Tinting the map to look like a room is flooded?

I ran into a snag recreating Paizo's 2009 GameMastery Flip Map: Dungeon. There is some portions of the lower level that are flooded and I am not very skilled with visual effects in photoshop. What would you recommend for adding a flooded effect to my map?

Add a layer on top of it and add a slight blur or smudge and a mostly transparent blue to tint the areas under water maybe?

Oh you mean like in photoshop? I think I might be able to figure that out. Some of the elements of the map are not "baked" into the map like pillars, I guess I could add them into the map itself but I don't think I am allowed to extract assets from my library correct? I am using the pillar from the dungeon blank 2 set and one of the rooms has the pillars in there displacing the water. Hmmm, maybe just add some noise to the location they are in eh?

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you could make an invisible tile and upload it then place it in the room you want to use. You could then add aura to it in the color you want to represent the water. It would probably take some work with FoW and DL to have it be revealed only in that room if it doesn't fit the dimensions properly but it one way of doing it. Oh if you have a token already in place you could try that aura trick with it also.

Pat S. said: you could make an invisible tile and upload it then place it in the room you want to use. You could then add aura to it in the color you want to represent the water. It would probably take some work with FoW and DL to have it be revealed only in that room if it doesn't fit the dimensions properly but it one way of doing it. Oh if you have a token already in place you could try that aura trick with it also. I was thinking about this, but dismissed it because it tints the map layer and some of the elements on the map are actually above water. I am working in photoshop practicing the number games.

These elements are part of the map itself? Hmmm, you could use Kristin's suggestion and place a group of them about to cover the flooded area. It would be more trouble than it is worth since in gimp / photoshop you can build a base map then create a translucent layer over it with the specific areas cut out to allow the elements below to poke through. Is your map a group of tiles or one whole piece? If it is one piece that is easier to work with; otherwise you will have to rebuild the map in photoshop/gimp and then layer the color over it before removing parts of the color to allow the elements to poke out.

Actually no, they are not part of the map... the map is just blank and I cut out a lot of the map from the PDF. Looking at it, Kristin's solution would work the best, however, I am trying to add a bit of flare with ripples... not sure how to really do that, but that isn't really a roll20 thing. :(

Ok, there are a couple things you can do with this. There are some free texture out on the web that feature water ripples. You could get those and using them to in photoshop to simulate water. I took a rippling water and laid it down on it's own layer then changed it opacity to about 30%. I then took the fill tool and filled the layer with blue at about 25% opacity. After than I started select and cutting pieces out (see the top to statues). I then use the burn and smudge tools to soften the edges. There is a lot more that could be done but is this what you wanted to try to do?

Yes, actually. I would love to know how to make noise patterns like that in photoshop! All I know how to do is add a drop shadow to some text and use content aware...

I know nothing about photoshop but I tinker with gimp. Drop me a pm and we can discuss it more.

I'm happy that I could help you with your map. Good luck with the tinkering on it and I hope your players enjoy it.