[Award Winner] Structural Shadows in Photoshop

[paradox_wanderer]

You're right, I was a little unclear. You can see in the attached picture, that the shadows cast by the trees from the firepit are the same density. But there's a small triangle of darker shadow where the torchlight and the firelight both "miss" the area.

[LonewandererD]

Awesome, i was just looking around for something like this. Repped.

-D-

[Redrobes]

Yes very nice and repped from me too. Tho I concur with su-liam there's a point at which you can get a lot of this for free in a 3D app. You have to balance whether the shadows or making the 3D objects is more of a chore.

[paradox_wanderer]

What 3D app do you guys use?

[Gamerprinter]

Which software? Like our choice of mapping apps, it varies.

Redrobes primarily uses his own software that he developed/developes - see his Sig.

Many use Sketch up, because its Free software. Robbie the Admin (Arcana) uses 3D Studio Max, but then he uses it in his workplace as well. There are users of Vue, Vue d' Esprit, Caligari Truespace, and many other apps. Light and shadow is intrinsic to 3D software to help depict "3D", so yeah using a 3D app to build your terrain and map objects grants free applications of shadowing.

I use Nendo 1.0 as my 3D modeler - simple, fast, powerful/capable and cheap. Then I usually use my old Raydream Studio for rendering, though I have other more expensive 3D apps as well - Nichimen Mirai and Cinema 4D. Raydream isn't as good, as those two, but is easier to use - and having used it for ten years its a faster production flow for me.

Sometimes to create 3D plants - trees, ground cover, and aquatic flora, I use PD Particles a really cool and unique node-based painting application with all kinds of unique brushes (for leaves, conifer needles, grass, etc) object color tool to modify colors, and setting parameters to change how the nodes "flow" - its difficult to explain without using it, but when I need realistic looking plants, I use it quite a bit. Though in many ways, 3D apps are better, they are also more expensive, more complicated requiring more time to create objects, PD particles is fast and easy to use.

There are many options for 3D, so we all use what's comfortable to us, or what we can afford.

GP

[Midgardsormr]

I use Maya and am starting to learn Houdini, but both of those are outrageously expensive and targeted toward the film industry. I haven't yet applied Maya to mapping tasks, although I'm planning on building a modern cityscape in the near future for a short film, so I may just make a map as a part of that project.

I'm surprised GP didn't mention Blender3d, which is an open source package. It's quite powerful, although difficult to use. It's not so much harder to learn than Maya or 3ds Max, though, in my opinion. It's just a little less well-organized.