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Roll for initiative! Enc makes some D&D Illustrations?

13

Posts

  • EncEnc A Fool with Compassion Pronouns: He, Him, HisRegistered User regular
    Truth is, you are both right.

  • EncEnc A Fool with Compassion Pronouns: He, Him, HisRegistered User regular
    edited November 2015
    Ok, print ready I think!

    falleron-10-15.jpg

    also, threw together a boss map for last weekend:


    arena-map.jpg

    In this, the 12 points on the ring had orbs that could be twisted to teleport layers to a 1d13 points (the twelve other orbs or the center) or held to cause a beam of light to strike the boss at the center of the room. If players had two opposite beams of lighting shining on the boss, her shield preventing damage went down and other players could hit her. Complicating this were 12 shades of the boss on the 12 clock-points jutting out towards the island, dealing minor damage and dying in one successful hit, but regenerating every time the boss lost her shield. After three hits, the orbs allowing the beams to lower the shields overheated and players would have to realign. If the party managed to kill all 12 shades, the boss took 1/12th her total health in damage, but also started acting rather than just hovering in the middle of the room, dealing heavy AOE damage to anyone on the center platform. She couldn't deal damage at range, though, so players at the orb points would be safe.

    I had one player that had flight which helped the party get set up with a bit less randomness, and one party member of the 5 that were playing that night managed to figure out the order. One of the party members was fairly drunk by this point and wasn't... very helpful to the rest of the party with his decision making, which was pretty hilarious. Party managed to survive the battle! It took about 50 minutes to finish, and about 14 rounds, with some really excellent and interesting party interactions and team ups. Several players decided to get teamwork feats given some strategies they worked out.

    Of course, they got back to the Inn and a disagreement over loot led to two players (our party leader, an ice kineticist, and our party badguy, a vampire antipaladin) to declare war on eachother, killing two PCs by their own hand. I resed them using their in-inventory items multiple times, they killed eachother again. Long story short, we got two new characters coming in this week. ^^;

    Enc on
  • EncEnc A Fool with Compassion Pronouns: He, Him, HisRegistered User regular
    edited November 2015
    Ok, so some new maps. I did a lot more painting on these. First up is the Highway:

    chester-highway.jpg?w=869&h=1024

    These maps take place during a constant misty storm dropping rain on everyone in the party. In my campaign I ran this as a chase scene, with wolf-like enemies harrying a coach along the road with the players escorting it and protecting it. They had to remove downed trees, and eventually take out a huge knight-like creature guarding the bridge. Once they started crossing the bridge, the planks (shown below) would start creaking and cracking, eventually breaking and requiring the party to jump or climb across:
    plank-1.png?w=1050&h=300
    plank-2.png?w=1050&h=300
    plank-3.png?w=1050&h=300
    plank-4.png?w=700&h=200

    I tried actually painting the trees rather than relying too much on textures as a crutch here. I think they came out much nicer. Not too sure about the roots, I like the idea but there is room for improvement. I'm super happy with the muddy road and the puddles.

    Some other maps with this play-session were other forest areas just down the road:
    chester-camp.jpg?w=700
    chester-flight-clearing.jpg?w=700
    chester-lakeside.jpg?w=700

    Let me know what you guys think of these. I'm always looking for suggestions to make things more ambient or to make what i'm rendering look better.

    Enc on
  • EncEnc A Fool with Compassion Pronouns: He, Him, HisRegistered User regular
    Made this today, would love some thoughts:

    eaton-village-gatehouse.jpg

  • EncEnc A Fool with Compassion Pronouns: He, Him, HisRegistered User regular
    edited November 2015
    Another for this set:

    eaton-village-square.jpg

    Enc on
  • EncEnc A Fool with Compassion Pronouns: He, Him, HisRegistered User regular
    edited November 2015
    And probably the last for next week's arc:

    templeoftamberlain.jpg

    I think I've got a handle on the use of 3d images now! Looking forward to using it more. :)

    Enc on
  • IrukaIruka Registered User, Moderator mod
    Is that tree texture a brush or a stamp?

  • EncEnc A Fool with Compassion Pronouns: He, Him, HisRegistered User regular
    edited November 2015
    Its two brushes and about 8 layers with various colors and highlight effects.


    Flat Green (with a ~12% opacity tree texture on it for the sticky bits), the brush has some color and angle jitter.
    -Shadow mask (using both the same brush with the same green and also with black
    -Highlight Layer
    -color jitter layer

    And then I have two sets of those, one on top of the other, to give the trees some depth,

    Enc on
  • IrukaIruka Registered User, Moderator mod
    So right now the process is make and texture a model, light it and angle it to a map, put that over into photoshop, and edit in the trees and such, correct?

    Basically, I'm trying to get a sense of what sorts of critiques can help you, as there some things that maybe you won't be able to fix without taking up the larger undertaking of actually learning to paint.

  • EncEnc A Fool with Compassion Pronouns: He, Him, HisRegistered User regular
    Anything that strikes folk as able to be improved would be lovely. If you don't think this is the right avenue for me to look for critique I can go elsewhere I guess. I don't want to muddle up the forum.

  • wildwoodwildwood Registered User regular
    Hey, I can be nit-picky! :)

    (These look really cool, btw.)

    In the village map, it's definitely eye-catching that the wood floor and and roof shingles tiling isn't square with the buildings. (The two buildings cut out on the left, at least, and all the roofs in the center.) Is it possible to lay the tiling while the building is still north-south, and do the rotation after that?

    The 3D looks pretty fun, but I'd like to see other viewpoints for it, maybe ones closer to what the characters' viewpoints will be. With the temple, for example, what does it look like from eye-level as you approach? I think that will make it more immersive for the players. Also, the "directly overhead" view of the village is a bit disorienting, without conveying any more information than a regular overhead map would.

    Hope this is helpful. Thanks again for sharing your process with us like this.

  • EncEnc A Fool with Compassion Pronouns: He, Him, HisRegistered User regular
    edited December 2015
    Thanks, @Wildwood! I did actually make some perspective shots (I posted it over in doodle though):

    big-church-portrait.png

    So to talk about how these three were made, the first (the wall) was only made in Photoshop using extrusion layer, which generally works to make rough shapes and shadows but I had to make each level of the wall separate or my poor little surface pro 3 would explode (running out of ram is a constant error with photoshop). The problem with that format is laying the texture on a 3d mesh object doesn't really align with the walls easily in photoshop (or, at least, I don't know how to do that if so).

    On the village map I said "well, lets go back to sketchup" and so I made the 3d objects and basic lighting in Sketchup, imported the greyscale objects, and then laid the mesh on top. It made better shapes, but because I was laying the texture on top of the object it doesn't align with direction. A lot of the vines and such ae really there to mask that (and the fact the objects had to be stretched up to size, making the lines really jaggy and thick).

    On the church, I did some research on how to import my textures actually into sketchup and lay them on there so they align properly, Which I think worked out on that one. From now on I'm going to do buildings entirely in sketchup and then import them into Photoshop for finishing.

    Enc on
  • EncEnc A Fool with Compassion Pronouns: He, Him, HisRegistered User regular
    @Iruka

    Painting the trees is something I'd love to get better at (along with eventually rendering my own textures). My long term desire would be to have my own set of textures I've painted from scratch, but I don't know where to get started with that.

  • EncEnc A Fool with Compassion Pronouns: He, Him, HisRegistered User regular
    edited December 2015
    Trying to figure out making terrain, both in Sketchup and adding shadows in Photoshop. I think the hill here is conveyed, but is so wonkily shaped as to not be believable:

    eaton-orchard2.jpg?w=700

    Going to work on that a bit more for future outdoor maps. Next up are some interior ones inside the temple posted above, but after that I can take another shot.

    Edit: the file quality on this one is pretty bad. I'll update it when i get home with a higher quality jpeg.

    Enc on
  • EncEnc A Fool with Compassion Pronouns: He, Him, HisRegistered User regular
    Ok, fixed the file

  • acadiaacadia Registered User regular
    Dude your maps keep jumping in quality. This recent jump to 3d is a lot of fun, as it now truly feels like you're looking down through a window into the scene.

  • EncEnc A Fool with Compassion Pronouns: He, Him, HisRegistered User regular
    Ok, so last night was game night and that means new maps:

    templeoftamberlain.jpg?w=700

    So here is the exterior of the Temple of Tamberlain. You have seen this before, but it is useful to show the interior with. Last night the investigation of Eaton Village continued with the climax: the Temple of Tamberlain, the Allfather. This compassionate deity is revered around the world and such temples are common to train clerics in their duties of healing and offering guidance. However, here the party encountered Lamar, the Bandit Baron ravaging the village of Eaton, as he chained up the door to the temple with the parishioners inside. After a brief battle and a stroll around the gardens, the party entered the temple…

    templeoftamberlainpsd.jpg?w=700

    Inside the Temple of Tamberlain the party found the remaining villagers slaughtered, over their corpses a Cleric of Morrigan loomed, having enthralled the villagers to attack the bandits and to attempt to break through the holy seals warding the lower levels of the Temple: The Hall of Trials. The party made quick work for the evil cleric and, with the blessing of a surviving priestess of the Allfather, entered the hall of trials.

    tamberlain-lower.jpg?w=700

    The hall of trials map is a bit ambiguous, and it is intended to be. Here is how I used it:

    The Chamber of Choice: Here each party member was given a moral delimma by a spirit on the dais in the center of the room (such as having to choose between two loved ones or between family and friends on the battlefield). Based on their choices, they would have one of the four doors open taking them to the Corridor of Consequences. Depending on how “just” their choice was reasoned, the corridor would either have traps or nothing. Then they would find themselves back in the Chamber of Choice for the next player’s attempt. For each player, I had two possible outcomes customized from their backstories and depending on who they failed that person would eventually appear in the Gallery of Grace as an enemy. More on that in a bit.

    The Corridor of Consequence: Inside I had pendulum scythes, wall spikes, and swinging censers with knockout gas. .

    In the Vault of Visions I had the players encounter some additional traps, this time a set of ghost-fire walls and a tesla orb, and then later had them make a choice concerning the campaign I’m running with the final two doors. This choice was a big deal in my game (essentially deciding if a supporting character would be good or evil forevermore). After this they pass through the door of their choice and into the Gallery of Grace.

    Here the spirit from the Chamber of Choice reappeared and told the players “In the words of the allfather, there are no good choices, no bad choices, only what we choose to do and the consequences that follow.” Then the avatar revealed the people the party chose to save in their decision and each granted the party a specific buff, and then revealed those they failed across the gallery for a long battle.

    After this they entered the Altar chamber and accomplished their goal of passing through the Hall of Trials.

    I made a lot of traps, art assets, and new tools on this map. I’m excited to use them again! Traps:


    Swinging Censer: Has knockout gas, deals some ~bonk!~ damage if hit and then causes everyone to make a fortitude save or fall asleep.
    censer-trap.png

    Swinging Fire Censer
    : Same as the above, but spills burning oil on the person setting them on fire.
    censer-fire-trap.png

    Pendulum Scythe: The stuff of dungeons everywhere. Swings back and forth for a lot of damage.
    drop-scythe.png

    Ghostfire Wall: This wall of white fire is holy, allowing the kind, compassionate, simple, and pure to pass through unharmed. Naturally, almost none of my players could walk though it without finding some holy water.
    fire-wall-white.png

    Crystal Orb: I've made a few of these. Essentially this one is a Tesla Orb, it turns on, makes a field of electrical energy, then uses the lightning item linked below to "rotate" around the map, dealing electrical damage to anyone hit. Knocking the orb over turns it off, but you have to get in melee range to do so.
    magic-sphere-trap-off.png
    magic-sphere-trap-tesla.png
    lightning-field.png?w=700

    Next up: my party will be sailing to the frozen north to confont Draug, God of the Vengeful Dead. Northrend-flavor campaign, ho!

  • EncEnc A Fool with Compassion Pronouns: He, Him, HisRegistered User regular
    edited December 2015
    lazy-minnow-gif.gif

    Ok, I really need some help here. before I get into finish detail work and making this polished and fancy I want to get the shapes right, and I don't think I'm there yet. I need to fix the prow/front/forcastle bit below the auxillary mast, but I'm not sure exactly how.

    Any suggestions?

    (Also: the smoke stack blocking the steering wheel is intentional due to a gameplay mechanic im going to use where someone has to call out what direction to turn to the pilot).

    Enc on
  • EncEnc A Fool with Compassion Pronouns: He, Him, HisRegistered User regular
    Right now I'm planning on painting the outer hull an actual color (probably green or red) with the rough planking just being on the inside, deck, aux mast, and framing.

  • EncEnc A Fool with Compassion Pronouns: He, Him, HisRegistered User regular
    edited December 2015
    lazy-minnow2-gif.gif

    lazy-minnow-advertise-gif.gif

    It's coming along a bit better.

    Enc on
  • wildwoodwildwood Registered User regular
    Is this intended as a lakes-and-rivers steamship? or is it ocean-going?

    In a tactile sense, the surfaces look kind of... porous, I guess? It seems like everything you can see on a ship should feel "shiny", either from being wet or water-proofed. Or maybe there's some tar on the seams between different materials.

    Hope that makes sense. This is looking cool.

  • EncEnc A Fool with Compassion Pronouns: He, Him, HisRegistered User regular
    Buncha Maps:


    The Lazy Minnow - First Voyage!
    The party bought this steamship for a steal! What a bargain (something breaks), still you can't beat that price (engine explodes). Such savings!
    I'm planning on using this ship a lot in the future so I made some weather variations.

    lazy-minnow-day.jpg
    lazy-minnow-rain.jpg
    lazy-minnow-snow.jpg


    Having a boat isn't worth much if you don't have somewhere to go. Like the treacherous Siren's Rock:

    sirens-rock-stormy.jpg


    Or this random ice floe... complete with a hidden valley with santa's workshop!

    lazy-minnow-cold-sea-ice-floe.jpg
    kringles-workshop.jpg

    Ultimately, these are all distractions as the party is heading to Revalia, great city of the north!

    revalia-harbor-night.jpg
    revalia-harbor-day.jpg


    Also, santa's sleigh because you need one of those sometimes:

    sleigh.gif?w=1029

  • EncEnc A Fool with Compassion Pronouns: He, Him, HisRegistered User regular
    revalia-fs-day.jpg
    revalia-fs-night.jpg

    More Revalia! I made about 6 of these in various parts of town, but this one is the best one of the bunch I think.

  • acadiaacadia Registered User regular
    Ahh! These are great! That town feels real.

  • EncEnc A Fool with Compassion Pronouns: He, Him, HisRegistered User regular
    Revalian Nights continues, this time my players entered the city center and tried to rescue some of their friends who didn't manage to flee through the city with them.

    revalia-wall-map.jpg?w=1500
    Continuing with the Revalian Nights arc, this map is a climbing and espionage map for players to gain access to the inner city. Players need to get into the sewer system to access the city, but the very thickmetal gate bars the way. To get around this players climb the wall using foothold items randomly placed. The foothold image I used is below:

    brick-for-wall-climb.png?w=700

    To make things more difficult, there are two devices in the control room. One lowers and raises the gate (I had this be the green button), while the other detects and suppresses magic and supernatural abilities. This forced my players to go up the wall the old fashion way, with numerous climb and leap checks as some of the bricks came loose under them. Once to the top of the wall, they had to take out the patrol wandering above the gate.

    Once in the city, they had to find a way up into the city proper, and to do this they used the sewer brothel:

    revalia-sewer-brothel.jpg?w=1500

    One of the seedier locations in the great city, the sewer brothel is home to some of the city’s most beautiful, and dangerous, members of the thieves guild. To find it players must know their way through the labyrinthine sewers or know the distinctive sewer grate hidden among thousands in the city.

    revalia-auction-house-map.jpg?w=1500

    In any city with a great number of nobles you will always find an auction house, a place where the rice can flaunt their wealth for trinkets and baubles they probably don’t need. In the case of my party, the goods up for action were their ship’s storage lockers after they ran afoul of the law and their quartermaster was taken in by the police. Held in the back room to identify her cargo, the party had to rescue their quartermaster and outbid rivals for their items they kept in storage before they could be used to fund her defense at her trial.

    The map includes an area to post starting bids and items coming up for sale in the auction. I had my players have to compete with six NPC bidders they could distract with conversation checks or intimidate into leaving. Of course, my party just set fire to the storage room to clear out as many as they could before resuming the bidding. Whatever works!

    revalia-inquisitor-secret-prison.jpg?w=1500

    Hidden behind an innocuous door among the city is a secret torture chamber of the Inquisitors, the secretive cabal of the Knights Revalia devoted to rooting out any and all clerics from the city. The party had to rescue their support cleric, Imari, from this torture chamber and, depending upon how much time they wasted on the castle wall, the sewer brothel, and the auction Imari took increasing damage. While they managed to save her before she was killed, their delays caused her to be horrifically injured by blood magic, leaving her crippled and maimed. The party, in vengeance, wiped out the entire Inquisitor’s order within their prison and escaped into the sewers with their injured friend. The final room is found through the double arch on the bottom level.

    Functionally, there were also prisoners on the various racks and iron maidens that could be rescued or put out of their misery. The entire room can also be easily flooded via a large sewer catch, a design used to hide the evidence should the Inquisitors need to flee in a hurry or, in the party’s case, to put an end to the horrific place.

    I’m pretty happy with how these ones came out! I will probably keep working with the two-walls style of room more than other formats moving forward, it allows for a nice spread of movement while showing of height well.

  • wildwoodwildwood Registered User regular
    Nothing says "classy" like "sewer brothel"... :)

    These are cool. From a gaming perspective, I especially like the multi-level dungeon - the 3-D view really shines with a multi-level layout.

    One question - it seems like you're using an overhead light source for the interior rooms, like the roof's been taken off of a model. Should they be getting all their light from interior light sources?

  • EncEnc A Fool with Compassion Pronouns: He, Him, HisRegistered User regular
    edited January 2016
    They should, but with my lighting options in sketchup I don't have that ability (only the global lighting). I can turn shadows off entirely, but the models look much worse without them.

    Think I should give them a shot by shading them by hand rather than through Sketchup for the next set?

    Enc on
  • EncEnc A Fool with Compassion Pronouns: He, Him, HisRegistered User regular
    So this week I left the shadows off and shaded things by hand. I think it turned out well!

    koemann-estate-exterior-night.jpg?w=1200

    koemann-estate-interior-night.jpg?w=1200

    This week the party ventured into Lord Koemann's Estate, home to the Marshal General in charge of the knights they have been fighting for the last few sessions and where their last companion was taken. Koemann had invited all of the freeholders of Revalia to a grand party, along with the remaining Knight Captains under him (mostly rivals), Horatio and the Constables of Revalia, some mercenaries (who turned out to be the remnants of House Yentz, the main villains of the last campaign) along with a fae high lady. After encountering one of the player's highly... enthusiastic father and stealing what they could from the study, the party witnessed Marshal Koemann announce that he was taking over the realm and declaring himself king... and that everyone attending but the mercenaries had been poisoned to get them out of the way.

    The party ended quite violently, with the party chasing after Koemann, parkouring around his locked doors (and over his attack dogs kennel) before finally confronting his 2nd in command in her chambers and on the roofs beyond. Having saved their friend, they, and the surviving party guests, have fled back into the city proper where fighting is now in full swing...

  • EncEnc A Fool with Compassion Pronouns: He, Him, HisRegistered User regular
    edited February 2016
    A new map! With my players visiting the northern realms I wanted to make a new world map that reflected the full size of Revalia a bit better. This pairs with the previous map I got framed.

    revalia-map-web.jpg?w=700&h=933

    Enc on
  • EncEnc A Fool with Compassion Pronouns: He, Him, HisRegistered User regular
    Finished up the Revalia Arc last night, the city ended up having 23 total rendered maps. Here are the best two from last night:

    revalia-palace-gate.jpg?w=1200
    revalia-palace-finale.jpg?w=1200

    So most of this arc took place, in game, over 24 hours (less, as it essentially started at 5:00 pm the previous day and they fought nonstop over the last night). The campaign ends at dawn with a final confrontation at the Palace.

    I learned a lot from the Revalia Arc, not just on making better rendered objects but how to manage my time better and made some improvements in coloration and shadows. I have a long way yet to go though! Now I'll be rendering new settings (next arc will be at one of the remote keeps on the Revalia Map (Stonebridge) which will give me a chance to work on my rendering of natural terrain.

  • EncEnc A Fool with Compassion Pronouns: He, Him, HisRegistered User regular
    Been a while since I last updated here. I've been doing a lot more with mixing both 3d rendering and flat model rendering:

    barrelbog-factory-day.jpg?w=1000&h=&crop=1
    barrelbog-hill-fort.jpg?w=1000&h=&crop=1

    It's getting there. I'm having some trouble with daylight effects and would love some opinions on how to get them a bit better. If I push the shadow values really far dark, im losing the ability to actually see what my players are standing on, but as a whole I feel my daytime lighting is really bland and washed out and I have hit kind of a ceiling on really improving on my own.

    Any idea on how to make it feel more organic and vivid?

  • EncEnc A Fool with Compassion Pronouns: He, Him, HisRegistered User regular
    edited November 2017
    Working on the 2018 version of the world map (most recent iteration of what was on the first page). This time I've made my own map marker tilesets, forest and field brushes, and am not relying any prefab assets for making this beyond the font itself.
    Full size, zoomable version link here: https://falleron.files.wordpress.com/2017/11/falleron-2018-wip-11262017-web-friendlier.jpg

    falleron-2018-wip-11262017-web-friendlier.jpg

    I'm going to print this one as a Holiday gift for my players, any review or critique is appreciated as I get closer to pulling the trigger!

    Enc on
  • bowenbowen How you doin'? Registered User regular
    I'd love it if my DM gave me something like that.

    My only critique is maybe making the text easier to read.

    not a doctor, not a lawyer, examples I use may not be fully researched so don't take out of context plz, don't @ me
  • EncEnc A Fool with Compassion Pronouns: He, Him, HisRegistered User regular
    How specifically

  • bowenbowen How you doin'? Registered User regular
    Looks like it's got some transparency, maybe make it more opaque or remove it altogether?

    not a doctor, not a lawyer, examples I use may not be fully researched so don't take out of context plz, don't @ me
  • EncEnc A Fool with Compassion Pronouns: He, Him, HisRegistered User regular
    edited June 2018
    I wanted to pop in here and thank @Iruka for introducing me to sketchup way back when. What better way than posting something?

    umbral-pools-full-map.jpg

    I'm really happy how the combination of painting and 3d rendering is coming on my latest things, and I never would have experimented without yall pushing me to be better when I was getting started. Thanks again!

    Enc on
  • acadiaacadia Registered User regular
    Yo this looks dope as hell

  • EncEnc A Fool with Compassion Pronouns: He, Him, HisRegistered User regular
    Thanks! Took ~27 hours and an extreme amount of hand-strain over several weeks. Those pools were no joke.

  • EncEnc A Fool with Compassion Pronouns: He, Him, HisRegistered User regular
    I've gotten into Adobe After Effects lately, made this last night!

    briarthorn-gif-medium.gif

    It goes along with a new map for a Monster of the Week campaign I'm running:

    briarthorn-map-render-small-sample-antiqued-91818.jpg

    Really Excited!

  • acadiaacadia Registered User regular
    edited October 2018
    I think that backmost layer, the stars, also needs to pan up, or else it looks like that distant city and land is just springing up out of nowhere, rather than 'becoming visible as you crest the hill' which is what I assume you're going for.

    The large map looks fuckin sweet.

    acadia on
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