start. Post whatever you have.

Torq

[ravells]

Excellent map. I'd agree with GP and Torq on the floor texture and the beautiful texture you've got for the background.

You're using PSP, right?

Also, I think the fire image you've used in the fire pit is inconsistent with the style of the map (the flames are too big and the style too realistic), might be more fun to go for glowing coals rather than the flames. You can probably make glowing coals by having a red/yellow gradient filled circle on top of which you can make another layer with a black/off black gradient fill. Use the flagstone pattern you've got for the floor (but make it much smaller) to cut out the pattern from the black layer so the red glow shows through...that might work.

Another suggestion is to use a layer mask on the walls of the lighthouse and just hide little bits of it so the walls look a little weathered and less perfectly circular - if you want to go for a more hand-drawn look, that is.

Great work and looking forward to seeing more of your maps. You can post maps directly onto the site by clicking the 'Go Advanced' button and then selecting 'manage attachments'. Uploading your image in this way provides a clickable thumbnail which you will have seen on other threads.

Great work and looking forward to seeing more.

Ravs

[Redrobes]

Great stuff for a first digi map attempt. A budding virtuoso I think.

There was a tutorial about seamless texturing which included image flattening. That is where you make the overall lightness of an image uniform over the whole image. I showed how to do this for any image editor but since I was using PSP also then it should work for you. Here is the specific post but the whole thread is a useful read.

http://www.cartographersguild.com/sh...6&postcount=17

Your tile is sort of seamless but its not flat enough. Run though these tips and produce a flat version of it and it should look a lot better in your map.

Edit, or you can post the texture up and ill flatten it for you.

[RobA]

Nice map!

As another suggestion, apply a noise overlay on all the wood tables to make them look less like copies of the same object. Also rotate some of them so the grain doesn't all line up.

-Rob A>

[RPMiller]

Everyone has already made great suggestions and comments regarding the image creation so I'll venture into a slightly different area.

Do you have a profile of the lighthouse? I would like to see what I looks like "vertically".
I mention that the egg is on a ledge, but the picture doesn't really "sell" that point. You may want to add some different elements to make the assumed cliff a bit more obvious.
That looks like a fireplace in the owners bedroom. Where does the smoke come out when it is lit?
I notice that there is a "sink" or basin in the kitchen area. Perhaps you could have some buckets or such laying about to show how the water gets there, and I think the water is a bit too "clean". If you know what I mean.
I love the idea of the glowing lanterns and firepit being seen through the windows. You may want to show where the lanterns are, and curved glass of that size would be extremely expensive. Are the windows actually just openings? If they have glass, was it created magically?
As you can tell, I'm interested in hearing more about it.

[sylven]

I really appreciate everyone's wonderful feedback on the map. Your words are too kind.

I used several layers in Paintshop Pro to actually create the map. As for the "dirty" look behind the map, I played around with a couple of filters until I got the effect I was looking for and put it down.

I wish I could have done a better seemless job on the floor, but before I actually realized what I had done, I had merged all of my layers and accidently saved over my original psp image. I did a couple like that actually. I still enjoyed the map however, so I kept it. I try to never toss anything out, knowing each one is a learning experience, not to mention it could be redone. All of the suggestions would be wonderful techniques to impliment into a future work, or even a redo of something I have already completed. Thank you so much for the insight.

I hope I have answered everyone's questions regarding the map. I looked around at the time I was creating the series of taverns I have, and I just couldn't find one that matched what I needed at the time. Thats when I embarked on this one. Oh I dont really have a profile for the Lighthouse tavern, but perhaps I could type up the background for it.

[RPMiller]

By profile I meant an exterior side view.

[sylven]

Yea I understand what you meant by profile. It was the how were the windows and such created, and I would be interested to hear more about it that peeked the background story of it. I really appreciated the insight btw, I know it will really help me on the next map I do. I know one of the things I really neglected in my early maps were water closets and baths. I dont know how these people are gonna stay clean!! hehe Its just one of those moments when you smack yourself in the head and go DOH! Hey I am still learning. I am just happy to have a place like this to share my work. Below is a little background on the Lighthouse Tavern.

The windows are indeed magical, a gift to the owner from an old teacher. They are guarenteed not to break, at least by non-magical means. The lanterns were crafted by the tavern's owner, Tulwen Brook. He wasn't a powerful wizard, but he knew enough to do such things. He also had two daughters who sing within the tavern, Coria and Karanda. Two beautiful women who favor their mother alot, and are quite famous in the region for their songs. Another tid bit is that Tulwen has a tipping jar sitting on the end of the bar, which is not on the map, called "The Bolger". Its named after a rogue he once adventured with to honor his memory, and love of coins. The initial shield that looks golden on the map, was donated by one of Tulwen's best friends. His name was Bregus, the warrior of the same party of the rogue. He now works for the lord of the area as a high ranking official in his army. Tulwen's wife died some time ago from a slow acting poison that took years to effect her mind to the point of death. Her daughter was named after her, Coria. Tulwen and Coria were the ones who discovered the griffon egg on their way back to Tulwen's home town, Laerem. The mother of the egg was mortally wounded by a group of bandits, which the two fended off. before dying the griffon willed it into Tulwen's care along with a small cache of treasure. Tulwen, having a similar story to his life, gladly gave the egg a home and place in his life. His true ambition however was to always own his tavern.