CG Feb Mapping Challenge: Laugedenors Tower

Greetings everyone!

I'm sorry it's taken so long for me to come back, this time. The holidays are over, which means my heavy crafting season is done, but for those of you who don't know, right after the holidays I had to go in to the hospital for minor emergency surgery. Without going into details, it truly was NOT anything life threatening, but it did make things like sitting, standing, moving rather difficult and extremely painful. In fact, I'm STILL not completely healed, but I am getting better, to the point that I can actually sit at a computer for longer periods of time than I could about a week or so ago.

Which means it's back to mapping for me, and like always, to get my creative juices going, I've entered one of the Guild Challenges. This one has an extended deadline, which works with my recovery, so I've joined in.

I'm actually getting into new territory for me, because I'm going to be doing something I've never done... possibly creating symbols. But that comes later. Right now I need some help with my shadowing affects. Now I know the Tome covers this, and I did read it a while back (I have to go back and re read that section), but if I remember correctly, I never really understood it... but those lessons are coming into play now... so I need some help please.

What I'm mapping, is a wizard's tower. It has three levels, and must contain three things: an outdoor garden(which I have done), a library(which I have done) and an observatory (which I will definitely need help with later on).

But what I'm having problems with right now... are my shadows, specifically, the wall directional shadow for my tower. As everyone knows, the wall directional shadow follows the walls, which if I was building just a wall, would not be a problem. But I'm building a tower, specifically, a round tower. I don't have 4 distinct walls, I have one continuous one. So my wall directional shadow is falling both inside and outside of my structure...

Here is the issue. I have to lengthen the shadow on my tower, because it's a tall tower; it stands above the tree line. But if I make my shadow as long as it needs to be, half of my tower inside will be in shadow... and that's not right, either. I haven't set up lighting yet, and I know there is a point of light directional shadow, but I have never understood how to use it, even after reading the tome. I haven't set up my lighting inside yet, but I already have windows on the first and second floor, and they will bring in light as well. So any help in fixing my shadow problems would be greatly appreciated!

Comments

  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 39 images Cartographer
    edited February 2019
    Looking good, Storm :)

    Take the shadow effect completely off the wall. No shadow at all on the wall sheet.

    Then add a new sheet called SHADOWS under the floor sheet, and copy the floor polygon onto it. Add as tall a shadow as you like to the new SHADOW sheet. The shadow will only show outside the wall because its under the floor.

    Having done this you may be upset that the floor no longer has any kind of shading on it, but you can remedy this by adding a Glow effect (set to inner) to your FLOOR sheet, of black or dark brown/grey according to your taste.

    Ralf helped me do this to the drawing I'm working on right now, so I know it works ;)

    For information - the Glow (inner) on the floor in my map is set to 12.5 with 8 units blur. That's just a starting point, however, you may want to make it weaker or stronger, or wider or narrower.
  • huh... I never thought to do something like that! So, just to be clear... the shadows sheet is lower in the order than the floor sheet? I just want to make sure I understand you correctly.
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 39 images Cartographer
    edited February 2019
    Yes.

    The SHADOWS sheet is immediately below the floor (above it in the sheet order as displayed on the Sheets and Effects dialog), so that you can't see the actual SHADOW sheet at all because it is hidden by the floor.

    In this screen shot you can see the granite slabs of the floor on the FLOOR sheet, which is on top of the SHADOW sheet that casts the shadow on the water to the right of the wall. The glow set up on the FLOOR sheet is the only effect 'shading' the edges of the floor. You might say that it doesn't make sense because its all around the floor edge, but if you think about it the sun doesn't shine inside the room so the shade will be all around the edge in the corners. The arrow slits in this particular example are a little distracting because they bring the edges of the floor very close together and the glow meets in a blackness. I have yet to remedy this. You shouldn't have a problem with it in your drawing because you don't have arrow slits to deal with ;)

    [Image_12329]
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 39 images Cartographer
    edited February 2019
    I can't quite make out what order everything is in your map, but the shadow sheet needs to be placed underneath the floor, yet above all the exterior objects. You might need to re-arrange your sheet order slightly to make sure the exterior sheets are all receiving the shadow cast by the SHADOW sheet.

    In the Sheets and Effects Dialog:

    - BACKGROUND

    - (all the outdoor stuff)

    - SHADOW

    - FLOOR

    - (all the indoor stuff)

    - WALL
  • 8 days later
  • Well, I'm now on my third story. This is where I am probably going to need the most help.. trying to get my roof (or forcefield) made, and looking the way it's supposed to.

    I've started some preliminaries... I just can't seem to get a rounded bevel, which is what I need for a roof or forcefield. Right now, it just looks like a massive glow at the top of my tower, and that's not the look I'm going for. I could use some help.
  • oh, and it seems when I moved my symbols flat, I moved it to the wrong place in the sheet order. I just realized that, it will be fixed before I'm done.
  • jslaytonjslayton Moderator, ProFantasy Mapmaker
    It looks like you're using Bevel on some elements (like the things on top of the tower). Bevel has the feature that it only goes at multiple of 45 degrees. Bevel, Lighted will do any angle and will also properly follow curved items with curved spines.
  • that's what I've been looking for! I've been trying to create domes for the longest time, and I knew the bevel effect had something to do with it, but I couldn't figure out how to make it work. I finally really LOOKED at it, and I think I figured out how to do it! Thank you so much!
  • jslaytonjslayton Moderator, ProFantasy Mapmaker
    I'd kill off Bevel if favor of Bevel, Lighted if I could. Not an option, though, so Bevel will continue looking odd for anything except vertical and horizontal lines.
  • I'm using Bevel for the walls, because they should have a straight up and down, blocky look. But I will be using bevel, lighted, for anything that needs curves from now on!
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