[Award Winner] Battlemaps in Photoshop

[jtougas]

Great tutorial ! I have spent years learning how to do what you explained so well. Thanks so much for taking the time to share

[Avengeil]

It took me a moment to figure out and after upgrading to 2.8 I understood what you meant. I love the brush changes.

[Mask_of_winter]

This tutorial really spoke to me man! Thanks a lot. I'm not an artist but by using good textures and layer effects I've been able to produce cool maps. There are so few tutorial that apply to battlemaps.

[Avengeil]

Another question in my ongoing attempt to see what I can use from this tut in my gimp mapping.

What exactly does a layer clipping mask translate to?

[ajb47]

I have another question, now that I've made a few for my own use -- what's the best way to do jungle trees? My grass looks pretty good, at least to me, and I just added a pretty nice ocean layer, but the trees for this tutorial look deciduous instead of tropical. Most of the jungle tree patterns I find are profile rather than top down.

Guess I should show my latest work:

BeachBattle01.jpg


Looks like I could fill in a little more of the ocean up the side, now that I see it again.

Thanks in advance.

[Moonblade]

Totally awesome tutorial, Madcowchef. One of those threads where I just have to thank you for everything.

I will share my second try with the tips and tricks mentioned on the opening post -- an attempt at copying the first dungeon on DnD 5e's Starter Set, Lost Mine of Phandelver. This is 25x25 squares, 70px each, made for roll20.

Goblin Cave.jpg

Enjoy. Thanks again Madcowchef.

[madcowchef]

@Avengeil I was hoping someone more knowledgeable in gimp would give you advice, I'm not really certain myself.

@ ajb47 Sorry I missed your question. Aside form finding elements others have posted, you could try to make a more fern edged brush and see if that helps. My method really only works well for fuzzy brush and scrub. You look like you have something good going with the texture you've chosen at very least, you could even choose that texture as as the "texture" under the bevel/emboss option and make those leaves look more shaded.

@ Moonblade You're most welcome, that looks like it will add a lot to your game experience!

Great to see people using the tutorial, love seeing the results.

[Tanc1974]

Elven Barrows.jpg Thanks for the great tutorial.

Played around with your tutorial and came up with this for some elven barrows.

Cheers
Tanc

[madcowchef]

Thanks for sharing its fun to see what folks come up with from it. I especial like central pond with the rock in it, nice texture choice for your beach and good shadows.

[madcowchef]

My technical skills are far below the ability to record myself, and the thought of doing so terrifies me. There are some excellent video tutorials on Photoshop basics out there though that are a good place to start.