I knew I had a sample of the photoshop ocean ripple plugin effect, one of my water filled caves affected to see what the plugin effect looks like:

http://www.castlewalls.us/samples/wcr.jpg 99k

I like that. I may have to play with it.

When I started playing with graphics I used Corel Photo-paint. My work switched to Photoshop and I had to relearn how to work with graphics in that.

Map comments:

my 2d...

reduce the drop shadow by about half the "distance" between the floor & walls (or center the DS so it appears all "around" the floor but still reduce the "distance").

fix the light direction shadows on some of the free standing cave floor rocks that have the wall torches nearby, maybe make a bit of the "lighted" side of the rocks have some yellow glow cast on them.

add some bevel/extrusion to the rock walls similar to what is on the floor near the river.

p.s. why the switch to photoshop?

p.p.s I don't think such a self-explanatory map needs a legend (but that's just my opinion).

p.p.p.s. make the water semi-transparent and put some "ground" under it with the faint "suggestion" of the entrance to an underwater cave or tunnel there..

Looks really good. About the only thing I noticed is that there is no legend. What are the yellow areas for?

Besides that looks great!

The yellow spots are urine stains caused by ettercaps and bugbears! *giggle*

What I would like to know is, what program are you using? Id *love* to make maps like the ones in Dragon. ^_^

Photoshop could be used to make a make like that, but I'm doubting that is what was used. I'd also like to know what was used.

I guess the numbers are linked to text descriptions - which of course makes the map more versatile than writing all over it.

The yellow patches are the extent of the light thrown by wall torches, of course.

I quite like it... but will be interested to hear the background thoughts such as how did this complex get made (natural erosion or someone dug it out)? Why? Who lives there now and what do they do when not eating or beating up on adventurers? Why did they make their home there? And yellow patches not withstanding, where is the restroom?

Awww.. and here I thought the yellow patches were evidence of life... maybe the river is used as a toilet?

Anyway.. ok, so you used PS to make the map. Did you find some flood fill patterns for the rocks and river, or did you make them yourself? What about the grid? I think the grid is easy enough to replicate though.

The dark/light rock and water are textures I found on the web.

The grid was created by taking a transparent 20x20 pixel square and drawing a line along the left hand side and the bottom. I saved that as a pattern and flood filled the image with it.

The rocks and torches I made myself.

Darn! And here I thought there was another corel user around. Photoshop has a nice "Ocean Ripple" plugin effect (under the filter/distort menu) to get that water look.

I offer my own humble cave (at the bottom of the page):
http://www.castlewalls.us/publishweb/pp2.html

As you can see, the similarities in style was what made me think it was done in draw.

It's a great map and certainly reminiscent of the Dungeon maps. You should answer all the queries already posted above - I'd like to second each question - and then you should post an overland map.

In fact, if you are interested in collaborating on a project, shoot me an email and maybe I can put you and your maps to work...

Cheers
Llowellen

I did use photoshop, but I think any software that allows layers could be used.

A legend, doh, I forgot to put on a legend. I will remember next time.

Megan is right, the yellow areas are supposed to be torches. I prefer numbers rather than text on the map, to me it looks a lot less cluttered.

Megan, as to the rest of your questions, I wish I could tell you I put that much thought into it but I didn't. I just tried to create an underground cave with several chambers, a river running through it, a few features (like rocks and torches), and a grid. I could come up with those items if you like. :)