Madness at Gardmore Abbey Encounter Maps

[Jacktannery]

I used these ones: http://www.dundjinni.com/forums/foru...KW=candlestick. I added some candles and flames.

[Bogie]

AH HA that's why I didn't recognize them. Nice

[Jacktannery]

I've started the very last map - thrilled to be almost done! Here we have my most dreaded subject - water! I am just working on the lighting at the moment - can't work out how much the water would reflect of the solar flare thingy. I'll probably want to yellowify the water too.



EDIT: Did some more work on the lighting on the water especially; I think its better now. Maybe even done; will have a second look tomorrow morning and decide.

[Cunning Cartographer]

Colour wise I think you already nailed it, maybe a little less blue, my only advice would be that if the water isn't absolutely still (ie. you have ripples from a breeze or whatever, which in your case you have as there is texture to the water) then the lines of the tiles under the water shouldn't be completely straight. Not sure if you said you were using Photoshop or GIMP, but in Photoshop you can quickly apply a "Ripple" filter and it will make your straight lines slightly wavy, not sure how this is done in GIMP. It's subtle, but it's a nice detail that makes the water even more realistic.

(ninjad I'd still maybe saturate the colour in the water slightly though, but the sparkles are a really nice touch).

[Jacktannery]

Good advice on the ripple effect Yospeck. I've used that in the Gimp (which I use) in two maps: a spiders web over a pond in one of the early Madness maps, and more successfully in a very hot room in the Nightwyrm fortress maps, so I could give it a go.

How do you mean saturate the water slightly? Do you mean make it a brighter yellow?

[Cunning Cartographer]

Pull out the colour so there is less yellow/blue. If the water was very deep where you couldn't see the bottom (where it would almost look like a black pool) then you would have stronger colours and a more visible reflection (eg. sunset on a lake or harbor buildings on a river), but if the water is shallower ie. your pool or a puddle, then the show through from the bottom surface would make your image not as strong; a lowered opacity (as you have done) and paler reflection. This is presuming that the liquid in the pool is water, if it's blue liquid then it's fine being blue. Water isn't blue though, albeit some creative license lets you get away with it so it's not the end of the world, but the blue is created from the scattering effect of light; the deeper your water the bluer it looks, so it would depend on how deep your pool is supposed to be as well

Sorry for going all Bill Nye on you, it really does look good if you leave it as is and your colour pallet for your entire dungeons light sources has been very intense and vivid anyway (dont read this as a bad thing, I think the lighting effects you have done look amazing) so could match the style, but it might be worth having a play with it.

[Jacktannery]

Ah - I see. Great advice there Yospeck. I'll have another go at it tonight, making the water more transparent so that we can see the (ripply) bottom.

In the module as written, the pool is originally some holy water to do with a sun-god, but that has become evil and corrupted by demonic inluence. I decided to depict it as golden-yellow to fit with the colour scheme and make the map look prettier. I also decided the solar flare thingy would make a gentle solar wind over the top of the pool (again, for purely aesthietic reasons). Presumably it is supposed to be quite shallow.

[Jacktannery]

Yospeck - I tried but it's not working for me - how ripply should I go, and should all equally-ripply everywhere or vary the rippling? I think I need some more advice here.

Regarding the transparency of the water, do you think this is better?

[Jacktannery]

One last try - two versions. I can't decide between them. I hate water.

[Bogie]

The second one one the right looks more like there is water in the pool.