Fairly cool photoshopped image for my game... (My players stay out!)

[Arravis]

I almost forgot about this board... hehe. Anyway, here is an image I'm going to be using in my upcoming campaign set in Phlan. I wanted something that would capture the spirit of the Pool of Radiance computer game from SSI. So, I remembered the old bulletin board in City Hall... and decided to do my own version .

Image is too large to post here, so I'll link it:
http://www.ralloszek.net/uploads//29117-PhlanSign.jpg

 

[Kryndal Levik]

That's GREAT! I'd love to create my own- can you tell how you did it? For example, did you start with a wood graphic from another source, or did you create it yourself? Any other tips? (Having seen this, now I've GOT to do this for my next game!)

 

[Ampolitor]

I must say Im a hard one to please, buts thats really cool.
Good work man

 

[Arravis]

Well, I started out with a high res version of this image...
http://www.liquidlibrary.com/CREATAS/COMPS1/EC/7110107/017H0701EC.JPG

I color corrected the image and cut out several of the nails from it and placed them in seperate layers. I used the eraser tool to give each nail a nice feathered edge, then used the "darken" layer property on them so they'll blend in with whatever they were on top of.

Then I did two parchment backgrounds in Photoshop. I did these by using the filter/render/clouds in shades of yellow and brown, then passing a texture over it. I blurred the parchment layer and did some touch up work on each one to make them look right. For my third parchment, I used this parchment from Map-A-Week, (the bottom one):
http://www.wizards.com/dnd/article.asp?x=dnd/mw/mw20010301x

The next step was to come up with all the text (which I had done while doing my DM's write-up of Phlan), finding fonts, etc. I used the lasso tool to cut out notes from the parchment layers. I ran a very slight "bevel & emboss" and "drop shadow" layer effects on the notes. I changed the color on each note to give them variety, then use the burn tool to make shadows (hoping to give them a more realistic 3-D look).

Once I had the text on the note I rendered the text. I made the rendered text-layer semi-transparent (ussually 60-70%) and blur it slightly (or streak it as needed) to get rid of the sharp edges.

The last step was to put the nails on all the notes, and that is more or less it. I'm assuming most of this doesn't make much sense though, unless you know Photoshop well, lol.

Hope that helps and I'm very glad to hear you guys liked it. It's great to hear some feedback on this .

 

[Kryndal Levik]

Made perfect sense to me- thanks for the information!

 

[Arravis]

Great! It actually took alot less time then I had expected, since it's mostly using canned filters and effects. Coming up with the text is the hard part, hehe .

 

[alsih2o]

really nice work arravis, your players must love you

 

[Arravis]

Hehe, thanks . They do love it, though I think it intimidates the other co-DM's, lol. I just love doing all this, I can't say that it ever feels like work (though I'm a graphic designer and spend alot of time at work on Photoshop and Illustrator, lol).

Part of my motiviation is that I have been giving serious thought into entering the gaming industry. I'm trying to get my DM'ng prep work to a more "professional" level to get a feel for what I'll need. Anyway... I'm just glad everyone liked it.

For those that have photoshop, I'd be glad to post the file; since it would be a piece of cake to simply put new and different text on the notes... I just need somewhere to host a fairly huge file.

 

[kkoie]

Outstanding job, I can appreciate your love for doing stuff like that for your games. I find I do similar stuff for my players all the time.

 

[Kryndal Levik]

I'd be happy to host it for you if I have enough space- I have 10 MB available currently. If it's less than that, e-mail it to me at kryndallevik@charter.net and I'll post it here.