First attempt at a battle map

[goal:dilmun]

I'm a total noob at this, but I think the finished result isn't half bad. The map is made in GIMP using tiles that I made myself. The map lacks objects of any kind as I lack the artistic ability to make them at this point. I would like to put up some torches along the walls to match the yellow light and some rubble here and there. Some human bones on the splatters of blood would also have been cool, but as it is at this point, this is the limit of my abilities.

All suggestions and comments would be VERY welcome, as my main reason for joining this forum is to learn!


Thanks in advance

-Martin

[Jacktannery]

This is very good Martin. The blistering on the tiles is lovely, the blood is very fresh, and the map is uncluttered and the colours work together.

I hate to give criticism in the Finished Map thread (the battlemaps Work in Progress forum where people post maps for critique is elsewhere) however since you explicitly ask for it:

1) there are white gaps between your ground and wall tiles where you mislaid them. Fix this by adding a layer of solid dark grey behind all the other layers. If you placed each of those tiles by hand on GIMP I can tell you how to do it more easily next time.

2) the seperate wall segments look a bit odd to be honest, but this can be easily fixed by taking one segment, removing the edges and making it TILEABLE, and then TILE it horizontally for an unbroken line of bricks (I can walk you through this if you like) and then cut/past/rotate.

[goal:dilmun]

This is very good Martin. The blistering on the tiles is lovely, the blood is very fresh, and the map is uncluttered and the colours work together.


I hate to give criticism in the Finished Map thread (the battlemaps Work in Progress forum where people post maps for critique is elsewhere) however since you explicitly ask for it:

1) there are white gaps between your ground and wall tiles where you mislaid them. Fix this by adding a layer of solid dark grey behind all the other layers. If you placed each of those tiles by hand on GIMP I can tell you how to do it more easily next time.

2) the seperate wall segments look a bit odd to be honest, but this can be easily fixed by taking one segment, removing the edges and making it TILEABLE, and then TILE it horizontally for an unbroken line of bricks (I can walk you through this if you like) and then cut/past/rotate.

Thanks a lot! Both for the kind words and the critiicism. Guess I'll post a map like this in the Work in Progress forum next time!

About the gaps: What I did was to use the snap to grid - function in GIMP. A bit annoying that that should leave gaps. If you have a better method for doing this, I would be grateful for any advice you could give me.

Also, I agree with regards to the wall segments. I did it this way because I don't have a good method for making seamless textures. I tried mirroring them, but that didn't look very good, and I needed to get this finished quickly. Again, I would be grateful for any advice!

Thanks again!

[jtougas]

I would second Jacktannery's praise. This is very good for a first attempt. I would also add that a bit of shadowing along the walls would give the scene a bit of depth. Keep up the good work

[goal:dilmun]

I would second Jacktannery's praise. This is very good for a first attempt. I would also add that a bit of shadowing along the walls would give the scene a bit of depth. Keep up the good work

Thanks!

I did in fact put some shadowing along the walls, but then erased some of it to account for the light from the invisible torches. Whats left doesn't really do much, I agree. Thanks for the tip! I'll keep this in mind for future projects.

Martin

[Bogie]

Good Start Martin. My suggestion would also be to put a bit of shadow around the walls to give a bit more depth to them.

Shadow-Line1_bg.png

Not sure bones would fit with all the blood, but how about some body parts?

hand_DeadFarmer3.pnghand_DeadFarmer4.pnghand-bare-evil-Broken-rk_kpl.pngSevered_Hand_Dig-1.png

[goal:dilmun]

Good Start Martin. My suggestion would also be to put a bit of shadow around the walls to give a bit more depth to them.



Not sure bones would fit with all the blood, but how about some body parts?

Thanks for the body parts! I was thinking no one had gotten around to wiping the floors on this dungeon for a while... I'll try those chopped up arms and see if they fit in with the style.

Thanks!

[Jacktannery]

Martin, the snap to grid method is timeconsuming and only works perfectly when each of your objects is exactly the size of the grid and (crucially) has crisp (non-feathered) 100% opaque edges, which is not at all obvious or automatic. But a dark grey background will fix your map perfectly.

The snap to grid method you used makes for a nicer map (those little imperfections are a good thing once the white is gone) but is very consuming. Faster is:
a) make a 5x5 (eg) section of 25 of your tiles, very carefully using snap to grid and rotate.
b) slap a 100% opaque dark grey background behind it to erase any barely-visible whiteness and to get crisp edges.
c) merge the two layers.
c) crop layer to exactly those 25 tiles - make sure you crop EXACTLY and have this block align to your grid.
d) move this layer of 25 tiles to align exactly to the top-left of your image and aligned to the grid.
e) FILTERS-MAP-TILE and in the box enter the dimensions in pixels of your desired final image and untick that bloody create new image box. Press enter and you now have an image covered in your lovely tiles.
f) add a layer mask and block out the bits you don't want to see.

We can make those brick segements seamless easily - just post one of them up here and I'll show you.

In the meantime, you can use this one I've made for you from a photo. Bring the image into gimp on its own layer - the layer should be the size of the bricks section, otherwise autocrop the layer. then:
a) scale to desired size: constrain proportions and only worry about the WIDTH for now.
b) FILTERS-MAP-TILE and in the box increase the X AXIS ONLY by a lot of pixels, but NOT Y axis and untick that bloody create new image box.
c) you should now have a long wall, relatively seamless (sorry rush job). duplicate the layer x5 or whatever and rotate them around your picture and delete the bits you don't need then fix up the corners.
EDIT d) (actually a - do this first) - using the colours/hue tool modify the colour of the brick to a nicer yellowish colour. I've only just realised I posted you some dodgy purple bricks).

Brick wall bit.jpg

[goal:dilmun]

Martin, the snap to grid method is timeconsuming and only works perfectly when each of your objects is exactly the size of the grid and (crucially) has crisp (non-feathered) 100% opaque edges, which is not at all obvious or automatic. But a dark grey background will fix your map perfectly.

The snap to grid method you used makes for a nicer map (those little imperfections are a good thing once the white is gone) but is very consuming. Faster is:
a) make a 5x5 (eg) section of 25 of your tiles, very carefully using snap to grid and rotate.
b) slap a 100% opaque dark grey background behind it to erase any barely-visible whiteness and to get crisp edges.
c) merge the two layers.
c) crop layer to exactly those 25 tiles - make sure you crop EXACTLY and have this block align to your grid.
d) move this layer of 25 tiles to align exactly to the top-left of your image and aligned to the grid.
e) FILTERS-MAP-TILE and in the box enter the dimensions in pixels of your desired final image and untick that bloody create new image box. Press enter and you now have an image covered in your lovely tiles.
f) add a layer mask and block out the bits you don't want to see.

We can make those brick segements seamless easily - just post one of them up here and I'll show you.

In the meantime, you can use this one I've made for you from a photo. Bring the image into gimp on its own layer - the layer should be the size of the image, otherwise autocrop the layer. then:
a) scale to desired size.
b) FILTERS-MAP-TILE and in the box increase the X AXIS ONLY by a lot of pixels, but NOT Y axis and untick that bloody create new image box.
c) you should now have a long wall, relatively seamless (sorry rush job). duplicate the layer x5 or whatever and rotate them around your picture and delete the bits you don't need then fix up the corners.
EDIT d) (actually a - do this first) - using the colours/hue tool modify the colour of the brick to a nicer yellowish colour. I've only just realised I posted you some dodgy purple bricks).

Wow! Thanks a lot for taking the time to write this. I will get back to this as soon as I have the time to work on this again. Slap on the wrist for the purple, but otherwise great!

[goal:dilmun]

Also, any suggestions on a good way to add those shadows? What I did came from a tutorial I found here, and it was to stroke selection with a fuzzy round brush with jitter activated.