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Post by josedominguez on Jun 2, 2010 0:00:45 GMT -9
I'm putting together a Mordheim board using your models and I'm stuck on the 'floor' texture for the roads etc... is their any chance of some generic 'floor tiles' using your textures so the whole thing is cohesive (I want to avoid using other products). I'm looking for 6" and 12" squares mainly (A3 printer), I'll be laying them on top of a dark textured background with gaps to give the impression of roads. Your buildings will then be placed on top. I may even glue some of the crosspiece ruins down to speed up placement. Cheers, Ian b
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Post by Dave on Jun 2, 2010 8:36:56 GMT -9
Floor tiles have been on my to-do list forever. I just keep bumping them, and for no good reason. I've started work on a new ruined house today, but I might bump that instead, and start putting some floor tiles together. I don't know that enough folks have access to A3 or 11" x 17" printers to make it worth the while to set up the pages that way. But what I can do (probably) is set up the pages with overlays so that you can modify the tile sizes from 4" x 4" up to 8" x 10". I need to think about how that will work with the road sections or sidewalks or whatever. Yeah, I think I'll work on these today.
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Post by Floyd on Jun 2, 2010 9:26:58 GMT -9
Sweet.
I've got 16 of your structures built so a place for them to call home would be awesome!
~F
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Post by squirmydad on Jun 2, 2010 12:08:35 GMT -9
The largest size you can go on a regular latter or A2 size is 7x7 inches.
You might also make a version of the tiles like Mel Ebbles has for his interlocking tiles.
I also have designs for an interlocking hex tile that is 6 inches face to face, and has smaller heroscape size hexes patterned inside. Right now they are just vector drawings with no texture layer, just yet.
Just ideas to help make it harder for you to decide how you want to do it. ;D
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Post by Dave on Jun 2, 2010 23:05:48 GMT -9
I think it makes the most sense to stick with the standard 6" x 6" tile. It sucks to waste all that space, but it's the easiest way to create intersecting road sections and stuff like that.
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Post by Dave on Jun 6, 2010 2:31:49 GMT -9
Here's a sneak peek at one of the ground tile textures now in development: Like most of my models lately, these ground tiles will be set up as multi-layered PDFs. You'll have a variety of background textures (mud, grass, patchy grass, as well as all of the road surfaces listed below), and some of these background layers can be layered over one another (start with mud, add patchy grass, and then add rubble if you like). On top of those, you'll have lots of choices of road sections. There are about 20 different road sections -- straightaways, T-sections, 4-way intersections, and tiles for creating wider roads or open plazas, and most of tiles offer a choice of rounded corners or 90 degree angles. And of course you get a choice of road surfaces (gravel, cobblestones or paving stones) -- 9 in all. The cobblestones and paving stones each come in 4 different colors. Finally, there are optional 1" grid lines, or discreet points where the grid lines would meet. The texture work on these tile sections is just about done. I still need to do the rubble layers, and maybe add a few manhole covers or other little details. The next big step before releasing this set is to create ramps and walls for elevated sections. I might save those for a separate add-on set, since they aren't really necessary for a basic ground tile collection. I'd also like to try out some rough cliffs, maybe some sewer tunnels, or other features which will require a bit more papercraft engineering, and may not be everyone's cup of tea -- and will create a delay. And you probably know I hate to let a week go by without releasing something new!
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Post by onemonkeybeau on Jun 6, 2010 10:09:21 GMT -9
Amazing work Dave! These look (and sound) great!
onemonkeybeau
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Post by Floyd on Jun 6, 2010 10:14:52 GMT -9
Nice looking texture work. Looking forward to this release Dave. And really keen to see you work the elevated sections. I'm wanting to do some dynamic layouts (ala FDG Deluxe Village) and this will be something I look forward to doing with your models. Tunnels and Cliffs sound cool too.
~F
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Post by josedominguez on Jun 6, 2010 10:21:38 GMT -9
That's superb, exactly what I need how will they connect? Or are you going for individual tiles to back/stick as required?
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Post by Dave on Jun 6, 2010 11:31:08 GMT -9
As for connections, they're just tiles that you can lay next to each other.
The example image shows part of one tile, not the whole thing. I'll put together another sample to show how a few tiles should fit together.
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Post by Dave on Jun 6, 2010 12:44:24 GMT -9
Here's a possible layout, this time using the yellow cobblestones road texture. This is a 36" x 36" area.
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Post by josedominguez on Jun 6, 2010 13:37:26 GMT -9
Excellent There's a few ground tile sets out there, but none of them match your building textures. I've got enough of your models made up to cover a 4x4 table and it's going to be superb, but I've got nothing for the ground that does it justice. I'll hang fire on taking photos until I've got the 'full Graffam effect' The ruined tower and tall ruin printed in stone and then linked by walkways looks great... the different layer options let you match two different buildings to give the impression that they are the ruins of a larger structure, it really gives a board character.
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Post by curufea on Jun 6, 2010 16:06:07 GMT -9
I was just going to ask if you were going to give the tiles a border, or whether you were going to the trouble of making the textures tile-able, so they always match edges (which takes longer, is trickier, but looks nicer).
I can't really tell from that small image, but it does look like you've got repetitive lines occurring where tiles are joining - and the textures aren't matching.
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Post by Dave on Jun 7, 2010 17:41:16 GMT -9
I don't know what you mean by repetitive lines, but the road sections all line up pretty seamlessly. There's an optional overlay layer featuring a 1" grid, and it includes a thin black border along the edge of the tile. It's not there if you don't want it.
The rougher textures -- mud or grass -- aren't perfectly seamless, but they are uniform enough in appearance that, when viewed at a normal gaming distance and especially with model buildings placed on the tiles, I doubt anyone is going to be bothered by the transitions. They certainly aren't jarring transitions.
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Post by curufea on Jun 7, 2010 19:30:00 GMT -9
Maybe it's just that there's some space or something in the flagstone texture? Looks a bit gridlike.
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Post by Dave on Jun 7, 2010 19:54:33 GMT -9
Yeah, if you look closely at the cobblestones in the image at the top of this thread you'll see that they're all arranged into square groupings. This creates a grid even without a grid overlay.
I tried going for a more haphazard layout, but it looked very strange once the grid-lines were laid over it. That's why I decided to group the cobblestones into squares that would conform to the grid.
Is isn't historically accurate to lay out cobblestones that way, but it does make for more functional wargame terrain. Whenever I'm faced with a choice, I almost always choose what's going to aid gaming, even if it isn't as aesthetically pleasing or architecturally accurate as I would like.
In the second image, the lines are more obvious but it's probably just because of the sharpness filter I threw on it. Printed at full size, I don't think the cobblestones' grid pattern is quite that obvious.
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Post by josedominguez on Jun 8, 2010 9:17:11 GMT -9
You'd only get the same effect if suspended about thirty feet above the gaming table I think.... even the slightest pattern will emerge at that print scale. Plus, with the layer options that will minimal.... are you doing light vegetation and heavy vegetation? That would help for transition tiles later.... maybe going from muddy to muddy with sparse plants to green grassy tiles on one board, that's allways been tricky with other sets as the transisitions were too obvious.
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Post by Dave on Jun 8, 2010 10:02:25 GMT -9
That's a good idea to have two different levels of vegetation, and an easy thing to do. I'll add that now. Cheers!
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Post by curufea on Jun 8, 2010 15:49:25 GMT -9
You'd only get the same effect if suspended about thirty feet above the gaming table I think.... even the slightest pattern will emerge at that print scale. Yeah - it's just an artifact noticable when you do low res images for the preview on the internet, really. Not worth worrying about as it won't occur at other times.
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Post by pblade on Jun 8, 2010 21:17:36 GMT -9
I'll toss in my 2 coppers about the cobblestone pattern, and point out that FDG does the same thing. If you're not looking for it you don't really notice it, but it's easily picked up when you need the grid. (I've actually had to point it out at the table.)
I'm glad you'll keep it, because it really does seem the best middle ground. And thanks in advance for the transition tiles. Those and angled/twisty streets are probably the hardest to come up with.
-Pb
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