Church and Cemetery Map - Need criticism and advice

[WoNc]

This is my third or fourth serious attempt at a battle map, and while I think it's substantially better than my earlier attempts, it could still be a lot better. I've been aiming for a style that I think is fairly common and is captured in maps from the likes of Dr. Mapzo, Spellarena, and Neutral Party, but I clearly didn't hit the mark and seem to be on a completely different aesthetic path. I'm just not really experienced enough with art to know what or how to improve, and I've already discovered a few times that relatively small changes I wouldn't have thought to make can have a huge impact on the overall appearance of the map. I would consider this map finished and am not necessarily looking to adjust it so much as make sure my next map is better.

This is my first time posting here, and I believe this is the correct place and that I've followed the rules, but apologies in advance if I missed something.

[Redrobes]

Welcome to the guild !

I like the map. The shading / shadows on it are particularly good esp the tower showing up. If I had to crit it then it just that its so clean, square and regular. It just needs to be a little bit more human, natural, and irregular. Although the boundary of a church is likely to be square, the cemetry is more likely to follow the natural boundary and I would be proud to have a lawn turf like that outside of the house.

But lets not take away a lot of good things about the map. I like it.

[WoNc]

Welcome to the guild !

I like the map. The shading / shadows on it are particularly good esp the tower showing up. If I had to crit it then it just that its so clean, square and regular. It just needs to be a little bit more human, natural, and irregular. Although the boundary of a church is likely to be square, the cemetry is more likely to follow the natural boundary and I would be proud to have a lawn turf like that outside of the house.

But lets not take away a lot of good things about the map. I like it.

Yeah, feedback I got on reddit said the headstones were too orderly as well. With respect to the lawn, what would you change? I considered adding some darker colors to imply small elevation changes and possibly some random wildflowers, but ended up not doing that because by that point I was sick of working on the map.

[rdanhenry]

Perhaps it is so very well maintained in order to prevent any suspicion that anything untoward was going on at this peaceful little church. A little too neat is perhaps favorable if it is intended as a battlemap.

[eepjr24]

First off, I love the attention to detail with the shadows, lighting and details like the wrought iron fence. The only thing it lacks to me is that "lived in" feeling. That people walk here, things happen here, a little bit of dynamics, maybe?

I added a bump map and a felimage grass overlay plus the hints of people walking on the road and to one of the graves. That is what I mean, easier to show than tell. Note that my layer mask on the texture is pretty rough, but you should get the idea.



- E

[WoNc]

First off, I love the attention to detail with the shadows, lighting and details like the wrought iron fence. The only thing it lacks to me is that "lived in" feeling. That people walk here, things happen here, a little bit of dynamics, maybe?

I added a bump map and a felimage grass overlay plus the hints of people walking on the road and to one of the graves. That is what I mean, easier to show than tell. Note that my layer mask on the texture is pretty rough, but you should get the idea.



- E

Yeah, that's a pretty good idea. Even if the mask is rough, I think that also makes it clear that I should have tried to include some elevation change, though I likely would have gone for something a tad more modest. Alternatively, I could have drawn another tree or two. Really, just anything to break up the vast open space on the left since the grass isn't an exciting element of the map.