Atmosphere with Dynamic Lighting?

Hi guys, I'm new to the Dynamic Lighting and have been trying it out today. It works great for walls etc. but when I try to make anything such as columns, it looks a little weird. Any tips on how to make certain things look better, such as better columns or pillars?

I draw x's through columns and pillars.

I use fog of war to fill pillars and columns

Which art tool are you using for columns? The best art tool for most dynamic lighting is polygon/line. Circles do not work as one might expect and freehand uses too much in the way of system resources. How I draw columns: 1) Using the art tool draw a circle on the object layer (the circle in the example is yellow). (This step is optional depending on map) 2) Switch to the dynamic lighting layer and switch to the polygon tool. 3) Increase Roll20 zoom to maximum. 4) Increase Alt+mousewheel zoom to maximum. (edited 6/25/14, alt+mousewheel is no longer a separate zoom function.) 5) Draw a polygon line in small steps over the top of your yellow circle. I used Cyan for this line (yellow+cyan turned into bright green). 6) Right click when halfway done. Repeat for the other half. (If you get too close to your start point it may auto-complete and that section will look odd. 7) Go back and delete the yellow circle on the object layer. Here is an example: If you wish you can put your start point inside the column, that way you can make it one drawing rather than two halves since it wont auto-complete. Here is an example of that: Final tip: If you do not like how a segment lined up hit Ctrl+Z to undo it. When drawing the above circles I probably hit Ctrl+Z about 5 times to undo segments that were not turning out. - Gauss

While Gauss is correct on the how, I'd personally advise using Xs anyhow, as Honeybadger said. Not just for ease of use, but also because this allows the party to see most of the column while still blocking light; a circle will mean the middle of the column gets cut out, and either the edge won't block enough or you'll just see the outline of a column, not an actual column.