Tips: Easy layer map

[gL33k 0]

First, you need photoshop. i don't know other graph software, the features needed is named "polarize"

you can transforme a picture with 16.7M color , to a 2 bit color picture. with a single click. then grab color code, and write it in island config file.

here are the shots,

Before

After

ps: this mont olympus 's not an heightmap . so the color doesnt correspond to height. but if you use your HM and polarize it , you will get a valid laer mask

[memphisbelle 99]

Hey, thanks for that information. I always was trying how to do this best....good job

[ArmaVidz 0]

Polarize, have to try that. Thanks.

[dmarkwick 261]

I'll add my own observations here

First off, Posterize not Polarize

Second, you need to have a monochrome image for it to work properly. It doesn't need to be B&W, it can be all green, all blue, whatever. With a monochrome image you will get the entire image reduced to 4 separate colours (shades), if you don't have a monochrome image each colour will be reduced to 4 shades.

Third, nice tip, very handy

[memphisbelle 99]

Can someone tell me please how to do this? I am using PS CS3.

[gL33k 0]

I'll add my own observations here

First off, Posterize not Polarize

Second, you need to have a monochrome image for it to work properly. It doesn't need to be B&W, it can be all green, all blue, whatever. With a monochrome image you will get the entire image reduced to 4 separate colours (shades), if you don't have a monochrome image each colour will be reduced to 4 shades.

Third, nice tip, very handy

posterize right .

about monochrome image, i didn't understand well your string.

you need more than 4 color to posterize to 4 color.

[dmarkwick 261]

about monochrome image, i didn't understand well your string.

you need more than 4 color to posterize to 4 color.

Well, if I use your fist image as an example: that's a monochrome image. Only one colour (if we call black a colour...), but there are many shades of that colour.

When you posterize it, it reduces it to 4 shades of black. If that image also had some green in it, it would have 4 shades of black and possibly 4 shades of green. I think

[paragraphic l 2]

Nice tip, although you don't need photoshop for this, almost any image processing software has the posterize option in it.

If yours doesn't have it, several websites even offer this service

What posterize does is just remove information from the image and leaves the most distinct info in it, which causes abrubt transitions and the lower the number the less 'information' stays in the image.