# Playing With Parchment



## HellHound (May 17, 2005)

I'm always looking for tricks and tools for making cool 'paper' for d20 products when working on layout and design...

The first three are parchments based on the same exterior design (not one of my best, but better than most of my work), with different 'enhancements' and stuff added in.

Comments are encouraged... I'll be posting more of my designs soon.


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## HellHound (May 17, 2005)

The third one, above, is by far my fave so far. I had fun doing the magic lines on the lower part of the parchment.


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## HellHound (May 17, 2005)

Here's one of my older ones - not all that good looking either, kind of embarrassing all things considered...


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## HellHound (May 17, 2005)

*just* finished this one.

Just needed the motivation of this thread I guess, to make a cool one.

VERY proud of how this turned out.


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## HellHound (May 17, 2005)

This is just the one above, but with a more ornate edging.


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## HellHound (May 18, 2005)

Final one in this set, same as above, but with text and...

(drumroll)

A cool wax seal that I just learned how to make in photoshop!


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## HellHound (May 18, 2005)

New design... I'm not happy with this one... the texture is a little too coarse in the full size version (which you can't see here), and the edges are too dark, making it feel 'fuzzy' instead of crisp like the last one.


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## XCorvis (May 18, 2005)

Wow, these are nice. Thanks!

I don't suppose you'd be interested in providing versions that don't have a copyright message across the middle?


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## HellHound (May 18, 2005)

XCorvis said:
			
		

> Wow, these are nice. Thanks!
> 
> I don't suppose you'd be interested in providing versions that don't have a copyright message across the middle?




At this point, not really. I'm almost certainly going to be using some of these in my own products over the next while. The trick, of course, for personal use is to take the image, and just copy the area of the paper *just* above the copyright text and paste it over the copyright block.

However, if someone *were* to do such a thing, they would have the common sense not to post these modifications on the web anywhere, just printing them out as needed for their own personal use.


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## HellHound (May 18, 2005)

As a footnote to that, however, I am willign to put something on the parchment if you need it for a game or prop or something. Just attach the image or text you want put on the parchment, and I'll do it like I did with one of Phineous Crow's maps in his latest thread.


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## HellHound (May 18, 2005)

today's effort went into sidebars.

the first set:


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## HellHound (May 18, 2005)

And another - with the colour burn effect on the circles instead of the overlay like I have on the first post in the thread - I think it looks WAY better.


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## Bill Muench (May 19, 2005)

That's some pretty sweet parchment. Mind giving a quick rundown on how you do the coloring? That's always my biggest problem.


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## HellHound (May 19, 2005)

The following is medium-difficulty photoshop work, so if you aren't too familiar with channels in photoshop, you'll have to polish up on them - I just learned how to use channels this last week.

I started with a flat #8C6239 colour layer.

Then I went into the Channels, and added a new channel where I used the [Render] > [Clouds] filter to produce the texture

Then I went back to the flat colour layer, used [Render] > [Lighting Effects], used Directional Lighting, 40 Intensity, Matte surface (-68), and a slightly positive ambience, using the new Clouds channel as the texture channel, with a height of 32 (fairly flat).

That produced a very 'orange' final colour, so I played with Hue & Saturation - changing the hue to more yellowish, and reducing saturation to produce the colour I want.

Then I trim the edges to produce the shape I want.

To get the coloration of the edges, use the colour burn tool.

To make the centre block pale and easy to read text on, block the area you want to use with the marquee selection tool, then [Selection] [Feather] 80 pixels or so. Then play with the Brightness & Contrast, increase brightness and decreasing contrast.


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## HellHound (May 19, 2005)

Today's OTHER lesson:

Save as you go.

While explaining the process, I created a new parchment, just before I did the edge colour burning... my system crashed.

Blah.


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## Bill Muench (May 19, 2005)

Yep, I'm pretty Photoshop savvy, so that shouldn't be a problem. Thanks for the tips!


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## HellHound (May 19, 2005)

So, following my own directions, above, I made the following one, which I'm calling the dragon parchment.

I'm not quite sure about the fold on the upper left corner, but the overall effect is very strong. I included too much noise in the masking channel, and had to smooth it out in the end because the noise wasn't visible at 25% magnification where I was working, but made the paper look sandy at 100% magnification.

In the end, this one is good, but not amazing. But I am learning a lot about colour burning in the process.


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## devilish (May 19, 2005)

Very nice work all in all!



			
				HellHound said:
			
		

> A cool wax seal that I just learned how to make in photoshop!




Care to share the secret?


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## HellHound (May 19, 2005)

devilish said:
			
		

> Very nice work all in all!




Thanks. I'm working on improving them because they are for commercial releases when all is said and done.



> _re: Wax Seal_
> Care to share the secret?




Actually, for this, I recommend you Google "photoshop wax seal" and find a tutorial, it's a nicely done tutorial.


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## devilish (May 19, 2005)

HellHound said:
			
		

> Thanks. I'm working on improving them because they are for commercial releases when all is said and done.




Thanks and (though it need not be said) please keep us posted when this goes commercial --this is something I'd love to throw cashish at.

-D


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## Ashy (May 20, 2005)

Great job (as usual), Hound!  Keep up the great work.


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## HellHound (May 20, 2005)

devilish said:
			
		

> Thanks and (though it need not be said) please keep us posted when this goes commercial --this is something I'd love to throw cashish at.
> 
> -D




Well, the individual parchments I have no -current- intention to release as a product of their own, I'm intending to use them as backgrounds for our other commerical d20 releases


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## carpedavid (May 20, 2005)

I love those sidebars. Very, very nice.


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## Kris (May 21, 2005)

Just repeating what everyone else has already said - Very cool looking parchments!

I had been messing around in photoshop a while back trying to do this kind of thing - though without much luck 

Anyway I just tried your quick tutorial above - and I love the results.

So I just wanna say thanks for sharing your secret - Cheers!

Now I'm off to make another map


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## Fargoth (May 21, 2005)

Very nice work HellHound!

I've fiddled with my own parchments. Here are three samples. I am sure my method is far different then yours. I use the old-fashioned ageing method on real paper and then scan the suckers into PSP to refine the base image.

These are unmodified samples. They produce some nice post-production images. Original files are of various sizes the smallest of which is easily 5MB.

http://www.truenorthcartography.com/gallery/parch1.jpg
http://www.truenorthcartography.com/gallery/parch2.jpg
http://www.truenorthcartography.com/gallery/parch3.jpg

Regards,
Paul


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## HellHound (May 23, 2005)

Very nice, Paul. 

I would reallylike permission to use your textures in the building of new parchments in my style.


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## Fargoth (May 23, 2005)

HellHound said:
			
		

> Very nice, Paul.
> 
> I would reallylike permission to use your textures in the building of new parchments in my style.




Be my guest HH. Permission granted. I just ask for similar permission to use anything you create from them.

Aren't the JPGs a tad small for you for full-page images? That is of course assuming that's what you intend to create. If you want larger versions let me know and I can email you a few links to the file locations.

Regards,
Paul


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## HellHound (May 24, 2005)

Well, with the inspiration provided by Fargoth, combined with the fact that my wife was too ill to game yesterday, the gelflings (my daughters) and I decided to try a craft, and we aged paper int he classic tea-bag style. 

Of the four sheets we did, two came out very well, and two less so.

But from them, I started making new parchment designs, and here is the first:


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## HellHound (May 24, 2005)

Ths sidebar uses about a quarter of the sheet that my youngest daughter did with the teabag method. 

She's all excited that she gets to have her work published again, even as background graphics.


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## Kid Charlemagne (May 24, 2005)

Something's been bugging me about the edging on some of your parchments - like the celtic rope design on this last one - and I think I've finally put my finger on it.  

I think the edging design needs to look as if it has been affected by the aging and tearing of the paper.  Perhaps a little burn around the lettering itself, as the (presumed) chemicals in the (supposed) ink would react to aging slighltly differently than the paper itself.  Also, perhaps a tiny bit of distortion at the places where the design hits the edge of the paper to give it a little more three dimensional feel.  Perhaps the design just seems a little too "photoshop perfect" and could use some noise/speckling/etc. to amke it seem a little distressed...

On the earlier ones, I didn't like the edges of the paper so much, but on these last two, they look really good.  There's just that one little thing, and I'm not sure I'm really putting my finger on it.


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## HellHound (May 24, 2005)

I agree. 

This last one I tried to do more to the edging - scruffing it up a bit, scratching it some, and fading it in places, but I agree it looks superimposed.

The real reason?

Because it is -too- perfectly straight. Problem with using knotwork fonts instead of taking the time to do my own knotwork (I'm really good at knotwork, but very slow at it).


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## Fargoth (May 28, 2005)

HellHound said:
			
		

> Well, with the inspiration provided by Fargoth, combined with the fact that my wife was too ill to game yesterday, the gelflings (my daughters) and I decided to try a craft, and we aged paper int he classic tea-bag style.
> 
> Of the four sheets we did, two came out very well, and two less so.
> 
> But from them, I started making new parchment designs, and here is the first:




Those used coffee grounds add the best touch. Don't remove them after the paper soaks in the solution. Blow the paper dry with a hair dryer and the coffee grounds will make things look even better. Some course fireplace ash or fine charcoal from the same fireplace can add to things as well.


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## Erywin (Jun 30, 2005)

I have been working with Photoshop for the past few days on some parchments, I was really inspired by the stuff posted here   Just a few questions.  How did you make the designs in the first three images posted?  In the Necromancer's Legacy pic, what font did you use for the text and how did you get the knotwork around the borders?  Thanks for the help in advance.  I really enjoy this kinda stuff, even was able to figure out how to make my own seal.  Can't wait to use this in the Campaign that I am running 

Cheers,
-E


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## HellHound (Jul 4, 2005)

The first ones use the technique explained later in the thread, with some variations in colour.

The font is (I think) Deutch Gothic.

I'm really good at drawing knotwork, but in this case it is from another font.


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## Marius Delphus (Jul 11, 2005)

HellHound said:
			
		

> I agree.
> 
> This last one I tried to do more to the edging - scruffing it up a bit, scratching it some, and fading it in places, but I agree it looks superimposed.
> 
> ...




Have you tried some of the Distort filters on the font borders? Set to very subtle distortion values of course. Or, if you are really ambitious, you could use those rendered Clouds as the Distort > Glass texture (I think you need to save textures as greyscale PSD, but my memory is hazy on that one).

Just a sudden thought from six+ weeks down the road.


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## SmokestackJones (Sep 11, 2005)

Hey HH,

Beautiful work.  I really admire well-done parchment.  I might try making my own with my copy of PSP 8.

Question, though: you ever do parchment that has the hand-ruled lines faintly overlaid on them, a la the 3.5 Core Books?  I've been looking for something like that to use as a background for my digital doodles.

*-SJ*


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## HalWhitewyrm (Sep 13, 2005)

Those are great, Hound. Let me tell you, you put out a clip-art set of these parchments, I'm all over it. And if you make one with hand-drawn knotwork, even more so! These would be great for my Bardic Lore line.


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## Greyskull (Dec 27, 2005)

I really liked the parchment you've done. And i thank you for the work you've done on the background for the E.N. Guilds line.

I've wanted to showcase the new background for the E.N. Guilds line. And if anyone has comments, you're welcome to express them. Though after seeing this thread I know about some changes I'd like to make for the next E.N. Guild, as this background is already incorporated in the Guild book about to be released.


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