Trying to find some simple wall textures

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detly
Kobold
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Joined: Fri Jul 19, 2013 7:15 pm

Trying to find some simple wall textures

Post by detly »

I've been throwing together maps for my current campaign using Torstan's free tile pack, and they always come out looking pretty good. The simple and consistent style just work really well, and I can create great looking maps for my players in about ten minutes flat now using MapTool and Inkscape. Minor variations (tinting, gradients, overlays) expand their usefulness even further.

I'd like to know if there are any more wall tile sets that might fit in with Torstan's style here. It's surprisingly hard to find nice wall tiles (I do appreciate how tricky they must be to make).

Failing that, are there any tips or guides that are specifically about converting regular textures to wall tiles? For example, looking at this map (http://rpgmapshare.com/index.php?q=gall ... ewsIndex=1), the walls appear to be a modification of the floor texture. But I'm not sure how it was achieved. (I'm reasonably proficient with Gimp/Inkscape, so I'd understand a vague description of the process required, but reverse engineering it is a bit beyond me.)

Thanks for any advice :)

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aliasmask
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Re: Trying to find some simple wall textures

Post by aliasmask »

I've done my own wall textures in the past. I usually use the grid tool in the paint program and vector draw in black. I can then fill in the lines with whatever pattern and then apply the bevel tool. I can then add a drop shadow for some depth to walls. I use Paintshop Pro 9.0 but I think Gimp has all the same tools, but I'm not as familiar with Gimp but I occasionally use some of the filters in Gimp. Here's an example:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/700 ... 20Deck.png

detly
Kobold
Posts: 4
Joined: Fri Jul 19, 2013 7:15 pm

Re: Trying to find some simple wall textures

Post by detly »

aliasmask wrote:I usually use the grid tool in the paint program and vector draw in black. I can then fill in the lines with whatever pattern and then apply the bevel tool. I can then add a drop shadow for some depth to walls. I use Paintshop Pro 9.0 but I think Gimp has all the same tools, but I'm not as familiar with Gimp but I occasionally use some of the filters in Gimp.
Thanks for the tips! Gimp does appear to have a bevel tool, but it seems a bit limited. No doubt it'll work better combined with some other effect, so I'll tinker around some more.

detly
Kobold
Posts: 4
Joined: Fri Jul 19, 2013 7:15 pm

Re: Trying to find some simple wall textures

Post by detly »

Aha! Bump mapping (Filters > Map > Bump Map) is the more generic version of the bevelling technique. Very useful.

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jfrazierjr
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Re: Trying to find some simple wall textures

Post by jfrazierjr »

Ugh...don't use bevel/bump map effects for walls to indicate depth...it "enforces" that light is coming from a specific direction. Someone adding artwork on top(ie…set dressing) will notice that its off but may or may not be able to figure out why...

Additionally, sometimes it can make it seem that the structure is floating above the background...
I save all my Campaign Files to DropBox. Not only can I access a campaign file from pretty much any OS that will run Maptool(Win,OSX, linux), but each file is versioned, so if something goes crazy wild, I can always roll back to a previous version of the same file.

Get your Dropbox 2GB via my referral link, and as a bonus, I get an extra 250 MB of space. Even if you don't don't use my link, I still enthusiastically recommend Dropbox..

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aliasmask
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Re: Trying to find some simple wall textures

Post by aliasmask »

Lighting effects in MT are a wash. Easier just to add to image for style. Often I just go for the simple 50/50 bevel (right triangle) where it peeks in middle and slopes down. I then put my vbl on that line. For example this outer wall has that bevel:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/700 ... 20fire.png

Same with the interior of this ship:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/700 ... 20Deck.png

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