Second Map - Untitled

[cniemira]

This map is much more along the lines of what I'm hoping to get out of CC3 than my first experiment was. Like my other map, this is just me playing around more than a map I expect to use for anything. Hopefully it's obvious that I'm trying to emulate the more recent style of Dungeon Magazine maps (from the Paizo age), which IMHO are pretty clean and highly usable.

Given that my interest is to actually display my maps during table-top play, it's important to me that they be uncluttered and readable (no "hey, what's this symbol here mean?")... thus the use of "classic" square doors, directional stair cases, etc. Pretty much all of these symbols (except for the obvious one) are custom, as is the map background. The tile-effect is also custom, but the floor texture is stock CC3.

One question for the more learned than I... my effects didn't render quite the way I was hoping. The big image is my map as exported from CC3... the smaller one is a screen shot of CC3. You'll notice the darkness effect (black wall glow) is much more pronounced in the preview than the exported image... anyone know why this might have happened?

Any suggestions on how I might improve my style?

[NeonKnight]

Could be the act that the radius/strength of the glow is pretty low that you cannot see it in the large picture until you 'zoom in' like you did for the second.

[cniemira]

I thought it was an optical illusion at first, but after looking into it a bit more, I'm doubting that now.

The zooming effect is just a result of the thumbnails being created. If you look at both images full size, where they're just about to the same scale, the darkness really is more pronounced in one image (the screen shot) than in the other.

I guess I'll poke around a bit more and see.

[ravells]

What export settings are you using? If for example you are exporting it as a reasonably compressed jpeg, some of the detail will be lost?

[cniemira]

I export images as PNGs, usually with the "rectangular selection" option. I keep compression in the middle (6)... but even if there were detail loss, I'd expect to see pixelation or banding before color effect. I'll try exporting with different options and see if that's the cause, though.