Mapping a Border-Castle [WIP]

[SteffenBrand]

Hey guys!

Since this is some non-paid work I do for fun and as a tribute to one of my favourite Pen-&.Paper-RPGs 'The Dark Eye' ('Das Schwarze Auge' in Germany), I guess I can do this one as a WIP to show you guys how I do this. The first step - making my mind and inner eye about the basics of this kind of castle I want to create I can hardly show anyhow, but usually I do some research and try to wrap my head around what makes sense to build and how it should be done in order to maintain the structural integrity of the building probably even in an attack.

This building should have:
- Upper floor, first floor, basement
- The big tower to defend in the worst case
- Two entrances (it is on a border, so naturally it should be able to handle some traffic)
- Guest rooms, stables, armory, smith, a little church, etc.

This is for an adventure, so lets get some dramatic. Also it is meant to be forgotten for about 15 years, parts of it are destroyed or broken down. An evil necromancer uses the basement as his lair. I'll put this in there, too.

This is what I've got so far.

I usually start with basic black forms as a basis and interesting forms. Also, this is very easy to do, you can arrange this very easy instead of drawing outlines at this point and messing up the distances in between the walls. This is the way I start out with this type of maps. The other stories will follow and kind of depends on the basis.

Technical stuff:
- I work in Photoshop CS6, Wacom Intuos 4 (the big one), MacBook Pro
- Everything in here will be hand made digitally, so no textures. I'll go for line-art.

Hope you like it. I'll continue as I go along.
Feel free to ask questions, comment and tell me stuff. =)

Steffen


Grenzfeste_WIP1.jpg

[Rautatilhi]

Sounds interesting. Is it based on a real castle, or pure fantasy?

[SteffenBrand]

Pure fantasy. Of cause you'll always have recurring elements just because of the fact that castles were build in specific ways.
So basically all castles have some standards, but nevertheless, you can give each castle its own flair I guess =)

[SteffenBrand]

I created some more details, this will break up the sterile walls and generate a more realistic structure in my opinion. I work with a few copy & paste objects I create and cut out the structures or add them here and there. I also made doors and some more pillars. Also, I included windows of cause.

Grenzfeste_WIP2.jpg

After that, everything else is done a specific way in less than 1 minute. I made this into a clipping mask and used a hand drawn hatching-layer I created before to fill the walls. By selecting the mask (CMD + klick on the layer) I had a selection of all that and used the 'stroke selection' tool on an extra layer to make the outline. In other cases I make this into a path and stroke this to get more out of the shape dynamics of the brush (line weight in example).

Grenzfeste_WIP3.jpg

Hope you like it so far. I included the hatching below to show you, you can try it yourself =)
Cheers, Steffen

[Ilanthar]

Looking good so far. I've always liked this kind of floor plans.

[SteffenBrand]

Thanks Ilanthar! I'll post my next step in a few hours I guess =)
Edit: Yay, Post 42!

[SteffenBrand]

I created the other floors as I planned before. Too bad, I was making the 1st floor a little too big and I had to scale it down a little. I also fixed the walls based on what I had on the basis (i.e. it doesn't make any sense to have entrances on the upper floor...). I also included some spots I want to focus on, made the first stairs, created the basement (a little bit damaged), the border arount the image, etc.

Edit: Since I got asked via PN - this is for a German RPG, so this will be in German obviously. Like most of my plans & maps. =)

Hope you like it so far, feel free to ask questions or comment.
Everything is appreciated =)

Grenzfeste_WIP4.jpg

[SteffenBrand]

I created an additional border and started putting in the inventory. This will continue for a while and with flipping, slightly rotating, etc. and using the walls as a natural direction for the interior stuff. Also, I started naming the rooms. This is often a little chaotic - I just work on the thing / room I have an idea for or I feel like it until I'm done. See for yourself =)

Grenzfeste_WIP5.jpg

[SteffenBrand]

Except for the tower I completed the 1st floor with lining. Of cause minor stuff could change depending on the other levels but the most objects are set. This step is a lot of work and you need to think about a lot of things to just know what makes sense in this area, where you should be able to get to, what objects do you need in there and so forth. I also included a lot of rubble, broke some walls down and loosely hatched some corners to trick the eye to not focus on the edges (since they are kind of refined forms in itself and loose hatching there breaks this up and 'softens it' - at least I get the feeling). Luckily, beside that this are usually the area junk is located and untouched plants grow randomly. =)

Feel free to ask questions or just leave a comment. =)
Cheers from Germany (1:10 am), Steffen

Grenzfeste_WIP6.jpg

[xpian]

Wow, very cool castle. I like the style and the layout. Everything is great.