Map and Images tool questions

[WindrunnerCGG]

Hey Josh,
I've been talking with a number of others and when working with the new toolset we are coming up with a number of questions. I hope the Tavern is the best place to post? Assume this is not "support" as I believe things are functioning as expected. Just let us know.

First I just want to echo lots of other to say this is an EXCELLENT feature as part of the platform, and the work you guys continue to do is appreciated. By way of background, prior to your tools, I've been using Inkarnate, GIMP, and Arkenforge (and sometimes some specialty tools), so I'm not an expert artist, but I'm a proficient tool user. With each question I've also included links to images of what I'm talking about on my google drive.

My first questions come about because I'm running Storm King's Thunder and I started to make copies of all the residences in the initial town in the first chapter which don't have individual maps. It's basically the exact same floorplan but rotated differently and with doors in in 3 different places. So with the release this week of the interiors art pack, I jumped on trying to make them, and I've stumbled across some things that I wanted to ask how we accomplish or what your recommended best practices are.
- First, in laying out walls and corners, is there a way to get square corners, or tighter curves on the corners when brushing walls? https://tinyurl.com/y72lj6dk

- Second question, you've got shadows on both brushed walls and on stamps, but when stamping corners, those shadows just don't match up. I've seen your instructions on how to say give a tree a shadow, but how do you really use the SW tools to blend those shadows together? https://tinyurl.com/ycrseyeo

- Final question for this post, I want to take a map, and spin it, then add to it, e.g. this town's residences have different orientations and doors, so I want to create a standard house map and then create the specific residences from that. I laid down the background, then drew walls in the next layer. When trying to use the layer tool to rotate it however, it spins the walls out off of the background and separates them all from each other (brushed and stamped)...how do you recommend I accomplish this? https://tinyurl.com/y6vqy8xg and https://tinyurl.com/yajzbm9v

As a bonus question, this art pack had a brush that had wooden walls with plaster on one side. There are no stamps for corners and such with that brush. Could you possibly add some?

Thanks again for all you are doing.

Windrunner

[jwatmough]

Thanks so much for the kind words! Very much appreciated. This Saturday's stream (https://www.twitch.tv/fantasygrounds) we will be working a lot more with this art pack so if you are able to stop by and watch I will be demonstrating some of this stuff then. I will do my best to explain each answer here, however.


Hey Josh,
I've been talking with a number of others and when working with the new toolset we are coming up with a number of questions. I hope the Tavern is the best place to post? Assume this is not "support" as I believe things are functioning as expected. Just let us know.

First I just want to echo lots of other to say this is an EXCELLENT feature as part of the platform, and the work you guys continue to do is appreciated. By way of background, prior to your tools, I've been using Inkarnate, GIMP, and Arkenforge (and sometimes some specialty tools), so I'm not an expert artist, but I'm a proficient tool user. With each question I've also included links to images of what I'm talking about on my google drive.

My first questions come about because I'm running Storm King's Thunder and I started to make copies of all the residences in the initial town in the first chapter which don't have individual maps. It's basically the exact same floorplan but rotated differently and with doors in in 3 different places. So with the release this week of the interiors art pack, I jumped on trying to make them, and I've stumbled across some things that I wanted to ask how we accomplish or what your recommended best practices are.
- First, in laying out walls and corners, is there a way to get square corners, or tighter curves on the corners when brushing walls? https://tinyurl.com/y72lj6dk

The best way to handle this is to create individual lines that stretch from one corner to the next and end there without bending around in another direction. This can be quickly achieved by dragging out a rectangle and erasing the corners with the eraser set smaller than the corner to be painted over it. Pick a corner you like and stamp this over the drawn lines.

- Second question, you've got shadows on both brushed walls and on stamps, but when stamping corners, those shadows just don't match up. I've seen your instructions on how to say give a tree a shadow, but how do you really use the SW tools to blend those shadows together? https://tinyurl.com/ycrseyeo

Yes some of the images got 'cut off' making the shadows end too abrupt this will be fixed in the next update as well as some other image adjustments and additions.

- Final question for this post, I want to take a map, and spin it, then add to it, e.g. this town's residences have different orientations and doors, so I want to create a standard house map and then create the specific residences from that. I laid down the background, then drew walls in the next layer. When trying to use the layer tool to rotate it however, it spins the walls out off of the background and separates them all from each other (brushed and stamped)...how do you recommend I accomplish this? https://tinyurl.com/y6vqy8xg and https://tinyurl.com/yajzbm9v

Unfortunately this a bit problematic at the moment. The way the rotation currently handles the stamp painted image is that it maintains its orientation. Tiled items or dragged images onto the image area will however rotate the way you wish. Even though it may take a little longer this way you will be able to get your desired effect. Group all of your image layers into one folder and select the folder in the layers tab to rotate all of its contents simultaneously.

As a bonus question, this art pack had a brush that had wooden walls with plaster on one side. There are no stamps for corners and such with that brush. Could you possibly add some?

One step ahead of you! This has already been added and should be available in the next update.


Thanks again for all you are doing.

Windrunner