60 - Before/After
Here are a few 'Before and After' pictures from my newest tile that give a little insight into how I do things in SC4 and Photoshop.
The first thing I did was Terra-form the waterfront and connect the roads and canal to the adjoining tile. At this point some of the marinas had already been placed but I temporarily took them because I needed to reassign them which is why they aren't in this picture.
After the main roads were set I selected and placed my non-functional landmarks.
This tile was actually being designed long before reddonquixote released Q1 or the Melbourne Star but I had already planned to have them in this tile the moment I laid eyes on them. I had no idea how big Q1 was going to be, thankfully it was released at the perfect time and I had the right spot for it.
I originally used the British Airways London Eye as a placeholder for the Melbourne Star and it looked great but it was totally different and the night lighting wasn't as spectacular.
When it came to zoning I started by choosing the locations of my principle functional landmarks, to eventually just determining a size and filling out the space.
As I go along i fill unused spaces with parks and parking lots. For this tile I went nuts using paeng's Streetside Diagonal Parking.
This is what my tile looked like right before pressing the play button:
Everything went fairly smoothly except I forgot to build one essential thing at the beginning which dragged down the safety and land value rating of my tile. It was a Fire House. I found that out after my hospital burned down. It was pretty hilarious.
There was also a sea to air airport I ended up getting rid of because it got dilapidated too quickly and didn't look nice.
Even though a lot of areas were zoned there is still a lot of plopping involved as I let the city grow. I have a ton of BATs and certain things grow like wildfire so I have to go in there and micromanage a little, especially when it comes to residential buildings.
The picture below is what my tile looks like at 100% completion.
Before Photoshop:
You can see that OlScare/Benoit's Marinas lack night lights and the water lacks texture and luminescence. Also, certain lit objects like trees and lamps don't seem to bounce light off of anything.
I tend to start with the water effect. To do that I use the picture of a nebula or a starry sky and I apply an Ocean Ripple effect on it.
Then I set the layer of the nebula to screen and I meticulously cut out all the objects it overlaps. Once that is complete I set the layer to 60-65% opacity and mess around with the levels to get the right amount of darkness and translucence.
The next thing I do is create my light layer by copying the image and putting it in the background. My light layer is just a super brightened layer that is extra yellow and orange to imitate that night light glow. Sometimes I make it a white or blue. It depends on the mood.
Then I go back to my main layer with a feathered eraser and poke holes where I think there should be more light.
I like to darken my image a bit and add more contrast with the levels. I also like to play with the color balance a little. I tend to add a bit more yellow and orange as well as tone down the blue to counter that Maxis Night just a little bit.
Finally I add the clouds in a new layer. They are just simple brushes I downloaded, no skill there.
I've also been adding little lens-flares to lamps here and there, but I didn't do that in this picture because there aren't any that needed it.
The key to lens flares is that they shouldn't be too in your face. Of course I've flouted that rule and gone J.J. Abrams many times, but I still find the best lens-flares are the ones that feel natural and don't draw too much attention to themselves.
After Photoshop:
Comments, suggestions, and questions are always appreciated. Thanks for visiting.
Schulmanator: You put me in the mood for a vacation for sure!!! Time to pack my bags!
Come on down Schulmanator. You'll get VIP service everywhere you go.
Ln X: Amazing pictures and a great night scene, the reflections from the water are really cool. My only slight complaint would be the photoshopped clouds.
The problem is they are too small, at these close zooms, and thus it gives the appearance of bands of cloud-shaped fog rolling in over the ground. I think the clouds should be bigger and the transition from white cloud to barely opaque should be greater. Because that is what it would look like from a distance high up in the sky.
Thanks for calling me out on those clouds. Sometimes you get so close to a project you can't see the flaws.
tankman: Wow what an amazing selection of pictures, your night images are probably some of the best.
Golly, thanks. Making that Maxis Night work for me.
TekindusT: OMG, perfection in 1080p!!
Oh yeah! It's Next-Gen! Thanks.
KonstantinII: For example, I find the facade or support of the Herald Sun tower looks a little old. Where did you get those new boat lots starting from 3rd picture? The link goes to CJ, not a download page. When describing the interior of buildings such as Q1 you should include real life pictures of the rooms like you did in Avalon Your Guide to the Bicentennial. Other than that I can say I enjoyed this update, especially how you used the banners 
Thanks for your suggestions. The boat lots are from OlScare/Benoits French Riviera CJ entry. I linked to that entry because you need to see the list of dependencies and gather them before you download the lots.
reddonquixote: This is wonderful work! As a BATer there's no greater compliment than having our work used in CJs so thank you so much for inviting me to come and look. I really like how you've done the water. (I actually really like the clouds too!) I'll try and visit more often
Thanks for visiting and thanks again for all your great work. Our CJs wouldn't be the same without it.
sarthakknight: holy biscuits with missile oh man 1080p its awesome im awestruck dude it was so clear !! 100 likes for it bro (if its possible)
Ah, if only you could give 1000 likes, then I'd be king of the world mwhahahahah. Thanks.
dabadon5: Wow built a better version of a city i was trying to build, nicely done 
Took me over a month to complete. Thanks.
Magneto: Very impressive! Thanks for the invite.
You're welcome, thanks again for your help.
Neto Dari: The contrast of light in darkness of the night was very beautiful. 
Glad you thought so too, thanks.
fan o SC4:Beautiful, stunning, these are understatements.
Thank you very much.
Hellken: One of your best works.
Now I'm blushing, thanks.
Huston: There are no words currently to describe how I feel about this update. :|
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious! Thanks.
Benedict: Great update - and you're back at number one on BTT - well done.
That took a while. I feel out of breath like I've just run a marathon. Thanks.
Terring: Great work
Hey Terring, thanks.
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