An alternate way to draw elevation changes

I just bought the 2022 annual and decided to try an Ice Cavern.

When I got to the point where I wanted to draw elevation changes, I went back to watch Ralf's live mapping session. But... I'd added a few effects that were conflicting with Ralf's technique in other places, and I must say I'm not a fan of creating tons of sheets.

But some creative spark ignited and I came up with an alternative. The result is very subtle (because the lack of bevel makes each "step" less pronounced) but I like it a lot. And I can add many many steps without having as many sheets:

I created a single FLOORS STEP sheet and drew lines with a solid 10 Bitmap (if you hadn't caught it, you might look at the image above and realize it's there... just a faint shade in the top part of each step).

And then just a Wall Shadow, Directional effect, and an Edge Fade, Inner afterwards..

Just for completeness, I tried setting the line to 0-width (the two rightmost in the following image), but the result is even less noticeable (though it might be what you're aiming for):

Of course, given the Sun Direction in my directional wall shadow, these steps only seem logical if going downwards or leftwards, but you can create a new sheet. Two is still a small number. :)

One final note: I had to snap the steps to the nearest point in the cave wall, otherwise I'd get transparency acne (not an issue on the 0-width line).

QuentenRoyal ScribeLoopysuezace66Wyvern

Comments

Sign In or Register to comment.