Hoping to get some feedback

[DMZeff]

Hey guys,

I recently started converting maps from old campaigns and other places to a form that I can use on fantasy grounds or roll20 and have been trying to get some feedback on the art style and the technical (file) aspect.

I'm not an artist, nor are any of my friends so the feedback I've received has been pretty generic, "Looks good" "cool." I was hoping that maybe some of you guys with more experience in the mapping department might be so kind as to give me some feedback that is more substantive so that I can improve.

Gridless

Grid

[Midgardsormr]

It's a nice start.

The flagstone floor texture is overwhelming some of the details that are more important, particularly the stairs. I'd also knock back the white doors to something no brighter than the brightest parts of the background texture. They're too stark for this style.

Maybe a little bit of a dark glow on the insides of the walls to simulate the way corners self-shadow.

Is the corridor leading from the upper-right chamber to the south a raised walkway over that next room? It look like it's casting some shadow down onto the floor, which is cool, but if that's the case, there should probably be some kind of indication that it's at a higher elevation. Maybe you could indicate elevation by brightness. A difference of perhaps 30% between the lowest and highest points would get the idea across without being too jarring, I think. It might take some experimentation to get something that looks good.

[Neyjour]

Welcome to the Guild, DMZeff.

I agree with Midgardsormr, this is a good start (I love the dungeon layout), but the textures are really overwhelming. Not just the stone floor, but also the background texture. Actually, I think if you were to get rid of the background texture, and replace it with something much more subtle, or even just plain white or very light grey (temporarily, while you're working on it), that alone would make everything else look better, and much less "busy".

Second thing I noticed was that there seems to be a mix of styles which don't really mesh well, IMO. Your walls, doors and columns put me in mind of more minimalistic, simple-style dungeons (usually done in B&W, Sepia/monochrome, blue/white, etc.). Yet your floor texture makes me feel that maybe you're wanting to go for a more realistic, fully-textured style. If you could let us know what type of style you're aiming for, that would help us a lot in giving advice.

If you are going for a realistic, fully-textured style, one of the things that really stood out for me is that your stone floor shouldn't be used for the cave portions. They should be dirt, rock, maybe even some mossy textures (depending on what type of caves they are). And a mix of textures like that would be ideal, to make it look more natural and organic. Maybe even some small rock formations, scattered rubble, etc. (Again, that depends on the type of cave it is).

I'd suggest taking a look through this forum (Dungeon/Subterranean) and also the Virtual tabletop/Battlemap forum, and look for maps in a style that you like. Then give us the links, so we can see what you're aiming for.

[DMZeff]

Hey, thanks for the feedback.

I guess the style I want to go for is more on the simple side, but I don't want it go the full minimalist approach. I want people to have enough visual to get their imagination going, but not tell the entire story. I like the aesthetics of something like Mike Schley's work from LMOP (shown below) but I don't have the time or talent to draw in the details... so I guess the style that I'd eventually like to have is a less detailed version of the map below? Obviously I'm pretty far from that, but I have to start somewhere. I'm not sure which textures to use and if I had the textures, I probably wouldn't know how to best incorporate them right away.

I have put your advice to work and should have a revision ready soonish!

[Bogie]

I agree with Midgardsormr and Neyjour, good advise from both of them. I would like to see the map in a larger size and higher resolution. That will make it much better for gaming. When you are sizing your floor tiles look at the grid version, each square represents 5 ft. Now look at how many tiles go across that space. In one square there are about 12 tiles across. That averages to about 5 inches per tile. Now that is not unreasonable, but most dungeon floors have large flagstones that are 1 to 2 feet across. And that would make your floor look less cluttered.

[wdmartin]

To elaborate on the comments above, look at the level of detail inside the walls and floors in the Cragmaw Castle map. The artist has used dark sharply defined lines on the grid, the borders of the walls, and details like furniture. But the basic textures are very subtle -- just faint cracks and tonal variations. The majority of the surface area is very plain. When someone looks at the image, the eye focuses first on the sharp, clear lines, letting the rest of it fade into the background.

The artist has used the way that the human mind processes visual images to direct your gaze first to the important details -- walls, boundaries, furniture. You may choose to focus on and study the background, but by that time you've already processed the layout and spatial relationships between areas.

And that, when you get down to it, is the basic purpose of a map: convey spatial relationships. It is much more important for a map to be clear than to be pretty. A plain, simple map that clearly shows players the space that is available for them to play in is preferable to an attractive but confusing map.

[wgrasham]

Thanks for providing the Cragmaw Castle map. Very well done