The Caverns of the Deepening Doom

[Tom_Cardin]

torstan - for the water I just used a plain round brush at about 60% hardness with wet edges turned on. Used a couple shades of blue at about 30% transparency, then hit it with the watercolor filter then faded the filter effect 50%. Lastly set the whole layer to normal and 40% opacity.

Steel General - thanks for backing me up =)

thebax2k - Thank you!

[rdanhenry]

Nice. And not so overly specific that I couldn't use it, but with enough flavor it practically writes the adventure for me. I especially like the "Cave of Weeping Echoes".

[Tom_Cardin]

update - added shrooms to The Fungus Grotto and Vileslime Chamber - got rid of that nasty papyrus font.

[Coyotemax]

nice! i like the mushrooms. And good choice on the font.. it gives the same kind of look/feel without you having to dodge rotten fruit

[töff]

If I could figure out a depth cueing device that would mix well with this ... really good to come up with a method to show depth well without it overwelming the look of the piece.

A subtle color gradation might do it. Nothing rainbow .. just ... like a pale yellow for the highest, shading through to a gray-turquoise for the lowest. If you want a lot of depth, go three colors, maybe a washed-out sienna for whatever's really really low. Should be pretty easy to test out, and if you hate it, ditch it.

[torstan]

Like it a lot. And that's certainly a little easier on the eyes!

Those mushrooms are great.

[töff]

got rid of that nasty papyrus font.

We all have our pet peeves, and familiar/overused fonts is certainly going to be one of them, for any group of people who are using fonts the way we do.

However, I think we need to keep a smidgeon of objectivity, and remember that -- other than some really bad kerning -- there's nothing that awful about Papyrus. In fact, for this image, I think it's better than the one you changed to.

TECHNIQUE: You know what I do, is, every time I need a "new" font, I get on those free font sites and find one I've never seen before. Sure, a lot of them are just renamed bootlegs ... but I can't tell the difference, and I often find a unique font, with lots of novelty value, to avoid the "omg not THAT font again" syndrome. Plus, because it's for a specific project whose flavor I kinda have in my head, it's not so difficult to find one that matches the overall feel I am going for.

[torstan]

I agree entirely. The papyrus comment was a little tongue in cheek, but it's got a bit of a reputation for itself and I think that's worth being aware of if you are interested in sending a map around.

I agree about the font websites. They are a brilliant source of inspiration and I've never failed to find something good with a little hunting. It certainly makes a difference to get the font bang on in a map.

[töff]

the font websites. They are a brilliant source of inspiration

Of course, for a true creative type, the thing to do is make your own font. However, that's almost never practical because of the time it takes to make a font.

I once long ago had a nifty proggy that takes two fonts and "morphs" them together ... mixing a serif with a sans-serif generated some neat results. Oh, I remember the name: Font Chameleon! probably extinct.

You can also fudge existing fonts by converting them to outlines and applying various effects, especially distresses. Papyrus is distressed, which I think is its primary appeal, because the lettershapes themselves are less than unique.

[Ascension]

In PS, if you rasterize your type layer and then put a mask on it then you can do all sorts of fun things to the edges...cracks, blobs, bloats, drips, grunge, spikes, custom swashes, etc. I do it frequently on large text, like for "Wanted" posters.