WIP: Tresendor Manor Basement (Redbrand Hidout) (fixed up)

[Lilguystumpy]

Trying to get in to map making by doing my own maps for a family game of D&D I'm going to DM in a month or so. Also my party on the game I play as a player has just been given Tresendor Manor at the completion of the Lost Mine of Phandelver. So, I mixed them both up and did a repaired version of the manor basement as the basement on the family one:



Needs populating with stuff, but I'm quite pleased with the look of it for my first attempt.

[Meshon]

Yep, this looks really nice. I love when the party gets an adventure location to turn into their hero base, will you be mapping the place after it's taken over by your gang? Excuse me, by your adventurers' company?

Just one tiny nitpick that comes from the floor texture you're using. The stairs end up looking a bit off, especially the angled ones near the top of the map. It's just a function of the floor texture not being tied to the stair overlays. You could try redrawing a few of the lines on the stairways to see if that appeals to you.

[RaNaketh]

I like it, it's got great bones to be an awesome base for your party.

I also agree with Meshon on the stairs, the two closest to the right door exit trick my eye into thinking they go down, but I think they're meant to go up?

Can't wait to see it populated with your loot!

Ra.

[Lilguystumpy]

Thanks for the comments, much appreciated.

I've just taken another look in the light of day at work and, you're right, I've messed up on the shadows on the stairs. They were the first ones I did and I've altered the way the shadows fall (although, looking at it now I'm struggling to figure out what type of stairs would give shadows like that. I also need to sort the stone patterns on the stairs themselves, I'd spotted this one myself, and had started with the top-left horizontal stairs by making sure the lines were contained to a single step but I think some of the dirt/shadowing over the stone is spoiling it a little too. Definitely need to sort the stonework under the spiral part.

I'm really enjoying the learning curve and the challenge; it's the first time I've used GIMP for anything other than simple touch-ups on photos. I've the ground floor and a first story to do, I may do an underground natural cave system from those spiral stairs too.

[Bogie]

Nice work, this has a lot of potential.

The problem I see with the spiral stair is the deep round shadow where the angles of the spiral stair meet. Concentrating the shadow into that point makes the whole thing look like a funnel not stairs. The shadows should get darker as you go down the stairs, but should extend across the length of each stair, each next one getting a little darker.
This is a bit different type of spiral but you should be able to see what I mean.

[Lilguystumpy]

Thank you, that does look better. The shadows at the edge of the stair extend as they go down too. I'll give that a go tomorrow (playing tonight).

Could you recommend any tutorials on shading in order to give the impression of depth? It's been mainly trial by error, and the feed back of excellent peeps on here, so far.

[Bogie]

I did it by trial and error too. there may be a tutorial, but I have not looked.

[RaNaketh]

Trial and error here too, so don't feel disheartened if it doesn't work out straight away!

One thing of many that I've learnt from checking out lots of maps and comments on this forum, was to look at where light should be coming from within your map, and also to align that with real-world examples (photos, just investigating yourself).

For example, with your angled downward stairs in the top middle of the map, you have a door on the right side, but shadows appearing on the left wall. With no visible light source in the stairwell, I'd assume the light would come through the door almost opposite to what is in the hall/stairs, and flow down like in Bogie's example.

I hope that helps a bit?
Ra.