Intruder Alert! - WIP encounter map...

[mearrin69]

Good suggestions. If I want to make this accurate to the story, the ship has already been partially unloaded and is awaiting final unloading the next day. After that it'll take on local goods. I suppose, in practice, things probably aren't that orderly. I might put some crates and such on the deck - maybe the oncoming goods (most of which you've listed...stuff from "Asia"). I'll play with it some more.

In the meantime, I've filled the hold a bit more. Still the same old crates and barrels, though slightly improved, but I've also added stacks of high-grade steel. Threw in a couple of ropes but they're kind of hoopty. Would like to get some various ropes and nets and things in there...as you'd expect that kind of stuff to be all over a ship. I'm going to work on some more interesting items for the hold over time but I guess this is the basic look.

Bear in mind that I will be coming back later to tint and grunge to make things look less uniform. The whole thing's also going to be getting a heavy dose of lighting...and the holds will likely be pretty dark.
M

[edit]Oh, yeah. I fixed my oversized doors. Probably not happy with the coloring still but I'll wait until later. Speaking of coloring, it's likely that the interior flooring is going to be less grey in the final. That's sort of the color I had envisioned for the upper deck surfaces. I think the interior decks will be a little warmer, less weathered.[/edit]

[mearrin69]

Meh. Unhappy with the computer-texture look of what I was doing so I'm testing out bringing in scanned lines and painting. I sort of like the rougher look of hand-drawn lines, warts and all, though I'll likely clean this up even more as some of the lines are a little *too* rough.

Some of this is drawn and scanned, some manipulated, some drawn in PS. Laid down some basic colors under the lines and stole my water from the last one as a temporary background...but I'd like to paint something by hand for the final.

I'm testing out a workflow where I can just draw a component or two...say some crates...scan them, place them, and then manipulate them in PS and finally paint some textures under the lines.

Oddly, there's some subtle-looking wood grain on the decks...but it got totally blown away by my planking outline attempt. Guess I'll have to go for less subtle

All of this could be a waste of time but it's kind of fun to experiment - and, if it works, it'll be a style you don't see too often for encounter maps. Any thoughts? Should I give it up or go for it?
M