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Nice work with the rock jfrazierjr. The shading with the water is excellent, but the water is to blue.
Here is a quick sample(at least I like it). I don't "quite" have the water color I like, but that's easy to play with since I have two masked layers to make it. EDIT: perhaps I need to have a VERY slight texture to it...shrug...
As for your other image, I think the issue I have with it is the bolders(but, perhaps they are supposed to be!) are all quite flat. I did a quick mock up and made one of the bolders higher off of the ground as well as a few textured "wrinkles" on the surface plus a deeper shadow(ie, perhaps this rock might be say 2-4 foot tall from the ground.
I hope this helps, and if not, nothing lost..
My Finished Maps
Works in Progress(or abandoned tests)
My Tutorials:
Explanation of Layer Masks in GIMP
How to create ISO Mountains in GIMP/PS using the Smudge tool
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Unless otherwise stated by me in the post, all work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.
Nice work with the rock jfrazierjr. The shading with the water is excellent, but the water is to blue.
My Battlemaps Gallery http://www.cartographersguild.com/al...p?albumid=3407
That's brilliant on the rocks jpfrazier - Here's my latest attempt to copy you and fix the water.
Encounter 9 outer garden.jpg
And here is the latest attempt at Encounter 10 - I went heavier on the tree shadow to great effect, and I think I nailed the water this time - let me know.
Encounter 10 Whispering Grove.jpg
Excellent!!!! Both maps, big improvement!!
Last edited by Bogie; 03-04-2012 at 02:15 PM.
My Battlemaps Gallery http://www.cartographersguild.com/al...p?albumid=3407
Yep... those new rocks...welll... they ROCK... For the second one, since there is flowing water, perhaps just a HINT of movement. I would say create a layer with 50% grey set to overlay, possibly hard light and draw a few (not to many) flowing squiggles(not TOO much squiggles though) with white. Using a pen/tablet will let you do this much easier, but if all you have is a mouse you just have to set the opacity low and do multiple careful strokes. If you do hard light on the layer vs overlay, you will likely have to reduce the layer opacity quite a bit though... But then again, since your water color is so light to start with, perhaps it might need that extra bit to pop out....
The new water looks good at full size, but honestly looks excellent in the thumbnail.
@boogie, ye.. I knew the color was a bit off... I really suck at getting colors "just" right...it's especially hard for water on a battle map... I typically want to put algae on still water, but can't ever get a look I like...heh... Anyway, this is someone else's thread, so I will just shut up now....
My Finished Maps
Works in Progress(or abandoned tests)
My Tutorials:
Explanation of Layer Masks in GIMP
How to create ISO Mountains in GIMP/PS using the Smudge tool
----------------------------------------------------------
Unless otherwise stated by me in the post, all work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.
I'll give that idea a try tomorrow jpfrazier. For now, I think I have finally finished the first map. changed the water colour slightly; doubled the web strength and added strong offset web shadows, and added tree shadows. I think it works now. I have to stop tinkering.
On a more serious note, the idea here is to make five encounter maps of an outdoor space, then to shrink them and place them on a smaller-scale map of the entire monastery. That is why each of the encounter map must have a slightly different palate.
The monastery comprises several zones, of which the three first ones are: the foresty bit (what I'm doing now); the village-y bit (that's next) and the monastery ruins (that's last). All c. 20 maps need to work together on the overview map. Perhaps I have bitten off more than I can chew...
Encounter 9 outer garden.jpg
I would say to lighten up on the webs.. I see you also have some places where they are thinner/thicker and I would play more with that approach and/or use a layer mask to make some bits quite a bit less stand outish.. As for the shadows, good thought... but pay attention to the height. The higher they are, the smaller the shadow as well as the further away. For example, a web at 4 foot would have a shadow offset smaller than the offset for web at 10 foot and as well, the higher would would have a less noticeable shadow(assuming consistent width)
A number of these anchor to the ground and thus the shadows near the ground would end up having very little light through... Anyway, I don't envy you all the time you have spent on this, good job for sticking to it...
Oh yea, do you have a VTT you are targeting this for? I would suggest posting grid and non grid versions since most VTT's include their own grid system. I see your images are at kind of oddish resolution... are you using Battlegrounds? I know most VTT's suggest 50, 100 or some multiple of 50 px/in while I think I heard Battlegrounds expects 120(is that right?) If you are not targeting a specific VTT, I would suggest sticking with something easily divisible by 50.
My Finished Maps
Works in Progress(or abandoned tests)
My Tutorials:
Explanation of Layer Masks in GIMP
How to create ISO Mountains in GIMP/PS using the Smudge tool
----------------------------------------------------------
Unless otherwise stated by me in the post, all work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.
I am the running the campaign on RPOL, using MapTool. I will be using the gridded versions but I'll post up an un-gridded version for anyone what want it too. The grid I am using is 100 pixels across, so it should not be too complicated for other people to use.
Right. Hopefully I can get as much feedback on the next one in the series: the groundskeeper's cottage.
Does the path look terrible (I took the lazy option and didn't align the stones to the route)?
Does the topiary look ridiculous? I've always wanted to use those topiary animals.
Encounter 11 cottage roof.jpg Encounter 11 cottage floor.jpg
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