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lonefox
Henchman
Joined: 12/29/2005
Posts: 36
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| Posted: 07/15/2006 at 9:33pm | IP Logged
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I've made a few maps now that included lots of photoshop shading. I thought they turned out better than just popping the map out of dundjinni. Here's how I did it.
First, the examples:
Skyway Garden
War Tower
Abandoned Barn
1. Create the map in Dundjinni (duh). When you're finished, export it as a raw bmp. Load the BMP in photoshop. Here's the map I'm using. It's quite simple and just an example.
First off, select the inside of the building using the marquee tool. I don't like to select the walls, but it's your choice.
Now, invert the selection and then hit copy and paste the copy onto a new layer. We're going to brighten up and make the copy glow, so that it appears to be sunny outside.
Under Image > Adjustments, select brightness/contrast. Adjust the levels so that it appears significantly brighter, but retains the color. I like +35/+45 for outside areas.
Now, it's pretty bright but it doesn't have that shine effect it should. That's the easy part. Use Filter> Blur> Gaussian Blur.
Change the opacity of the top layer to something that makes the image glow, but not so much that your eyes can't focus on details. It's all about experimentation.
Lock the top layer and select the original. Once again, select the inside of the building, but this time don't invert the selection. Copy and paste it onto its own layer.
Adjust the brightness and contrast again. I tend to use less harsh values when darkening an area.
Here's where it gets a bit complicated. I'm going to stop adding text to the pictures and typing it all onto this forum post. It turns out I'm lazy.
Unselect everything. Switch to a round marquee and then select round areas of the map where you have light sources such as candles and torches.
Apply a feather effect on the selection by going to Selection> Feather and choosing a value. It depends completely on how soft you want the light to be. I used 20.
Now, using the marquee tool, deselect parts of the circle that the light wouldn't effect, such as walls. You can do this by choosing the polygonal lasso tool, and then holding ALT while selecting areas that don't belong.
Once feathered, hit delete on your keyboard to erase the feathered selection from the current layer. Now, with the selection still active, switch to your original picture. Copy the selection and paste it on a layer ABOVE the building interior that we made in step 5.
Hit ctrl+b to bring up the color balance of the new layer. Alternatively, choose image> adjustments> color balance. Now, play with the colors until you get something that matches the light source.
OPTIONAL
Now comes an optional multitasked step, but one that doesn't take long. Duplicate the color balanced layer and place the duplicate on a layer above the original. Apply another gaussian blur and then adjust the opacity of the layer once again. It's basically a repeat of the steps you did before to add a 'shine' effect to the light.
OPTIONAL
Here's something I do sometimes when I feel like it. Hit ctrl+a to select the entire map and choose edit> copy merged. Paste the merged selection onto a layer above all others, apply a tiny gaussian blur and adjust the opacity. I love shiny, smooth maps.
And that's the basic setup. Of course, it can get much more complicated, like when you're doing a dusk map and the sun is setting or rising to the east or west. But that's a completely different tutorial, since it's a bit more complicated than layers and selections.
Also, there's alot of ways to do what I just showed, using brushes and other photoshop tools. I usually use a combonation, but I thought I'd keep this simple.
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Kepli
Djinni (Admin)
Joined: 01/04/2005
Location: Netherlands
Posts: 16801
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| Posted: 07/16/2006 at 12:53am | IP Logged
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Very nice Lonefox 
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benwax
Legend
Joined: 12/11/2004
Location: United States
Posts: 2406
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| Posted: 07/16/2006 at 5:57am | IP Logged
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Gulp.....Wow Lonefox. I've either got to start learning photoshop, or stop posting maps soon.
These are WAY cool!!! Love the effects. Somewhat intimidated by Photoshop but it looks like I'm going to need to "get over it," to stay up with the young turks like yourself.
Fabulous work, and thanks for the informative but painfully humbling tutorial!!!
Ben   
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lupha
Legend
Joined: 10/12/2005
Location: United States
Posts: 314
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| Posted: 07/16/2006 at 7:58am | IP Logged
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wow, great tutorial! Thanks!
I have a question, though. When I copy a section of map and then paste it, it makes a new layer, which is great. But how do I make sure that the section pastes in exactly the same place that it was? Sometimes it appears in its own layer, but shifted down and to the right a little. Do I need a special paste command, or hold downa key, or what? I'm using PS,CS2.
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forumLurker
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Joined: 03/31/2005
Location: United States
Posts: 3938
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| Posted: 07/16/2006 at 9:23am | IP Logged
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Excellent tutorial, Lonefox! Thanks for posting it.
~lurker~
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lonefox
Henchman
Joined: 12/29/2005
Posts: 36
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| Posted: 07/16/2006 at 1:13pm | IP Logged
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lupha wrote:
wow, great tutorial! Thanks!
I have a question, though. When I copy a section of map and then paste it, it makes a new layer, which is great. But how do I make sure that the section pastes in exactly the same place that it was? Sometimes it appears in its own layer, but shifted down and to the right a little. Do I need a special paste command, or hold downa key, or what? I'm using PS,CS2. |
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Make sure that you don't deselect when you paste. Photoshop pastes the copied selection into the center of the current selection, so if you leave the area selected and hit paste, it should copy onto the exact same area of the map. Tell me if that's what the problem was.
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lupha
Legend
Joined: 10/12/2005
Location: United States
Posts: 314
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| Posted: 07/16/2006 at 2:02pm | IP Logged
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Oooh!! cool, thanks! that was definitely it wow, that's been plaguing me for weeks. Glad to hear it's so simple. Thanks again for the Tutorial, really nice.
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Dundjinni Mapping Software - Forums : Questions
Topic: Using Photoshop to add shading.
