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Thread: [WIP] Unnamed small village

  1. #1
    Guild Novice
    Join Date
    May 2010
    Location
    South Dakota, USA
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    10

    Wip [WIP] Unnamed small village

    Working on a pseudo hand-drawn feel to this all Photoshop map. I might be happy with the walls & towers, but I might change them. Started with Butch's tuts on YouTube, then changed here and there. Whatchya'll think so far?
    Click image for larger version. 

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    "If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading."
    ~Lao Tzu

  2. #2
    Guild Apprentice
    Join Date
    Mar 2011
    Location
    Sanremo, Italy
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    38

    Default

    at a first glance, i like the overall idea

    I have ever liked the small villages, they are so easily a trap for poor players....
    I appreciate the "hand" drawn map, because sometimes they are just what i would expect to find in my backpack if i was looking around for that guy, Jamred the Joust, the well known major of Noname Village!

    I can make a couple of observation, with the premise that sure I am not an expert so i could criticize others.

    - looking at full size, there is a slight but noticeable difference between some elements (i.e. the border of woods, the bridges) that appear with sharp edges, and others more blurred (the houses, for example), i suppose due to different origins of the elements, different initial resolution etc. (you can easily fix this in the working process!)
    - your bridges are maybe a little wide.. ? Sure there is no rules stating that a damned fantasy bridge should be just a walkway! But usually, huge bridges in the common perception are associated to wide roads. Maybe it's only me!
    - another thing, but i am saying this because basically i am a pain-in-the-*** DM, there is no road to access the "fortress" you could just add a short stretch of road from the bridge.

    i am waiting to see more!

  3. #3
    Guild Novice
    Join Date
    May 2010
    Location
    South Dakota, USA
    Posts
    10

    Default

    Thanks for the feedback!

    The bridges were drawn by hand and I had no buildings yet in the town to scale them to when I drew them - easily fixed.

    The forest/trees layer I had wanted to make with a pattern at first, but that looked too forced to me so I just did a 0% fill layer with a jittery round brush for the outline & filled with white, then stroked that with an fx style - I think I'll make a new layer from visible & then blur it a bit. Also, looking again, the tree borders look a little thick to me as well - good eye, thanks bringing my attention there. You get so in to a map that you forget the macroscopic view sometimes, ya know?

    Also, I don't yet know what I'll use for the little pieces of graphics to designate it as such, but the "fortress" on the east side of the map is actually going to be the graveyard, and the heavily-crenelated buildings at the south edge of town will be the stronghold area, with the rear keep tower reaching high above the wall area in back (so the archers can get a good range at threats from the forest). I can see where this can be misleading, as the cemetery is high up on a plateau-y hill and the stronghold is kinda down in the muck with the commonfolk. Not yet sure how I'll address that, maybe a not-quite-so-heavy wall around the graveyard, maybe a hill to put the stronghold on as well.

    Time to get back to work!
    "If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading."
    ~Lao Tzu

  4. #4
    Guild Apprentice
    Join Date
    Mar 2011
    Location
    Sanremo, Italy
    Posts
    38

    Default

    so sorry!

    I only saw a circular wall around the top of the hill so i identified as "fortress built as refuge for humble peasants against badass brigands".
    who can say... maybe there was really an ancient "castellaro" right there, dating back the primitive settlement? ["castellaro" is a term i don't know how translate, it refers to ancient fortified sites, of circular shape, tipical of the iron age Ligury]

    And sure i know how it is easy to forget the whole map while struggling with that tiny piece-of-something, 'cos i'm making the same from time to time!

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