Castle Ravenloft in CC3

Stoat · 25th June 2009, 02:34 AM

IMO, the best dungeon map TSR ever published. I'm redoing it in CC3 for my current game.

chronoplasm · 25th June 2009, 03:29 AM

You might want to do something with the stairs besides just drawing thick black lines to indicate the steps. It looks rushed and crappy compared to the higher resolution stuff in there. If it's a WIP though, I understand. Yeah, just fix up those stairs.

Rhun · 25th June 2009, 05:56 AM

Agree with Chrono...everything looks great except the stairs. They just look too plain and simple.

Stoat · 25th June 2009, 09:09 PM

Thanks for the input! Does anyone have any tips for improving the stairs? I've been playing around with CC2 and CC3 for a while, and every big spiral staircase I've ever done has been disappointing.

chronoplasm · 25th June 2009, 09:32 PM

You need a reference. Try looking at pictures of staircases from above to get a better idea of what they should look like.

Take a look at the first picture I attached.
Note the differences in lighting between the steps that are lower down and the steps that are higher up on the staircase. You need to create separations in height. You need to push the lower stairs down and pull the higher steps up. You can do this with changes in light and contrast.
Look at the second picture I attached. Note how the steps get darker and have more contrast when they are closer, but get lighter and less contrasted as they receed back in space.

Try using contrast and lightness/darkness to indicate differences in elevation between objects.

jaerdaph · 25th June 2009, 09:40 PM

Hi Stoat - always good to see another CC3 user.

I agree - Castle Ravenloft was some of the best cartography ever to come out of TSR. And I like what you've done here too.

As for the spiral staircase, I suggest checking out the Dundjinni Forums - even though this is another mapping program, the user created PNG files over there can be imported easily into CC3. And if you haven't joined already, check out The Cartographers Guild as well - there are a lot of folks over there who might be able to help you out as well.

Making stairs, especially spiral ones, can be tricky - you have to take into account the lighting and shadows, creating an illusion of depth etc. I haven't quite mastered it myself.

Stoat · 29th June 2009, 06:42 PM

I've tinkered with the stairs a little. What do y'all think?

I'm also in the process of putting the other floors together, but that may take some time.