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Post by alisatana on Apr 24, 2014 16:27:00 GMT -9
Some of you may have already seen in the best practices thread, or on the World Works Games forums, a little bit about this. What is Open Ground? When my friend asked if I would create a texture for him to use with some of his TerrainLinX terrain, I told him my one caveat is that I'd want to be able to sell the art to other folks as well. Now obviously I can't sell textures that I've created on a TerrainLinX template, both for legal and moral reasons. So instead, I decided to create my own template that was compatible with TerrainLinX, while being different, but that could also stand on its own. I also realized that there must be other artists out there like me, who would be interesting in sharing textures they've created, and still have the possibility of selling them - I believe artists should always be paid for the time investing in their work. So, I decided to release this template as an open source template, thus Open Ground.
Also, my ideal goal is to create a marketplace website (like Etsy) to create a single stop for artists to sell their work, and buyers can know all the different sets will be compatible because they use the same templates. But I'd like to build up a library of sets before beginning development on that site. My partner and I are also discussing the possibility of scaling the site up to include automated PDF creation, and build planning tools.
What's available now? I've finished up the Base tiles, Corner posts and Walls templates for 28mm figures, the basics for most terrain builds. I've also written basic instructions for construction, and created a video to walk you through the PSD Templates.
Everything can be downloaded from dropbox and you can watch the template walkthrough on youtube
What's Next? As I mentioned above, the next step is building up a library of available sets. I'm going to be working on my own, but I'd also like to encourage other artists to do so as well. I've set up a tumblr blog: opengroundterrain.tumblr.com that you can submit preview pictures and links to if you have your own tumblr account. If you don't have an account, I'll repost any links you post into this thread or pm to me.
Once the library of available sets has grown enough, I'll start working on a more polished website than just tumblr, and if there's enough interest from other artists, it'll be a marketplace site. As a marketplace, you'll be able to set up your own storefront and brand, but Open Ground will handle the shop and distribution side of things. There will be a surcharge on transactions to cover the payment processing, as well as to help pay for the maintenance of the site, but you'll be able to set your own prices and keep most of the profit.
I may also create a few more templates, such as rooftops, and eventually templates for models both taller and larger than 28mm, as well as a Hex style template. I've also like to create instructions for converting Open Ground textures to work with more systems, but I currently only own TLX terrain myself and haven't had an opportunity to look at others yet. If there are any fold templates you'd like to contribute to the project, please let me know.
Rules for Use Open Ground templates are open source, meaning they're free and you're free to share them (although a link to www.opengroundterrain.com or to this thread would be appreciated). However, any texture artwork that appears on the templates belong entirely to the artists that created them. Do not share any Open Ground terrain with textures unless you are the artist that created them. If you would like to make builds based on free textures that you've not made any modifications to, please be sure to include the original source of the texture and do not sell these. I am very serious about art theft, and making sure that artists are compensated for their time and effort. If I find anyone sharing or selling another artist's work, I will immediately report it to the original artist, and set the entire internet upon them.
Preview of Alisa's first set My personal goal for terrain sets is to fill in gaps where other companies don't have anything. So, per Erk's request, my first set will be snowy glacial cliffs and a matching steampunk themed mining town - Colliery City
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Post by Vermin King on Apr 24, 2014 17:11:05 GMT -9
Ooo, Steampunk mining town
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Post by WackyAnne on Apr 24, 2014 18:11:34 GMT -9
Following avidly all progress on this project!
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Post by rattokan on Apr 24, 2014 22:53:03 GMT -9
Are you in any way related to Deathreaver999 or Jaynz from the WWG forum?
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Post by dungeonmistress on Apr 25, 2014 6:43:50 GMT -9
This is such a good idea! I applaud your efforts.
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Post by Parduz on Apr 25, 2014 8:08:16 GMT -9
Very good idea. Trying to understand all the "legal" stuffs (sorry for not understanding; part is my bad english, part is that i find difficult to "categorize" the "components" of a thing like this): do that mean that the only "shareable", "reusable" part is the template itself.... the "shape" that have to be cut out, but not anything drawn on this (unless otherwise specified). So I could share and dintribute a PDF with just the shapes on a white page, and not a "grass tile". Am i right?
This apart, i think this idea is great!
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Post by alisatana on Apr 25, 2014 11:05:27 GMT -9
Very good idea. Trying to understand all the "legal" stuffs (sorry for not understanding; part is my bad english, part is that i find difficult to "categorize" the "components" of a thing like this): do that mean that the only "shareable", "reusable" part is the template itself.... the "shape" that have to be cut out, but not anything drawn on this (unless otherwise specified). So I could share and dintribute a PDF with just the shapes on a white page, and not a "grass tile". Am i right? This apart, i think this idea is great! Yep, that's exactly correct. Are you in any way related to Deathreaver999 or Jaynz from the WWG forum? Nope. erk is my best friend from years ago, and he brought up the topic at WWG, then mproteau directed him here (I believe). I joined the WWG forum only recently, just to participate in the conversation erk started over there. It was mostly mproteau and Zenguy who participated and gave feedback on the template's creation. Jaynz did weigh in once warning against making joiners out of craft-foam, instead of foamcore that TLX uses. Which is why I wound up just leaving that as an option, not a requirement.
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Post by mesper on Apr 25, 2014 11:58:39 GMT -9
Very good idea. Trying to understand all the "legal" stuffs (sorry for not understanding; part is my bad english, part is that i find difficult to "categorize" the "components" of a thing like this): do that mean that the only "shareable", "reusable" part is the template itself.... the "shape" that have to be cut out, but not anything drawn on this (unless otherwise specified). So I could share and dintribute a PDF with just the shapes on a white page, and not a "grass tile". Am i right? This apart, i think this idea is great! Not quite sure but I think that you can: a) use free "open ground" template b) add/apply your own (or third-party substantially reworked) texture/graphic c) publish newly "created" piece of terrain (ground tile) //Of course if you use free stuff (textures) you should add some sort of credits where applicable/needed and release it as a free piece
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Post by alisatana on Apr 25, 2014 12:37:50 GMT -9
Not quite sure but I think that you can: a) use free "open ground" template b) add/apply your own (or third-party substantially reworked) texture/graphic c) publish newly "created" piece of terrain (ground tile) //Of course if you use free stuff (textures) you should add some sort of credits where applicable/needed and release it as a free piece Just to elaborate on part c) If you create the texture/graphic yourself, you can: Publish for free or Publish for sale If the texture/graphic was free, you can: Publish for free with credit to the source If the texture/graphic was created by someone else and wasn't free: you cannot publish it I also want to point out that graphics you find on the internet aren't free by default. They must clearly state that they are free for use before you can count it as free to publish. Some artists use Creative Commons as a way of listing their terms of use. There are 6 basic kinds of Creative Commons: - Attribution (CC BY)
- Attribution Share Alike (CC BY-SA)
- Attribution No Derivatives (CC BY-ND)
- Attribution Non-Commercial (CC BY-NC)
- Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike (CC BY-NC-SA)
- Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives (CC BY-NC-ND)
Most Creative Commons pieces are okay to use as free except those labeled with the two I put in red. "No Derivatives" means that you can't make changes to their work, and that includes putting it on a template. The one in blue, you can legally sell, provided you credit this original artist, but I personally find this underhanded, and would rather you only shared these for free unless you have specific permission from the artist.
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Post by hasturhasturhastur on Apr 25, 2014 13:11:15 GMT -9
Preview of Alisa's first set
My personal goal for terrain sets is to fill in gaps where other companies don't have anything. So, per Erk's request, my first set will be snowy glacial cliffs and a matching steampunk themed mining town - Colliery City No texture tessellation? That's... severely disappointing.
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Post by alisatana on Apr 25, 2014 13:16:16 GMT -9
No texture tessellation? That's... severely disappointing. I'm not sure what you mean exactly? That's only a preview, as I'm still working on it. So if you're referring to the fact that the sides of the texture don't repeat without an edge, I haven't done that yet.
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Post by hasturhasturhastur on Apr 25, 2014 13:22:50 GMT -9
So if you're referring to the fact that the sides of the texture don't repeat without an edge, I haven't done that yet. Yes. It's pretty important for a ground set to tessellate in order to look good in use. For tiles that can be furthermore rotated freely by 90 degrees it gets a bit wild to do it. But it's not that hard once you consider it thoroughly. For example in the case of a river all edges should be identical AND match up to themselves rotated by 180 degrees. Since that covers every possible alignment of those river elements to each other.
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Post by alisatana on Apr 25, 2014 13:50:15 GMT -9
So if you're referring to the fact that the sides of the texture don't repeat without an edge, I haven't done that yet. Yes. It's pretty important for a ground set to tessellate in order to look good in use. For tiles that can be furthermore rotated freely by 90 degrees it gets a bit wild to do it. But it's not that hard once you consider it thoroughly. For example in the case of a river all edges should be identical AND match up to themselves rotated by 180 degrees. Since that covers every possible alignment of those river elements to each other. Yeah, understand. Like I said, it was only meant as a preview, and I'm still working on it. Anyways, I wanted the thread to more about the templates, not the texture - as it's the templates that are the free downloads, not the texture.
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Post by mproteau (Paper Realms) on Apr 25, 2014 14:29:17 GMT -9
It's hard not to ooh and aah over the preview - it looks like it's going to be a great set! Your packaging of the instructions and everything look really nice.
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Post by colonelshofer on Apr 26, 2014 14:57:18 GMT -9
Superduper TY
CS
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Post by mproteau (Paper Realms) on Apr 28, 2014 10:15:49 GMT -9
I'm hoping sometime this week to set out kitbashing some Dave Graffam tiles in order to use these templates, complete with 'hidden grids'. Not for sharing, I know, but it'll let me try out the tiles, and maybe even get me motivated enough to write some GIMP scripts to automate the pulling-out of the textures for anchors and/or hole covers... I've been so swamped with work and family that I haven't had a clear enough head to start any side projects... What's your timeframe for tidying up the PSDs for the templates? The good news is my wife has gone and picked up 6 baby chicks, and so the clock is ticking for me to invent a chicken coop in our backyard before they outgrow their little home in our basement. I'm not stuck wondering what to do with my free time, at least!
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Post by alisatana on Apr 29, 2014 20:20:37 GMT -9
What's your timeframe for tidying up the PSDs for the templates? um...?? I thought they already were pretty tidy already - unless Gimp doesn't parse the PSD folders well. In which case, I've no idea. Everything in the templates is raster without layer styles except for the empty template, since I know Gimp doesn't read those very well. I could, I suppose separate the templates out into further files, one just for the 6x6, one just for the 3x3, etc. Is that what you're meaning?
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Post by Parduz on Apr 29, 2014 22:56:34 GMT -9
Will the template be available also in a vector format? So DXF, or WMF, or whatever is the standard today (being me a CorelDraw user, i'm not really fond on what's the best format)
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Post by mproteau (Paper Realms) on Apr 30, 2014 1:53:32 GMT -9
alisatana - when last I looked, there were layers for grids that seemed to do nothing, the layers for the top banner were nestled in a strange layer group, I think there were some missing lines for some (but not all) of the corner style layers... When I get some time at work today, I'll give you something specific to consider.
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Post by alisatana on Apr 30, 2014 6:06:27 GMT -9
mproteau - Ah, okay, that sounds like problems with opening it in Gimp, I'll take a look, but I'm not sure when.
Parduz - I'll take a look and see what I can export them out as from Photoshop, which I know is limited. I'll probably re-install my version of Illustrator at some point, but I've got a bunch of things unrelated to this project to take care of first.
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Post by Parduz on Apr 30, 2014 6:28:15 GMT -9
If you need, i can produce it... i'll need all the .... measures (dunno what's the tech word), as if it was a mechanical piece; then i'll draw it in CorelDraw and export in DXF or WMF, or even PDF (the format handle vector drawings).
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Post by mproteau (Paper Realms) on Apr 30, 2014 10:01:20 GMT -9
Well, shee-oot. Seems like GIMP is being a little nutty. I am able to see all the layers, but it sometimes takes some fiddling. Here's an example, in case anyone else experiences something similar.
I've got only the following layers turned on:
6x6 > Corners > TLX Posts Connectors #1
Ok. Now, turn on this layer:
6x6 > Corners > Slits
I see no change on the screen.
Turn off the TLX Posts Connectors #1 layer. Still not seeing the slits. Turn the slits off and back on. There they are!
Yikes. This is the first time I've run into something in GIMP that "sucks out loud".
I'm guessing this is what was biting me *in some cases*. The grid issue... that was me being dumb. The grids are white. The texture layer is white. Duh. That's why I couldn't see the grids.
The layers for "Artist, Date", "Header" and "28mm" end up the 3x3 Diagonal layer group. Not sure if this is just how GIMP imported things.
A comment about the "TLX Post Connectors": (1) In TLX terminology, these are "anchors" not "connectors". There's something called a "post-to-post connector" which is a special beast. (2) They're easier to cut, glue and edge if you cut out a rectangle with negative space around the thing, glue it in half, then trim off the negative space. Without doing this, your pieces might not line up well, and will require more edging.
Oh heck, while I'm here, I'd encourage a layout where you can have two 3x3 tiles on a page rather than the corner piece. I'm not convinced your design for the corner piece works as well as it could. I understand why you've done it that way (at least I imagine I do - to accommodate the posts, right?) it does mean you'll need something different if you wanted to invent a 3" square where one half is, say, an interior floor texture, and the outside is a different texture. People on the WWG forums were doing this sort of thing for more varied building builds, and having to invent a 3" tile with all the different texture combinations seemed like a waste, over having angled tiles that could fit together.
Just something to think about.
Anyway, I'll try to post some updates to my blog (and here) when I start making some of these tiles/posts for real.
Let me know if/when you decide to tackle roof systems, too, if you'd like some ideas or feedback. I haven't found a modular system that I like yet, but I kind of know why I don't like the ones I've tried...
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Post by alisatana on Apr 30, 2014 10:57:41 GMT -9
Yeah, you're right about the 3" diagonal being that way, and I see your point about it. I'll prototype a couple of options - I'm thinking either a piece that finishes the 3" square, or another one that wraps around an existing 3" square as a removable sleeve. The existing diagonal I was definitely thinking it needed to accommodate the corner posts, especially when on the 2nd floor, and I hadn't even thought of having the diagonal wall being a divider between textures.
To solve the gimp problems, I think I'll just wind up opening it gimp myself, rearranging things and saving it out into gimp's native format. Since I've already got gimp installed on my computer, it shouldn't take too long.
And yes, I was planning on renaming the TLX post connectors in the template to just be "tabs corners" as I've referred to them in the instructions. That label was a hold over from my master psd file.
EDIT: Wow, yeah, Gimp really has no clue what to do with those files. I think it's too many nested layer groups. I've set up a new folder for gimp files, so far I've just done the 3x3" tile square. Let me know if you come up with any issues with that before I go ahead and switch over the others.
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Post by mproteau (Paper Realms) on May 4, 2014 10:00:16 GMT -9
alisatana - I'm going to make some assertions, but take them with a grain of salt. I'm still trying to find the time to actually build a tile or two to experiment... 1) Question about the system of covering holes... Looking at the 6" tile, it looks like the inserts are designed to slip into the hole. Have you gone and built a bunch of these? Do they work well? Are they easy to slip back out of the holes? I was imagining making the inserts a little more complicated so they overlap the ground texture, giving a little lip that would make it easier to lift out. I'm about to do some layout of my own on this, and wanted to hear your thoughts. 2) The post holes seem to be a bit narrow, maybe by a couple pixels. Not sure how many posts you've built so far - I will likely make my template use the same width posts as TLX. It'll be simple enough to make a little adapter piece to put my old posts into the new holes. It looks like your template for posts just makes them rectangular from top to bottom - do you think they'd be a little more forgiving if at the base of them they were tapered on the sides so they'd slide in easier, even if the hole wasn't perfectly sized? 3) Since I'm shooting to make tiles that are a wee more compatible with TLX, I am going to make my templates 1/4" thick and have larger flaps that wrap around. I know they extend beyond the cutting region, but they support the tabs that connect the tiles better. I'll also have the cut lines for cutting out the slots to put the connector tabs into. I just mention it, well, just to mention it. I might ultimately go the 3/16" route, since that's the thickness most folks will have with their non-TLX tiles, so it'd be the most compatible. The only thing that would make it *not* TLX compatible is in the case of double-height walls, since they take into account the 1/4" floor thickness. Hmm... Decisions decisions... I really like how you included the extra tabs to strengthen the corners.
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Post by alisatana on May 6, 2014 9:51:02 GMT -9
1)Hmm, I like that idea, and it shouldn't be too difficult of a fold pattern. I had initially based them more or less off of the ones from Fat Dragon, but having that lip would be slick.
2)Not exactly sure what a fold pattern for the posts that would include a taper on the bottom would look like, without tapering the entire post, which would have to make the walls different. I've made a handful of posts and haven't had a problem with them fitting yet, but I can definitely move the cutlines for the corners a little bit further in.
3)Yeah, that's more advanced kit-bashing, that there can definitely be a guide for... the ground tiles being the easiest thing. One story walls you only need to trim 1/16" off the bottom if you're using the 1/4" foamcore for tiles, but two story walls that's a whole 3/16" which might cut into the texture a bit far if you've got details like a door or something. The slit for the side tabs will also need to be extended as well, I think.
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Post by mproteau (Paper Realms) on May 6, 2014 10:43:35 GMT -9
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Post by alisatana on May 6, 2014 16:03:54 GMT -9
Ah, I understand. That sounds easy enough to add onto the template, but maybe too time consuming to be on the cutting side? I'd appreciate other opinions. As for the hole covers, I was playing around with a few different fold patterns, and I was mostly over-complicating them I think... But I've arrived at something that's just as simple to cut and fold as my original ones... The shaded areas would be folded and glued flat onto the underside of the cover, with the two un-shaded tabs folding down at 90 to insert into the hole. I left in two of my over complicated designs for posterity.
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Post by mproteau (Paper Realms) on May 6, 2014 16:45:38 GMT -9
I was imagining this - Have them be in two pieces. One is a rectangle that folds in half. One half is textured, the other half has a box indicating where the "anchors" would glue onto. The anchors could just be the left-over foamcore you cut out of the tile, or it could be a simple cardstock square with four flaps. Maybe *I* am over-complicating things. My two concerns are that having just two flaps wouldn't hold it in place, and I'm not sure how well it would work in the center slot. But, if you've found something that you like and seems to work, cool! I would be cool to get some other opinions. It would make me feel like less of a P.I.T.A.
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Post by alisatana on May 7, 2014 9:30:47 GMT -9
Ah, that makes sense. I'd completely forgotten the possibility of them being made of foamcore... especially since you'd already have those pieces from cutting them out of the tile in the first place. I like it. EDIT: Okay, so I've changed the instructions and the templates to be the more simple hole plug covers. I've also changed the corner tabs in the template to include the fold first then cut step, but I still have to update the instructions for those. And I've gone through all of the templates and checked them out in Gimp. www.dropbox.com/sh/pentgvg5cej7ekw/AABpReQNJ-byEQeqKPT_H8OLa is the folder containing all of the gimp templates, let me know if you have any problems with them.
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Post by andrax2000 on Mar 19, 2016 5:32:15 GMT -9
Just a note - the instruction video is set as private.
Also, what license are you releasing the templates under?
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