Cragmaw Hideout Dungeon Tiles (critique requested)

[cjd95031]

Hello, all! First post here but I've been around occasionally.

My party is going through Lost Mine of Phandelver + Dragon of Icespire Peak concurrently. I'm working on a tileset for Cragmaw Hideout and I'd like some feedback on the design, whether it's about content presented in my notes or something else. I'm new to this, so if I say I did something x way to get y and there's a better way to do it, please let me know.

Things to know about this project:
1) the rooms aren't an exact replication of the original design
2) furniture (e.g. bedrolls, campfires, doors, etc) are being added later, most likely with tokens
3) the intention is to print these tiles out on cardstock and affix them to a sturdy base, so the edges must blend with each other
4) I prefer dungeon tiles versus encounter maps because of how the exploration feels
5) I also prefer simple maps that leave much to the imagination but I'm far better at image manipulation
6) you're a saint if you take the time to help me with this

Post #1 - Area 6, Goblin Den v1
cave-a-resized.png

My Notes:
-made for 20mm scale (image resolution halved to upload here)
-the lighting looks a bit off, but I don't know why
-I'm worried the differences in lighting will be jarring when two tiles are placed next to each other

[Kisachik the Wanderer]

Hi. One thing you notice about this image immediately is that these shadows are unnaturally black. So black in fact that your values are clipping in some areas. That is why your lighting seems off; because shadows like that don't exist in nature.The contrast between light and dark is too high. The angle of the shadow is confusing, and the shadows are blurry, so it's impossible to tell if there is ambient light, or a strong light source, and what the position of it might be.

So I guess the first thing to do is to figure out the kind of lighting setup for this tile. I would suggest ambient lighting, because it would make all your tiles look consistent. In a setting lit this way you get very subtle shadows where objects are close to each other, so in places like corners of walls, or where wall meets the floor. The shadows are blurry and subtle. Here's an example: link

As you can see, with shadows like that you'll have to set walls apart from floors using texture, color and value. The look you'll get will not be as three-dimensional as if you used less light, but you will get way more consistency across all your tiles.

Also it is good practice to adjust your levels to avoid clipping when you're preparing your files for printing, so you don't get blacks that are too dark.

[DrWho42]

Hi. One thing you notice about this image immediately is that these shadows are unnaturally black. So black in fact that your values are clipping in some areas. That is why your lighting seems off; because shadows like that don't exist in nature.The contrast between light and dark is too high. The angle of the shadow is confusing, and the shadows are blurry, so it's impossible to tell if there is ambient light, or a strong light source, and what the position of it might be.

So I guess the first thing to do is to figure out the kind of lighting setup for this tile. I would suggest ambient lighting, because it would make all your tiles look consistent. In a setting lit this way you get very subtle shadows where objects are close to each other, so in places like corners of walls, or where wall meets the floor. The shadows are blurry and subtle. Here's an example: link

As you can see, with shadows like that you'll have to set walls apart from floors using texture, color and value. The look you'll get will not be as three-dimensional as if you used less light, but you will get way more consistency across all your tiles.

Also it is good practice to adjust your levels to avoid clipping when you're preparing your files for printing, so you don't get blacks that are too dark.

yeah, adjusting your levels should be the best solution. no point fighting in the dark.

[LunaticDesign]

The shadows feel a little deep and black to me. I'm a hand drawn pencil and ink sort and not particularly good. A neat effect might be to lesson the shadows and desaturate the areas where they fall a little bit.