Starting Over

**greytale** · 03-26-2011, 01:52 AM

Hi Folks,

While I am not exactly a new member, I think I registered back in 2006, I have not exactly been present.
At least a couple of you may know me from Dundjinni, or even from my site. Even if you haven't, it is possible that some of my objects may have made their way into a few maps that you have seen, they tend to travel more than I do.

Believe me it is always very cool to see them or read that someone had used them in their game. It is why I started the site in the first place.

So why am I back after so long, well believe it or not I do not create many maps. I love doing objects. So when I start populating a map I have a tough time grabbing that chest I did two years ago, instead I want to create a new chest, and a very detailed one of course. Take that and multiply it by the number of objects you would typically plop into a map and it makes enough work to last me long past the need for the map.

So it is my hope that I might find the answers here since this site has some of the most incredible maps that I have seen. Inspirational and definitely worthy of study. My goal would be to stop stepping piece to piece through a map and start looking at the map as a whole.

Thanks for this great resource.

Greytale

**mearrin69** · 03-26-2011, 02:14 AM

Heya. Welcome to the Guild! Having just done a detailed interior map I am very impressed with the folks that can create nice top-view objects. I spent a lot of time trying to create or find restrictionless stuff to drop into it. You just want to make objects I'm sure you'll find folks around here to use them...you want to make maps I think we can help you out with that part too! Dundjinni is pretty cool, but I think Photoshop might open some new doors for your mapping efforts.
M

**Ramah** · 03-26-2011, 06:17 AM

Hey Greytale. Just been and checked out your site and there are some amazing resources there.

Welcome back to the guild.

**DevinNight** · 03-26-2011, 09:49 AM

Howdy Greytale, I'm sure with your abilities and skills you will have no trouble making maps that are a pleasure to look at. I know how you feel about wanting to make everything unique every time an item is placed, but remember when a star with a circle around it was a huge minotaur warrior statue, and the same star with a circle on the other side of the room was an elven maiden. I think it still works that way, you put the same really nice over the top chest illustration in three different areas of your dungeon and the players make those chests different in their minds. Looking forward to seeing some posts from you.

**Steel General** · 03-26-2011, 10:31 AM

Welcome back...hope you find the inspiration you're looking for.

**jtougas** · 03-26-2011, 02:02 PM

As a grateful user of your great products I bid you welcome back

**greytale** · 03-27-2011, 02:29 PM

Thanks for the welcome everyone.

@Mearrin69 - That is the other funny thing, while I am a long time member of the Dundjinni forum, I would not say I am a big user of Dundjinni. While it is a cool program I primarily use it for scale and testing of objects. Any maps that I have done, primarily mini-maps released at the Nook, I have done in Photoshop. I just find it quicker. So I am in 100% agreement that Photoshop is the way. I just need to think of a map, design wise as a whole, and stop sweating the details of its bits and pieces.

@Devinnight - You hit it on the head with the reference to the old maps. I need to learn better balance between map function and my own design. This is something that I also have a tough time with in my objects, leaning more towards unique than general function. Unique is fine, but that means I need a good amount of variants which is something I have only recently started designing in. Your tutorial on your workflow was helpful with that, though discipline wise I am still slow to pick up on it. So far I have planned variants for the last few objects, so we will see how that goes.

Thanks again everyone.

Grey

**RobA** · 03-28-2011, 02:51 PM

Hi Greytale!

Would you be able to share some of your techniques/tools for map objects?

-Rob A>

**greytale** · 03-28-2011, 03:07 PM

Originally Posted by RobA

Hi Greytale!

Would you be able to share some of your techniques/tools for map objects?

-Rob A>

I have wanted to do tutorials on some of the basic things. A lot of the bigger stuff is a whole lot of pixel pushing and bashing until it looks good so that is not very good for tutorials, and a nightmare for me even to document for myself (photoshop history log helps a little.) I will definitely keep it in mind though as I work through my own development on maps and see if I can get a few tuts out there.

Grey

**Wannabehero** · 03-28-2011, 03:39 PM

Welcome back to the guild forums Greytale, its great seeing you here! I for one would LOVE some tips and tutorials on how you create your objects, they are some of the best out there. It's kinda weird seeing you here, I'm so used to seeing your posts while lurking through the dundjinni forums. I hope the time you spend here is fruitful!

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