Some CC3 Experiments

[jaerdaph]

I'm posting these in finished maps because they are just some things I was goofing around with in CC3, mostly to explore what could be done with various bitmap fills and sheet effects. I doubt they are anything I would go back to except to use the things I learned in other projects.

Here is a cavern complex I did, mostly to experiment with sheet effects and shadows:



Here is an experiment to create a cobblestone street complete with gaslight (and somebody who escaped from the British Museum). I got the gaslight street lamps from the Dundjini users' forum, and the walls are from CSUAC:



Here's some more cobblestone streets:



Finally, here is an attempt to reproduce the maps found in the Forgotten Realms Ruins of Undermountain boxed set (2e AD&D version):



As always, any C&C is welcome, and if any CC3 users have any questions on how to do some of these things, please feel free to ask.

[NeonKnight]

I love your Undermountain Map, and before I even read your comment I said, "Hey that looks like Undermountain!"

Good Job!

[ravells]

Wow, CC3 has definitely come of age! Great work. Just one comment about the cavern complex though. The shadows make it look like the complex is convex and standing proud of the background. Maybe one of those optical illusion things. This may be a repeating problem as I'm sure there's another thread where we've discussed this shadow problem before.

Ravs

[jaerdaph]

I love your Undermountain Map, and before I even read your comment I said, "Hey that looks like Undermountain!"

Good Job!

Thanks - I always loved the maps in that boxed set, even if they are considered "old school" now.

[jaerdaph]

Wow, CC3 has definitely come of age! Great work. Just one comment about the cavern complex though. The shadows make it look like the complex is convex and standing proud of the background. Maybe one of those optical illusion things. This may be a repeating problem as I'm sure there's another thread where we've discussed this shadow problem before.

Yes! LOL - we had this discussion on the CC3 mailing list too. Honestly, I can't see it (perhaps because my brain knows what I intended when I drew it), but others have pointed this out too. I decided not to say anything because I wanted to hear how others interpreted it. It sounds like it's similar to what's going on in that famous drawing - is it a vase or two faces? (Edit: I removed the vase/face picture.)

Obviously, it's not very useful as a map if only I can see it the way I intended.

[ravells]

What confuses the eye (for me) is this: I assume that there is only one light source, and that it is at the bottom right hand side of the drawing. If that were the case, then that would be consistent with the convex shape. If you put the light source top left, then the walls would cast a shadow consistent with a concave shape, but - you just wouldn't see a light source work that way through solid rock which is why (my mind) 'prefers' to see it as standing proud with convex edges.

Try using a dark inner glow rather than a drop shadow so the shadow is all around the walls. That would make the eye think that the light source was inside the rooms which would make sense....I think!

Ravs

[jaerdaph]

What confuses the eye (for me) is this: I assume that there is only one light source, and that it is at the bottom right hand side of the drawing. If that were the case, then that would be consistent with the convex shape. If you put the light source top left, then the walls would cast a shadow consistent with a concave shape, but - you just wouldn't see a light source work that way through solid rock which is why (my mind) 'prefers' to see it as standing proud with convex edges.

Try using a dark inner glow rather than a drop shadow so the shadow is all around the walls. That would make the eye think that the light source was inside the rooms which would make sense....I think!

That makes perfect sense. As it stands now, the shadow pattern is more like it's open to the air - that's the default shadow effect setting for overland/outside areas in CC3 - light source coming from the upper left corner. That can be changed with the Wall Shadow, Directional effect. There is also a Wall Shadow, Point Light for interiors, but for the life of me I can't get it to work or give me anything but a solid black map, and there's no documentation on it yet. I'll ask the Profantasy guys on the CC mailing list about that.

I think I'm going to give two things a try - first, change the light source direction to the bottom right and see how that looks, then I'm going to drop the wall shadow entirely and just tweak the Glow effect. I really wish Glow in CC3 had an opacity setting for more of a shadow look though. Will post results here later.


Edit: Here is what I came up with. What I did was add a *second* Shadow effect, this one with a light source at the opposite side of the first one:

[jaerdaph]

Okay, one last cavern sample, because this has morphed into WIP.

On this one, I added a second bevel effect to the one above, this one with the colors inverted and that makes the cavern walls all the same darker grey color:

[ravells]

It is just like the vase/two faces thing. I can see it both ways, but I have to work harder to see it as concave (could just be because my brain now has convex as the expectation). Are the lighter border areas meant to be cave walls?

I wonder if you could put in a pointer which will help the brain work to see it as concave, by having a sconce in the wall for example?

[jaerdaph]

Thanks again ravells for your help with this.

The lighted borders (from the bevel effect) are the cave walls. I added some torch sconces in one of the caverns to help with the visualization (I didn't use the symbols with lit torches because the addition of light would probably throw off the shadows etc.). They are aproximately in the middle of a cavern wall.



I decided to take some advice from writers and "kill my darlings". In this image, I've removed the bevel effect completely, and I think it makes things a lot more clear: