# Mapmaking Discussion & Philosophy (WIP/Critique) > 3D modeling (map elements and height maps) >  Dungeon

## Troedel

I always was a fan of 3D Battlemaps and 3D Art in general. But starting out on that journey was a lot harder than I thought. But I think I´m on the right track now. This is the basic layout of my little cellar, more a proof of concept than anything else. I think of TopDown and Isometric, this render is just a perspective I like.   Here goes a big thank you to Antal Kéninger for his inspirational maps for Lord ZseZse works.

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## Falconius

That's gorgeous!  Have you played around with "filling" the ground outside the wall like people do with the 2d ones?

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## Troedel

There is a very faint grid outside the area. I have to put it on another render layer as it is an image mapped to a plane and does not play nice with the current lighting setup. But yes, it´s on the "grid" ( pun intended...  :Wink:  ).

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## Katto

That looks very good Troedel! Which tools did you use?
I started to learn Houdini and watched a part of this tutorial series yesterday. Transfer it to dungeon walls  :Wink:

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## Troedel

Mainly Blender, Zbrush and Substance Painter and a little bit of post in Photoshop. I imagine all can be done in Blender itself even if it is a bit more inconvenient.

 I´ve got a little bit of experience in Houdini, dabbling around in building procedural walls and pillars. Combined with the Substance integration I imagine it could be extremly well suited to build these kind of structures. Initially the learning curve isn´t too steep but once you get to the point of making it look organic and natural Houdini is a beast to master. But you will see  :Wink:  and I wish you the best of luck and patience.

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## Wired

Wow, that looks really great so far. I just wish I had the time and stomach to get into Blender...

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## AaronSchmidt

Awesome work. The depth of field and the photo real textures make it look like it is made from miniatures. I also think the subtle point lights (not sure what you call them in blender) highlighting certain areas works great because you have the warm glow against the cool brick.

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## Troedel

Now the fun and tedious work of adding props has started....  THX for all your kind words

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## Bogie

Damn!  Even zoomed in it looks so real!  Fantastic!

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## ChickPea

Wow! This is awesome.  :Very Happy:

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## Troedel

Some progress, inserted a grid, some barrels, a glass bottle and a closet. Progress is much slower with these kind of things...  :Wink: 
This is pretty high res and just a test render so expect some noise.

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## Falconius

Looks really great.  How are you planning to render and arrange this?  A whole isometric render, with inset closeups of the rooms?  

I ask because it bothers me slightly that I can't see the floors in the hallways due to the perspective.  I'm not sure why it bothers me, perhaps because it gives the feeling of obscuring information, and maps are supposed do the opposite.  (even though seeing the floor doesn't actually tell me anything I cant know from the fact that they are hallways.)  Or perhaps I'm just used to seeing things like this in isometric games and there it actually is important to see the ground since ones characters are walking all over it.

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## Troedel

When I get home I will do some quick and dirty shots of my render goal. Basicly top down perspective with an additional "iso" as visual aid.

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## Troedel

As promised

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## Troedel

That cave was killing me.

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## Bogie

Great dungeon map!  Excellent!

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## Falconius

Yeah, this stuff rocks.

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## Sharpe

By the gods! That's the best looking model set I've ever seen?

You have a DriveThruRPG account?

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## Troedel

You humble me. Haven´t got a DriveThruRPG account. I will do commisions if asked for. If you are looking for awesome "3d" maps to buy look for Black Scroll Games. That´s what I drool over. But it takes forever to pull something off like that.

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