Well, I thought I'd get straight to it this time by posting my Peace and Harmony themed challenge entry in here before I forgot!
And for those interested, here's the lore I put with it before:
Peace has no meaning without war, and so it was with the city of Aldengard. Dwarves and elves forever at each others throat, the stone hitting hard against forest. But as it is with all wars, the soldiers are people and, legend has it that, at the end of a long and bloody battle, stood a lone dwarf and opposite him an elf. Battle-weary, both collapsed to the ground with no desire to fight. Without meaning to, they began to speak of their homes, their differences, but most of all, what they had in common. It is said that the very next day, after bidding their farewells to their fallen, the two marched into the hills and found a plain where two rivers met. Surrounded by an abundance of trees, water and stone, it was here they founded Aldengard.
Who knows the truth of that tale, but what is sure is now over 1000 years later, the city has grown immensely, the dwarf's carefully planned designs bonded alongside the magic of the elf. Circling canals provide life to all within, from the scattered slums to the inner crescents, nourishing agriculture and powering factories alike. It is a city of great structure, but equally of natural growth. Some dislike the tall walls encircling the city, saying they embody the very essence of war, but to others they are the exact opposite, an impressive reminder of the peace that founded Aldengard, a peace that brought together the very best of both dwarves and elves, a peace that still rings true across all its citizens.
I got asked about how I did the shaded relief on this too, so I thought I'd give a quick explanation. I don't think I need graphics, but if it's unclear let me know. This is for PS, but it should be pretty translatable to anything similar.
Firstly, I add in the basic rocky lines. I used a standard pressure sensitive round brush and play around keeping these deliberately jagged, stuttered and with varying thickness to make them more uneven.
The shading here was divided into three parts. The "Rocky" part could really have happened at any time, so could have been done first, I just ended up doing it last:
Basic
Built up
Rocky
- For the basic shadowing, I took a relatively large pressure-variable opacity brush set at 20% opacity and used a darker shade. I vaguely had in mind the light coming from the top left, but this wasn't crucial at this point for me. Instead I started to build up the shadows in the troughs and dips, making it darker in their centres and trying to accentuate any larger ridges by putting shadows on their underside. The pressure-variable opacity really allows you to build up the lighter and darker areas far more easily, but it's important not to overwork things yet. In the end I had this layer set to "Multiply" at 40% opacity.
- On a new layer take the same brush as before, but a fair bit smaller. At this point, I had definitely decided a light direction from the top left and these shadows were really to show that. I took the brush and started building up shadows underneath the ridges, large and small. Again the variable pressure really helps with this, allowing for the thicker shadows on the slopes facing to the lower right to fade into lighter areas. It can be a good idea to add some odd shadows here and there where there is no obvious ridge to give a bit more depth. In the end I had this layer set to "Multiply" at 25% opacity.
- The shadows should look pretty decent now, but the final step I took was in building up the rock colour. I actually used a watercolour style brush I downloaded ages ago for this part, though I probably could have used the same brush as the other two sections equally well. I chose a brownish colour and set the opacity to 30%. This was for the rockier areas, such as the top right and some of the bottom left. Like with the shadows, this was a process of building them up along the contours of the land. Once the rockier sections were roughly fleshed out, I reduced the opacity to 20% and built up the slightly less rocky regions around them. I then dropped it to 10% to build up the final areas, and then touch up any of the rest of it that needing better variation. The layer style of this one was once again "Multiply" but at 50% opacity.
That explanation is relatively simple and only what I did here. Some key things to keep in mind are:
- Remember to keep brush strokes fairly light, as this allows more control in building the shadows.
- The layer settings I used here, I just played around with a lot. I often go for low to middling opacities for shadows, but not always.
- On a similar note, another layer style I very often use is "Overlay" particular for more coloured pieces. The forest shadow on this used overlay, and it's worth testing out to see how it compares.
- Lastly, it's important to take this with a pinch of salt. The most key things from this is really about building up the shadows with the brush and keeping a shadow direction. I'm sure there are many other methods that work well, just play around with what I've put here and see what happens.
I hope that helps any who were interested.
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The City of Aldengard
