Hybrid

Well, I tried doing it as some of the tutorials instructed with the cave/dungeon map, and the outside path map I just did my own way… So here they are, rate 'em:   Any C&C welcome!

Fustrated that all the sprites you try to rip have to be remodified because they use the pure black value 0,0,0 in hard to reach places? No fear, there's a simple way to shift it all over 1,1,1 or more in about 2 seconds… No matter what sprites or how many of these pixels there are... Simply go to Image > Adjustments > Selective Color Now press the drop down menu, and go to the bottom where it says Blacks.... click it, and then adjust the blacks scroller bar inside the blacks menu into the negative. Voila, every black pixel in your image has been shifted to be slightly lighter. -1 is enough to offset the black by 3,3,3 which is unnoticeable to the human eye even zoomed up. So you are now done, and don't have to worry about it being too light or not right, because it will look the same. **FOOTNOTE** : Make sure the background is NOT BLACK when you do this!!! Otherwise you will have to manually do the background back to 0,0,0… And that defeats the purpose of this work-around!

This map also shows the capabilities of having 2 mask/animation and 2 fringe/animation layers. While I don't think I had to use Fringe/Anim. #2, I used mask 1 and 2, and fringe 1.  Anyways, I've never seen anyone have something like a tree in a pond on an island inside of another pond, which had a river flowing into it.. So there it is. I'll explain the multiple layers here: Ground = basic water graphic Mask 1 = The water outside of the two ponds. Animation 1 = animation for moving water Mask 2 = The edges of the outer pond, this covers the animation of water + the ground water, thus you have nicely packed water with animation inside the outter pond, also the roots of the tree in the middle. Animation 2 = Nothing here Fringe 1 = Inner island Animation = none Fringe 2 = Rest of the tree. Voila, there you have it. Good use of more layering capability! O.K. Update, played around with it for about 5 or 10 minutes… Better or Worse?: 

I didn't even notice Eclipse was black/green 'till after I was thoroughly indulged in this… I wanted the GUI colors to match the background picture colors... Why I picked black/green. No intention of making a style based off the actual Eclipse game/forums.   What I have so far, Rate It!