Town Map

[Torq]

Hi All

Here is a WIP for the town of "Bright Aurum", a mining town with a sinister past and a mysterious present. It was made using this wonderful freeware application http://www.drachenzahn.de/city_map_g...city_maps.html . All the post work was done using the GIMP.

Comments most welcome.

Torq

[jaerdaph]

Wow, very nice! I really like how you've done the trees. The only suggestion I have is perhaps remove the dark blue border from the river. I think it makes the river look more like a tube of water (or a pipe cleaner, if that even remotely makes sense).

I really need to find the time to learn GIMP because every day I'm more and more impressed by the output folks are getting.

[ravells]

And maybe tone down the brightness of the river too...it's very bright - otherwise a fantastic map!

I'd like to say I'll check out the software, but I'm fast coming to the conclusion that it's better to master the software one is using than to keep chopping and changing!

Ravs

[Fister]

I like the dark feel of your map. It will definitely convey a sense of dread to your players. I agree with the other comments on toning down the river's brightness, if only too better keep with the dark theme your map is achieving. You might even try for a polluted look by darkening the waters if possible. I also approve of your method of suggesting mountainous terrain but maintaining it simplicity and thus usability. I haven't played with the city map generator but it looks very promising and a great time saver too.

[Jharviss]

Oh wow, I absolutely love your trees! How did you do them? I've been making all of these city maps recently and each one has a different style for trees, and I hate each and every one of them. But this, this is nice. Can you explain?

I'm not sure about the background of your map. It feels like a fairly stale background, almost like a picture of granite was taken and the map was placed atop it. I would bring it out a bit more, make it more lifelike. I would also darken the river and maybe make the bridges pop a bit. The river doesn't fit in with the rest of the map style right now.

Edit -- Also, I would move the shadows of the tall buildings a bit closer to the buildings themselves. Since the rest of the buildings don't have those deep shadows, having the shadows on the brown buildings definitely make them seem bigger. But right now they look like they're floating. Move the shadows in closer to the building to make it look less floating-like.

[Torq]

Thanks for the remarks everyone.

"The only suggestion I have is perhaps remove the dark blue border from the river. I think it makes the river look more like a tube of water (or a pipe cleaner, if that even remotely makes sense)."

"You might even try for a polluted look by darkening the waters if possible."


I see what you mean. I think I will try a nice murky green.

"I like the dark feel of your map. It will definitely convey a sense of dread to your players."

Thank you. I was worried that I hadn't managed to get that feeling across in the map. I think the font helps a great deal too when it comes to the atmosphere.

"Since the rest of the buildings don't have those deep shadows, having the shadows on the brown buildings definitely make them seem bigger. But right now they look like they're floating. Move the shadows in closer to the building to make it look less floating-like."

Maybe I tried too hard to reinforce that the towers of the unfinished wall are actually taller by some way than the surrounding buildings. I will have another look at the shadowing.

"Oh wow, I absolutely love your trees! How did you do them?"

The trees are actually a texture of fallen leaves that I have saved at a pattern file (.pat) in the GIMP. I will see if I can find the original file when I get back to my mac at home. I then filled the areas where I wanted forest with that pattern. Then I used colour select to take out all the lighter areas between the leaves, inverted the selection and stroked the selection that remained with a 1 pixel wide black outline. Then I applied a shadow .

Thanks again.
Torq

[ravells]

I'd agree with what Jharviss has said about the background 'granite' texture not integrating itself with the map. the elements almost look like they're floating on top of it and, if the background is meant to be mountains and such, they are at a perspective view and look 'off' as the rest of the map is an overhead view.

I love the forest as well, thanks for explaining how you did it!

Ravs

[RobA]

The trees are actually a texture of fallen leaves that I have saved at a pattern file (.pat) in the GIMP. I will see if I can find the original file when I get back to my mac at home. I then filled the areas where I wanted forest with that pattern. Then I used colour select to take out all the lighter areas between the leaves, inverted the selection and stroked the selection that remained with a 1 pixel wide black outline. Then I applied a shadow .

Thanks again.
Torq

Torq - It looks a lot like the animated leaves (ivy) brush. Did you use that to create a pattern?

-Rob A>

[Torq]

You're right. I had forgotten but you are quite correct. I didn't even create a pattern file I simply used the brush to fill in the areas I thought should be forested. Apologies for the incorrect info given earlier. The rest is correct though. Thanks RobA. You know your Gimp.

Torq

[Torq]

Here is a revised version. I adjusted the shadows on the taller buildings which are the towers of the unfinished wall and changed the river colour. It really didn't come out as planned so I will probably have to do a rethink of that.

I also brought up the contours some more but increasing the strength of the bump mapping in Gimp, to give a better impression of what I'm trying to achieve with the background, which is a surface texture together with a bitmap heightfield generated using mojoworld.

Thanks for all the advice and assistance.

Torq