Rainbow Falls - OSITM part 26-27

[Lilojame]

Hi! Since our good friend Joan (Jmouse) wrote :

]I've often wondered how to make reflections in the water but never took the time to figure it out.

I decided to do a quick and easy tutorial about the specific subject.
This is NOT the Update for the 6th day in OSITM, that shall follow later today.

As logic says, we first need to open Photoshop (btw. for this one I am using Adobe Photoshop 7.0) and a picture that we want to play with:

When that is done, we select Lasso Tool (the shortcut "L") :

You could also use the Magnetic Lasso Tool but sometimes , usualy when there are treetops covering a portion of water it is tricky to use that, I personaly prefer the regular laso.

With the Lasso Tool selected we then outline the portion of the picture that we want to manipulate all around so that it looks somewhat like this:

That was the trickiest and possible the hardest part. Now we go to Filter -> Disort and choose (a funny part) Glass:

A small window pops up, with a preview and sliders etc. meaning it is time to play :

The first thing to do in that window is changing the Texture from whatever is there to Frosted. Consider that a "must". After that you simply play with Distortion, Smoothness and Scaling sliders to achieve the look that you are searching for. Every time that you move one or another slider, the preview picture changes. After you are satisfied with the look you logicaly press OK and you are done:

If you wish, you can of-course go on and add some trees reflections to the water (or bridge, buildings etc...).

After using a Lasso Tool and selecting the area that you want to change you use the Eydroper tool and select the green color of the trees you want to reflect:

With that done, you switch to Brush Tool  (set the Opacity to around 36% (it is mostly the matter of taste) ) and paint some greens on the outlined surface:

The more precisely you do this better the effect. In this particular example I am not precise at all.

When you are satisfied with the coloring you simply go to Filter -> Disort and choose Glass and repeat the steps afterwards. The resoult should look somewhat like this:

I hope that you will find this easy enough and helpful.

Thank you very much for visiting and for all nice comments! I really appreciate it and will answer to them when I do the 6th Day in OSITM Update later today. Thank you!!!

[Jmouse]

Wow, how nice of you to create a tutorial for us, Karin! It's getting a bit late here (3 a.m. Saturday) to break out Photo Shop, but you can bet I'll try out your technique sometime over the weekend.

Thanks again - this is very exciting...
Joan

[bat]

Great work there on the newest update! Your pictures are looking fantastic! And the small tutorial is also nice...
btw, which adope photoshop version do you use for other things??

[Lilojame]

In todays update we shall see 2 random shots from Rainbow Falls first, then the story "There is something rotten in Rainbow Falls" shall continue and for the end you shall be able to read facts about Rainbow Falls Warfare.

So, I suggest we start with the random pictures. Remember that clicking on them will bring you to the not-edited version:

These are todays pictures. To those who like to see more of in-game pictures I need to say, that Rainbow Falls is not a pre-build region but it is build up as we go. Tomorrow is a very special day that I will spend with my kids and therefore the update on the Sunday wont be as big as I would wish but it shall still be there.

And now it is a story time:

All was peaceful in Rainbow Falls for about a month. Geeze went with her husband in his little kingdom of one single town, the Queen ruled over Rainbow Falls as she did before and no hint was given that she plans to give up on her position and thus make Golgothem a ruler of her kingdom.

Yet, Golgothem was not at peace tho and he demanded to meet the Cardinal in the utter darkness of nearby forest, far away from the eyes and ears of the peers. Cardinal, of course, came to meet the jung and freshly married king.[/b]

"Thee called upon me Sir?" said Cardinal whilst indicating a slight bow.
"Indeed I did..." began Golgothem.
"What troubles thee Sir?" Cardinal said softly, raising an eyebrow.
"What troubles me?!! Thee needs to ask?!!" Golgothems temper risen. "It seems to me that the old bat still clings to her crown! Thee promised the crown to me as soon as I marry Geeze!" he continued trying to whisper while the blood in his veins was boiling.
"I know, these things demand its time Sir..." calmly answered Cardinal although he was not so calm on the inside.

Cardinal was sure that all this would be over already and yet it was not.

"She needs time to decide. I shall..." tried Cardinal.
"NO, I SHALL!!!" yelled the King and stormed out of the forest.

The next day Golgothem visited the Queen at her Cort.

"What may be thy wish, Golgothem?" asked the Queen with official smile.
"The wish... Geeze told me that thee, my queen, would give the crown to my beloved wife when married and yet there is no crown to adorn the beautifulness of my wife..." he politely explained his visit.
"Ahh... so thee yearns for power... a distinct green in thy voice, dear Golgothem." said the queen.
"But..." he tried to argue.
"No buts! There is enough buts around here already..." the queen gave stick look to the few of the nobles standing in the corner. "Thee rules only one small town, Golgothem! How could I know that thee is capable of ruling Rainbow Falls? Thee shall prove thy worth before I give thee anything! Thee may go..." she said without mercy.

And so Golgothem ended his visit at the Queens Cort. Whilst leaving the castle Cardinal pulled him into secret chamber.

"And?" asked Cardinal for news.
"I need to expand," was Golgothem brief.

When Golgothem return back home he gathered his council in war room aNd said: "There shall be war!"

TO BE CONTINUED....

And for the end of todays update:

Rainbow Falls social system

Rainbow Falls social system is based on a hierarchy in which each individual have obligations of loyalty and service to those above him and require loyalty and service from those below him. Much of the service delivered by the nobles is military in nature, thus, the serf yield a portion of his crop and labor to his lord, receiving in return protection and government. The lord owe a military service to his overlord and overlord is obligated to come to his defense. And so it goes. right up t the Queen (or king), who dispenses justice and gives protection to all those beneath her whiles she is obligated to the gods to govern justly and chivalrously. Within this hierarchy there are essentially 3 major social orders, the clergy, the nobles and the commoners. Each of them serves a distinct function within society. The clergy is obligated to protect the moral tone of society and dispense the benefits of religion; the nobles provide for governing and protection of society, and the commons pay for it all with labor, gold and goods. [/b]

Rainbow Falls Warfare

Warfare is a way of life in Rainbow Falls. The nobility holds its power by virtue of its status as professional soldier. Many commoner soldiers are also professional, usually led by nobles and all who wish to maintain their safety and security has to be ready for a fight.

Organization:

Knights -
Rainbow Falls  knight is a well respected man OR woman who follows strict moral codes. They are usually mounted and armored soldiers in connection with nobility or royalty itself but regardless of that you may find also knights that come from lower classes. The costs of their armor, horses and weapons is a great one and therefor held in highest regard and treasured very dearly.

Heavy calvary-
Heavily armed calvary is armed mostly with lances and a varied assortment of hand weapons. They play a significant role in battles of the Rainbow Falls and means a difference between victory and defeat. In these ranks we usually find wealthy knight and noblemen who can afford the equipment. The thunderous charge can break the lines of most infantry formations as long as there are no special charms cast upon them or consisted of Gnolls which are hard to find.

Infantry-
Infantry forms the most numerous part of Rainbow Falls field army. Amongst them we can count spearmens, archers and other unmounted soldiers. In sieges infantry units serve as a garrison troops and archers, among other positions.

Mercenaries-
Are the groups of career soldiers who are paid at a set rate. They ten to be effective soldiers, especially in combination with standing forces but are also less reliable than the standing army.

Recruiting -
Every noble is obligated to respond to the call to battle with his own equipment, archers and infantry and therefore assigned to train those in the eras of peace. The more resources the noble has access to, the better his troops typically are.
Peasantry is obligated to serve a 60 days but with the introduction of scutage they are now also able to pay to escape the service and thus provide gold which is used for creation of permanent army or/and hieing  mercenaries.

The knights are drawn to battle by feudal and social obligation but also by the prospect of profit and advancement. The ones that preform well are likely to increase there landholdings and advance in social hierarchy. The prospect of significant income from pillage and ransoming prisoners is also important. For the mounted knight Rainbow Falls Warfare is a relatively low risk affair. Nobles avoid killing each other for several reasons. Many of them are related to each other, had fought alongside each other in one on or another occasion and some even are making their life by capturing and ransoming nobles in battle. Even the peasants who do not share the bonds of kinship and culture often avoid killing a nobleman since they value the high ransom that a live capture can bring and the horse, amour and equipment that cames with him. However this is no rule and it is quite common for the knights to suffer heavy casualties during particularly heartened battles.

I hope you liked todays update!

Hi Robin! Thank you! I am glad that you liked the update and the quantity of pictures. Hope to hear from you again!

Hi flyinbird93!Thank you! I am glad that you liked the night shots. Hope that you will stop by again!

Hi Jon! Thank you very much! I am glad that you liked the unedited pictures and Laketown. As for the slideshow, it shall wait for you, no worries there. I do hope that you will get your connection back soon tho... Looking forward to hear from you again!

Hi Arthur! Thank you! I am glad that you liked the city and the port. Well, since I don't have pre-build-up region is hard to supply much more city pictures as I already do.  But I shall try. Hope to hear from you again.

Hi projectadam! Thank you very much! I am glad that you liked the city since it took quite some time to build and wait until it grew. Hope to hear from you again!

Hi Dustin! Thank you very much! I am glad that you found time to stop here and that you liked the town. Hm, well, maybe I will put some houses up for sale in one of the next updates.  And by the way, you are doing great with Commonwealth of Marathon in this special time also!!! Hope to hear from you again!

Hi sincitybaby! Thank you very much! I am glad that you like the twin avenues and I do hope that you will stop by again!

Hi threestooges! Thank you very much for your kind comment! I am glad that you like the mixture seen in Laketown and I do hope that you will decide to come by again!

Hi Joan! Thank you very much for both comments! I am glad that you liked the story and the bride.  Thank you also for your nice words on the Laketown update! As for the editing pictures, I always look for simple solutions rather than the complicated ones so that I can spend more time actually playing the game or looking around in other gorgeous MDs here. And of course, you are welcome on the tutorial. Looking forward to hear from you again!

Hi bat! Thank you very much! I am glad that you liked the pictures. As for Photoshop version, as I said in the tutorial ( ) I use Adobe Photoshop 7.0. Hope to hear from you again!

Hi lurkers! Thank you very much for visiting Rainbow Falls. I do hope that you like what you see in here (Cant really know, right?) and well, if there is something you would like to be different don't be afraid to say so. Hope that you will visit again and maybe one day say hi.

Thank you all for visiting and commenting!

[Simpson]

Wow 
THis is perfect my friend, these last updates are really incredible and so réalistic
The highway is super and the nature looks fantastic
Super work my friend

[kimcar]

So sorry that i miss a couple of update . ( miss time ) Great work as always and thanks a lot for the photoshop tuto.  &aplsAlways nice to see your work my friend

[bat]

Wonderful new update there! Nice work on it, too!!

[Pat]

Hey Karin great last few updates here in Rainbow Falls, you are doing some wonderfull stuff my dear wow!!!

[sithlrd98]

Looks like I missed a few updates! First ,congrats on  your very deserved OSITM award! You have completely blown me away with all of your creativity with the slide shows , and eye for detail! I  , as I have said in the past , am in complete awe of your creativity as well as your photo manipulation skills (which you let us in on with the water tut...) and love how the story is going! Again , congrats on the award and look forward to more!

Jayson

[paroch]

Hi Karin,

Sorry I've not dropped by for a while - but I have been through each of the updates.

Of course, it is a BIG honour to have a town named after me and what a great town it is too - thank you.

I'm liking Laketown very much as well - it has a nice mix of houses, apartments and towers.  The water front setting is also really good.

The Rainbow Falls region view is really taking shape - that is very impressive.

The tutorial on PhotoShop reflections is EXCELLENT and I must now try some similar tricks!

The road pic is great, it reminds me of a motor racing track - I'm not so sure the layout is 100% logical for a highway, but hey it looks good 

All in all I've enjoyed your work of the last week and will try to pop in more regularly.

All the best

Paul
 

[flyinbird93]

great update for day 6!  looked awesome as always.  i really enjoyed your new tutoral too, ive known how to reflect the actual image in a reflection manor but it takes a lot of time.  this methode may be easier to use thanks

[bluesinjid]

Wow missed some updates and i gotta say brillaints pics again!  Great tutorial...too bad i dont have adobe... Do u think it will work on GIMP?

[Jmouse]

Karin, your updates appear faster than I can read them! The highway layout may not be entirely realistic, but neither is Rainbow Falls. There's a lot of artistic license at work here, and that's one of the things that makes it so charming and unique. I'm not quite as fond of the reddish-tinted photo, but it's a nice picture just the same.

Your story, which has amused and entertained from the very beginning, continues to weave a fairy-tale like thread through the MD that is rather humorous at times! You've chosen your "historical" photos well, although I'm not sure if they fit the story or the story fits them! Either way, the pictures of the royal family will remain in memory for a long time to come.

I've never seen SC4 presented in this way, but I like it very much.
Joan

[Lilojame]

Hi! Todays update shall be short 3 random pictures one since I had a family day and therefore no time to play the game or prepare anything bigger, but I am sure that you understand.

So lets check those 3 random pictures, and remember, that if you click on them you can see un-edited ones:

I hope you liked todays update, even if it was a short one. I will try to make a longer one tomorrow...

Hi Simpson! Thank you, my friend! I am glad that you liked these updates and I do hope to hear from you again!

Hi kimcar! Thank you very much and don´t worry about missing on few, it happend to all of us. I am glad that you liked them tho and that you liked the tutorial. Hope to hear from you again!

Hi bat! Thank you very much! And by the way, I really like the advent calendar pictures that you are posting. I hope to hear from you again!

Hi Pat! Thank you very much. I hope that your health is getting better and that you will stop by again.

Hi Jayson! Thank you very much for your kind words! I am glad that you like my work in here and definitely hope to hear from you again!

Hi Paul! No need to apoliage, as I often say, it happens to all of us. You are welcome on the Paroch Town! I am glad that you liked Laketown, I have to admit that it is probably one of my favorite cities that I ever build even if it is not exactly as I hope it would be. I am glad that you liked the tutorial and hey, give me a nudge when you try something similar! I agree, it is far from being logical but I just couldn't bring myself to draw a straight road down a really step hill, I am glad that you visually like it tho and I am of course glad that you liked the last week updates. Don´t worry if you miss some updates, I shall not hold it against you. Looking foward to hear from you again!

Hi flyinbird93! Thank you very much! I am glad that you liked day 6 update and the tutorial! I would say that sometimes the quick solutions are better but on other occasions the longer ones have its advantages yet it is a thine line between them. Hope to hear from you again!

Hi bluesinjid! Thank you very much! I am glad that you liked the pictures and the tutorial. I am not sure if it works with GIMP tho, but if I will find some extra time I will dl it and check it out and of course let you know. Hope to hear from you again!

Hi Joan! Thank you very much, my friend!  I wonder, you know, if I will manage to keep this tempo to the end of the month tho... but well, I will at least try. I agree on the highway layout and well, since RF are as you said not so realistic I have some space and on other hand, drawing the straight line down the very steep hill wouldn't be so interesting. But I have to say, that doing those curves down the hill was actually technically hard to do. I agree on your comment about the pictures in the last update also but on other hand, they are there more to add to the representation of the Warfare described there which is in majority the real life description of Medieval Europe Warfare with slight modifications of course. Thank you very much for your thoughts and I hope to hear many more from you!

Thank you very much all!

[bat]

That's another great update there, Karin! Great work on your city! And the pictures are fantastic!!

[metarvo]

It's been a little while, but I decided to stop by again, Karin.  Those pics are very nice.  They give me the impression of an older town square, like you might see in some small towns.  IRL, a lot of these "downtown" areas on Main St. are becoming abandoned, due to larger, more modern strip malls and office buildings being constructed away from the city center.  Still, it is good to see a town square that is still thriving.  Of course, the night shots look very nice, Karin, but it's the day shot that won me over this time.

[thundercrack83]

Wow, I keep missing such great stuff here at Rainbow Falls--I'm sorry about that, Karin!

The social system and warfare update was magnificent, and the latest batch of pictures is splendid, too!

Keep up the fine work here, Karin!

Dustin

[Pat]

Karin looking good here with this update and I love that first pic the most!!! My health well yea hmm... anyways I will be back for more though!!! 

[Jmouse]

Interesting layout, Karin. I've never seen a city square surrounded by water before. We're more likely to have streets around a square courthouse lawn - a setup I try to avoid at all cost! I like the daytime shot best, and I like the edited version better than the raw photo. Never thought I'd say that!

You continue to surprise and delight with your creativity, imagination and talent...
Joan

[flyinbird93]

great update, i know all about family delemas.  that second picture kind of reminds me of an old idea i had on a old city a long time ago.  maybe ill post it in the showcase some time.