Airship Battlemap (WIP)

[Fenris4024]

Hi guys, first "real post" up as far as what I am working on, but looking for critiques/ Ideas on how to move about improving this WIP Battlemap. Its the Deck of an Airship for my homebrew DnD 5e campaign.
I used my trusty Intuos tablet and PS CS7 and countless brushes that I've found here on the site as well as some custom ones I've been working on.
Airship.jpg

I'll be adding in the doors perhaps in a second version of the Map if anyone wants it for their own use, but I chose to leave them "open" so they could be inserted in a VTT (we use Roll 20)
I'm still not "thrilled" with the fins, feels a bit off to me. Planning to add a top deck to cover the main cabin as well, and eventually a side-profile for that class of Airship.

[jkat718]

I think the issue with the fins is the shading. I'm not sure what you can do about that, if you want your map to be VTT-compatible, but the ship should be casting a shadow onto the fins (unless, of course, the sun is directly overhead, in which case it will still cast shadows on the "arms" of the fins). Also because of the shading, it's unclear which direction the fins are pointing--up or down? are they pointing in different directions? are they attached all along the inner sides, or just being covered by the deck/hull? It's hard to tell without shading, but you can't add shading here if you're going to add shading on Roll20 (or another VTT).

[Fenris4024]

Excellent points... I hadn't put in the shading yet on any of it, and that might very well be whats "missing". I'm not sure I'd be able to do much in Roll 20 for shading (though their dynamic lighting is amazing for a vtt). I'll tool around with it a bit and see how it comes out!
Thanks for potentially pointing me in the right direction on this, much appreciated!

[Fenris4024]

Updated on the airship.. added in some shading, and I think I'm happy with it. Also made a version with a top deck covering the rooms. I also have th top deck as a PNG file if anyone wants it for themselves for ease of removal in a VTT, or to just print out and use.
Airship with second deck.jpg
Airship without second deck.jpg
Png file
Airship second deck.png

Appreciate any comments on it, thanks guys!

I intentionally left off most of the bits and bobs so people could add in whatever they wanted

[woekan]

Heya Fenris! I really like your map. I made some tweaks wich you might use for your map.
1) To increase the feel of distance, added some blur to the ground layer. And decreased saturation and increased blue and lightness.
Things further away usually seem a bit less saturated and colder than things closer by.
2) Desaturated the ship a little bit to add to the realism.
3) Added a tiny bit of motionblur to hint movement.

Great design!

Untitled-1.jpg

[Meshon]

Cool map, and nice tweaks woekan, I think I got a bit of vertigo!

If you feel like playing around with it more I might suggest trying some steep stairs instead of the ladders, just to give more indication of changes in elevation. Like this. Ish.

[Fenris4024]

Thanks for the tips guys, I used both, these ended up being the results... The desaturation was an excellent tip... I hadn't thought of it, and the idea about the stairs over the ladders was spot on. Thanks again. I know my players will appreciate this map, and I hope others will find it useful as well.
Airship without second deck.jpg
Airship with second deck.jpg
and the tweaked PNG if anyone wants it...
Airship second deck.png

[woekan]

Nice work! One last thing. Because the clouds are closer to the 'camera', they should have a bit less motionblur then the ground.