3.4 The buildings shadow
This chapter develops basically the same process (a bit easier) as for the forest shadows.
Refer to the preceding chapter for more details.
Select the buildings on the selection
map.
Save selection to Untitled-1.
Rename new channel Buildings.
Go to Untilted-1. Duplicate the
channel Buildings. Rename the new one BuildingsShadow. Load channel
as selection and invert selection.
Use the displacement map from
chapter 1.2, or use one you created according to another sun position.
APPLY the Buildings
channel with invert.
LOAD BuildingsShadow
as a selection inside the ProjectShadow document. FILL SELECTION with black.
The shadow map is ready!
3.5 Merge the layers
At last, we are going to see the result of this long work. Its time to merge the texture
and the shadows.
There are many blending modes in Photoshop. I suggest using the multiply mode. As
the result of this blending mode is much darker than the separate layers, we must adjust the
colors. The pictures will be brightened before they are multiplied.
The aim is to keep as much as possible the fine terrain relief from the shadow map. Its
a deal : whether you have contrasted texturing, and the fine details of the relief are hidden,
or you make visible even the faintest reliefs shades, thus tuning down the textures
contrast. I suggest some numbers and curves here, which keep some nice relief, but you are free
to tweak until you find the best result. Create some adjustment layers linked to each picture
layer, so that you wont loose the original bitmaps.
Its always good to do some attempts on small areas, slice and see the results within Fly!,
note the changes to do and come back to Photoshop. Its now your eyes job to make
the right decisions and this is not easy. And sure some knowledge about color tweaking, color
curves and histograms would be very useful. But, if you dont feel comfortable with colour
tweaking, start with the suggested numbers.
Open the Project.tga
file. Adjust lightness and saturation. Some contrast is lost, but its needed for better
relief shading.
- Now we add the shadow layer : go to ProjectShadow, hold shift and drag the layer
on top of Project document.
The shadows usually have a faint
blue tint because the sky drops some blue light, which is not noticeable in the sunlight. Ask
the Impressionists about this point!
For this purpose, I made the following curves adjustment. This example needs some tweaking yet,
since the deep shadows tend to be too blue. Flatten the curves a little bit.
And the result :
Tune the level to make it much
lighter.
Now the long awaited moment, when the final picture is revealed!
Set blending mode of upper layer
to Multiply.
- Flatten image.
- Save it as Targa file (.tga)
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