Desert Canyon

[ARockabillyRhino]

Hi all,

Spun this map up tonight. It's my first attempt at hand drawing a battle map like this.
Would love to get some c&c from my fellow cartographers as I finish it up.

desert_battlemap_01_70px.jpg

[XCali]

Hi!

It is always good to see other people doing hand drawn maps. It is definitely a good start!

Let's see, pointers...
1. That flecks of rock that is clearly on the bottom on the canyon floor IN THE SHADOW falling from the canyon side, is not suppose to be that bright. They are in the shadow.


2. If you are on something like Photoshop or gimp, I can teach you a trick with doing the shadows easier and be able to tweak them later without having to redo stuff or overlap shadows on a weird way while making changes:
I am taking your lineart layer is on top?
<->Create layer somewhere, doesn't really matter, you are going to hide this layer. Let's call it SOLID HIGH-GROUND
On "Solid High-ground" pick the base Hard round brush. Pick a vivid color, like very bright blue. Next, paint on your actual high ground. Like on top of the canyon and on the BIGGER rocks on the canyon floor. >> What will happen is you have something to Alpha to select and then invert. This means, you can actually paint shadows without hitting the TOP of the stuff. We will get to what will happen on top. HIDE this layer. (Not visible)
Shadow_Tut1.jpeg
Shadow_Tut_2.jpeg
<-> So, now create a layer just below the lineart layer and DEFINITELY above the color layer. Let's call this layer CAST SHADOWS.
On "Cast Shadows" take a soft edge round brush,(Small soft edge) --Or you can use a hard round brush but that necessitates an extra step-- With your chosen brush, pick a BLACK color, or almost black deserty brown. Though for the tut, use black. This is still on the "Cast Shadows" layer. WITHOUT changing the opacity of the BRUSH. (Don't do it!) Change the LAYER's opacity to 80 for now.
Alpha to select on the "Solid High-ground" layer. (If you understand how to do that, just ask if you don't.) INVERT that selection.
Go back to "Cast shadows layer" (This is important. Pick ONE direction from where the SUN or Moon is shining. And stick with that direction) Now with that round brush and for now black selected, paint in the shadows the canyon rocks will throw on the ground. (This layer is above the color layer remember) so the things that needs to be in shadow will be in shadow. Also, remember, this a canyon, it won't have a small cast shadow, that thing will go a ways away from the rock.

Now, having done that, put "Cast Shadows" on multiply layer mode. Then you can play with the LAYER's opacity to choose how dark your cast shadow layer is or not. Try it. Though, for cast shadows, don't go below something like 65% for layer opacity.
Shadow_Tut_3.jpeg

<-> Create a layer ABOVE "Cast Shadows" layer. Let's call it CORE SHADOWS.
Core shadows are quite a bit darker than cast shadows. But, the difference is, they are close to the edges and not nearly as big as cast shadows.
REPEAT the steps with the cast shadows layer, but keep these new shadows small and close to the edges. (Also, AFTER using Alpha to select like with the cast shadows step, to add your core shadows along the edges, go back to select NONE and on the "Core Shadows" layer, start painting on the rock faces themselves, where you think there wouldn't be much light, remember to keep it small, this layer is going to be DARK shadows.

Put, "Core Shadows" layer on multiply layer mode too. Put the layer opacity to something like 70% and resist going below that. Because it is multiplying with the previous layer, it is lower opacity layer, but it is darker on the image.
Shadow_Tut_4.jpeg
This is for having an idea what difference it makes. Normally, I take a bit more time to fine tune my shadows, but for these pictures the idea comes across.

You already some feel for highlights, but the darker shadows will make the highlights pop even more. If you like this tut, I can walk you through highlights next?

I hope this helps you some.


EDIT:
As I did the pictures, I realised I had to mention not to paint the Blue across the main lines where your ridge is. Because when I you add the cast shadows and there is place that it is over it, it creates a light patch, which is awkward to fix if not done directly.

[ARockabillyRhino]

Oh my g, xCali, this was so helpful!
I'll hide my shadows and give your alpha based shading a go. It'll be tough since I have multiple levels, but I guess I'd just do the process three times, one for each ridge?
Anyways, hard to say how much I appreciate this level of help, I'd love to hear what you have to say about highlights.

[ARockabillyRhino]

So I redid the shadows and highlights layers. The result is a bit less colorful than my first draft, but with a lot more depth. Which do you all like more?

desert_battlemap_01_70px_new_shadows.jpg

[XCali]

Yays!!!! It worked perfectly! Well done

And what are you talking about less colourful? This looks great.
(You can always lighten your base colour layer, if it feels a bit dark.)

Anyway, great going. I will see when I get time maybe tomorrow to talk you through highlights.
I am really glad my tut worked for you.

[Tenia]

Hi,
Agree with Omri, great improvement !

[XCali]

Hi!

I've been thinking how I should tackle the highlight tut. And to be honest, it is quite a bit harder to explain than the shadows, just that though it is more subtle, it has very definitive effect on your art. Highlights, Cast shadows and Core shadows work in tandem, each compliments the other and with each additional one you add the effect is more pronounced.

This is just a gentle showcase of the effect. Your map has a MID-TONE base color. Basically the happy middle color. The shadow is darker than that and the highlight is lighter than that.

First picture. Just Mid-tone and shadows.
No_Highlight_preview1.jpeg
Second picture, Highlight, mid-tone and shadows.
Highlight_preview_1.jpeg

EDIT: Okay so here I was a bit bolder with my highlights and shadows around my mid-tone. It gives a bit better of an idea.
Highlights_Preview 2.jpeg
It started out as COMPLETELY flat text.

See Highlights as UP/ELEVATION and shadow as DOWN/DEPRESSION and mid tones is what roams between them.
So, you would use highlights on the side of your waterfall to give that a height effect. Btw, this reminds me, add a VERY gentle darker shade to the water, to show it is lower than the water above the canyon.

Okay, for highlights you work free hand with a small brush or you can do the Alpha to select technique. Then small random cloud brush. the round brush doesn't work as good for this. On its own layer, normally below that core shadow layer, so that you can shade in cracks and stuff maybe. I find that normally for my highlights I work with extremely low opacity. So, either brush on very low opacity brighter colour, OR layer on low opacity after you painted in your highlights.

They are more difficult to get right, I will say that. So, it is a bit hard to explain exactly what the techniques are. But, I hope this pointed you in the right direction. You can either be bold with your highlights or subtle. It depends on the effect you want. Remember, nature is BOLD with its highlights and shadows. Though, at least you can tweak it where you are happy.

Hope it helped. Have fun!

[ARockabillyRhino]

Thanks again XCali!
I'll give another go tomorrow and see where it ends up.

[ARockabillyRhino]

Hey XCali, sorry it took so long to get back, I started actually using these maps, which took some time.
I didn't end up changing my canyon tooo much, but added some highlights to the walls (and camels).

desert_battlemap_01_70px_camels.jpg

I just finished another quick desert battlemap that I'll put up in this forum where I used a lot of the highlight tips you gave. Thanks so much!

[Bogie]

Very well done nice map. The one thing I would add is if you've got a waterfall there should be some splashes or ripples or foam or all of the above. It doesn't need a lot just enough to show the there's action in the water.