Sept/Oct Lite Mapping Challenge: Caverns of Chaos Enter the Warren (Section 1)

[Tenia]

You're on the right path, I like these cliffs, now perhaps you are going to put some inline shadows on the floor, or repeat your elevation technique inside ?

[ladiestorm]

I have a couple of ideas I'm planning to work with

[ladiestorm]

So I am now almost back to where I was when I started over, but this time I have a little more detail on the first cavern. I've added a mask to darken it a bit, but not much yet, as there are a few other things I'm hoping to do, which means the darkness is going to have to wait a bit. Right now, I'm just trying to get the elements that need to be on this map... then I can work on the embellishments a bit

### Latest WIP ###

Chaos Caverns.02.JPG

I hope you like what I have so far, and as always, feedback is welcome!

[industrygothica]

Looks good. I like where you're going with it.


-IG

[Bioluminescence]

I am in awe of your cliff-face there - it looks so wonderfully 3D. Very motivating, Storm!

[Kier]

Coming a long nicely. I 2nd the cliff face. Looking good.

[ladiestorm]

Well, I had to take a few days off to help celebrate my youngest son's 16th birthday. And of course, since my oldest turned 18 this year, they decided they wanted two separate parties... extremely stressful on Mom, when their birthdays are less than two weeks apart!

But I am over and done with for birthday parties this year, since my hubby's next birthday isn't until next year! That means from here on out, I can devote my time to mapping, and crafting for Christmas of course. So here is what I have done so far:

### Latest WIP ###
Chaos Caverns.03.JPG

As you can see, I'm setting up the next cliff for the second cave. The tricky thing to deal with is the slope in the back that ends my section of the map, and joins some one else's... because this back cave starts on the second elevation, but slopes up and into the third.

Plus there's the issue of my first cave floor seeming to 'float' on top of my cave wall... but I'm already looking into ways to fix that and I think I've hit on an idea that will look fabulous.... if I can make it work that is!

[Bogie]

Well, I had to take a few days off to help celebrate my youngest son's 16th birthday. And of course, since my oldest turned 18 this year, they decided they wanted two separate parties... extremely stressful on Mom, when their birthdays are less than two weeks apart!

Plus there's the issue of my first cave floor seeming to 'float' on top of my cave wall... but I'm already looking into ways to fix that and I think I've hit on an idea that will look fabulous.... if I can make it work that is!

My "kids" birthdays are 1 day and 4 years apart, and for years they each had their own kid/friend party and then a combined Family Labor Day Cookout / Birthday party.

Like what you are doing with the map.

[ladiestorm]

lol... well, for the longest time, we did family birthdays, and celebrated both on a weekend in between the two. These parties were the first they'd had since.... wow... since they were really young. But then, this is the first time we'd had a place big enough to really host a party... so we figured why not?

And thanks It's coming along...

[ladiestorm]

Okay, so this is the idea that I had... to create the cliffs, I used some really cool rocks with striations then added my cave wall on top, to create the different elevations. But I wasn't too happy with the cave wall... and on top of that my cave floors looked like they were floating.

Changing to a different kind of wall shadow, and making sure my glow was inside my floor instead of outside it seems to have solved that problem. But even after adjusting the saturation of my cave wall, I still wasn't quite satisfied.

So I went back and started adding rocks to the outside... jumbling them together, and layering them so that they hopefully look like a continuation of the cliff face. This should also reinforce the depth of the cave floors. I haven't finished, because I wanted to check out the look of it first... I have to hand place each rock to get the layering effect. Of course, I will also have to break up the rock with vines, shrubs, that sort of thing.

I also went ahead and placed my second level cave. I'm not sure of the flooring I chose for it, but that is an easy change if I don't like it. I went with a granite for the second cave, figuring that the farther in these caves you get, the rockier they will become.

### Latest WIP ###

Chaos Caverns.04.JPG

Well, I can already tell that the granite, is NOT going to work. I forgot that it was tiled... so that has to change, but other than that, please tell me what you think!