LUCHI-CHAN'S LIGHTING TUTORIAL.

How to achieve simple tints and light effects for your maps.



Hey everyone, Luchi here with another mapping-based tutorial. I think I got at least 5 requests asking how I do the lighting in my maps, so, I'm here to show you how to do all that. :)

I ask only a little of your patience and a few on-hand scripts to make the most of this tutorial. This tutorial, I promise you, will make your maps seem infinitely better once you get to understand the usage of tints and subtle lighting effects. Even a boring RTP map will look great after you are done reading this tut. ^^

You will need: apart from your map, obviously. I can't live without these 3 scripts.

- Woratana's Multiple Fogs script.
- Ccoa's Weather script ( I'm not sure if it avaliable for Ace, yet ),
and BulletXT's Lighting Script.

Tints for areas used: I use visual examples as well, so at least you know what it looks like.

The first 3 numbers stand for your Red, Green and Blue values. The last number is the amount of grey used.

TINTS:


Forests: -34, -51, -75, 34


Magical forest: -85, -51, -51, 17 Extra notes: Use Woratana's Multiple Fog Script, BulletXT's lighting script and Ccoa's Weather script for maximum effect. I'll add a mini tut at the bottom of this tutorial, under Extras, on how to achieve this effect.


Warm caves: -34, -51, -68, 85


Cool caves: -51, -34, -17, 68


Hot areas: 34, 0, -17, 0


Run down areas: -34, -17, -17, 85 Heh, Laine's old sprite. ^^
Portside towns: Same as above, with less grey.


Main towns: 0, -17, -34, 0 Old screen for an older ARUM project.


Sunset: 0, -34, -68, 34 You can get that sunset parallax from my resource thread. ^^


Nightfall: -102, -85, -34, 85


Warm interiors: -34, -34, -51, 0

Desolate interiors: Same as above, but the blue value is -68.


Bar/taverns: -68, -85, -102, 85 Extra note: Looks great with BulletXT's lighting script, with the TORCH setting.


Near Sepia: -34, -34, -68, 153, this setting still allows a little bit of the maps colour to show through.



Black and white: 0, 0, 0, 255


Cloudy/stormy weather: -85, -51, -34, 119 Extra Note: Looks great with AK47's realistic rain tutorial.

LIGHTING EFFECTS:

Now, many of you would have noticed the subtle light and shadow on most of the above maps. How did I do it, you ask. You willneed Woratana's Multiple Fog script for this little trick to work ( since VX and Ace don't come with Fogs, unfortunately ).
All I used was a simple cloud graphic ( I made my own, because RMXP's one is horrible ) and I'll show you how you can create your cloud graphics as well. All you need is any version of Photoshop ( version 7 or higher ). I'm using version 7. No images, unfortunately. ><

Step 1:

Open up a new document 256x256. Make sure your colours are set to the default black and white.

Step 2:

Go to Filter - Render - Clouds. Hit Ctrl-F twice.

Step 3:

Next, go to Image - Adjustments - Threshhold. A good value here would be between 95-100.

Step 4:

Go to Filter and add a Blur to soften the edges. Save it as a PNG after naming it, and put it in your Pictures folder. The 'Shade' graphic shown in some
of the below examples comes from RMXP.

You're done! ^^

EXTRAS:

This section deals with simple script calls and comments on how to get those gorgeous light effects:

Clouds: Adds light and shadow to your maps.



Just use a script call, and use the image to guide you. Of course, you will need a cloud image for this. This is only general settings. You can adjust it
as you wish. Play around with it.



Magical forest effect: This time I've added Ccoa's weather script to create those magical sparkles. Again, it's only general settings. Play around with them.

As for BulletXT's lighting script, well, the instructions are in the script. ;) My tip to you: Keep it subtle.

Well, that's all for now. C&C is appreciated, and if there is anything I left out, please inform me, I'll be happy to help you.

Until next time, this is Luchi signing out. ^^

Posts

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Great tutorial Yuna~ I'm not the best at lightings/fogs, so this is really useful! :D
Thanks Sana. I hope a few people can get a use of of this. :) Even if is pretty basic.
author=Sana
Great tutorial Yuna~ I'm not the best at lightings/fogs, so this is really useful! :D

I agree. Goodjob!

On a sidenote, I think Laine looks a bit too calm when she's DAMNING THOSE FIENDS TO HELL!
@Clareain: Thanks. :) As for Laine, a dark windowskin normally indicates her inner thoughts. So she really isn't saying anything out loud. ^^ Otherwise she would look pretty peeved.
If I use a lighting overlay, what should the normal opacity be so it doesn't look like the sun is literally on the planet? In other words, so that the light isn't too bright. I forgot who I got the overlay from, but I am using Mac tilesets, along with this overlay, if that helps. I don't have a picture of it. I also found that one of the settings should be "add" since sub turns the light black, and normal doesn't make it transparent at all. So yeah, if that helps you help me.
Oh my god this helps so much!! Even though I have XP instead of VX, I assume a lot of the things still apply. :D And the amount of details in your games! It's incredible! ^_^
Thank you so much Luchi for this tutorial. I don't like the forest leaves overlay in a lot of your maps (I think it adds unnecessary clutter), but the tints and lighting effects you use are beautiful. Thanks for helping me out with my mapping too. You're cool for doing this.
Luchi-chan,

Thanks for the tutorial. I was wondering what water and waterfall tiles are you using the the "cool caves" picture? The rest of it looks like Mack's tilesets, but his tileset does not have water like that. I ask because I am trying to put together a map currently, and having trouble getting a good looking waterfall.

Thanks!
would this be possible to be put into a demo
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