Cragmaw Hideout Dungeon Tiles (critique requested)

[Kisachik the Wanderer]

Hi. One thing you notice about this image immediately is that these shadows are unnaturally black. So black in fact that your values are clipping in some areas. That is why your lighting seems off; because shadows like that don't exist in nature.The contrast between light and dark is too high. The angle of the shadow is confusing, and the shadows are blurry, so it's impossible to tell if there is ambient light, or a strong light source, and what the position of it might be.

So I guess the first thing to do is to figure out the kind of lighting setup for this tile. I would suggest ambient lighting, because it would make all your tiles look consistent. In a setting lit this way you get very subtle shadows where objects are close to each other, so in places like corners of walls, or where wall meets the floor. The shadows are blurry and subtle. Here's an example: link

As you can see, with shadows like that you'll have to set walls apart from floors using texture, color and value. The look you'll get will not be as three-dimensional as if you used less light, but you will get way more consistency across all your tiles.

Also it is good practice to adjust your levels to avoid clipping when you're preparing your files for printing, so you don't get blacks that are too dark.

[DrWho42]

Hi. One thing you notice about this image immediately is that these shadows are unnaturally black. So black in fact that your values are clipping in some areas. That is why your lighting seems off; because shadows like that don't exist in nature.The contrast between light and dark is too high. The angle of the shadow is confusing, and the shadows are blurry, so it's impossible to tell if there is ambient light, or a strong light source, and what the position of it might be.

So I guess the first thing to do is to figure out the kind of lighting setup for this tile. I would suggest ambient lighting, because it would make all your tiles look consistent. In a setting lit this way you get very subtle shadows where objects are close to each other, so in places like corners of walls, or where wall meets the floor. The shadows are blurry and subtle. Here's an example: link

As you can see, with shadows like that you'll have to set walls apart from floors using texture, color and value. The look you'll get will not be as three-dimensional as if you used less light, but you will get way more consistency across all your tiles.

Also it is good practice to adjust your levels to avoid clipping when you're preparing your files for printing, so you don't get blacks that are too dark.

yeah, adjusting your levels should be the best solution. no point fighting in the dark.

[LunaticDesign]

The shadows feel a little deep and black to me. I'm a hand drawn pencil and ink sort and not particularly good. A neat effect might be to lesson the shadows and desaturate the areas where they fall a little bit.