Forgotten Entrance [Proof of Concept]

[XCali]

Hi everyone!!

Hehe, I am back with a map. Though, this is going to be different than normal. And I mean different.
Those of you who knows me, know well I enjoy drawing my maps with pen or pencil first, scanning it and then making stuff happen in gimp to finish it off.

This is not that. This is me going on a hiking trip seeing something that would make a sweeeeet map, taking a photo and then proceed to break my mind about how to turn it into an actual map... I have experimented for quite a while with the idea and a short while ago, I really started hoping to make a map for my next story project. So, then photo came out and I decided, that scene is going to become a map!!!!! From a distance, the small thumbnails looks kind of the same. But, going into the photo, you IMMEDIATELY see it is a photo, this also, means adding anything to the map, like buildings, or a door into the mountains becomes downright implausible. But, I wanted that door, and wanted to add buildings...

Anyway, Long story short, this meant a totally proof of concept project, my own photos, filters, more filters, layer masks, even more layer masks. And again filters. Fast forward days of tinkering and I got somewhere. The door is coming along well. It was a pencil drawing I did a while back. Then plus a lot of cast, core shadows and highlights, it popped nicely. Something I am struggling with, however, is doing the buildings for the top down section. This is the first run.



The photo I took in a desert canyon.
MyPhoto_DesertSand_.jpg

An actual decent phase after all my tinkering.
### Latest WIP ###
Forgotten Entrance.jpeg

### Latest WIP ###
Forgotten Entrance_TopDown.jpeg

[XCali]

Whoops, the layers for the perspective buildings weren't activated when I exported the map.

I actually thought it funny to see the buildings without their cast and core shadows. So, I decided to post them here. Anybody that doesn't yet understand the importance of good and strong shadows, just look below. Hehe.

Perspective_buildings_Without_Shadows.jpeg

Now with cast and core shadows.
Perspective_buildings_WithShadows.jpeg

### Latest WIP ###
Forgotten_Entrance_PerspectiveBuildings.jpeg

Anyway let me know what you think of the buildings and my progress so far. It is quite an unique challenge this one. Waaaaaaaaaaaaay different than my city map.

[XCali]

Howdy!

It is getting there.
I know this is proof of concept here. But, it is fun to build onto map like this and add more things things to make it stir the imagination. Oh, and for those wondering how the buildings came to be? Sand castles. I was on the beach and well yeah.

### Latest WIP ###
Forgotten Entrance_Perspective_v2.jpeg

Forgotten_Door.jpeg