Call of Duty 4: Minimap Stock Like

Advanced tutorial using Adobe Photoshop to create Minimap Images just like in CoD4 stock maps.

Visual reference

• Download the Nvidia DDS Photoshop Plugin and install it
• Get a stock minimap out of an IWD (compass_map_mp_*.iwi)
• Convert it to DDS using iwi2dds or IWI_x_DDS
• Load it in Photoshop and have a look at the channels. RGB = color, Alpha = transparency.
• Use the stock minimap to look up and pick the Infinity Ward colors

Prepare your minimap image

• Load your minimap screenshot and crop it (if not already)
• Adjust the colors by turning saturation down

Outlines

• Use the shape tool to draw lines:
  Color: #bedfe7
  Thickness: 6 px

• You may turn on the arrow feature, width & length set to minimum and roundness all the way up
• When finished outlining, reduce the line shapes to a single layer (this will rasterize and merge them)
• Use the fill options to create the glow effect (outer glow, looks best if you use a custom gradient with slate blue - dark green - lightgreen)
• Add a drop shadow and adjust the parameters, suggestion:
  Angle: 129°
  Distance: 4 px
  Overfill: 16%
  Size: 6 px
  Contour: first curve in the second row (looks like a sinus growth)

Inaccessable areas

• You can use the Polygon-Lasso tool to create selections for inaccessable areas (like buildings)
• Fill it with a cyan-darkgreen (or any color and "overwrite" it later using an overlay color in the fill options)
• Turn the layer opacity down and go thru the blending modes to find a good looking one

(Non)playable area

• Use the Lasso tool to select the playable area. Smooth the selection and add feather (something like 10-20 px)
• click the vector mask button for a smooth transition from opaque (playable area) to transparent (non-playable area)
• Create a new layer underneath the feathered minimap and fill it with color: #4D4D4D

Alpha channel

• Go to the channels window, add new (Alpha 1)
• Fill it with color: #464646
• Create a gradient from #595959 (non-playable area) to #ACACAC (playable area) in the shape of the outer outline
• This is a bit tricky, but there are several ways to do this. Here are two recommendations:
  • You can create a lasso selection, then fill, contract, fill, contract etc.
  • or use the brush tool and paint with hardness set to 0% (smooth border)
• Hold [Ctrl] and click on the thumbnail of the outline layer to create a selection
• You might have to contract it by 1-2 px
• Go back to the channel window and select the alpha channel
• Fill the selection with white (#F9F9F9);
  you don't have to use the color bucket, but hit the delete key while having the background color set to white/the color you want

What it looks like

RGB View

ALPHA View

ALPHA+RGB View (transparency in 50% red)

Closer look at the cyan lines with green glow and black drop shadow

Picking the base line color

By CoDEmanX