October 2009 Entry - Siete Torres

[Immolate]

October has been a crazy month between work, school, planning for a trip to DC and taking the kids to Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios in Orlando. That said, I finally got some time this weekend to put in some quality time with Photoshop, working on my challenge project "Siete Torres".

The basis for the project is Ascension's magnificent river in his city tutorial. I trimmed the banks down a bit and toned down the bevel, and made a dozen or so other adjustments that I could not possibly replicate.

The walls were inspired by CoyoteMax and his superb Cruzamento walls. I wound up using a stroke for the ramparts. Thanks for the stone pattern CM!!!

The best feature of this map, and what is taking the longest, is the shadows. City walls have never played well with drop shadows, and I have a whole bunch of interacting city walls on this map, so I decided early on that I would do the drop shadows manually.

You may notice that the same object can cast multiple different shadows on surfaces of varying elevations. I am seriously straining my Trig from college, trying to do interacting slopes on the monastery dormers and trying to keep track of the many levels and features of the church.

The map is less than a third done, so I have lots more work ahead. Suggestions and commentary is welcome!

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