what @DaltonSpence & @jslayton are discussing is far over my head and present knowledge of graphics programs or CC3+ that at first I thought shudder was an effect of OFFSET1 and SIMPLIFY, but now that I have had more sleep, I am pretty sure he meant the work it involved.
I wanted to use the wall and floor drawing tools to make my trees, but I just could not figure out how to get a seamless tile to make the patterns I wanted, so I settled on the prefabricated symbols to do the job.
@Wyvern here is my attempt of "calming" it down. I may have overdone the inner beveling with this one, but I think lightening up the floor and decreasing the detail helps. Since the main purpose of the map is for battles, I threw in a few tokens. Text labeling is just to let everyone know what I was thinking when I drew the map.
The tree-rings discussion has made me wonder if you could simulate the look of tree-rings within the trunk as a drawn polygon using the Edge Striping Sheet Effect. That would need a specific pattern to be available in the catalogue of such items, but it would follow the edge of whatever polygon was drawn, which is clearly a key aspect to the design. Someone better-versed in such things than me could doubtless advise more usefully on the practicalities of that though.
Okay, here is another stab at creating what I wanted. I used a bunch of symbols from perspectives and isometrics and overland.
Welcome to my maps for A Furry Few Dozen: The Entry Point
I changed Schley Overland mountain and tree symbols because I wanted something wild and weird for the Feywild.
Okay, the crazy purple tree is supposed to represent the Feywild and created from a mash up of two photos. The players would step through the same image on an outdoor map and then the tree would be within the interior of this tree (the magic circle is there as a clue). The background behind the tree is from a photo of real tree bark. I was working pretty fast on this draft and the drawn interior walls are sloppy, but I think with work they will be okay. I don't think I tweaked any CC3+ symbols in this one. I gave up on the multi-level tree ring floor for this one and went for dark and weird instead.
To get this the above image, I had to take a screen shot because, saving to PNG or printing to PDF gave me the following result:
The scaling of my bitmap for the tree bark changed. Is there a way I can force the program to print what I see in my mapping window?
I was getting ready to take a break from this project but I thought I saw some potential in Perspectives so I put this together really quick. I have never really used the program so I watched Ralf's video on the annual style for perspectives and then gave it a shot. My alignment is off and my use of symbols was random and imprecise. It's not meant to be pretty at this time, but I wonder if this might a viable option for the tree map.
@Quenten --glad you appreciate the humor in the map.
Well, I think I am finally tapped out on the tree mapping project for the time being. Below is my latest (and last?) go at doing a tree thing. I actually think the tree on the left has the beginnings of looking okay, so I took a zoomed in shot.
The hideous looking trees are stuck in as branches to remind me that I need to try to make branches someday.
I learned so much about CC3, DD3, & Perspectives (surprise!) on this journey. I also learned a little about touching up and manipulating images. And yet, I still know almost nothing so I believe I may be related to Jon Snow.
I thought I was done, but I was wrong. Another brainstorming draft of a hollow tree.
I never used Perspectives before the last week or so, but I like it a lot. I just put the tree slab in as a symbol and made it big and then surrounded it with a tree bark tile wall
I found I just couldn't walk away from my hollow tree mapping project because I realized why I gave up. I started focusing and working on aspects of what I thought other people wanted from it instead of what I wanted. I felt using the symbols rather than drawing tools was wrong and unless I found a way to draw walls and floors with the standard drawing tools, the project was pointless and had no value.
But it was working for me, so what happened?
I want to make it clear that no one ever made a post to suggest that this was the case. All this happened in my head. I think I got some grandiose notion that I was going to produce a really cool mapping style other people would want to use and when it was done I could share it with the community-ah, the hubris of it all. And that's when I started worrying about breaking the rules and using non-standard methods to achieve my maps.
Today, I decided to go back and focus on simply creating the prettiest and coolest maps I can by utilizing whatever methods and means allows me to do that.
Today's map returns to using symbols as the foundation for the dungeon map. One of the blood bitmaps provided by CC3+ gave me a pretty solid match to my tree wall so what you have in this map is a tree wall symbol with cuts for doors and windows with an underlying wall drawn with the walls tool using the blood bitmap that breaks at the cut points. The drawn wall will work on its own, but I like the extra little detailing I get with the symbol wall.
I am still experimenting with color and detail as well as the right opacity and saturation that helps the symbols "pop" from the background. I also thought a hollow tree might benefit from unique furnishings and I tried my hand at adapting current symbols and creating a few of my own. The steps down from the balcony are just separate bridge pieces surrounded by a drawn wall. I want to work on making a rope bridge later.
In the end, I can't regret my quest for trying to find the "proper" way to make my map. I learned so much, but I am no longer going to let the ideas that I must or should achieve it in any particular way rule the way I work to reach my mapping goals.
Top Map has the tree top cap. In the final draft, I plan to make it blend in with the rest of the trees. I emphasized it here to show what I have planned.
Middle Map: I was having problems with getting my walls to join together at the end of the circuit, and I couldn't remember what setting I probably needed to use, thus the gap at the top where I stuck the trap door.
Bottom Map: I used layers of symbol sheets, keeping the tree, floor, and walls the same on all maps. I am not sure this is the best method to use, but I am still in the early stages of this one. These will eventually be battle maps, but they I don't need to switch between the levels in real time (they will be jpgs online), so I was wondering if I could just manipulate the leafy symbol to make it appear as if it is being viewed from higher and higher up as I save them to the pdf files. I am not sure how I can achieve this visual effect, but think it would be cool if I could do it.
FYI: I want to run an adventure based upon 101 Dalmatians with a green hag acting as Cruella Deville. I am using the tabaxi and leonin races (with homebrew adaptations) from 5E D&D as the future fur coats. The story is pretty dark and I think well suited to an adult role-playing experience.
It all starts when the carriage taking them home from a game of Chuff (played with hairballs, of course!) to Arthur Pendragon Academy is run off the road ...
I love it. been looking for ideas and thoughts of how to create Fey Wild Maps. Thinking about how I create a overview overland map with distinct trails that lead to locations.
My first attempt at well a start of a Feywild Overland map. I will probably go back and start from scratch but wanted to just start throwing paint on the wall so to speak. Ideally it would have been multi colored trees instead of patches.
Comments
what @DaltonSpence & @jslayton are discussing is far over my head and present knowledge of graphics programs or CC3+ that at first I thought shudder was an effect of OFFSET1 and SIMPLIFY, but now that I have had more sleep, I am pretty sure he meant the work it involved.
I wanted to use the wall and floor drawing tools to make my trees, but I just could not figure out how to get a seamless tile to make the patterns I wanted, so I settled on the prefabricated symbols to do the job.
@Wyvern here is my attempt of "calming" it down. I may have overdone the inner beveling with this one, but I think lightening up the floor and decreasing the detail helps. Since the main purpose of the map is for battles, I threw in a few tokens. Text labeling is just to let everyone know what I was thinking when I drew the map.
That's really nice! And obviously a lot clearer!
The tree-rings discussion has made me wonder if you could simulate the look of tree-rings within the trunk as a drawn polygon using the Edge Striping Sheet Effect. That would need a specific pattern to be available in the catalogue of such items, but it would follow the edge of whatever polygon was drawn, which is clearly a key aspect to the design. Someone better-versed in such things than me could doubtless advise more usefully on the practicalities of that though.
Okay, here is another stab at creating what I wanted. I used a bunch of symbols from perspectives and isometrics and overland.
Welcome to my maps for A Furry Few Dozen: The Entry Point
I changed Schley Overland mountain and tree symbols because I wanted something wild and weird for the Feywild.
Okay, the crazy purple tree is supposed to represent the Feywild and created from a mash up of two photos. The players would step through the same image on an outdoor map and then the tree would be within the interior of this tree (the magic circle is there as a clue). The background behind the tree is from a photo of real tree bark. I was working pretty fast on this draft and the drawn interior walls are sloppy, but I think with work they will be okay. I don't think I tweaked any CC3+ symbols in this one. I gave up on the multi-level tree ring floor for this one and went for dark and weird instead.
To get this the above image, I had to take a screen shot because, saving to PNG or printing to PDF gave me the following result:
The scaling of my bitmap for the tree bark changed. Is there a way I can force the program to print what I see in my mapping window?
I was getting ready to take a break from this project but I thought I saw some potential in Perspectives so I put this together really quick. I have never really used the program so I watched Ralf's video on the annual style for perspectives and then gave it a shot. My alignment is off and my use of symbols was random and imprecise. It's not meant to be pretty at this time, but I wonder if this might a viable option for the tree map.
Love the title - some bridal Boutique!
@Quenten --glad you appreciate the humor in the map.
Well, I think I am finally tapped out on the tree mapping project for the time being. Below is my latest (and last?) go at doing a tree thing. I actually think the tree on the left has the beginnings of looking okay, so I took a zoomed in shot.
The hideous looking trees are stuck in as branches to remind me that I need to try to make branches someday.
I learned so much about CC3, DD3, & Perspectives (surprise!) on this journey. I also learned a little about touching up and manipulating images. And yet, I still know almost nothing so I believe I may be related to Jon Snow.
Thanks to everyone who gave advice and support.
I think you've done a marvelous job. The side view is awesome, even with your trees!
@Bidmaron thank you.
I thought I was done, but I was wrong. Another brainstorming draft of a hollow tree.
I never used Perspectives before the last week or so, but I like it a lot. I just put the tree slab in as a symbol and made it big and then surrounded it with a tree bark tile wall
Printed to pdf.
I found I just couldn't walk away from my hollow tree mapping project because I realized why I gave up. I started focusing and working on aspects of what I thought other people wanted from it instead of what I wanted. I felt using the symbols rather than drawing tools was wrong and unless I found a way to draw walls and floors with the standard drawing tools, the project was pointless and had no value.
But it was working for me, so what happened?
I want to make it clear that no one ever made a post to suggest that this was the case. All this happened in my head. I think I got some grandiose notion that I was going to produce a really cool mapping style other people would want to use and when it was done I could share it with the community-ah, the hubris of it all. And that's when I started worrying about breaking the rules and using non-standard methods to achieve my maps.
Today, I decided to go back and focus on simply creating the prettiest and coolest maps I can by utilizing whatever methods and means allows me to do that.
Today's map returns to using symbols as the foundation for the dungeon map. One of the blood bitmaps provided by CC3+ gave me a pretty solid match to my tree wall so what you have in this map is a tree wall symbol with cuts for doors and windows with an underlying wall drawn with the walls tool using the blood bitmap that breaks at the cut points. The drawn wall will work on its own, but I like the extra little detailing I get with the symbol wall.
I am still experimenting with color and detail as well as the right opacity and saturation that helps the symbols "pop" from the background. I also thought a hollow tree might benefit from unique furnishings and I tried my hand at adapting current symbols and creating a few of my own. The steps down from the balcony are just separate bridge pieces surrounded by a drawn wall. I want to work on making a rope bridge later.
In the end, I can't regret my quest for trying to find the "proper" way to make my map. I learned so much, but I am no longer going to let the ideas that I must or should achieve it in any particular way rule the way I work to reach my mapping goals.
So here are my latest.
Top Map has the tree top cap. In the final draft, I plan to make it blend in with the rest of the trees. I emphasized it here to show what I have planned.
Middle Map: I was having problems with getting my walls to join together at the end of the circuit, and I couldn't remember what setting I probably needed to use, thus the gap at the top where I stuck the trap door.
Bottom Map: I used layers of symbol sheets, keeping the tree, floor, and walls the same on all maps. I am not sure this is the best method to use, but I am still in the early stages of this one. These will eventually be battle maps, but they I don't need to switch between the levels in real time (they will be jpgs online), so I was wondering if I could just manipulate the leafy symbol to make it appear as if it is being viewed from higher and higher up as I save them to the pdf files. I am not sure how I can achieve this visual effect, but think it would be cool if I could do it.
FYI: I want to run an adventure based upon 101 Dalmatians with a green hag acting as Cruella Deville. I am using the tabaxi and leonin races (with homebrew adaptations) from 5E D&D as the future fur coats. The story is pretty dark and I think well suited to an adult role-playing experience.
It all starts when the carriage taking them home from a game of Chuff (played with hairballs, of course!) to Arthur Pendragon Academy is run off the road ...
I love it. been looking for ideas and thoughts of how to create Fey Wild Maps. Thinking about how I create a overview overland map with distinct trails that lead to locations.
My first attempt at well a start of a Feywild Overland map. I will probably go back and start from scratch but wanted to just start throwing paint on the wall so to speak. Ideally it would have been multi colored trees instead of patches.