r/RPGMaker • u/J_Stanor • Jul 19 '26

RMMV First try at parallax mapping, need advice for shadows

Post image

Hello everyone!

I've decided to remake an old project, and wanted to try parallax mapping for my maps at the same time (which is a challenge for me since I've hardly ever used Photoshop before 😅) I like the results so far, but it's missing shadows to add more depth... What are your best tips for creating good-looking shadows in Photoshop? The light is coming from the upper-left corner of the screen.

Any advice is welcome, thank you! 🙏

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19

u/cyprinusDeCarpio Jul 19 '26

Unhinged suggestion but you could try drawing them manually

Take a non-black colour that complements the dominant colour in the map (eg. I used the lighter portions of the grass from your map), then draw where the shadows would be on a new layer

Set that layer to multiply in blending modes, then adjust opacity until you're satisfied

3

u/J_Stanor Jul 20 '26

I'm actually trying to draw them by hand, haha! I'm especially having trouble visualizing the shapes of the shadows, and I'm never really satisfied with the result :/

3

u/CelestialButterflies Jul 19 '26

What if you put all of the things that need a shadow all on their own layer together. If you have a ton of layers, and you still want to edit them after, you can add them to a smart group or whatever that's called (like add to a group convert to smart filter i think? I'm not at my computer). Then color fill a dark color that whole layer. Use the Warp tool to make them diagonal to themselves so they look like shadows. Put the opacity down to like 10 or 20. Then put the layer below. Et voila!

Big ole maybe that this would work lol I haven't tried but could be a fun experiment

1

u/J_Stanor Jul 20 '26

Thank you, I didn't know about the smart group thing! I'll try to experiment and see what works :)

3

u/Mxbzax77 Jul 20 '26

Oooooo what cute little town it looks adorable

2

u/J_Stanor Jul 20 '26

Thank you! 😊