Ambush site

[Simon33600]

You're welcome. The texture is from CGTextures. You can download it here:
Grass by Jacobo Cortés Ferreira

Wonderful! Done, thanks!

Great progress! Really looking good.

I think the puddles are a bit lost. Maybe try selecting the between-the-cobbles area and filling that with a darker water texture to give the impression of water between the stones? You could do a stretch along one edge and increase the green in the nearby grass to indicate a low/wet spot.

Maybe a few clumps of weedy grass along the road to break up the edge a bit?

Nice work!

Thanks for the compliment.
I went ahead and download some clumps of grass from Dunjdini. They look nice full size but, reduced to the correct scale, they are mostly a greenish mush.
I used them, though, both on the road as small, and full size as bushes...

I also worked on the puddles following your comments, and used your suggestion to put a dark patch of grass on the side. I located it close to the cliff as it seemed to make sense that the water would accumulate there... I also added a fairy ring there, which kind of make sense, but might be a bit too much...


Anyway, what do you guys think about it now?

Ambush site.png

[aquarits]

suggestion:

Make the road not too regularly and i guess it will be better if you get some sand btw the paved and the grass. Maybe less blur in the tree's shadow.

Btw, is a nice work and e creative idea

[Simon33600]

suggestion:
Make the road not too regularly and i guess it will be better if you get some sand btw the paved and the grass. Maybe less blur in the tree's shadow.
Btw, is a nice work and e creative idea

I agree.
Here is a version where I removed some stones (it also helped the road appears less regular...) and where I remade the trees' shadows and did not blur them quite as much...


Ambush site.png


Thanks for the help...

[Jacktannery]

Simon, your map is very good and has improved a great deal since post 1 - great job! You are turning into a pro.

I LOVE your brilliant spear shadow - it looks great. I also really like your cliff.

To make your cliff 'sit down' in the landscape a bit better, you could try and make a more gentle transition at the bottom of the cliff between the grey rock and grass. Try using a layer mask to fade the transition and see what it looks like. Also you should darken the shadow that shows the steep drop at the TOP of the slope - this should be blacker and a bit thicker. These two things will turn your good cliff into a great cliff. You might also increase the darkness of the slope shadow in the bottom-left of the map a good bit, and add a similar shadow to the east so the cliff does not just stop.

Your tree shadows look much better now that you have followed Neyjour's good advice. Try making yours darker to match her example - it will look better. Also your other shadows. And some of your shadows (on those nice leaf-covered wooden defences) look like they are going over your objects.

You can probably get away with a much thinner grid.

Personally, I don't like the texture you have used for your road, because it looks a bit cartoony. I prefer something like this texture (which I have resized for you from the Nomeradona blog):
cobblestonetexturesmall.png
To use this, delete your road texture totally leaving grass background, then make your road layer and fill it with this (seamless) cobblestone texture. I think it is at the right size for your map (which by the way is very small - do you reduce them for uploading to this website? Perhaps you should think about making each grid square more pixels in size next time). Use a layer mask to restrict the cobbles to your road. Fade out the edges on either side using the mask. Make the whole layer 80-90% opacity so they are not too sharp. Now get a very small fuzzy paintbrush and paint black on your mask layer between some of the stones, to make the illusion of moss growing between the cobbles. These are just some ideas by the way - feel free to ignore.

[Simon33600]

Ok then...

What do you think about it now?

Ambush site.png



Normally, the size of the picture should actually be pretty big: 42cm by 29.7 (it is supposed to be printed to scale and fit and A3). I guess the might be resized as a side effect of the compression when I export it... I'll need to check that out...

[Neyjour]

Looking good!

That road texture looks much better than the previous one, and I like how you've cut around the individual stones along the edges. The only thing that doesn't look right is the drop shadow, which makes it look like the road is floating above the grass.

One other thing you might try with the road, is to add a little bit of dirt along the edges, transitioning into the grass.

[Simon33600]

Actually, I tried that, but I guess the dirt texture was a bit dark (I sampled some pixels between the cobblestones and tried to use that... seemed to make sense, but then, the stones do shade the dirt in between)... Which probably gave this "drop-shadowy" effect.

So, I redid my grass layer mask and put a lighter dirt layer...

Ambush site.png

[mthomas768]

Really coming along nicely!

One thing that sticks out to me is the shadows on the mantlets. They look a bit large and round, especially when compared to the trees. Maybe use a soft eraser to give them a less uniform edge (to indicate branches sticking out here and there) and to shrink them a bit?

[Simon33600]

Something like that?

Ambush site.png

[mthomas768]

Yes! I might have left a little more shadow, but that looks a lot better to me!