Drawing Tip to go into the manual

[Kzintzi]

Morning All

I read the "lets have a tips and trick forum" post and the "lets write a manual" post, and though I'd love to help write it, I'm so bogged down with stuff that I'd never be able to put the time in.

But, I thought I'd put a tip in that I've found useful when drawing stuff in Maptool - I've mentioned it before but it was AGES ago so I thought I'd repost so it might be put in the manual when it starts getting written.

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Tip: Adjust the grid size when drawing to make snap-to-grid drawing easier.

Explanation: This technique allows for easily laying down floors, walls, and VBL allowing for some wall on either side of the VBL without trying to lay down the VBL freehand. (I haven't tried it using the "lay down solid VBL and then cut out what you want to see" method.)

for this example assume 100pix = 5', and all drawing done prior to placing stamps as adjusting the grid screws with stamp placement and they get in the way.

- put down floor texture in the building shape @ 100pix using snap-to-grid with the draw rectangle tool(fill colour set to the texture, border colour set to none)
- change grid size to 20pix (1') - draw walls in on boundaries of floor with snap to grid with the draw rectangle tool(fill colour set to the texture, border colour set to none)
- change the grid size to 10pix (6")
- draw VBL using snap-to-grid inside the walls to give you that wall on each side look.
- add drop shadows to walls as required using 40% transparent black fill.

[thecyberwolfe]

- add drop shadows to walls as required using 40% transparent black fill.

That right there went past me. How is this done?

[Kzintzi]

the way I've been doing it is fairly laborious, but I've been doing it for my town maps and also for a castle/catherdral I've got so it happens quite fast now..

Once your walls are in place set the grid size to half the wall size (ie. if your walls are 20pix in width then set the shadow to 10pix) then use the same technique used to draw the walls to draw drop shadows - just remember to set the opacity of the texture your using (just use plain black) to about 40%

It can take a bit of time but once you get the hang of it, it works ok... it's not ideal but you end up with something similar to what Dunjinni does (well, kinda.. The walls don't have false height but it does give some illusion of depth).

I've also found that when drawing stairs you can single width the entire length of the side, then double width about half the stairs and it will make them look like they are increasing in height (kinda).

if it's still not clear I can post a screen grab from one of my maps (I would now but I'm about to go out to dinner)..

[Orchard]

the way I've been doing it is fairly laborious, but I've been doing it for my town maps and also for a castle/catherdral I've got so it happens quite fast now..

Once your walls are in place set the grid size to half the wall size (ie. if your walls are 20pix in width then set the shadow to 10pix) then use the same technique used to draw the walls to draw drop shadows - just remember to set the opacity of the texture your using (just use plain black) to about 40%

It can take a bit of time but once you get the hang of it, it works ok... it's not ideal but you end up with something similar to what Dunjinni does (well, kinda.. The walls don't have false height but it does give some illusion of depth).

I've also found that when drawing stairs you can single width the entire length of the side, then double width about half the stairs and it will make them look like they are increasing in height (kinda).

if it's still not clear I can post a screen grab from one of my maps (I would now but I'm about to go out to dinner)..

You'd better get your Aussie brain in here and post a screenshot, cause I'm not grokking this completely. I THINK I know what you are saying, but without maptool here at work, it's a bit baffling. But this is a good tip. And I'll try to make sure it gets into the manual/wiki (with your name).

[thecyberwolfe]

Yeah, what Orchard said

[Kzintzi]

No worries mate - she'll be bonza (just thought I'd throw some aussie in there for ya )

here's a screenshot I took from something I threw together this morning so you could see the walls without any window dressing.. took me about 2 minutes (once I rebuilt my image gallery - stupid rebuilds)

the walls are 20pix wide and the shadow is 10 pix wide - you can make them any width you want but I find this ratio works for "normal height" walls...

http://gallery.rptools.net/d/30690-1/Image1.png

hmmmm, didn't show it full size... here's my gallery - it's in there

http://gallery.rptools.net/v/contrib/kzintzi/?g2_page=3

There's also a partial screenshot of the top left hand corner with the grid turned on:

http://gallery.rptools.net/d/30691-1/Image2.png

if it's still not clear I can do it on a lighter floor

[thecyberwolfe]

Ahh, now I understand what you're getting at. While more it is realistic, I prefer just outlining the floor with a black line.

-Set The line tool to your wall texture (transparent fill), and set the width to 25 or so. Draw walls as needed with snap to grid on.
-Go to the poly fill tool, set the border to transparent and the fill texture to your floor texture, snap to grid on and lay down the floors. This will cover up part of the walls.
-Go back to the line tool, set it to 3 or 4 pix with snap, transparent fill and draw lines around the perimeter of the floors. This gives a nice visual separation between the textures.



Mind you, this works pretty well for a dungeon but I may come up with something a little different for an outdoor adventure.

[Kzintzi]

I was doing something similar to that before, but once I started making towns for my players to run around in (they've got a thief fettish ) I was having problems getting the sidewalks to look right when I was drawing my walls in like that.

Plus I was trying to get two rooms to line up next to each other and they kept stuffing up when I redid the floor, so I started drawing my walls differently, and the shadows kind of evolved from that - the first time I did it was a mistake (I'd changed the opacity by accident when drawing a wall and it looked cool ).

Now, once the streets and sidewalks are in, I lay the floor down, then change the grid to the wall width, then put the outer walls of the building on the outside of the floor texture, then change the grid to the internal wall width and lay down the internal walls, then put in the windows, then the doorsills, then the VBL, then lay down the shadows, then add doors, furniture and props. Then I go back and muddy up the streets and sidewalks next to the buildings.