Manor House Stables

KenG

I haven't had too much time to devote to mapping but here is a work in progress of the stables to one of the manor houses in the city. Please let me know what you think. I was looking around for some tack items, saddles, reins and the like but I haven't found any yet. Oh one note the green grass that is in the background will be changed but I'm not sure to what so it is sort of a place holder.
Thanks

Ken

Thanks to CSUAC and JdR for the symbols

Joachim de Ravenbel

Really nice.

Thanks to CSUAC and JdR for the symbols

You're welcome. I'm rather satisfied with the way the wheelbarrows came out though perhaps I should make the wheel a bit wider...
IMHO The tools in the mid-left box look a little oversized...
If anyone's interested, the symbol catalog including wheelbarrows, shovels, rakes, brooms, pickaxes, scythes will be posted for plunder...

JimP

Wowsers !

Dogtag

Very nice! If I have any suggestion at all, it would be to tweak the beveling on the walls — especially the wooden walls — to make them more squared off than peaked (so they look more like the thick outer wall). And that's a minor item! I think it looks really good.

Posted By: Joachim de RavenbelIf anyone's interested, the symbol catalog including wheelbarrows, shovels, rakes, brooms, pickaxes, scythes will be posted for plunder...

Please count me as interested. They look great.

Cheers,
~Dogtag

KenG

Revised - I'm not totally sure I'm sold on the stalls but I couldn't think of a better way to do them.
I've updated it a bit based on the comments and feedback, thank you for that.
Let me know what I can do to move it to the next level.

Soon to come will be the manors barracks for their personal guards

Ken
Am I posting these too big?

Dogtag

Personally, I like this version even better though, I must admit, I wonder how the wood would look with an absolute minimum of bevel, or no bevel at all

~Dogtag

dashlock

Hi Joachim. I would be grateful if I could have access to your symbol catalogue. They are excellent. Thanks

Ralf

Very nice! Only the poor horses don't even have room to turn around. This would be against animal welfare regulations here in Germany.

Kier

Nice work going on here. I have a few little nits and they all depend upon how real or much time you wish to spend as is always the case, but well done overall.

On a more realistic front, as Ralf pointed out, horses need more room. Believe or not they do lay down, and need room to roll over to get back up. The stalls in my actual barn are small at 12' by 12' and we have small horses, 2 actually being Ponies, a draft horse couldnt even stand in them. The other thing is, water should be in the stall if possible versus on the outside.

And one last thing, drop shadows, a little shadow around your symbols if possible will ground them into the setting versus having them float.

Great job.

Henrie61

Think this layout would do nicely if you need it for a roleplay.

But like said before, to be realistic, horses do need more room.

But all in all, a good layout and good use of the CSUAC.

And @Joachim de Ravenbel, when you post, I plunder, deal? :-)

KenG

Thank you for all the help,

And as I did not want to garner the attention of PETA I have made some modifications to the stables.
I've increased the size, given them water inside the stalls, added some more shadows and a bit of details here and there.

I'm not totally happy with the stall front walls or doors, they sort of look like boxes now, So I'm welcome to more ideas.

Ken

Ralf

I am to commend you on behalf of my girl-friend (who works with and owns horses) for your exemplary consideration of animal needs.

I would perhaps make the stall walls still a bit thinner and put them on their own sheet (separate from the stone walls). Make the bevel even smaller and perhaps decrease the dark glow a bit. And why not make the stall doors with actual door symbols? Or you could put them yet on another sheet to separate them subtly from the walls.

KenG

So some major updates to the stables, although they may look minor they took awhile. I feel like I'm getting closer to the feel that I want. I added a lower stone wall to the base of the interior stable walls, changed the doors out and played a little bit more with the shadows and the overall layout. The horses look decent but the dog still seems to me like it is floating.
Any more tips and tricks for the effects that could be passed along would be great.

Thanks,
Ken

anomiecoalition

I think all the time and modifications you've put into this has really paid off. It looks really good - especially the walls.

Doesn't look like your "floating" dog has a shadow (or if it does it seems very faint). Could try darkening it up and making it tight against the symbol (as opposed to the horse shadows which are placed some distance away...which by the way is a really smart touch).

My only other suggestion would be to increase the opacity of your shadows and/or decrease the blur radius for your smaller symbols (i.e. buckets, bags, tools, etc.)....but, this is really just my own personal preference to kind of go overboard with shadows - so feel free to completely disregard that advice.

In any event, really nice job. Any chance we might get a map of the manor house this goes with some time in the future?

***one last thought that crossed my mind...might be kind of cool to have a smoother transition between the grass and the dirt floor. You could create a new dirt sheet to go over those floor sheets, draw a polygon over the transition space, and then give it an edge fade inner effect.

KenG

anomiecoalition thanks for the input, I'll look at the shadows for the dog and the other symbols and see how those work out, I am also pretty happy with the walls and the doors. They have a bit of a feeling of height.

Next up for this complex in the barracks and when that out building is done I'll start doing major work on the Manor house. I have the outline and the main floor drawn in but that is all. I'll be up dating the grass and the transitions when I have all the buildings done.

Thanks and stay tuned and if anyone else has some comments I'd love to hear them.

Ken

KenG

Ok I think I'm done with this for now, let me know what you think.

Thanks,

Ken