June Entry: The Dark Knight's Sanctuary

My first attempt at a challenge, and also my first attempt at ISO mapping, so I don't really expect to win but this does sound like fun. I only really do battlemapping, so this won't be especially grand in scale compared to some of the other awesome artists here on the forums, but I'll give it my best.

Anyhow, I figured I would pick a subject that was close to my heart! I have been a long-time fan of this particular fictional universe, and I thought I would try my hand at creating it in my own style. Luckily it is easily "recognizable to someone who's well-familiar" even if I take a plenty of liberties and do it my own way, so this should be fun for me!

Done with a mouse in Photoshop CS3.

Here is the layout ISOified. Torstan's one-sentence explanation about how he did it for his Bandit Layer map helped a lot in figuring out how to go about it. He said, "The workflow was to create the top down plan of the dungeon. I then rotated each layer by 45 degrees and shrank the (new) vertical axis to 57.7% of it's original value. That made it the correct dimensions for an iso grid." You can vaguely see I have that written in white text at the bottom there. I always write little notes to myself on my maps to help me remember what the heck I am doing.

Aaaand here it is with some textures added. This is my favorite bit--when the smallest amount of work makes the biggest initial change in the overall look! It just gets harder from here.

With a little more fiddling, I can start doing the nifty 'dungeon dressing,' and this particular cave has a LOT of it to add!

Well, it's already recognizably the Batcave, so check that off. You've chosen to have a go at what's probably the most mapped site in comicbookdom. Have fun.

looking good, can't wait to see more :)

Neat idea, we don't get a whole lot of 'superhero' related maps :)

Cool idea! Can't wait to see it progress.

Very original idea! I like what you've done so far.

Fantastic - glad to hear that comment helped! It's looking great, definitely interested to see this progress.

Stalagmites, stairs, shadows, minor adjustments to the layout... I am not very good at drawing, so I think the giant penny and T-rex are going to cause me some problems...