The Murky Cellar - A dungeon encounter

[Hexapanther]

Hello,
My first map is now up for view and the actual layout is finished. I made a few changes after a play test - widening some corridors, moving the connection to the natural cave system to a different room.

So the purpose of the map is for the DM/GM to use as an encounter. I am trying to find a style that allows me to somewhat quickly get my ideas out and in a (online) publishable way. Eventually the dungeon will be stocked with descriptions and other relevant information.

My current work process:

1. I first draw the map on grid paper
2. Adding cross-hatching, dyson style (love that effect), although I still need lots of practice
3. Photograph the paper and work with the image in GIMP
4. Crop the image and set to correct image size - no need for a super big image.
5. To get the grid away I am pumping up the brightness +30-40 and up the contrast +60ish.
6. Cleaning the map, removing artifacts where needed
7. Color select black - use the selection in a new layer and fill black.
8. Spray grey along the cross-hatching in a separate layer
9. Selecting white open areas with the magic wand thingy and with all open spaces selected add the GIMP filter RENDER/PATTERN/GRID to get a nice grid. I do fiddle around alot with getting the right offset and grid size (using 70)
10. Add map symbols (compass)
11. Room numbering

And the result is as follows:

ruinen_cellar2.jpg

I'll be happy to listen to any feedback in order to improve it!

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https://hexapanther.wordpress.com

[ChickPea]

Nice work on this!

[damonjynx]

Great map. If you use graph paper with a blue grid you may be able to select the blue with the fuzzy select tool and delete it. That works for me on scanned images in PS CS4, don't know how well it would work with photos.

[arsheesh]

Not too bad for a first map. It's fairly clear and readable. Darkening the cavern/dungeon walls is an interesting choice. It does help to highlight the rooms. However I can't help thinking that it would have looked better had you instead simply done a bit more hatch-work. A nice map though.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

[damonjynx]

@arsheesh. Check out Matt Jackson, he does similar but colours the whole map.

[Reilith]

Great job! You've actually done almost the same as I've for my own dungeon map, with a few different steps. I like the idea of shaded cross-hatching, but I'd just try to visually contain it, or smudge the edges where the hatching stops, for a neater effect.

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[Hexapanther]

Not too bad for a first map. It's fairly clear and readable. Darkening the cavern/dungeon walls is an interesting choice. It does help to highlight the rooms. However I can't help thinking that it would have looked better had you instead simply done a bit more hatch-work. A nice map though.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

Thanks for the feedback! I initially did want to go heavier on the hatchwork but in my process to get it digitalised, lots of the details got lost. In order to strengthen the contrast I added the shading. I have several penned maps that I haven't gotten to look consistent in a digital version.

.H