New blog article and video: Day & Night
Monsen
Administrator 🖼️ 46 images Cartographer
I've posted a new blog article with accompanying video about how to set up effects in maps to easily switch between daytime and nighttime views.
Article
Video
What do you think about the audio quality in this video compared to the others? I decided to go with the camera mic (which is supposed to be reasonably good) instead of my headset mic. Saves me from having to wear a headset.
Article
Video
What do you think about the audio quality in this video compared to the others? I decided to go with the camera mic (which is supposed to be reasonably good) instead of my headset mic. Saves me from having to wear a headset.
Comments
Thank you very much.
Are you going to start collecting them in a sort of index like you did with the "Command of the Week" series?
Audio quality seemed fine; a few minor crackles now and then which might hint at a loose connection somewhere, but I know sometimes that's just how these things react. Certainly seemed a little clearer at the same volume level on my speakers than the earlier video tutorials, though the difference wasn't large, and I had no problem following any of them.
I've done next to nothing with lighting effects beyond the standard daylight directional shadows, so it's interesting to see more of how these things can be done.
I'd like to see something more on these, such as how to partly illuminate symbols (assuming such a thing is possible). For example, I wondered how the effects could be run to show light from an upstairs window while I was watching the video. So that you could get a "window cone" of light showing on the porch roofs, say, and maybe also the taller trees. I'm guessing you'd have to add "shadow masks" on separate sheets for things like the trees (to make it look like one side of the foliage is in darkness), and unilluminated parts of the roof, so this might be a bit too complex for a half-hour video though.
The lighting system isn't sophisticated enough to do multiple levels. The lights will always end up on the top of al entities that doesn't block them, so having windows from a second story window and ground floor wouldn't work, unless you chopped the house symbol up into individual parts and put them on individual sheets., but there is no way I can see that can be done with masking inside CC3+, that would basically require you to make new symbols.
Partially lit symbols is also difficult, you could draw something that blocks the light, like my walls do, but the difficulty is putting it such that it doesn't show, and blocking light is rather abrupt, It would be difficult to get a soft edge.
For the videos, I do try to make them a bit focused and avoid talking to much about additional stuff like you mention here. Generally, longer videos tend to loose most of the audience, and for those who watch the whole thing, too much information at once usually ends more in confusion than learning. While there are a few people that would enjoy the additional details, it's not good for most of the viewers. I'll keep advanced stuff for their own videos.
I'd thought there might be difficulties running the lights across symbols, but hadn't realised it would be quite so problematic. I'd guess it would be possible to do this using masks of varying shapes per symbol, but that would be a lot of extra work, and would almost certainly have to ignore the CC3+ lighting system entirely (it's more or less how some of the hill shading effects techniques work, after all, albeit usually only with terrain fill textures).
EDIT: Just seen Ari Gilder's latest city-building post on the PF blog, where he draws attention to this very problem nicely with his gatehouse-and-stone-surround symbol. A very narrow, but not-zero, width dark line along the lower and right edges of the gatehouse, and set on a sheet above the symbol with an appropriate wall shadow effect might have worked better there, but again, a lot of extra work for something you likely will never notice on the final map!