Hamlen First Small Town Map

[Chili]

Building my digital base for an adventure to DM using Roll20 sometime this year. I created my world map and used it to get my hands dirty with PS CS6 and have just completed my first small town which will serve as the starting point of my player's journey and thought I would throw it into the mix of great work on this site.

This is Hamlen, the "rest stop" between two major cities in the civilized realm.



My next project will be a battle map of an old keep. I am looking forward to building my first, of many, battle maps. I will say that even though eventually I will have to create a major city at some point, after looking aat some of the fantastic work on this site, I feel somewhat intimidated by it.

[atpollard]

The buildings seem to float above the ground.
I don't know how to fix that, but someone else may be able to help.

I like the graphics at the upper left corner, but they feel more appropriate for an 'ink on parchment' map than a photo-realistic map.
I like the shading ... especially the roads and ground.


I know what you mean about the intimidation factor.
The best thing that I found for getting over that is
1. check out the tutorials to learn lots of neat tricks to make life easier and drawings better.
2. Enter the light challenges ... they force you to try new things and gain you valuable feedback and tips.
3. Check out other work, and when you find something that you like ... ask them how they did that. (I learned to make letters look carved into stone that way.)

[J.Edward]

Hey Chili and atpollard,
I think this will show what the problem is on the shadows.

With shadows, the closer to the surface that is receiving the shadow, the harder and more defined the shadow line will be. So with the buildings close to the ground the shadow being hazy near the building edge gives the look like it's floating. Hope that helps. Any other stuff i can help with I will. Cheers.