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I am hoping someone can point me to a good tutorial for making a nice looking dungeon in Photoshop. I have seen several for GIMP, but have not been able to find any really good ones that matched the one in GIMP. I viewed a couple of simple ones in youtube, but was hoping for a little more detailed.
Although I may be dreaming, if someone could walk through the creation of the dungeon below, which I found somewhere and I consider amazing, it would be excellent. Thank you.
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Hi Doc Waldo, I've moved your thread to the 'How Do I?' section, hope you don't mind.
That dungeon looks like it might be Devin Night's work? It's beautifully done. To make a dungeon like this you need a couple of things:
1. Good floor textures.
2 Good Symbols.
Once you have the textures, the construction of it is actually quite straight forward since it's all on a grid. I know you're after something more detailed - hopefully someone will come and help. How advanced would you consider yourself in Photoshop? What version do you have? It might be worth putting that information in your personal details so it shows up under your name when you post.
best
Ravs
Ah, Ravells you are too kind.
It's not mine, though one or 2 very small details/objects might be mine.
I would think that there are tutorials to make dungeons like this, even if you take the basic ideas from gimp and use them in PS.
If your understanding of PS is good enough I think all you need is some time and practice and willingness to fail til you get there.
I would suggest trying something small. Two rooms and a hallway. Then if you get stuck, show a post and ask a question.
I have actually been hoping to make a tutorial like this since it is a pretty common map type and there doesn't seem to be any one comprehensive tutorial on here yet. The only problem is, like DevinNight has said, a lot of it is pretty basic concepts and trial and error. There is a lot less procedural stuff/simple tricks that show up in regional/world maps, and probably a lot more artistry involved in making dungeon dressing (like DN's awesome objects). I hope to put something together in my free time soon, though! I'd sure like one of those little tutorial icons!
Thanks Ravells for moving the thread.
Currently I am working on using Photoshop 12 (cs5) on my mac. I am pretty computer savy, and pick up concepts pretty quickly, but unfortantily I learn quicker by having something to follow. I can read around what I would like to do but it takes me much longer, and I end up going down roads I don't want to because I want to know everything. I have looked on youtube and other places for a good straight forward tutiroal for making a dungeon like above in photoshop, but have not find anything.
I am sure may of the concepts are pretty straight forward, the problem I run into is that although the concepts can be figured out or are straight forward for someone who is use to photo programs, I will spend 6 hours trying to learn and make sense of something, when if I watched or read about how to do I could reduce my curve by 50%+ or more.
I have all the patterns and objects, I really am just hoping someone can show me how to put them together, utilizing layers, masks, etc., but from the perspective of creating a very nice dungeon.
I appreciate everyone's comments.
I don't have time to offer much, but do a search for Duvik's tutorials. The basic gist is to establish your grid (he uses a pattern fill), then use the marquee selection tools to create an alpha channel that defines your walls. From there, you can fill the selection(s) with textures and use layer effects to create glows, bevels, etc.
You might also look up Overwatch's tutorial on painting floor tiles.
As for populating the dungeon with prefab objects, I think I mentioned recently elsewhere that you can clone stamp from one document to another. So make an image that has all of your objects arranged so you can sample them easily, and make sure the background is transparent. Create a new layer in your dungeon document, and start clone stamping the objects into it. If you need to move something, you can just lasso it and use the move tool. If two objects will overlap, make a new layer for the top object, so you can retain the ability to move it independently.
edit: The first tutorial listed by RobA below is the one by Duvik that I was referring to.
I've always thought about making a multi part tutorial on battle maps/encounter styled maps as well. just haven't been able to find the time. My stuff still isn't the best looking but I understand most concepts on how to execute. What makes a dungeon look good or have that extra oomph is hand drawn or custom objects. You can do reasonable work with pre-generated objects from the dundjinni forums and such locales, but when doing it yourself it ends up match the general mood and vibe of your dungeon. Unfortunately I only use GIMP so far so that may cause issues, but I'm willing to do live demonstrations on some techniques and stuff I've picked up.
There is one here: http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?716
The mentioned overwatch tutorial: http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?1693
A simpler way of making floors: http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?3970
-Rob A>
