Madness at Gardmore Abbey Encounter Maps

[loogie]

frankenlandscape.. bahahahaha.. still doesn't look bad.. why not just let them see it in thumbnail only

[Jacktannery]

Okay here is WIP 2 of the Watchtower. I think that the exterior is pretty much done now except for adding some trees - I'm not that fussed about the outside anyway. Mostly this is an interior encounter, over a number of tiers. I plan on blurring the background various amounts for the interior maps to depict height. I also need to do the interior of the belltower...

tower WIP.jpg

EDIT: And now I have finally finished tweaking:

tower.jpg

Amazingly, it takes twice as long to go from the middle WIP to the finished map/last WIP (both on this post) then it does to go from the first concept (last post) to the middle WIP.

[jfrazierjr]

That last one almost looks like a 3d render. Nice...

[loogie]

quite good.. you have a talent my friend.

[Jacktannery]

Thanks loogie and jfrazier.

Fixed some errors with the watchtower, and completed the font of Ioun using the jungle alter (can't find the name of the artist to credit). That's all the base maps, now to do the interior of the bell tower and watchtower, and to go back and tweak those over-heavy spiderweb shadows on the first map. And the best news is that my PCs decided to start the adventure with ... the foresty bit! Hurrah.

Font.jpg tower.jpg

[Bogie]

Fixed some errors with the watchtower, and completed the font of Ioun using the jungle alter (can't find the name of the artist to credit).

The artist is Supercaptain, you can find his original post (with several variations of the altar) at Dundjinni Forums by clicking here: http://www.dundjinni.com/forums/foru...9503&KW=jungle

These maps are coming along beautifully! Keep up the great work!

[jfrazierjr]

Be careful with your rock shading. Go a little lighter in more passes if necessarily. The second from the bottom is probably the worst offender as well as the center one and the one at the bottom(same rock, same shading...you might be able to hide this with a rotate and different shadows if possible)

[Jacktannery]

Thanks jpfrazier - I had left my top-most shadow layer on 'normal' rather than 'overlay'. Hopefully it's a little better now. I did the Font map in a bit of a rush as you can tell. I also deleted that bottom rock - it is not adding anything to the encounter and you were right about it looking copied.

I went back to my first map and lightened up the webs (by changing them to 'hard light') and the shadows (by changing them to 'overlay) just like you suggested. I think the map looks better and less heavy as a result. But do they look a too metallic now?

It's really helpful to have another opinion - I am very grateful that you are taking the time to advise me jpfrazier.

Font of Ioun.jpg Encounter 9 outer garden.jpg

[jfrazierjr]

Yep, looks much better.. As for the webs, IMPO you should drop the opacity to somewhere between 60-80% for that layer.

[Jacktannery]

Reduced web layer to 70% opacity & corresponding reduction in the webshadow layer. I have to upload them here so that I can compare.

Added the interior of the bell tower - do the colours clash too much? I tried to match the warm sandstone colour of the steps using Neyjour's tiles, but it doesn't look great against the grey tower walls.

9 outer garden.jpg 11 belltower Interior view.jpg

EDIT: I have a question: is it possible to re-colour a layer/image/object/selection in GIMP using another layer/etc as a reference? For example, say I select a stone which has nice shades of pale reddish brown. I want to save it's pallate (so all the shades of brown from lightest to darkest on that stone are saved somewhere), then I go to a new layer/etc and map that pallate onto it. Does anyone know how to do that?