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  1. #11
    Oberoten's Avatar
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    I'll second that... If you'd be willing to make tutorials on how to make maps like that I think we'd all sit down and listen.

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  2. #12
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    Thanks for the nice comments. I promised a while back that I would share my approach to 4E map making and I will get to it, I've just had a lot on recently.

    I also need to find a decent video capture solution for Vista that will record in at least 1440x900 and is preferably free, so please recommend any if you've successfully used one. The reason for the high resolution requirement is to ensure the video captures a good proportion of my extended desktop, which is 2880x900.

    As for tips and knowledge sharing, feel free to ask if there's something specific you would like to know. In the interim and until I can get some video tutorials, I can reveal the following:

    • I use lots of layers, each map has typically 10 or more depending upon complexity and I make use of masking so that I can make easy corrections to my maps without having to redraw everything each time.
    • Grid, walls, dungeon floor tiles, dirt, grassland, water, lava, slime, hedges, trees, shrubbery and garbage are all made from patterns (some textured) with layered effects. Each sits on its own layer and has a mask for hiding/revealing areas of the image. e.g. if I mask a region of my dungeon floor tile layer, lower layers such as water are exposed. If I unmask the Trees layer with a blob shaped brush, it reveals a tree.
    • All my textures, patterns, brushes, color swatches, effects and shapes are stored as Presets allowing me to switch back n forth very easily, quickly and more importantly consistently.
    • I use a common set of textures but I apply different hue/saturation adjustments to alter the color and different fill and transparency rates to create variations e.g. making the walls look different to the stone ground.
    • I use Normal, Overlay, Screen and Color Burn blending modes on some layers to help keep the map coloring clean and natural looking.
    • I use a black filled layer and a white filled layer, again both masked, to create shadows and highlights. This adds depth and makes a flat pattern take on a texture.
    • I sometimes use a 0% filled object (transparent) with a black outer glow effect to create the perception of depth where none exists. e.g. a raised stone plinth and stairs.
    • I maintain three versions of each image: the raw map image (.psd), the final map image (.psd) and the final map (.jpg). The first is what's used to create the map, the second uses a composite flattened output from the first layered onto a burnt scroll background and feathered to fade the edges. The second image also adds in labels and the compass. The third is the final output file usually scaled to 1:1.


    That's all for now.

    Oh and I only had time for one more map this evening, Encounter C3 The Black Meadow is up. See first post.
    Last edited by Zeus; May 18th, 2010 at 00:25.
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  3. #13
    Zeus's Avatar
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    Added the last of the C Encounter maps. See #1 post.
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  4. #14
    ty for amazing job..
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  5. #15
    Zeus's Avatar
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    Your welcome.

    Level 1 - Encounters G1-G3 (WiP)


    Last edited by Zeus; May 21st, 2010 at 13:31.
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  6. #16
    well, your maps much more beaty than WotC originals...
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  7. #17
    Xorn's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by DrZeuss
    I also need to find a decent video capture solution for Vista that will record in at least 1440x900 and is preferably free, so please recommend any if you've successfully used one. The reason for the high resolution requirement is to ensure the video captures a good proportion of my extended desktop, which is 2880x900.
    DrZeuss,

    I think I can help you out with this. I'm discovering some neat tricks I can do with my Livestream desktop capture client (which is free). Let me fiddle with it tonight to make sure it can do what you need, and I'll update this thread if it works. Even if that doesn't, there are some other solutions you can use, but the Livestream client is the best video capture I've used outside of Camtasia Studio (that's what I did my videos with).

    Xorn

    EDIT:
    Never having been the patient sort, I remotely connected to my home computer from work and tested it. I captured my 1680x1050 desktop @ 1280x800, 12 FPS, 3000 kbps, and it turned out beautiful. You could even capture at 16:10 proportions the size of your PS window and it won't even shrink the output. Anyway, PM me and let me know if you'd like some help getting it set up.

    Here's a 1440x900 sample of my FG2 window: FG2 Test Capture (You need a FLV player to view it.)
    Last edited by Xorn; June 3rd, 2010 at 21:34.
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  8. #18
    Zeus's Avatar
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    Xorn, I dropped you a PM.

    I have the Procaster client installed and running and I have figured out the basic controls for getting a stream going but I can't quite figure out how to stream the entire desktop (across both screens). Right now if I start a stream I get my primary monitor, if I check the Start capture of 2nd monitor option under Desktop I only get the secondary screen.

    How do I get both screens up and streaming?

    Aside from that, this looks like a very useful tool, thanks for pointing it out to me.

    EDIT: OK I think I figured out why perhaps its not letting me capture both screens, I have a MS Lifecam VX6000 and the max resolution its offering in Settings is 1280x1024, guess thats what is constraining Livestream?
    Last edited by Zeus; June 4th, 2010 at 10:18.
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  9. #19
    Xorn's Avatar
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    Hmmm. No, I doubt you're going to be able to record more than one monitor. Only option I can think of would be to set up your dual monitors in a span setting (so it's treated as one screen).

    Capturing that large of a source is probably going to bottom your system out though. Procaster is it's own capture source, it's literally grabbing the desktop. You could try VHScreenCap, it places a watermark but I know it will capture any dimensions. I'm not sure how big of an output it allows though. The major bonus of Procaster is it will kick out up to 1600x1200 for the *output*, which is rare.

    My biggest advice would be to constrain yourself to one monitor for the tutorial. I play FG2 spanned over 3360x1050, but when I do the tutorial videos it's set to 1024x768 so that I can get a very clear image while restricting file size.

    To really use your whole screen you need an auto-zoom function like Camtasia Studio has, that will zoom to the active parts of the screen.
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  10. #20
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    Talking Level 1

    UPDATE

    OK, so after a long break I managed to get back to some mapping over the holidays.

    I've received quite a few requests for the remaining encounter areas for level 1 so here they are in a single map image. Enjoy!

    Note: this is a 65% reduction of the master PSD (in an effort to keep the file size sensible). Let me know if alternative sizes are required. Also, if anyone wants a grid less version, just shout. Peace.

    Last edited by Zeus; January 11th, 2011 at 23:06.
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