False spiral and tile effects

Hi,

I just reworked on an old project to turn it in a battle map and made some tiling in a false spiral shape.
Creating the spiral was easy because CC3 allows elaborate geometry with high precision.
The walls look plain because the picture is reduced (original is 6000×6000).

Comments

  • edited October 2013
    Sheet effects make all these tiles look real. At least, more real than the raw map below...(don't look at it too much, eh?)

    Effects in use :
    Yellow tiles :
    Glow Inside, White, Strength 0, Blur 1
    Bevel, lighted 0.2 - 0.3 - 0.8 - 0.8 - 3 - 5 use global sun
    Texturize CA24_relief01 Intensity 0.5 Size 1 Units checked azimuth 315 elevation 45
    RGB Matrix
    0.50 0.25 0.25 0.20
    0.25 0.50 0.25 0.20
    0.25 0.25 0.50 0.20
    Glow Outside, Black, Strength 0, Blur 0.04

    Green tiles:
    Glow Inside, Yellow(colour 4)
    All the other effects same as above.

    Red tiles:
    Glow Inside, Orange (colour 151)
    Texturize Intensity 1, rest as above.
    All the other effects same as above.
  • KenGKenG Traveler
    This is the most awesome thing ever!!!!
  • DogtagDogtag Moderator, Betatester Traveler
    GREAT GOOGLY MOOGLY! That's amazing. *doffs cap* Ingenious.

    Now, when you lay out the effects like that for us... are you saying that you somehow have different sheets, or different effects, for the different colors of the original image? I can't begin to fathom how that would be accomplished. I downloaded your Map Bits as Fill Styles tutorial earlier, but I haven't had time to read it. Do you explain the effects in there?

    Thanks again for showing — and sharing — this with us.

    ~Dogtag
  • Thanks guys :))
    Posted By: Dogtagare you saying that you somehow have different sheets
    Each color is on a different sheet.
    I've got TILES1 for the yellow tiles, TILES2 for the green and TILES3 for the red.

    It would be a nice example for the Map Bits too. Given that there are only 18 sheets, I didn't use it here.
  • DogtagDogtag Moderator, Betatester Traveler
    edited October 2013
    Posted By: Joachim de RavenbelEach color is on a different sheet.
    I've got TILES1 for the yellow tiles, TILES2 for the green and TILES3 for the red.
    You understand how this is boggling my mind, yes?

    If each color is on a different sheet, are you saying the bitmap is actually 3 bitmaps that fit together, each one on its own sheet? I ask because the raw map you posted was only one image — or it appeared to be.

    Bewildered but no less impressed,
    ~Dogtag
  • Posted By: Dogtagbitmap is actually 3 bitmaps
    There are no bitmaps here. On each sheet, there are only solid colored polygons.
    See the attached FCW file.
  • DogtagDogtag Moderator, Betatester Traveler
    Sweet merciful Zeus! That's even more mind-numbing than 3 bitmaps!
  • RalfRalf Administrator, ProFantasy 🖼️ 18 images Mapmaker
    Amazing work as always, Joachim! :D
  • edited October 2013
    Thanks Ralf!

    You can see the basics of false spirals page 6 of Macro Tutorial 3.
    In present case, I started with a regular dodecagon (12 sided polygon) instead of a square but the method is the same. You can even see the half lines in the tile pattern.

    The main aspect of this discussion is however the fact that you don't always need to seek a tile texture because effects can generate nice ones (if I may say so).
    As Dogtag guessed, you can even use the Map Bits method to reduce the number of sheets and effects in the main map with such floors.
    Indidentally, the outside, more square tiling, was made with CC3 and exported as a fill style png file.
  • Wow Joachim, your maps and experiments are always amazing, but this one is mind-blowing. I love the smaller version of the spiral pattern on the centre dias. Did you create the dais as a symbol within CC3 as well?

    I always enjoy your posts, and I appreciate the effort that you take to write tutorials of your wizardry. Thanks!

    I assume that the yellow, green and red coloured tiles were also drawn via macro? The tile design is so complex, even after you've drawn the false spiral. Once again - wow!

    By the way: after reading this thread I looked back again at your Map Bits thread & tutorial, and I wondered did you create the main tile pattern of that map within CC3 as well? (The one with interlocking four sided polygons within four sided polygons - sorry I don't know the correct mathmatical term for the pattern!)
  • edited October 2013
    Thanks for your nice comment, Raiko!
    Posted By: RaikoDid you create the dais as a symbol within CC3 as well?
    The dais only consists in three dodecagons on three different sheets with a bevel effect. It could be exported as a symbol, of course.
    Posted By: RaikoI assume that the yellow, green and red coloured tiles were also drawn via macro? The tile design is so complex, even after you've drawn the false spiral. Once again - wow!
    Nope, this was done the hard way... line by line. The pattern was made in a single branch then I used the Circular Array tool to copy it 12 times around the dais.
    Posted By: Raikodid you create the main tile pattern of that map within CC3 as well? (The one with interlocking four sided polygons within four sided polygons - sorry I don't know the correct mathmatical term for the pattern!)
    Yes, this was done with CC3 too. The pattern is called "Cairo" pentagonal tiling. You can download the seamless texture .
  • edited October 2013
    Hoping that it could be of use to at least some of you, I wrote this tutorial on drawing false spirals.
  • KenGKenG Traveler
    Can't wait to try this out. Thanks JdR
  • edited October 2013
    Posted By: KenGCan't wait to try this out
    Can't wait to see your spirals! image
  • DogtagDogtag Moderator, Betatester Traveler
    Out of curiosity, JDR, when do you find time to do things like eat, or sleep, or other mundane, unimportant tasks? image

    Thanks so much for taking the time to share your amazing work AND for making another tutorial.

    Cheers,
    ~Dogtag
  • edited October 2013
    The map I made for the tutorial:
  • DogtagDogtag Moderator, Betatester Traveler
    edited October 2013
  • Some less hypnotic examples of false spiral use.
    First a battlemap with the druid shrine.
  • edited October 2013
    And this leads naturally to gameboard...
  • KenGKenG Traveler
    Pits and ladders!! Cool.
  • DogtagDogtag Moderator, Betatester Traveler
    Wow, JDR, these are really cool.

    ~Dogtag
  • DogtagDogtag Moderator, Betatester Traveler
    Out of curiosity, why is this called a "false" spiral? It looks like a spiral to my [admittedly plebeian] mind.

    ~Dogtag
  • edited October 2013
    Posted By: DogtagOut of curiosity, why is this called a "false" spiral?
    I'm not an expert at spiral taxonomy. The term spiral most often corresponds to Archimedes' spiral, a spiral with a linear growing radius (the ration radius/angle is always the same). It means essentially that there is no circle arc in any part of this spiral.
    A "false" spiral is made of circle arcs.
    Now the Golden Spiral is also made of arcs but with a very different construction.
    There is also Pythagoras' spiral, made of right triangles with no curvature at all.
    And of course, there are many variation of Archimedes' spiral with non-linear radius progression.

    Archimedes' and "false" spirals have one property in common though: the distance between two revolutions is always the same, which cannot be said of the Golden spiral or Archimedes' variations.
    "False" spirals are quite easy to draw with CC3 but Archimedes' spiral is quite more difficult to get (the approximation below was made with 100 smooth paths and a macro).

    I hope it's clear...
  • DogtagDogtag Moderator, Betatester Traveler
    edited October 2013
    Posted By: Joachim de RavenbelI'm not an expert at spiral taxonomy.
    Near enough, I'd say. image

    Okay, so I copied your false spiral image, up there, to Paint Shop Pro and cut it up. Thanks to your color coding, I found four, distinct, 90-degree arcs for each of the colors (except, possibly, red) and I'll be darned if they didn't form five concentric circles with [apparently] equidistant gaps between them — except for the red circle, but you called that out in your spiral with the square, anyway. That's pretty neat. I doubt I'd have seen that arrangement without your color-coding. Intriguing.

    In contrast, the angle of the arc in the Archimedes spiral was not, as you pointed out, 360 degrees, so I couldn't carve it up into circle arcs.

    Thank you for clearing that up!

    ~Dogtag
Sign In or Register to comment.