Reply With QuoteThat's very good. It's worth pointing out to people that the lighting effects is on its own set of layers.
Because I tend to get preoccupied with irrelevant detail, a while back I tried to recreate the light and shadow effects that you see on the in-game maps, in order to have a similar effect on my own map (when I get around to drawing it!).
I figured some of you might want to do the same, so it's worth sharing. It's a Photoshop file, but I expect most image apps should be able to handle it. Feel free to use it in any way, with or without modification, no attribution required. And please mirror it if you think it's useful—I don't know how permanent Google Drive links tend to be.
Full template: Use this if you want complete control over the effect; but be aware that not all image editing apps will import the layer groups and masks correctly. Download from Google Drive.
Without layer groups: Use this if you only need to be able to adjust the opacity of each part of the effect, or if your image editor doesn't import the full template quite right. Download from Google Drive.
Simple template: Use this if you just want to use the effects as-is on your map. Just drop your map image in instead of the "put map here" layer, and you're done. Download from Google Drive.
Here's how it looks with a solid colour background:
And here's a before and after, showing how the map for my forthcoming mission looks when dropped into the simple template:
Last edited by vfig; 27th Oct 2018 at 16:57.
That's very good. It's worth pointing out to people that the lighting effects is on its own set of layers.
Well yeah, it'd be a bit useless without that! So thanks for pointing it outOriginally Posted by R Soul
I've also left in all the bare layers that I built it from, before applying blurs and such, so it's possible to tweak as much as you'd want to.
Nice ! Thank you vfig ! This one will be useful !
Turns out that some apps don't import the layer groups and masks quite as intended. For example, importing the psd into paint.net with its psd plugin shows up like this:
Super dramatic, but not quite what I had in mind! So I've made two simplified versions of the template (and will update the links in the first post): the first with each effect on its own layer, but without the layer groups and masks; and the second simplified one, with only two layers for the effects: one for shadowing, and one for light. These import into paint.net looking much more as intended:
Very nice, very nice indeed. Super helpful in "thinking ahead" with the layers thing. I like having customization options; the more the merrier.
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