# Mapmaking Discussion & Philosophy (WIP/Critique) > Building/Structure Mapping >  WIP-My Second Map the Arcane School

## heathan666

Ok So this time I didn't use the dungeon script (awesome script saves tons of time, but I wanted to give this a try), and decided for personal reasons as well as game reasons to do this "by hand."
Basically all the images I had gotten off of RPGshare, dundjinni, maptools etc, and manipulated them using gimp. Right now this is the first level of the school. On the first level I plan on having the two large forward rooms as library and then there will be the long hallways that go to the back of the building. Not sure how to utilize these rooms. The 2nd level will be "class rooms". The center round area is actually the base of the tower for the "head master." I'm gonna post a direct link to photobucket and image code. Tell me what you guys think and any links for books shelves, desks, or stuff to do with a wizard/sorcerers base would be awesome help. I plan on adding more of the color to the tiles and yes I know I need to put some tiles on the rounded steps, which I will do ASAP.


School of Magi

PS: how do you make/save your own pallete on Gimp???

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## delgondahntelius

ooooooo I like that ... very nicely done and i'm doubly impressed with the by hand instead of a script.... too cool!

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## Jkaen

Looks nice, could you make the long corridors into some sort of gallery, say have paintings of former headmasters there?

There is a thread round here somewhere of somebody who was doing a library and there was quite a big discussion about bookshelves there, so I would hunt for that.

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## Steel General

Very nice, the color-scheme is very pleasing on the eye.

Looking forward to see where this goes.

I dub thee newly repped *bonk*

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## Ascension

This looks good, only thing I ask is if there is going to be some decorations?  By that I mean things like the paintings mentioned above or a dais or tables and such?  Nice job so far.

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## xv43

> There is a thread round here somewhere of somebody who was doing a library and there was quite a big discussion about bookshelves there, so I would hunt for that.


I don't know if it's the one you're referencing, but I was doing a library and was working with bookshelves recently.

I think I posted most of my bookshelf images separately if anyone wants them... if there's one in a library image that isn't posted separately and you want it, let me know and I can probably send it to you.

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## heathan666

Well I didn't actually do it by hand it was a lot of copy and pasting and cuting involved. So don't give me to much credit. I'm thinking of adding something to just cover the steps so they don't stick out so much but I'm not sure what. I did paint the color in there though. I'm thinking of making a banner, "carpet" to lay over the stairs with white and the greyish blue I used for this.




> This looks good, only thing I ask is if there is going to be some decorations?  By that I mean things like the paintings mentioned above or a dais or tables and such?  Nice job so far.


Yes I am going to add stuff, actually I like the head master painting things I think I will go with that. Also the court yard I planned on having a lil stream running through it, I need to place some stairs to the second floor somewheres.




> I don't know if it's the one you're referencing, but I was doing a library and was working with bookshelves recently.
> 
> I think I posted most of my bookshelf images separately if anyone wants them... if there's one in a library image that isn't posted separately and you want it, let me know and I can probably send it to you.


I'd love that, you can email them to me at twelvedrunkenmonkeyz@yahoo.com.

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## heathan666

ok tile is done...I think I went a lil overboard, but I like it...lol. I plan on covering up alot of the stuff though with rugs and blah blah blah, so, tell me what you think.

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## jfrazierjr

Nice Start, but what's the scale?   Based on the steps and the tiles, I would say the hallways would be around 8-10 foot wide.  One possibility is to wall off the hallways to make dormitories(very small... if 10 foot hallways, perhaps 10 x 5 rooms with bunkbeds and that leaves 5 foot hallways).    However, given that scale, your libraries might be a tad small (perhaps on purpose???) unless they span multiple levels with no ceiling.

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## heathan666

actually the hallways are 10 feet, and a library isn't really a large space, in proper midevil terms. But yes, as for a fantasy game, I probably will have another library on the second floor. The room is about 30 by 15 feet for the two rooms that make up the library, so that's actually a pretty good amount of books. The school isn't extremely large either, its not self-sustaining. They do require services from the near by village.
As for the dormitories, they are actually going to be a seperate building currently I'm just making the buildings then I will make the school grounds. The 2nd floor will be where the class rooms and dining area will be. I'm thinking of making the dining area the central mass for the 2nd floor and some way to reach the "roof" of the 2nd floor which will allow people to gain access to the tower. (minus the area for the tower.
However I could double the size of the map and adjust the grid size as well. I've made a list of things the 2nd floor will have.

dining area
alchemy lab/class
enchanting lab/class
mundane arts class (math, reading, writing, etc)
study room (a place to study and practice the arts)
ritual class (a class for ritual magic)
worship area (to the god of magic).

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## Redrobes

Very nice floor. This is going to look great though I think it will be tough to fill it all up.

If you look here :-
http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=2462

at post #31 there is the 1st floor to my pub and there is a nice bench of magi kit which you can steal. Its also in my Feb Challenge entry which might be higher res I don't know.

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## heathan666

thank you I like that, I'm thinking of doing a similar thing with the second floor, leaving an open space so I can have the bad guys be able to attack the players when they go to the center. How did you make the effect if you don't mind me asking, was it just a jpg image set below the layer and then blured????

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## Jkaen

I think you have got carried away with the floor patterning, I would keep it in the 'entrance rooms' (basically everything north of the corridors) then leave the rest of the floors the basic colour, relying on rugs etc to add the variation. (I can see a long carpet type rug down the centre of the corridors for example)

I also assume there is an entrance into the central building somewhere?

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## heathan666

I haven't decided if there will be a secret entrance on the 2nd level or not. I also kinda felt that way about the patern, but then again, the pattern as you said will mostly be covered by long rugs, tables, benches etc; which was my justification for going ahead and coloring it the way I did. This way if I leaved an area uncovered it will still match.

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## heathan666

ok I have a banner that I plan on using however, I need to scale it down. Is there anyway to scale it down without losing majority of the detail??? I'm using gimp btw.

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## heathan666

OK so I'm almost done with the 1st floor, I just need to add in some lights on the walls, I'll probably do that in maptools. Next is the 2nd floor of the map and I will fill in the tower in the center on all three maps last.


Uberleet

PS: I did get lazy on the last table plz forgive me, I'll fix it before I put the finishing touches on. Btw is there another site to use to post the maps because this is not cuttin' it. Its not fullsized :0(.

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## Jkaen

I like the main rug in the entrance way, not so keen on the ones in the wallways as they seem to stand out too much and draw the eye, I would be tempted to just try a solid pastel blue rug (maybe with minor cream patterning?)

Also depending on the locality and frequency of visitors, is ti worth putting in some sort of receptionists desk?

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## heathan666

Actually no point. The school grounds are looked by a magic spell, so unless someone hops the fence they aren't getting in very easily. Only Alumni and students are allowed in for the most part.

As for the rugs I think you are right I should darken them. To make them match up better. I was thinking the same thing.

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## xv43

I think as long as you darken the rugs you should be okay, I've got a few carpet images as well that I'll send you along with all my bookcase stuff.

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## heathan666

ok well I'm on the 2nd floor I've changed the rug and notice there are a few things I also need to fix. The "courtyard" entry is supposed to have 2 statues in them. If anyone has some statues that would fit this map let me know. Remember its a school of magic, so either some sort of D&D type magic monster (unaligned or good prefered) or a spell caster. But overall I am pleased with the image itself. BTW I made 5 or 6 different bookshelfs using your set up, very nice. It was pretty easy once I figured out how they where assembled. And I like the simplistic design of the books, makes it very easy to just bucket a color in there to add variety.

The 2nd floor is nearly done, I just need to paint the tiles and add some stuff to it, and then I will post it. I've come to realize that makin' the maps really isn't that difficult its really just a repeating pattern. I learned it from watching the script run as I was making my first dungeon, and then just tweaked it (adding layers for objects, object shadows, etc).

Now is there a better place to store images so that way I can post the full size shots, so you guys can see it better?

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## Jkaen

There are loads of pictures of statues on dunjinni, just searcht heir forums (good pegasus statue as I recall)

I think the images can be much bigger on flickr and photobucket if you want to try them

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## heathan666

I am using photobucket

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## jfrazierjr

> Now is there a better place to store images so that way I can post the full size shots, so you guys can see it better?


How big are the images?  What is the dimension x by y and the filesize?

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## heathan666

they are big, that one is like 7-8 megs.

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## heathan666

OK so I'm pretty much done, just a few statues and stuff, and maybe some sleep. My brain feels like play dough. I'll post the ss tommorrow, hope you guys like, after all this is my 1st map.

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## RobA

> they are big, that one is like 7-8 megs.


More importantly, what are the X-Y dimensions of the image?

-Rob A>

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## jfrazierjr

> More importantly, what are the X-Y dimensions of the image?
> 
> -Rob A>


Yea... I don't understand.   The link to the image on photobucket is no where near the size limit you can upload here.   That one is something like ~525 x ~800 or so and only around 750 KB.

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## heathan666

the images are 11.2 w by 17.147 h in inches. That's a few thousand pixels. I'll look into photobucket and see what i can do to "adjust" the d/l size.
Also...I AM DONE!!!!!!!!! I just need to place it in maptools and add some "stuff" lol
/flex
/wiggle
/woot!

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## heathan666

drum roll plz......
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls of all ages, BEHOLD!!!! HEATHAN'S ACADEMY OF ACRANIC WONDERRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

First Floor
Second Floor
Third Floor

ps. I left the doors and a few moving objects because I will be adding them in Maptools. And I wasn't able to make the image bigger even though I changed the "image size" on photobucket :0(.

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## Steel General

Nice!

Looking forward to seeing more from you...

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## Ascension

And there was much rejoicing...."yay".  Nice job.

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## heathan666

Thank you thank you. Now I need to come up with a quick map of a field and burned out farm house...anyone got one??? If not I'll start workin' on it tonight lol.

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## Jkaen

Can't remember seeing any on here, so looks like you have your next map planned!

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## heathan666

Well I'm not sure where to start, sad thing is that the burned out farm house map is for the first encounter....hehehehehehehehe, but thankfully I found a zip file of png files that are burned out holes in roofs, so this should be easy enough. Just need to find an burned overlay for the grass and such.

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## torstan

Here's one of mine http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=2274

Probably the wrong season for you though, so I did a quick re-colour to make it a bit less wintry.

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## heathan666

well I actually made one today, however I was lazy and only did the outside and roof. But I'll post for it here on the forums.

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