Photoshop Q: What + Shadow = This?

[Heretic86]

Goal:  In RMXP, the goal is to use the Shadow color in the image (standard shadow) as another Layer that will always keep anything under the Shadow shaded correctly, including the Tree, and the Player as they move around under it.  One of the things about RMXP that has bugged me to no end was that the Players head pops through and it looks like the shadow on the Player is half way cut off.



Do you see how the Player's hair is much lighter than it should be?  It isnt covered by shadow, which causes the issue.  The solution that occured to me was to edit the tileset and adjust that specific part of the tree to separate the shadow into a different layer entirely.  Shadowing is easy in Photoshop.  Color sample, new layer, fill where the shadow is supposed to be, and set its Layer opacity to 50%, then merge down.

The problem I am running into is that I have to use one full tile of shadow to cover up everything, including the tree, which makes the Trees colors not match the adjusted tile.  I suck at Photoshop.  Other point is I do NOT CARE what the tree has to look like for the END RESULT to perfectly match the original tile.  I figure it will be lighter version of the tree somehow, then cover it with a Shadow Tile, which makes it darker, but I cant figure out how to pull it off and make the colors match correctly...

Any suggestions?

[Vexus]

Don't forget to put higher priority on the shaded part if you want it to give a shadow even on the character's head.

[Heretic86]

I didnt forget about the priority.  Testing the Concept works fine, just cant get the colors to match up anywhere close.  That is where I am having the trouble.

[ForeverZer0]

I don't understand why simply changing the priority is not enough. I might just be missing something, though.

[Heretic86]

There are a couple of tiles that have both shadow and tree in them.  If the priority of those specific tiles were higher, the tree would appear on top of the player.  If that tile has a lower priority, then the shadow doesnt appear on top of the player, which has always looked strange to me.  Thus, separate the tile of the shadow and the tree completely so the shadow can be on top with a higher priority, and the tree section can have a lower priority, so the player appears on top of the tree.  End result would be shadow on top, then player totally covered by shadow, then the tree part of it.  Its kind of hard to explain, but does that make sense?

[ForeverZer0]

You could just rip the shadow from the tree graphic and use a separate sprite.
This wouldn't require any color blending at all, and would be a much simpler script.

[Heretic86]

Okay, I got something working.  I wasnt aiming at a scripting method either...



Left side of the tree is the original unedited version.  I did mess with the priorities of the shadow layer.  See how the top half of the cactus is lit up?  Thats the tile I couldnt set a higher priority on.  Had I just cut the shadow out as suggested, the line would still be there, just with a different shape.  The half of the tree on the right has a full shadow layer on top of it.  As you can see, it fully covers the cactus and puts it in shadow.  



In the above image, the tree on the left is the original, and the tree on the right is the color adjusted one.  It looks much brighter than it should, but when covered with the shadow tile below it, matches very closely.  Not perfect, but close enough for govt work.  It just always irked me to see a characters head pop out of the shadow under that tree when I had expected it to be in and stay in shadow.  So shadow gets a higher priority so it stacks on top of other tiles under it.  It does use an extra layer for the shadow, but I'll live with that.


Edit:  If anyone wants to use that image, feel free, but it needs some editing.  First off, the width of the image is twice the size of what you need, so crop the right half, and the shadow needs a bit of repositioning, but other than that, the colors are so close that they wont give you any difficulty.