Conquer Club

Posted: **Sun Aug 21, 2011 12:19 pm**

How does this look?
Looking at the glow lines around the territs.
[bigimg]http://img200.imageshack.us/img200/1994/sdriftlarge.jpg[/bigimg]

Posted: **Sun Aug 21, 2011 12:51 pm**

That looks much better.

I'd maybe still lower the opacity by 5-10, but that's just a personal preference, and it's fine if you want to keep it as is.

[spoiler=lesson on layer modes]Layer modes are very powerful tools, you know. I highly recommend experimenting them every chance you get, and getting familiar with the various effects of the different layer modes. They're a very simple and efficient way to create lots of different effects.

See, if you simply do the glow with white and lower the opacity, the colours are mixed as a simple weighted average between the two colours - and this way of mixing is not always optimal... for example, if you have highly saturated colours, and you mix white with them 50% opacity on normal mode, the resulting colour will have 50% less saturation - since white colour has 0 saturation. Layer modes utilize different algorithms for mixing the colours, which can give you better results - for example, grain merge is very good if you want a consistent lighting effect that preserves the saturation and colour. Soft light is good as well, but it doesn't work as well on lighter colours.

You can read descriptions for all layer modes here.[/spoiler]

Posted: **Sun Aug 21, 2011 12:56 pm**

natty_dread wrote:That looks much better.

I'd maybe still lower the opacity by 5-10, but that's just a personal preference, and it's fine if you want to keep it as is.

[spoiler=lesson on layer modes]Layer modes are very powerful tools, you know. I highly recommend experimenting them every chance you get, and getting familiar with the various effects of the different layer modes. They're a very simple and efficient way to create lots of different effects.

See, if you simply do the glow with white and lower the opacity, the colours are mixed as a simple weighted average between the two colours - and this way of mixing is not always optimal... for example, if you have highly saturated colours, and you mix white with them 50% opacity on normal mode, the resulting colour will have 50% less saturation - since white colour has 0 saturation. Layer modes utilize different algorithms for mixing the colours, which can give you better results - for example, grain merge is very good if you want a consistent lighting effect that preserves the saturation and colour. Soft light is good as well, but it doesn't work as well on lighter colours.

You can read descriptions for all layer modes here.[/spoiler]

Will get the small one done the same. Thanks for the help. I started playing around with layer modes when you first mentioned them a long time ago. It is just hard as a new map maker to see what's is good and bad. This is why I said to cairnswk I have been doing lots of little steps and no huge updates till I was sure of what I was doing. Next map, I might just have some confidence in what I am trying to do.

Posted: **Sun Aug 21, 2011 1:18 pm**

I started playing around with layer modes when you first mentioned them a long time ago. It is just hard as a new map maker to see what's is good and bad.

Well, one thing that helps, at least in my experience, is grasping the concept of how the smallest parts of a graphical image function - pixels. It all starts from pixels. It's good to know some modern colour theory as well... Each pixel has 4 values - R, G, B and Alpha - and each value is between 0 and 255, as they are 8-bit integers. If all of the colour values are 255, the pixel is white, if they're all 0, the colour is black. RGB are the primary colours, CMY the secondary colours (perhaps you were taught in school that primary colours are Red, Yellow and Blue... this is incorrect and is based on ancient, 19th century thinking when people didn't yet know how light or the human eye works) and each 2 primary colours form a secondary colour. Etc...

The point is, it's good to study the underlying mechanisms of the pixels and colours, memorize the inner works of graphics... get a feeling for how the different values affect the colour, and how different colours play together. For example, how a given colour changes if you increase the green value by 16, or reduce the red value by 10, and so on. When you combine this knowledge with understanding of how the layer modes function, you'll get a very good feeling on using them, and manipulating the colours and textures of your image.

It helps to have a good eye for colour and some math skills... but a 90% is just stuff you can learn.

Posted: **Sun Aug 21, 2011 11:19 pm**

Latest Version [58]
[With 888's]
Large
[bigimg]http://img200.imageshack.us/img200/1994/sdriftlarge.jpg[/bigimg]
Small
[bigimg]http://img847.imageshack.us/img847/4817/sdriftsmall.jpg[/bigimg]
[Without 888's]
Large
[bigimg]http://img692.imageshack.us/img692/9973/sdriftlarget.jpg[/bigimg]
Small
[bigimg]http://img28.imageshack.us/img28/4817/sdriftsmall.jpg[/bigimg]

Glow on both.

Posted: **Mon Aug 22, 2011 5:49 am**

koonitz on the large version on njabula a tree looks out of place as it is to the right a bit much.

im liking the shadow effect on the icons its a nice touch

Posted: **Mon Aug 22, 2011 7:42 am**

Speaking of those shadows...

It looks like you've taken the shape of the soldier icons and simply rotated it to the right to get the shadow shape. Correct?

I think it might look better if you used the shear tool instead of rotate.

Posted: **Mon Aug 22, 2011 8:07 am**

Sniper08 wrote:koonitz on the large version on njabula a tree looks out of place as it is to the right a bit much.

im liking the shadow effect on the icons its a nice touch

Noticed the tree, will take it out or move it to the left.

Posted: **Mon Aug 22, 2011 8:08 am**

natty_dread wrote:Speaking of those shadows...

It looks like you've taken the shape of the soldier icons and simply rotated it to the right to get the shadow shape. Correct?

Correct

I think it might look better if you used the shear tool instead of rotate.

Will have a look at the sheer tool today.

Posted: **Mon Aug 22, 2011 9:36 am**

Latest Version [58A]
Large
[bigimg]http://img850.imageshack.us/img850/1994/sdriftlarge.jpg[/bigimg]
Small
[bigimg]http://img28.imageshack.us/img28/4817/sdriftsmall.jpg[/bigimg]

Fixed the tree.

Looked at the shear tool for the shadows and was not getting as good aresult. Will keep playing with it as this is going to be going on for a while. If I get it to work better than what I have then I will change. Till then, these will do for me.

Posted: **Mon Aug 22, 2011 10:19 am**

It's not hard...

Posted: **Mon Aug 22, 2011 11:41 am**

natty_dread wrote:It's not hard...

Very nice, what software is that done on?

Posted: **Mon Aug 22, 2011 11:43 am**

natty_dread wrote:It's not hard...

Never said it was hard, just wanted time to get it nice as I have never used that particular tool before. How does this look.
[bigimg]http://img51.imageshack.us/img51/1994/sdriftlarge.jpg[/bigimg]

Posted: **Mon Aug 22, 2011 11:44 am**

gimil wrote:
natty_dread wrote:It's not hard...

Very nice, what software is that done on?

GIMP.

Posted: **Mon Aug 22, 2011 11:47 am**

koontz1973 wrote:Never said it was hard, just wanted time to get it nice as I have never used that particular tool before. How does this look.

The others are good, but the chieftains seem to have less tilt. You should get them in the same angle as the others.

Posted: **Mon Aug 22, 2011 11:56 am**

Yeah, for some reason the chieftains did not turn out the same. They were the first and must of did something different.

Will redo and get the small one done tonight.

Posted: **Mon Aug 22, 2011 3:06 pm**

Latest Version [58B]
Large
[bigimg]http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/1994/sdriftlarge.jpg[/bigimg]
Small
[bigimg]http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/4817/sdriftsmall.jpg[/bigimg]
Thats both done now with the shear shadows.