Town Wards

[Dagoth]

I personally don't really care for the fold lines, they seem like too much of a distraction to me. A bit of mild staining and smudging I could take or leave.

[Lorde]

yeah I thought the fold lines might have been a bit much... but it look so cool while I was doing it. Let me see if I can cook something up a bit less cluttered.

Paper texture is a little crispy and that coupled with the brownish tone would match the Oblivion leather map style better than   the sketch type. And it could have issues with the interface and buttons colour / style as well. Anyway, looking at the quick sample looks like it could work:

Was actually shooting for Oblivion. You can easily get an old, weathered look using dark browns but you run the risk of themap looking like it was drawn on a paper bag... Ok let me try this again 


Ok have something.


 
     

... not sure If I'm happy with this. I tried playing around with the contrast more to get most of the maps detail through after I added all the layers. Problem was, I ended up bringing a ton of eraser and smudge marks back from the dead. So that's the Maximum I can get on the maps detail without everything looking drowned out in a big black smear.

Went with lighter shading and less "doodads and bodangles" but did do some page curling... which I think looks fugly as sin... you guys might like it though so I left it.
 

[TF]

I'm digging the general color scheme and the idea of page curling, but I think that the dark streak's obfuscating the town a bit, and the colors need to blend into each other a bit because it seems just a bit patchy as is. For the corners, I think just adding a little bit of texture and fray on the edges should make things look a lot more realistic.

::Edit:: If you're using Photoshop, I'd recommend using a second layer, throw some gradients on it, so that the colors will blend together, then just shifting the transparency 'til it's at the right level. Maybe even try 2 or 3 layers of aging colors to blend the colors even more.

I'd love to show you what I mean myself, but I don't have Photoshop installed since my last hard drive crashed, and I have no idea where the disc got to.

[Mehzerz]

Well I guess I could try my hand at messing with the map a bit but I gotta say, I was a lot happier with it when it didn't have all the folds, obscure textures and fancy page curls. I can see where you're trying to go with it... but I'm thinking function over form at this point. You're losing the map in some of these newer ones and that's the part you DON'T want to lose.


But again, maybe I'll whip something up by tomorrow or something.

[Lorde]

I actually use 1 layer per color. And I tend to Gaussian blur the hell out of everything.

I was trying for a rolled up effect with the dark streak. (Go ahead and Laugh, I deserve it )


The patchiness was me trying to mimic effects of my grandmothers wall (she smokes a lot.) But now that I think about it... thats pretty disgusting. (Does look aged though.)

Think I'm just going to go for aged and weathered with detail next. (I'm obscuring the hell out of the map with all this.) I really should just follow the old adage of "keep it simple stupid".

[TF]

I'm going to go ahead and try to find my copy of Photoshop and try to take a stab at it, but I'm afraid it might be just a bit futile. I'll post back if I manage to track it down and knock something out. If I can, I'll try to make the map lines just a bit bolder, too.

It's been a while since I've bothered with photoshop... I'm wondering; Is there any way to make a layer use a separate layer to guide actions? i.e. Can I use fill on an empty layer, but only have it fill an area restricted by the lines of another layer? That way, I could create an overlay layer with the colors that would be filled in on the map as the player conquers each territory. There's certainly other ways to do it, but that seems like it would be simplest.

[Lorde]

Right clicking the layer and choosing "create clipping mask" should do what you are asking. It will clip the layer to the one beneath it. It gets a little finicky when you change Blending Modes of the underlying layer though. 

[Lorde]

Ok, Minimalist "KISS" (keep it simple stupid) approach to the "old and weathered" Crossgate map.


 
     

Note: I used one of the "see nipples under white shirts in photoshop" techniques to bring out the contrast of the cities details without getting all the eraser smudges. When I did that however, the Crossgate Coat of Arms turned blue for some reason. (It shouldn't have... but that's what happened.)

I kinda like the way that looks 

[Mehzerz]

This last one is actually quite nice. Only thing that I don't like is the text for the coat of arms... the blue looks nice though. lol guess I won't have to take a stab at it after all. I'd still suggest a new texture... looks more like a wall than paper.


Maybe these will work?
http://shadowhousecreations.blogspot.com/2010/06/texture-of-day-3-dirty-paper-textures.html (Probably the best ones)
http://free-web-design.co.cc/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/wallpaper-texture-old-paper.jpg
http://fotki.yandex.ru/tags/текстура/users/flashtuchka/view/44130?how=rating&page=15
http://fantasystock.deviantart.com/art/Seamless-Parchment-Texture-58517493


These are just from a quick google search of "Parchment paper" i'm sure there's much better ones.

[megamanx]

first and last look great the others i couldn't even see

[d31r3x]

Heeey, that was fast!

Mmmm... I'm still not sure about brownish style maps, but I had little time to try the new stuff yesterday. Then I saw the new samples and all I can say now is: lots of good ideas (and of course, good paper texture sources -thanks, Mehzerz), give me some time to put them together -I think I can draw something real good looking. I'm sure the point is blending the effects in the right proportion (subtle and simple -kiss: 'keep it simple stupid'  ), so city plan gets not eclipsed

And, for future test / samples, try to include the interface and buttons. Game interface is something I didn't had in mind until Amoeba pointed it out, and now I see it's important.

Edit: CoA in blue? Maybe looks better.

[11Z11]

Lorde:I have not seen the other versions of the map,only these last 2,you seemed to get the first rather well but the dark crease/fold attempt messed it up


Mehzerz is right,the the second one looks more like a wall,the problem is that grain like effect you gave it for more texture is too strong and the detail of the lines of the city map are too sharp.


That first link Mehzerz gave has a good example of the effect you are trying to achieve.


anyway just some comments hope wil be of use(not an artist or anything.....)

[Lorde]

anyway just some comments hope wil be of use(not an artist or anything.....)

Neither am I really. But I do like to play in Photoshop. 

Anyway Thanks for the links Mehz. When I get more free time I'll try to duplicate those effects. Might even cheat a little and transpose the map details onto one of the images. 

[DocClox]

I think the most important thing for a game map is clarity. I don't mind if the map is a schematic, or browned and aged, but the player needs to be able to read it without effort.

From that viewpoint, I'd tend toward the initial map style, purely for the clarity. The brown map approach does add more atmosphere to the game, but I think if we want to go that route, we need the map detail overlaid onto the brown. Not terribly realistic, but easier to read.

[TF]

I may have a bead on a new copy of photoshop that won't cost me $200, so I might be able to put something together in the next day or two.