Apr / May 2016 Lite Challenge: Ambush at the Ford

[Wolram]

Start of a map for the campsite. There will be a large camp to the bottom right of the map. I imagine they have been there a few days now, so I want to try and make it look quite settled in. Areas of felled trees and old fires etc. Their camp is hidden from the main road passing from North to West, with a steep hill against the road. The enemy army will approach from the north, and will be slowed and chilled by the ford crossing. Perfect for an ambush!

There will be some traps set, rolling logs on the main hill by the road, maybe some stone throwing catapults on some of the bare stony hills, all calibrated to hit the ford.

My hope is to make the campsite look like a busy place, still got a lot to do so all advice welcome!

Cheers,

[Josiah VE]

That looks super awesome!! Zoomed out it looks photo realistic.

I've never done a photo realistic map so I'm always curious to know how people do it. What are the techniques you used for this? (if you don't mind sharing)

[Bogie]

Fantastic Wolram. Great textures and composition, love the storyline.

[ChickPea]

Hi Wolram, nice to see you back in the Challenges. This is quite a different style from your previous maps, I think, but it's looking great!

[snodsy]

Really nice map and textures, lots of atmospheric feel to it. The middle area seems blurry right now. Nice Start.

[DanielHasenbos]

Looks really good! I alree with snode tough , the middle part looks a bit blurry

[Wolram]

This is really a developing style at the moment! I first tried it out on a city map for Imrith which is still a WIP, it's a lot messier on that one, I learnt the pitfalls of poor layer control!

Josiah, I'm happy to share the technique, the basics are it's done in photoshop, I'm using a mix of brush styles with jitter effects and layer blending styles (which are great fun to play with!). I'm not sure how best to explain it without writing pages, It's a consolidation of youtube tutorials with a lot of trial and error!

Snodsy, that blurry area is going to be the ford. So it's heavily walked and gets shallow at the sides. I think I will need to put some more detail in so that it doesn't look out of place, maybe some tracks or something will help!

[ladiestorm]

this is looking great so far!!! Welcome to the challenge, and I look forward to seeing this continue!

[Wolram]

"Day two at ford camp:

People have started arriving on camp. Different clans have set up among each other and eagerly await their enemies. The Norfulgr Clan have gone trigger happy chopping down trees. They are getting ready to build some big catapults, but progress is slowed by the constant burning of the wood to heat up all the mead. Rolling logs are set up on the hill. More men are expected to arrive. at 10 to a tent, there are currently 900 men. Spies report they have a few days till the enemy arrives."

[tilt]

Looking really good, love the forests and snaking river