[GIMP] WIP: My First "Real" Attempt at Subterranean Mapping

[Sharpe]

Great start Sharpe. Your map has great personality. I like your water but agree that it is very saturated with blue. Water is very hard to do, and i'm terrible at it so can't advise, but there is nothing wrong with your water. If you are aiming for a photo-realistic water, then you will need to desaturate it heavily until only only a trace of blue remains - water in a lit cave like this is very reflective, almost glass-like. If its in the dark the water is black; this can still look good but very dark water depends on really good edges. You can see it in a map of a cave I did for a friend in the Virtual Tabletop/Battlemap Mapping forum, look for 'Heart of Shadow' cavern map.

Wow, coming from you, that really is high praise! Your maps are as good as any I've seen anywhere ever -- real professional AAA stuff!

Your words are very generous, but there's really nothing to my map. It's just balck-and-white walls with Rob's script.

Do not get hung up on textures - textures are the enemy!

I'm trying to use no textures at all. Like I say, I'm going to replace the default texture Rob's script used with filter noise.

It's easy! Make a new (transparent) layer, FILTER>RENDER>CLOUDS>FOG, change colour to something good like very pale grey, then press ok. Then use a layer mask to remove it from the walls, and change the opacity. The crucial thing with fog is that you need to light and shadow it. To do this, copy the fog layer and apply its layer mask and make this layer invisible. Then make a new 'lighting' layer and with a big fuzzy brush messily draw very pale yellow (eg) overlay highlights over some of your fog. Then add layer mask, and make that mask the copied and applied fog layer. Then do the same for some shadows. Its important to give fog depth otherwise it looks crap.

I... I have no idea where to begin with that.

Layer mask? Fuzzy brush?

But you are half-way there! Just build it up gently with layers of darkness and light. Advise! Use layers of black shadow set to 'normal' at 50% opacity, and layers of pale orange light set to 'overlay' at 80% opacity. Draw thickly with a fuzzy brush and then use your smudge tool and go crazy, then block out the walls with layer masks. Build up layers of light and darkness, every now and then go out of the room and take a break and return. It doesn't take talent - only patience.

Again, this is so far over my head it might as well be Greek. Well, other than the layer of black at 50%. I currently have that over the whole map, and what I've done before is erase it to add lightning.

What am I drawing and what am I using the smudge tool on? I've never used the smudge tool.

Sorry I'm such a newbie. This is all a little overwhelming for me.