Making Maps with Photoshop and the Traffic View

[thundercrack83]

MAKING MAPS WITH PHOTOSHOP AND THE TRAFFIC VIEW
A Commonwealth of Marathon Tutorial

This tutorial will look at taking the traffic view from inside the game and utilizing it to make a map in Photoshop. It will also discuss assigning different networks of transportation such as highways, avenues, and roads, as well as tunnels.

A QUICK NOTE: The methods that I have used in this series of updates are methods that I have picked up over hours of trial and error using Photoshop. They very well may be incorrect, or there may be better or easier ways to achieve things of which I am unaware. If our Photoshop masters are out there looking, please do not hesitate to jump in with a tip, correction, or anything similar! This is as much as learning experience for me as it is for everyone else!

OK, we'll proceed!

The first step ensures that we're putting the highways, avenues, and roads in the correct spots! To do so—

We open up the traffic window in the game, then hitting [Ctrl]+[Shift]+S to bring up the camera, we adjust the size to get a picture of the tile in traffic view.

We follow this same method with each of the 18 tiles used for Marathon Island. Correction, 17 tiles, since one of them is completely covered with water!

After that is done, we open up Photoshop...

...and...

...crop out everything but the traffic view of tile itself.

That leaves us with...

...this!

Since I'm in idiot, I didn't realize that, when I snapped the photo in the game, I didn't have it facing the correct direction! Easy enough fix, though—just go to the Image menu, then select Rotate Canvas, followed by 180°, taking us...

...here.

Now, we Save for Web...

...either by finding the option in the File menu, or hitting [Alt]+[Ctrl]+[Shift]+S.

Again, we follow the same steps with each tile's traffic view snapshot, saving them each as .JPG files for later.

Now..

...we open a new project by hitting [Ctrl]+N, and choose dimensions accordingly. Each tile's cropped traffic view snapshot is 256 x 256 pixels. Therefore, since the is island is 3 tiles wide by 6 tiles long, the width needs to be a minimum of 256 px x 3, or 768 px, and the height needs to be a minimum of 256 px x 6, or 1536 px. But, just to be on the safe side, we'll go with 1000 x 1700. We can always crop it later!

Next we start opening up the 256 x 256 pix tiles.

We then hit [Ctrl]+A to Select All, followed by [Ctrl]+X to Cut.

Paste the tile—by hitting [Ctrl]+V—on the blank 1000 x 1700 canvas. Then move the tile to the upper left corner, making sure to hit that the Snap button is checked under the View Menu. This will ensure that tile is directly in the corner by "snapping" the tile to the canvas border. You can also toggle the Snap feature by hitting [Shift]+[Ctrl]+;, if you'd like. Once the tile is secured in the corner, I'd recommend removing the Snap feature, as it will make thigns a bit easier for future steps.

Once we've got the corner tile in place, we start opening the other tiles and begin lining them up as closely as possible to each other. Like...

...this, followed by...

...this, and finally...

...this!

So there's our complete map of traffic view tiles from the game! A quick note that the missing tile is the one that contains all water and, therefore, is not necessary for our current application.

For as much work as all of that was, it's done solely for the purpose of being a template, unfortunately.

Our next step is to...

...first, create a new layer, either by hitting [Shift]+[Ctrl]+N, or clicking the button in  Circle 1.

Next, we move to Circle 2 and select the Pencil Tool, alos found by hitting B. Circle 3 gives us our Brush Size, which selected as 4 px for this particular usage.

Using the Pencil Tool and zooming in to about 800% or so, we trace the outside of the entire island, as illustrated by the black line in the picture above.

IMPORTANT: Make sure that you are placing the black line on the correct layer! To do this, look at the Layer Window—shown on the right hand side in the above picture with "Layer 18" and "Layer 19." The layer that you are currently using is labeled in bold and is highlighted in grey. In the above picture, Layer 19 is the current layer being used.

Carefully tracing the outside edge of the island will give us...

...this result!

By toggling off the little "eye" button next to "Layer 18," we can see...

...our outline by itself.

The next step—create another new layer (Circle 1, or [Shift]+[Ctrl]+N). Now, select the Magic Wand Tool, signified by Circle 2, or by hitting W, and click inside the island, where the "land" portion would be. Then select the Paint Bucket Tool by hitting G, and paint the inside of the island.

Our next step is to start filling in the various levels of transportation that we have on the island at this juncture, starting with the highways.

Opening a new layer (making use of [Shift]+[Ctrl]+N) and labeling it "Highways," we start...

...tracing with our Pencil Tool (B). Since the avenues and the highways appear in the same color and the same thickness, you'll have to be aware of your transportation networks ahead of time, in order to ensure correct placement.

As the title of this series of updates suggests, there is a small level of tedium involved in creating this map, but some of it is alleviated by a great little tip of which I stumbled upon—click once with the Pencil Tool, drawing a single block over the highway. Then, scroll down, following the highway, as shown in the above picture. Now, hold [Shift] and click. If you maintained the correct trajectory, you should have straight line!

If you did not maintain the correct trajectory...

...you'll still get a line, just not the one you want!

Following this process, we place the highways.

They are shown above. Take note of the gaps shown in the highway work, as well be addressing them shortly.

Avenues, are next...

Again, same procedure—create a new layer, label it "Avenues," then start tracing with the Pencil Tool. Remember, Make sure you are tracing the correct transportation network according to your layer labels! You'll see why in a bit.

Now, we come upon our first obstacle, so to speak...

...the roundabouts. Not to worry, we just employ the Custom Shape Tool, either by hitting U, or clicking on the custom shape man circled in Circle 1. Then proceed to Circle 2, and choose the circle with a thick outline (shown above).

Hold [Shift] to maintain a perfect circle, and then place it to the correct size (also shown above).

With that taken care of, the avenues are...

...complete! Note that I've changed the color to brown, for no particular reason at all. I only point it out in case someone may be wondering if there was a reason for it.

Here's the avenue network by its lonesome.

Next, we'll do the smaller roads that flank the highways, as well as split off from avenues.

Same procedure, giving us...

...this!

Now remember those gaps I pointed out in the highways earlier? You probably figured out that they are for...

...our tunnels! A new layer for our Highway Tunnels, and...

...one for our avenue tunnels, as well!

Now we get to the purpose for all these layers, as well as the strict policy of making sure you are on the correct layer that you want to be on. Any good map distinguishes the different transportation networks using a color scheme. Now, I've used a color scheme to place them already, but those were arbitrary colors that I chose...well, arbitrarily.

We're going to give it that "map look," or at least attempt to!

So...

we'll start with the highways. To access the window shown above, either double-click on the layer you wish to adjust (in this case the "Highways" layer), or go to the Layer Menu and choose Layer Style, then Blending Options... to get there.

As shown above, Color Overlay is checked to give us a new color for the highway line itself. Then, Stroke is employed to get the outline—in this case, it is done by choosing the Inside option in the Position dropbox, as well as adjusting the thickness to 1 px. These settings can be adjusted to fit your needs.

We do the same thing with our Avenues and Roads...

...as well as the Highway and Avenue Tunnels. To line up the colors for the tunnels, just Right Click on the corresponding tunnel—"Highways" for highway tunnels, "Avenues" for avenue tunnels—and click Copy Layer Style. Then go to the tunnel layer, Right Click, and choose Paste Layer Style. The Color Overlay and Stroke will now match! I've also adjusted the Opacity of the tunnel layers to give it that semi-transparent "map tunnel look."

With all that said and done, we get...

...our finished product! With that, we can go things like...

...this, and...

...that!

I hope this helps you in making your own maps, and if you have any questions, please feel free to ask!