(Image Included) How to Make Shadow in GIMP for Maze

[Sharpe]

Greetings!

Hope this is the right forum to ask this. I'm new to GIMP and image editing in general, so, please be gentle with me. I posted this question on GIMPTalk too, but this forum is what turned me on to GIMP and seems to have the largest source of information on it that I've found so far.

Though I read a tutorial on shadows and searched this forum, I didn't find what I seek.

Here is a .GIF of part of my labyrinth game:



I made just the maze layer, white background layer, and two drop shadow layers visible and saved a copy as a .GIF so you all could see what I'm trying to accomplish.

The drop shadow layers look good, but I can't help but think there is a better way. Drop shadows are made to make the image look like it is floating above the background. I want a shadow to make the "walls" of the maze look like they are standing in three dimensions by hitting it with a light source from the north-west corner.

Is there a quick, easy way to do this, or is the drop shadow good enough? Don't get me wrong, I like the drop shadow and it's easy to use, but really, it's not technically right if you look very closely.

Or, maybe there is a way to adjust the drop shadow to get what I want?

Thanks for reading and thanks in advance for any helpful advice!

-Sharpe

[OldGuy]

If I understand you correctly, you essentially want to erase the portion of the drop shadow that is north and west of each wall, leaving just a shadow to the south and east of each wall.

Duplicate the walls layer, shift the entire layer one pixel north and west, and change the black walls to white. Place this below your original walls layer and above the drop shadow and white background. This will erase the first pixel width of shadow that you want to remove. Repeat this process to erase further and further out.

I think that should do what you want.

-Cheers

[Sharpe]

That's a good idea, and you're right, it will take care of the shadow on the "lit" side of the walls. But, there is an actual background image of grass. I just put the white background so it would be easier for the board to tell what I was talking about.

Also, if you look down toward the lower-right, you can better tell that it is, indeed, a drop shadow. Notice that a north-south wall's "shadow" continues over the east-west walls to the south. That's one of the biggest giveaways that it's a drop shadow and not just a shadow created by the wall blocking light.

Also, no matter how hard I tired to tinker with the drop shadow, it still leaves about 1 pixel of light on the "shaded" side.

Again, this is all nitpicking. It looks good, especially with the grass background and hex map and all the monsters and stuff. I just think there would be a function that could do what I'm looking to accomplish.

Thanks!

[Midgardsormr]

There are a couple of nice tutorials around here somewhere. I don't have the time to look for them, but Ascension posted one a long while back for Photoshop that should be easily adapted to the Gimp. If I recall correctly, it makes use of the directional blur filter on a copy of the wall. The technique might have been posted with his Oasis map.

[Jaxilon]

Well, I fiddled around and came up with this. If it's what you are looking for I will explain how I did it. There may be a better way but this wasn't too hard.

Start with just the black walls and do this:
1) Duplicate layer (Layer>Duplicate Layer) Note:You will be sitting on the duplicate layer ready to edit it.
2) Filters>Blue>Motion blur
2.5) For motion blur settings I used length=10, angle=225
3) Select by color and click the white background.
4) Select>Invert (this will result in all the blurred areas being selected)
5) fill the selection with a grey color (I used 808080)
6) Now Drag this layer beneath your starting layer
7) click on the starting layer and set it to Overlay

Like I said, there may be a easier faster way but this was the first thing that I thought of. If I come up with something better i will let ya know.

[Jaxilon]

Hehe, looks like I was at least on the right track

Mid typed that up while I was double checking my directions to make sure they worked.

[Sharpe]

That's exactly what I'm looking for if I can make the gray look like shadow. Maybe gaussian blur? I'm a GIMP newb.

Thanks a lot, man!

[Jaxilon]

Well, you could just leave the shadow layer as normal or Darken Only and place it as the top layer and then turn down the opacity until it looks the way you want it. If you do that I suggest you create the shadows on a transparent layer as it will work better that way.

[Sharpe]

Okay, I figured out how to get it to work.

Here's what I did:

Start with the black walls layer and:
1) Duplicate layer (Layer>Duplicate Layer) Note:You will be sitting on the duplicate layer ready to edit it.
2) Filters>Blue>Motion Blur
2.5) For motion blur settings I used length=10, angle=225
3) Select>By Color and click in the background;
4) Select>Invert (this will result in all the blurred areas being selected)
5) Fill the selection with black;
6) Filters>Blur>Gaussian Blur>
6.5) I used a horizontal and vertical blur of 70 just messing around;
7) Now Drag this layer beneath your walls layer.

The map so far (WIP):



Again, thanks Jax!!!

[Jaxilon]

Yep, looks like you got the hang of it now. The only thing that might be a problem is that your "S" on the secret doors is showing up in the shadows at times (ie: to the left of 032). Not sure if that makes a difference for your game or not but you might need to watch for that. And your are most welcome!