Yeah, due to the scale, they came out kinda small...not too happy about that...I'd have liked to do something where I could get more detail in. Anywho, they are watchtowers for spotting dragons, accessed via tunnels in the cliffside.
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
Here's an update...nearly finished the buildings (3 sections left), started the final shadows, added some texture, lightened it up, all kinds of stuff really...I forget it all. Left is: put in streets, bridge shadows, dang, now I'm drawing a blank but there's lots of stuff left to do. I had to lower the quality to upload but I think, in the end, it'll come out fine when I put the finish work on it. Might go back and remove some of the green from the rivers in favor of something more rocky.
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
Great update, must have taken a lot of work to get there. Now let's see some streets
Check out my City Designer 3 tutorials. See my fantasy (city) maps in this thread.
Gandwarf has fallen into shadow...
Looks good! The shadows work very nice, did they cost a lot of work?
-The green inner glow of the river makes it emerald green in the narrow ends
-Some bridges points right into walls, should be easy enough to rotate
Coming along quite nicely my friend.
My Finished Maps | My Challenge Maps | Ghoraja Juun, my largely stagnated campaign setting.
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So far the hardest part has been the topography, which for me is usually the easiest part. The buildings are fairly easy since I have a whole bunch of premade shapes and layer styles. The townhouse-style buildings were pretty easy as well; using a square pencil I just drew some lines then used a 1-pixel eraser to make some cuts so that the bevel would produce a roof instead of a tube.
The shadows are pretty easy too: copy the layer, move it 1 pixel up and left, then repeat as often as necessary, flatten and lower the opacity. I mainly use 4 different shadow styles: short = 1 floor buildings (huts and shacks), medium = 2 floor buildings (barns and merchants), tall = 3 floor buildings (castles and churches), and exotic for things like towers and spires that need a custom shape shadow. The short is just moved 2 pixels, the medium is moved 4 pixels, tall is moved 8, my watchtowers are moved 12, and the tower is sort of like a sideview of what the tower looks like, then rotated.
Theoretically, I could make each house have a different length of shadow but that would not really accomplish much as that kind of detail will be lost. And while a 3d program will produce a more accurately shaped shadow, that sort of detail is lost as well except on very tall things or odd shapes. So for me, a square house gets a square shadow irregardless of roof type...I'm not that anal about my realism
Last edited by Ascension; 01-07-2009 at 06:23 PM.
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
Lookin' good. Very convincing.
ViewingDale Map maker and VTT . Recent CG posts . Keyword Index . Intros Index . Member Locations . CWBP Place Index
Ok, this is nearing completion and I thought I'd post it up in case someone can catch something I may have missed before I finish off the support graphics. 5 hours yesterday and 5 hours today, bringing the total to 30-40 hours. And as I sit here and proofread the map, I see that I forgot to fix the overlapping shadows so I'll fix that tomorrow.
Last edited by Ascension; 01-09-2009 at 12:11 AM.
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
The river texture is good! It's quite sparsley populated thou. I know not every town has to be packed wall to wall, but some parts seem very open. There could be some small outhouses and and workshops next to the bigger houses. Other that that it's great, I love the dark feel and the texturing is top notch!
Great piece of work Ascension. I love the layout and your golden borders! The city also has a very unique feel to it, because of the different buildings and cliffs.
I agree with Hoel that the city seems a bit sparsely populated, but then again, I am used to stuffing my cities full of buildings. That's why I like the part to the east better, where the buildings are sharing walls and lots of space is used.
The map is a bit too dark for my taste. But that is really taste. The dark feel does add something to the map.
All in all some very good work and something you can be proud of (I know I would).
Check out my City Designer 3 tutorials. See my fantasy (city) maps in this thread.
Gandwarf has fallen into shadow...
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