Thank you all for your kind comments!

Hi Arnie, the mushrooms were copied and pasted for looks sake only! By the way, have you succeeded in getting all the collectibles?
In one of my games, my chief keeps pointing out the same shell over and over again, and I've already completed the shell collection. I hope he soon goes to never-never land -ASP.

I LOVE your picture of the cloud-watcher!

I copied and pasted my screenshoots & some of LDW's original images into Photoshop. Then reduced all images to 50%, ending up with 100 plus layers or so. Then it's a matter of editing the layers so you don't notice any seams or discoloring. It's a long process and one of favorite pastimes!

100-plus layers? May I suggest merging some of those layers? For example, if the image is nothing but a composite of map images and the images in the image directory, you can merge everything in the medicine and alchemy huts into one frame; by selecting single objects, you can still edit them without fear of altering the other objects in the frame, and it'll be MUCH more manageable.

Thanks for your advise, but I did all of that. Most my editing is first saved in a .PSD format (Photoshop Document). It was only the large Village image that had 100 plus layers including masks, color spaces, transparency, text, alpha channels and so on. In order for me to add or subtract changes to any layers, I need them first and foremost saved in a .PSD format, which preserves all the layers. Once I am satisfied with the overall look, then I merge the layers and save it as a JPEG, GIF or whatever.

Sorry, I don't know what you mean by image directory!

The image directory being the VV3 image directory. I don't see how else you could start with 100-plus layers, unless you composited it from the images, rather than screenshots. And I have no idea why copying those images into photoshop would bring along all that baggage; most of the images I've worked with are just straight .png files with a few transparent areas, and no alpha channels; just the straight RGB set.

Either you're doing something other than what I'm thinking, or image files I haven't worked with are of a much more complex design.

On a random note, I'm a light-to-medium skilled photoshop user; meaning basically that I'm still working on learning more advanced techniques, but you should be able to talk to me and assume I know how it works 80% of the time. Anything I don't get, you can be sure I'll tear into the help files for; learning new tricks is always appreciated.

I didn't start off with 100 layers, I ended up with exactly 122. I used 15 .JPG MAP-images from the image directory to make up the main village map. Why, because they were all the exact same size, which was important because every image needed reducing 50% . Most of my .PNG screenshots are all different sizes and some I had to mask. The remaining layers are, huts, villagers, fruit, collectibles, etc...etc. You're right about the RGB set (adobe RGB 1998).

I'm just light skilled, trial and error photoshop user. Most of what I've learned is from podcasting or from online tutorials. I highly recommend the Russell Brown show. He has some great free add-ons and his podcasts are free.

When I had a PC, Paint Shop Pro was my big thing. Just looking at photoshop was intimidating enough. 3 years ago, I switched to a MAC and started playing around with it. I still don't know a 1/4 of its possibilities. I go full throttle anyway, if it works; fine, if not; then I've learned what NOT too do. I often forget how I went about doing what I did; if that makes sense! I have to repeat the same task over and over in order to retain it. My method may be a daunting task to others but it works for me! Oh, I never assume anything, and gladly give the benefit of doubt to anyone seeking it.

Two attached files, 10 more where they came from.

What works for me to learn a technique is to do a single project that requires its use heavily; for example, the painted statue mods that I made required 26 separate color adjustment layers in three different images. That's more than enough use and repetition that I should be able to remember it next time.

I had to take this one.

LOL "Leading a dance poorly"!! I never saw that!