the problem im having now is i cant figure out how to make the buildings shadows.
Yes! That totally fixed the optical illusion. I also really love the spray you have going from the rapids up the cliff wall.
Gidde's just zis girl, you know?
My finished maps | My deviantART gallery
My tutorials: Textured forests in GIMP, Hand-Drawn Mapping for the Artistically Challenged
the problem im having now is i cant figure out how to make the buildings shadows.
Hey, I really like that boat!!! I'm no help on the shadows though, shadows are sooo not my strong point
Gidde's just zis girl, you know?
My finished maps | My deviantART gallery
My tutorials: Textured forests in GIMP, Hand-Drawn Mapping for the Artistically Challenged
thanks, but the boat was more or less traced from a isometric computer game boat, slightly modified.
Having just gone through an extensive shadow "boot camp" I can say that shadows are all about light. You first need to figure out where your light is coming from in relation to your buildings. It helps to put a time of day to your map. To me it looks like mid day. so the sun would be more or less directly overhead which makes shadowing a bit easier.
I am the breath of Dragons...The Song of Mountains...The Stories of Rivers....The Heart of Cities.... I am A Cartographer....
Finished Maps
Kingdom Of Shendenflar Campaign Setting (WIP)
Everything I post is free for use and redistribution under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 licence, except where noted otherwise in the thread.
Easiest way is to create a new layer - fill it with color 808080 and set it to overlay. Now you can just dodge/burn or white/black to add or remove shadows. The way I did your shadows when I was playing with it was I figured light source at NE corner or NEE corner. Then I used my rectangle tool to draw a square where the shadow would be (Less the top of the building of course(do that by de-selecting that part)) and bucket filling with black or dark gray. Oh, with the shadow going SW of course. If that doesn't help I will point you to the mini-tutorial I did last lite-challenge which maybe I should redo and post to the How-do-I forums.
sorry I'd say more but I got dinner on the grill atm.
“When it’s over and you look in the mirror, did you do the best that you were capable of? If so, the score does not matter. But if you find that you did your best you were capable of, you will find it to your liking.” -John Wooden
* Rivengard * My Finished Maps * My Challenge Maps * My deviantArt
When can we expect to see more?
My Finished Maps
Works in Progress(or abandoned tests)
My Tutorials:
Explanation of Layer Masks in GIMP
How to create ISO Mountains in GIMP/PS using the Smudge tool
----------------------------------------------------------
Unless otherwise stated by me in the post, all work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.
final more or less
town of Tartha x15 varient d.jpg
It looks cool but there are no shadows so it looks kinda funky.
If the radiance of a thousand suns was to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the Mighty One...I am become Death, the Shatterer of worlds.
-J. Robert Oppenheimer (father of the atom bomb) alluding to The Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 11, Verse 32)
My Maps ~ My Brushes ~ My Tutorials ~ My Challenge Maps
What A. said.
Also, it would not hurt to throw some grunge on the docks and houses. Right now, they look uniformly clean(especially the houses). For the houses with A frame roofs, the light appears to be coming from the N(ish) direction, so the south facing roof lines should be a bit darker. This will help the roof "pop" and give the buildings more dimension. Also if the lighting is from the N, the support beams on the ramp going down to the doc should be quite a bit darker than the wood in the sunshine. The large building in the center of town is very hard to tell it has a roof line, so it needs more defining.
While you have a nice piece of work here, I think if you have the time, you could spend a bit more time and make it truly great. I would suggest doing something with the chimneys, perhaps hand drawing a brick or stone pattern(remember to warp a bit at the corners!) and color a bit differently. Likewise, some kind of texture or shape to the house walls would look very nice. Perhaps boards of various sizes or a hand drawn brick/stone pattern.
Last edited by jfrazierjr; 02-09-2011 at 10:10 AM.
My Finished Maps
Works in Progress(or abandoned tests)
My Tutorials:
Explanation of Layer Masks in GIMP
How to create ISO Mountains in GIMP/PS using the Smudge tool
----------------------------------------------------------
Unless otherwise stated by me in the post, all work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.