Underground Cavern System
This is my first attempt at mapping an underground cavern system or anything for that matter. At this point I keep looking at it and I'm just not sure where to proceed from here. Anyone have any suggestions? A little background on the dungeon. This is meant for a D&D Encounter and I plan to populate it with goblins, beetles, spiders, etc. My current thoughts are to have a group of goblins residing in the upper levels of the dungeon with spiders to the back. I may have the larger body of water housing something nasty, but not sure yet.
Thanks in advance.
Underground-Cavern.jpg
Beautiful map! For a first attempt, this is extremely impressive. I really love your style and can't wait to see an update with it populated!
The only suggestion I can make is to maybe try darkening the background a bit, so that it contrasts with the lighter cavern interior.
EDIT: By populated, I mean with elements related to the types of creatures your players will encounter. For example, some spider webs throughout, or just in the main section where they hang out.
Last edited by Neyjour; 07-16-2013 at 11:06 PM.
My: maps ~ mapping freebies
Agree with Neyjour - great map. I love how clean it is, and great colours. Disagree about darkening the background though.
My only suggestion would be changing the colour of the black-bits in the background to a dark brown, while keeping the black for dirt, contours and ripples on the open parts of the complex, in order to differentiate background from foreground. I love the hue of blue for the water - reminds me of lovely old-school maps - but I would lighten it slightly and perhaps desaturate it very slightly (but not change the hue).
Thanks for the feedback. I had a love/hate relationship with the outer border stippling. I felt it overpowered the contents of the map itself so I have made a change to a lighter stippling. So far I am liking this better. Lightened up the background and went with white for the actual content at least for now. I'd like to have it textured as well and will continue working that aspect. I redid the rocks/rubble and feel the current style works better for differentiating that they are not part of the background. The spider cavern has had webs added. Still trying to figure out the rest of the denizens. I am positive that I want a group of goblins in the upper chamber and will start working that area next.
Edit: I almost forgot I lightened up the water as well.
### Latest WIP ###
Underground-Cavern2.jpg
Cavern walls, rocks and water are much better now.
Hey bud - great cavern map.
A few questions for ya:
Did you hand-draw in the spider webs for the web cave? They look pretty cool.
I love the stippling effect you did to accentuate the walls of the cavern but how did you do it?
Lastly - the addition of the small rocks and boulders really made the map 'feel' like a cavern. Did you draw them in or use some other technique?
Good work bud. Keep it coming!
-GP
Thanks Green-Pilgrim.
They are a photoshop brush which after placing on the page I resized and rotated, then placed where I wanted them. Everything not inside the cavern was masked off.Did you hand-draw in the spider webs for the web cave?
Photoshop Outer glow with a custom gradient and lots of noise.I love the stippling effect you did to accentuate the walls of the cavern but how did you do it?
Screen Shot 2013-08-23 at 9.33.27 PM.png
This was pretty simple. They are all hand drawn "dots", but with a layer style. The layer has an outside stroke of 2px black. There are actually two layers that have the same style, but using two layers allowed me to "pile" the rocks on top of each other.Lastly - the addition of the small rocks and boulders really made the map 'feel' like a cavern. Did you draw them in or use some other technique?
Hope this helps. And thanks again for the positive feedback.
Harold
I'm going to have to experiment with that boulder technique. I like the idea of adding them to my maps to perhaps clutter some of the passages.
-GP
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