My first map - Volcanic hideaway

[Hoob]

This is my first real attempt at making a map, although I've got a lot of experience with Photoshop in general. Made in Photoshop CS4, using a lot of textures from CG Textures, and some stock images for a few little things. The chairs and stove belong to Bogie.

I shrunk this down a little to keep it manageable (and uploadable, the end file was gigantic), but there's a full resolution version here. The crumbling sections of the bridge are supremely lazy, I need to go back and refine them, but I'm happy to call this finished for now, and felt like showing off. I think I've done pretty well for a first map.
thumb.jpg
Any criticism welcome, I want to improve.

[Bogie]

Cool,,,or Hot! you might need to reload the attachment it doesn't seem to be working right now.

[Hoob]

Thanks for the heads up, fixed that. Excellent work with those resources I borrowed, by the way. Saved me a lot of time.

[Freehand 5.5]

Without reading your text at fist glance it wasn't obvious to me if this is a volcanic underground complex or just walkways over volcanic lakes leading to a living dome or something.

[Hoob]

Yeah clarity as to what you're actually looking at is one of the main flaws with this map, it's something I'll definitely work on in future.

[AntonioFrade]

I like the map, but I see something that disturbs me in the map...

The borders adjacents to the lava pools are in shadow!! The lava emits light, so, these borders must be illuminated, not in shadow, and the central areas with less bright / less illuminated (because the light dissipates as travel through the air).

[Hoob]

Yeah, I really didn't consider much realism when making this map, it's largely a test bed. I would've gone back and fixed it in the end, but it was such a mess of layers that I just gave up. Organisation is definitely a priority for my future maps. And realism, where applicable. Thanks!

[Jacktannery]

I think that this is an excellent map, and a really excellent first map.

Great use of bogie's textures - not too many that it clutters the map. Great use of stone textures, lighting, and the fire is really very well done. It's a really strong map visually with a very clear style. I'm also not bothered by correct lava shadows. Having said all that, although I love your map, I wouldn't use it because I can't really work out what's supposed to be going on. I play rpgs online and if I posted this map up for my PCs we'd all have a different idea of where we could move on the map and where we couldn't. I still really like it though, and look forward to see more of your work Hoob.

[Hoob]

Thanks heaps.
As for moving around, all of the structures are designed so they adhere perfectly to a grid, although, yeah, it can get a bit murky with the natural terrain. Also, for anyone wondering, the map is for my Eberron campaign; it's a long abandoned home of a fire giant, up in the crater of a volcano. The big round thing is supposed to be an ivory tower, I struggled a little with how to represent it well.

[jfrazierjr]

Yeah, I really didn't consider much realism when making this map, it's largely a test bed. I would've gone back and fixed it in the end, but it was such a mess of layers that I just gave up. Organisation is definitely a priority for my future maps. And realism, where applicable. Thanks!

If you don't already, my suggestion is:

LEARN TO LOVE LAYER MASKS!!! For example, I almost NEVER use selections to "fill" with colors/textures, I use a layer with a layer mask instead and get FAR more flexibility(at the expense of a bit more memory usage)