Maybe it's a bit of a crazy idea, but I thought I would attempt to draw a small dungeon area (100ft x 100ft / 20 x 20 squares) each day this month, and post the results here.
Sometimes I might have a rough idea in mind for the purpose of some of the rooms (suggestions of what to include are welcome), while other times I might just draw a random collection of chambers and passages (like the one posted below). In either case I'm going to keep the rooms relatively free of furnishings/clutter so that they are fairly generic in nature.
I'm also thinking of leaving them black and white for now (unless folks would really prefer me to do otherwise), and I'm hoping that it'll be a fun little project to work on (as I kinda like drawing this kind of stuff anyway), and I figured we could always use more dungeons right?
Anyway, it's probably time I stopped rambling and posted the map I created yesterday...
These are really good, and not cluttered. Too many times I have seen in otherwise good books, maps that are cluttered and overdrawn in photoshop that are useless for GMs.
If there is enough call for colour versions I'll post them here (in bulk) once I've finished all 31 black and white versions (as I'll need to go back and tinker with a few bits here and there to get them looking right).
As a quick experiment I have blown the first map up to battlematt size and made it into a six page pdf.
I'll be honest and say that it doesn't look that great when blown up to such an extent, but I've dropped a couple of filters over the top to try and eliminate some of the pixelation.
Anyway, I'm not sure if I'll go ahead and do this to all the maps, but I figured I'd post this example here, and see what you guys think.
www.enworld.org/CrookedStaffProductions/generic_dungeon_01.pdf...link updated in post #44
(note that I printed these out in black & white draft quality on my printer and I guess they looked OK)
Anyway, I'm not sure if I'll go ahead and do this to all the maps, but I figured I'd post this example here, and see what you guys think.
I haven't had a chance to print this out yet to see what it looks like on paper, but I don't think it looks too pixelated at all.
It might be a lot of work for you to give all your may maps this treatment, but it would officially be bad ass to have a chunk of battle mat sized dungeon tiles like this.
A lot of it is done in photoshop, but I create the basic layout first in a vector graphics program called Greenstreet Draw4 ...which I'll then export as a bitmap image - which will look something like this:
That image then gets loaded into photoshop, which is where I attempt to pretty it up a bit.
I suppose there is nothing stopping me from doing it 100% in photoshop, but I find it easier to work with vector graphics first - probably just because I have been using this 'Draw4' software for years now.
A lot of it is done in photoshop, but I create the basic layout first in a vector graphics program called Greenstreet Draw4 ...which I'll then export as a bitmap image ...snip... That image then gets loaded into photoshop, which is where I attempt to pretty it up a bit.
Ah, I see. It's interesting to see how the vector image turned out - very nicely, I might add.
Linear Mode
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