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Thread: Kobold Quarterly Map of Fantasy: Bandits' Lair

  1. #1
    Community Leader Facebook Connected torstan's Avatar
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    Post Kobold Quarterly Map of Fantasy: Bandits' Lair

    So I've been quiet with commissions recently, but they're slowly coming through to a stage where I can post them. I'm doing maps of fantasy (like the old Maps of Mystery from Dungeon) for Kobold Quarterly (www.koboldquarterly.com) and this one was for the April edition. Here's the isometric map that appeared in the magazine:

    Click image for larger version. 

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    I also did a top down version for the printable pdf battlemap that they sell on the site (http://www.koboldquarterly.com/KQSto...products_id=44)

    Here's a low res (50px per grid) version of that map. The pdf has no numbers on it of course. Top floor:

    Click image for larger version. 

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    and the bottom floor:

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    Enjoy!

  2. #2
    Community Leader Gandwarf's Avatar
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    Wow, great work Torstan, have some rep!
    I really, really like the first map. I am almost regretting that you didn't do the furniture in isometric view

    The other two maps are also very well done.
    Check out my City Designer 3 tutorials. See my fantasy (city) maps in this thread.

    Gandwarf has fallen into shadow...

  3. #3
    Community Leader Facebook Connected torstan's Avatar
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    Isometric furniture certainly comes under the heading of something that would have been nice but was not feasible given the time constraints and money paid for the map.

    For those of you following the tileset thread - all the furnishings of the bandit's lair (even the cat) made it into the tileset for maptool as separate png objects.

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    Guild Expert Ramah's Avatar
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    I agree, they are all great but that first one is amazing.
    Royal: I'm very sorry for your loss, your mother was a terribly attractive woman.


    My Cartographer's Guild maps: Finished Maps


    More maps viewable at my DeviantArt page: Ramah-Palmer DeviantArt

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    Community Leader Facebook Connected Steel General's Avatar
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    Beautiful work Torstan...
    My Finished Maps | My Challenge Maps | Still poking around occasionally...

    Unless otherwise stated by me in the post, all work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.



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    Community Leader Facebook Connected Ascension's Avatar
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    Dude, you're amazing. You kick so much arse that taking names has become irrelevant. Awesome stuff.
    If the radiance of a thousand suns was to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the Mighty One...I am become Death, the Shatterer of worlds.
    -J. Robert Oppenheimer (father of the atom bomb) alluding to The Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 11, Verse 32)


    My Maps ~ My Brushes ~ My Tutorials ~ My Challenge Maps

  7. #7
    Community Leader Facebook Connected torstan's Avatar
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    Thanks guys! It was fun to do. I got to pitch the idea to the magazine, create the map and then I had Wolfgang Baur write the story behind the lair. Definitely a highlight for me. Just polished off the summer Map of Fantasy - something on a more Arabian Nights theme this time....

    Oh, I thought I'd have a bit of fun so I threw the maps into maptool for fun:

    Click image for larger version. 

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    Nothing like a bit of isometric maptool goodness (just use iso tokens and turn off snap to grid - or place a hex map over it. Works just fine.).

    Edit: 4 pips! Woot.
    Last edited by torstan; 05-14-2009 at 06:06 PM.

  8. #8

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    The first map is ideal.

    There is something really attractive about your style and treatment. After seeing the map, it supplants my ideal image of your subject. There's no little voice saying "this is what's really happening". Just lovely.

    Was all the Iso stuff done in Gimp? Did you do the original and then rotate it or was it all by your eye and the seat of your pants?


    Sigurd


    Dollhouse Syndrome = The temptation to turn a map into a picture, obscuring the goal of the image with the appeal of cute, or simply available, parts. Maps have clarity through simplification.

    --- Sigurd

  9. #9
    Community Leader Facebook Connected torstan's Avatar
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    Now that's quite a compliment!

    It was all done in gimp. I drew the top down outline of the map - all the walls essentially. Then I rotated it and scaled it vertically, and did the same with a grid layer. Then I chopped the map up where the elevation changes and moved those sections up and down to get the height differences and drew in the connecting stairways by hand. That gave me the outlines and allowed me to set up the floor and wall masks I needed. Then I detailed with the pen tool before colouring the map. It was interesting, and actually a lot easier than I had expected. I've got a few of this style to do for a new open design project so this was a great chance to pin down the workflow for an isometric map.

    I love the fact that you get the chance to do a lot more with light and shade in an iso map. I wish I could have spent more time on the cliffs, and also on the furnishings - but real life has time constraints unfortunately.

  10. #10

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    Torstan this is beautiful!!! I would love it if you could you detail your cartograpic life into how you got commissions. It would inspire our members I think.

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