Sue, not sure it'll help you much, but by chance, while trying another search tonight, I stumbled upon this old Dundjinni Forum topic from 2006 on someone else's attempts at creating stalagmites for caverns. It was the top-down image I first spotted, though it's artwork, not real, of course.
And yes, it's that gravity thing in the relative squatness of 'mites and the stretchy thinness of 'tites.
As for the hard vs. soft edge for the base, there are arguments both ways from actual examples, though in the latest version, I'm not sure the contrast between the darker floor and the bright 'mites really works too well. Even where there is a colour contrast in actual examples, the nature of many solution features is to blend into whatever surface they're upon, given they're actually creating the top part of that surface as they form.
Haven't looked much at the DD3 lighting effects, but I can appreciate the shadowing problem. So multiple versions it is, then...
I saw the Dundjinni symbols at the top of one of the Google searches I did, and simply didn't follow it up at all, but I will have a look at that topic and see if there are any parallel problems resolved there that I haven't yet figured out for my own drawing.
I think I can produce a special 'Stalagmite Floor' fill to go under the stalagmites once I've settled on a tone and colour for the actual stalagmites. I do know what you mean about the floor. I just know and understand that people will use them on a whole load of textures I never envisaged, so a faded edge is probably a bit safer to allow for extreme circumstances
I really don't know whether to continue creating them with MAP files or not. Looking back up the thread I can see that the ones without the MAP files do look flat compared to the ones with MAP files. Its just that I feel the need to create some kind of actual shadow.
I could do them with MAP files, but then also have a set of shadows as separate transparent symbols that you can either add or leave out.
I'd be inclined to persevere with the MAP file versions, but that doesn't mean you couldn't do an identical set without them as well. I understand your problems with them, and the lighting angles. I've been working on some Planet Nibirum symbols lately for the Atlas. For some Global Sun angles, using the "official" PF planet MAP PNGs included in one of the Annuals, the shadows just look quite wrong, and a planet is a simple globe-shape, not a complex stalagmite! Of course, for different angles and lighting intensities, they work really well, hence my "persevere" comment. Plus, because the shadows only work for the Global Sun (external to the image), it doesn't help when you're trying to show planets at different angles to their own sun when it's actually in the image!
Weirdly, I'd not seen the Dundjinni symbols sooner, but then Google can be odd like that sometimes, aside from the constant irritation now of having to visit each specific site instead of simply being able to view the image at its proper resolution first.
Taking a short break from the stalagmites (which are giving me a bit of a headache right now), I've done some more dungeon scale fills. I'm going to upload samples of them here for comment, but these are only samples - a patch from each new texture and not the whole thing. That's because there's a lot of them, and because they will all be available in the community collection.
Dirt cracked
[Image_10602] [Image_10603]
Dirt loam
[Image_10604] [Image_10605]
Dirt mud
[Image_10606] [Image_10607]
Long grass (slightly stylised, but I'm still working on it)
Long grass is really difficult with just the basic version of Genetica. There are no grass or fur textures unless you get the pro version.
I think I will have to wait a couple of months till the grass grows long enough in the real world for me to take a few photographs to blend together to improve those particular textures.
here's some images of wheat fields, closest I could find to looking straight down. As a farmboy in my distant youth, your images seem to me to be swirling in too many directions. As the wheat approached maturity, it would tend to bend over in the direction of the prevailing wind. Occasionally if the wind were to do a quick swirl, you would get a circularish swirl pattern in the midst of a more straight bending all in one direction.
Looking at that last pic, I was wondering if you have done any down views of clouds??
And also when drawing the wheat, the stalks only turn golden the last few weeks before harvest, before that there is quite a bit of various shades of green. (After all these years, would never have thought I would be thinking of harvesting of wheat. And I hated being a farm boy!!!)
Comments
The global sun still has to be at just 20 degrees for it to look reasonably good, but at least the colour and the hard edge are better now.
I'm going to try and get to bed before midnight, so this is the last comment from me for a few hours.
I did look at sites with stalatites, no views looking up at them. Just side views. These could have been useful to give more info on stalagmites.
I think stalagmites are more squat than stalactites (though I can't remember why), but you might have a point there
You're welcome.
Sorry - that was a completely unintentional pun! :P
I think you might be right, Jim
And yes, it's that gravity thing in the relative squatness of 'mites and the stretchy thinness of 'tites.
As for the hard vs. soft edge for the base, there are arguments both ways from actual examples, though in the latest version, I'm not sure the contrast between the darker floor and the bright 'mites really works too well. Even where there is a colour contrast in actual examples, the nature of many solution features is to blend into whatever surface they're upon, given they're actually creating the top part of that surface as they form.
Haven't looked much at the DD3 lighting effects, but I can appreciate the shadowing problem. So multiple versions it is, then...
I saw the Dundjinni symbols at the top of one of the Google searches I did, and simply didn't follow it up at all, but I will have a look at that topic and see if there are any parallel problems resolved there that I haven't yet figured out for my own drawing.
I think I can produce a special 'Stalagmite Floor' fill to go under the stalagmites once I've settled on a tone and colour for the actual stalagmites. I do know what you mean about the floor. I just know and understand that people will use them on a whole load of textures I never envisaged, so a faded edge is probably a bit safer to allow for extreme circumstances
I really don't know whether to continue creating them with MAP files or not. Looking back up the thread I can see that the ones without the MAP files do look flat compared to the ones with MAP files. Its just that I feel the need to create some kind of actual shadow.
I could do them with MAP files, but then also have a set of shadows as separate transparent symbols that you can either add or leave out.
Weirdly, I'd not seen the Dundjinni symbols sooner, but then Google can be odd like that sometimes, aside from the constant irritation now of having to visit each specific site instead of simply being able to view the image at its proper resolution first.
Bogie announced just this morning over at the Guild that the old Dundjinni forum/website appears to be up and running again.
MAP files quite often have really strange side effects. I haven't really figured out what's going on properly yet, but I will keep trying
Dirt cracked
[Image_10602] [Image_10603]
Dirt loam
[Image_10604] [Image_10605]
Dirt mud
[Image_10606] [Image_10607]
Long grass (slightly stylised, but I'm still working on it)
[Image_10608] [Image_10609]
[Image_10610] [Image_10611]
Wheat
[Image_10612] [Image_10613]
[Image_10614]
Long grass is really difficult with just the basic version of Genetica. There are no grass or fur textures unless you get the pro version.
I think I will have to wait a couple of months till the grass grows long enough in the real world for me to take a few photographs to blend together to improve those particular textures.
Enough to make me have a go at drawing the texture by hand.
The reason I was trying for top down shots is that Genetica can make a seamless texture from a photograph... within reason
I think I shall try to capture the colour a bit better now that I've seen these - and try to resist the urge to get too swirly :P
Oh. I didn't think of that at all.
Thanks Joe
And also when drawing the wheat, the stalks only turn golden the last few weeks before harvest, before that there is quite a bit of various shades of green. (After all these years, would never have thought I would be thinking of harvesting of wheat. And I hated being a farm boy!!!)
Maybe he's busy.
When I've figured out the wheat thing I'll have a look at that possibility if ahawk hasn't come back on that front
And I'm sorry! LOL!
[Image_10713]
[Image_10714]
[Image_10715]