Feedback, advice and pointers sought

[EliodeGM]

Hi

I've been watching the forum for ages looking for ideas and tutorials. And the site has been a goldmine of resources.

So I've started working on some dungeon floorplans and wanted to start sharing. If there's any feedback available I'll gladly take it on board.

Here's one I'm pleased with as an example of where my skill level is.

[EliodeGM]

So, I am concerned that I'm making the map too dark.

Also not sure about the dimensions and DPI I need.

Im hoping I can get them right for digital use, on services like Roll20.

My aim is to use an inferred grid, by keeping the stone slabs in a somewhat regular arrangement. Does that work?

[damonjynx]

Overall, that's a great effort. Personally, I think it's a bit too dark - it's all very similar looking to me - particularly if you intend using it on Roll20. Try lightening either the floor or the negative space outside the walls for a bit of contrast. It wouldn't hurt to have a highlight on the walls either, to make them "pop" a bit more. Not that I'm an expert by any means! I like the subtle glow from the wall sconces and the way you've done the floor tiles - a more than adequate substitute for a grid I'd say.

Keep up the good work. Practice makes perfect so they tell me...

Are using PS, GIMP or something else entirely?

[EliodeGM]

Cheers Damon -

I'll take on board the pointers... highlighting the walls could help, you speak wisdom with the comment about contrast. I found when sharing with friends on Facebook that the white page background made the image way too dark to view.

I'm working my way towards adding details, working out methods for the light effects was one of the latest moves I made. Eventually I hope to be able to add in furniture and fixtures as overlays. So I suspect I'll be aiming to just do room layouts as mapping without contents.

I am using Photoshop for the colouring, lighting and props, walls and shadows. I draw my own slabs on the IOS Adobe draw, getting vector based grids for my stone work.

I'm coming at this as a technical exercise, working smart to make the most of the software. So my layer effects are doing most of the work getting the style I'm after.

I'll share a brighter (better contrasted image) that uses many of the same method.

[EliodeGM]

And here's the same map but with the contrast raised so we can see a little better




Note this is a post production alteration - if I redid it I'd control the balance and contrast a little more.

[EliodeGM]

A new one I did tonight, taking on board some of the advice. Also smaller so the detail can be appreciated a little easier.

[Bogie]

Nice work. The new map has a better contrast and the wall shadows are good. I like the background texture you are using instead of just black, but I would make it even a little darker.

The dpi you should use depends on how you are going to use the map. If you are going to print maps, you should use at least 100 dpi, for Roll20 their grid is 70 x 70 dpi. I usually make my maps at 100 dpi incase I ever want to print them and then I can easily reduce them to 70 dpi for Roll20 without losing to much resolution.

[EliodeGM]

Thanks for the positives, Will darken my background some...

Eventually I just want to produce a crosshatch effect that fades to black around the walls. I'll see how easy it is to get that effect!?

At present my DPI is all over the place... I'm aiming high knowing that I can always drop down later. High DPI allows me to keep the quality up.

I think I'll take a stab at the dark outer pattern and maybe work on my slabs adding a more uneven rock texture next.

Cheers everyone for the tips and feedback.

[EliodeGM]

A couple of hours work getting this together... mostly making my rock slabs more rocky, and adjusting the trim and outer background.

I made and put the table in to break up the room a little...

Hope you feel the slabs are more texture genuine... sentence construction a little beyond me...



As ever I'm just building the skill set with these, so any ideas or advice very welcome.

[damonjynx]

Well done mate. Each step is an improvement. You certainly won't go wrong taking Bogies advice. BTW: He also has a load of objects you can download, from http://www.vintyri.org/vintyri/bgindex.htm.

Your cobblestones are excellent, I really like them. You can also check out any of the tutorials here, there are some really good ones for creating battle maps etc.

Hope you don't mind me sharing Bogie!