Kobold Hall

[stuamn]

thanks - been working on some maptool/GIMP maps of Keep on the Shadowfell

this is room 18 so far

as to the challenge - i might enter it later, it depends how time allows.

stuamn

p.s. i know that the floor is meant to have a giant Orcus head instead of the sword/hammers but i'm using a different demon

[Torq]

Great work in this thread Stuamn. Also nice to see a fellow Gimp user in action. I love the last map to for KoSF. Just a suggestion regarding shadows. I think you have used Gimp's drop shadow function. The only problem with this is that it tends to give the impression that the foreground items (walls and pillars in this case) are flat items floating above the surface rather than solid items rooted to it. As an alternative you may want to consider creating a duplicate of your black foreground layer and shifting it slightly and applying a gaussian blur. Then place the blurred layer below the foreground one. Another shadow effect that I really enjoy is to use the motion blur function. This, to my mind, looks the most realsitic for slightly diffuse shadows.

Keep up the great work.

Torq

[torstan]

Hey, that looks great. That's some serious gore going on there.

You can also change the shadow layer to multiply, it tends to belnd it in well with the background. Thanks for posting the .xcf files. I'll have a look at them.

Good work, and repped for sharing.

Edit: Will rep after giving a bit more out. Clearly not been around here for way too long...

[stuamn]

@ Torq and torstan - thanks, i've always had problems with "floating walls" and the shadows i'll try your suggestions out


stuamn

[stuamn]

hi been mucking around with your suggestions - i used the motion blur for the main shadows,it took a bit of getting used after so long just using drop shadows. i darkened the edges of the wall and applied a 5px Gaussian blur to a copy of the walls i painted black. I think next time i'll round the edges of the walls somehow. I also added the painted stripes because..........i um kinda felt like it . i also put a brown colour layer over the top (set to 15% transparent and overlay)


stuamn

not 100% happy yet, but getting there

[torstan]

That's a lot better! It's often worth making sure the shadow is deepest right by the object casting it. I do this by hand, but I'm sure there must be a stroke or similar that would allow you to do this automatically.

[stuamn]

thanks torstan, i always like tips as i had never really used gimp before i came to this forum, it was really the necessity of making some maps for a D&D 4e campaign that brought me here. I had thought about copying the shadow and offsetting it so that the shadow was darker near the wall (deleting any spill over) however the adding by hand suggestion is one i had never thought about, and since i use it to add the side shadow on stairs, i think i'll try both and see which one is easier and/or better



stuamn

[Torq]

I agree that your new shadow looks more realistic. Keep experimenting. I second Torstan's suggestions too. I cant wait to see what you come up with.

Torq

[RobA]

I posted this once, but can't find it, so I'll put it here again....

blur_microtut.png

-Rob A>

[Dalcane]

Thank you verry much for posting this! This really helped my first time as a DM.