Drawing dungeon maps like on this video

[dotheminimum]

Hello,

I like to draw dungeon maps and I recently saw a cool effect that I'd like to replicate. The effect makes it so that you can automagically easily draw dungeon corridors along with a cross-hatching pattern around them. The video below showcases this process.



The author of the video mentions using "custom hand-drawn tiling patterns", but I couldn't figure out what he meant by that. I tried creating a brush consisting of a square surrounded by a cross-hatching pattern but when I tried drawing with it it just kept drawing the same shape over itself, sort of like in the picture below.



I tried fiddling with the brush settings but I didn't find anything relevant. I also couldn't find anything on the forums here, though that might be because I am not sure what the exact query pattern might be to find this kind of thing.

Anyone have any idea how one would go about implementing this effect?

[ThomasR]

I guess I've seen him share the specs on his Twitter account. He also plans on releasing a tutorial for the automated process on his Patreon.

[Wingshaw]

My first guess was that it was simply a brush with spacing set to 100%

I tried fiddling around on PS for a bit, though, and I've found a method that seems to achieve the same result.

In PS it's possible to apply multiple layer styles to the same layer. For example:
- create a layer

- go to the layer styles menu

- next to stroke there's a little + sign

- click the + twice (it will make two extra stroke effects)

- on the first stroke:
-- set the position to outside
-- set the size to 2
-- set the colour to black

- on the second stroke:
-- set the position to outside
-- set the size to 20
-- set the fill type to gradient
-- set the gradient to white --> white and 100% opacity --> 0% opacity
-- set the style to shape burst

- on the third stroke:
-- set the position to outside
-- set the size to 20
-- set the fill type to pattern
-- set the pattern to whatever pattern you've made for this

- using a brush and white as the colour, draw on the layer and watch as the walls are made for you.

(*once you get the hang of the method, the specific settings can be changed as needed)
(**I'm also guessing he uses a custom pattern overlay layer style for the ground tiles)

I know this isn't stealing his idea because I figured it out on my own, but if he was going to share this on Patreon and it turns out to be the same method I'll feel a bit bad It is a really cool idea, and I'll definitely try making use of it myself some time.

EDIT: I think my method is different to the one used in the video, so I'll post a tutorial of my method in the Tutorials subforum (with pictures) some time

Wingshaw

[Baron]

You could just ask Dyson, he's a very approachable fellow. Busy, but approachable.

[DrWho42]

subscribed! looks like a simple way to complete dungeon crawl levels

[Tiana]

Interesting. The method I would have done to create a similar effect is to draw just the black lineart walls, select inside of that, make a new layer, fill with white, maybe with a tiling pattern to get the lines in the squares inside, and then used a hatching brush on the bottom layer, which I would not need to make because I already have comprehensive sets of hatching brushes, they essentially randomize hashtag scatter, very easy to make. Feather the bottom layer.

[Larb]

So on the bird site he said he was going to make a tutorial on how to do it so you could just wait for that. But I did some quick reverse engineering of it in CS3 based on the video as I've done similar things before.

Basically the way I did it is I have two main layers - the "floor" layer that has my tile pattern, and the fill layer which is my dungeon walls. I've got two main patterns - the floor tile which which fills the entiretly of the lower layer, and the wall hatching pattern which is applied as a stroke layer style to the upper layer.

On a side note, a pattern is an seamless (well it might not be seamless) image that will tile. In the imagine below, you can see my quick floor tile patern - it is seamless because the edges of the image line up with the opposite edges.

The drop shadow layer style just adds a grey shadow to the north and west walls. And the Outer Glow is what I use to do the black outline for the walls.

To "draw" the corridors and rooms, I just use the eraser brush to delete the upper layer.

I have no idea if Dyson is doing it in a similar way. And I haven't been able to get the fade effect on the hatching - but I'm using a really old version of potatoshop. I dunno what the options are like for CC.

[dotheminimum]

Thank you for all the responses. I haven't yet been able to try the different methods, but it's looking extremely promising from what I've seen so far!

[Flame]

Hi all!
I stumbled on this topic a couple of days ago and I tried to achieve the video effect in the spare time.
Now I'm at a point that I'm satisfied, so I'll drop here the result.

In the end, I could not tell how he managed to fade the pattern decorations in that cool way, but got rid of the abruption end of the stroke pattern.

Then I tested how easily I could edit the map, adding exceptions (such as secret passages) and obstacles. I can say that everything outside the plain floor and wall thing, is slightly more complex to do. It's still worth it, tho.



Basically I tried to use the stroke effect to add the pattern, but I found that using "pattern overlay" effect was easier the handle, because it can be covered with an Inner Glow (that's the white that you see. I'm covering all the layer with the Inner Glow, then erasing the layer to reveal the black stroke and the pattern overlay)

With some proper pattern, this could become a really cool way to sketch a dungeon in no time.

The stroke looks fake and the pattern is boring, so I think it's more suited for when you're in a rush or you don't need anything fancy. I To improve the aestetic of the pattern placement, I erased some spot here and there with the rubber at 1% transparency. It's invisible, but it's enough to trigger the stroke.

It still bugs me to not know how the video autor managed to achieve that pattern, but I call it done, for now.


Do you have any suggestion on what could be improved?

[Dimension Door]

Nice! brushes are such a powerfull thing! For a ‘rushed’ map it looks pretty decent to me. The patterm might be repeating but it does nog bug me at all.