Update: incorporating the houses in the bump file is possible... But it's not something for the faint of heart. So many tweaks to do! I had to:
- reopen the terrain DEM file I created in Wilbur;
- create a separate layer named "houses" filled with a uniform grey value of #050505 (equivalent to 2%, assuming the houses are roughly 1/50th as high as the highest terrain peak in the image);
- apply the houses mask to that layer (a simple copy-paste from the other file);
- set the blending mode for that layer to "Add";
- then go to channels, copy the blue channel and rename the new channel "BUMP terrain + houses";
- create another layer called "BUMP houses" filled with a uniform grey value of #7F7F7F (equivalent to 50%);
- then go [Filter > Render > Lighting Effects] and apply the "BUMP terrain + houses" channel with a height of 10, which would turn the 50% grey layer into a new bump shaded layer.
- With that done, I set the Blending Mode of the "BUMP houses" layer to overlay;
- then I added an Gradient Map adjustment layer above the "houses" layer (and below the "BUMP houses" layer), applying my previously employed gradient map;
- but since this would render the houses in the same colour as the terrain of their elevation, I copied my "orange houses" layer from the other file and pasted it above the "houses" layer.
- I originally also moved the "roads" layer (with the speckled grey roads) right beneath the "orange houses" layer, but since my entire "land terrain" group had a mask removing the land terrain over the seas and rivers, my bridges became invisible so I ultimately moved the roads layer all the way to the top, masked out the "orange houses" (which was initially not necessary since the "roads" layer was below the "orange houses" layer).
Yeesh!
Oh, but I'm not finished. Because with all that done, I discovered that:
- the houses all appeared flat instead of sporting peaked roofs... so I re-added a faint Bevel & Emboss layer style to the "orange houses" layer (not very elegant but okay);
- my file had suddenly ballooned to an almost unmanageable size;
- tiny terrain features like gullies now appeared on the orange roofs. Elevated, but still very much there. Which meant I would have to blur the "BUMP terrain + houses" layer but only in the regions exactly covered by the footprints of the houses. Which would inevitably erase some of the interesting features around the edges. Aaarghh!!
It was ultimately this last issue that drove me to complete desparation. So I left it off the update below. Here's the result of all of the above steps:
In theory it should look better than the version from my previous post, at the very least the relative height difference between buildings and terrain should be closer to the mark... But considering the amount of tweaking involved I think I'll just fake it with layer effects instead from now on out. That would look something like this:
So. What do you guys think: which version looks best? And if you prefer the truly bumped version, do you think it's worth all the extra hassle?
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