Pixelation
Critique => Pixel Art => Topic started by: Badassbill on February 28, 2010, 08:05:00 pm
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I've been working on this on and off for a while now, and so far it has been fairly straight forward. That said, I've never really done anything like this, and would appreciate any tips or advice when progressing. I'm mostly hoping for critique on the composition of the piece rather than the pixeling. My main focus has been making sure the boat looks like it's being constricted, and not simply being held.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v410/badassbill123/giantsquid6.png)
Newest:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v410/badassbill123/giantsquid6-2.png)
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The colors suggest being deep underwater when really it's near the surface, so I would fix that. Other than that though the composition of the image is nice.
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If I were you, I'd consider adding a bit of blue into the palette.
I did a very quick, very rough color edit in photoshop, but I think it helps add a bit to the "mood" of being underwater.
(http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/kk211/ChoutetteMoutette/messyedit.png)
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I think you've done a fairly good job making the boat look crushed, I think a few stray shattered boards might help that, but the thing I'm really noticing is that the places where things break the surface of the water dont seem to be on the same plane. I think if you adjusted the ellipse where the largest tentacle is breaking the water it might help to fix that.
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Malor's edit addresses the biggest issues I had, namely the pallete needing some blues and the shadows being too warm. It'll also need some bubbles and debris, but such details can wait until the final stages.
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The main problem is you don't account for refraction of light.
For a certain angle which is reached at a very short distance (a few meters) light (from beneath) would undergo total reflection on the surface, and no light could come from outside.
You would not see the outside parts of tentacles nor the sun / moon, but what's below would be 100% reflected.
I couldn't find a suitable ref except the turtle photo down in this page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_internal_reflection).
No time now, but I might look again tomorrow. In the meantime, try to find underwater shots with visible sun, I think you'll understand the point.
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oh yes, I fully agree with Manu. There's no caustics occurring. I knew something was bugging me about this. Nice job so far. Love the closest, detailed-out tentacle, but shouldn't it be a little thicker to convey more accurate diminishing perspective? That next closest one has such different lighting, it seems far away, yet their thicknesses are so similar. That's the trouble with detailing one part of a rough image so much in the prelim phase, you run the danger of needing to back-track and change it. Of course, don't do anything that would jeopardize the feasibility of completing this image.
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I've made a rough update based on the advice (see first post).
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Hurm what if you added some water splashing effects into the mix? That was worded poorly but you get what I mean.
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The purple in the edit should have a bit more blue. Actually more blue overall would enhance the underwater feel.
And it feels as if the water isn't even there. The water should have substance; I would lower the highlights just a bit, have more mid tone and lower the darks even more.
The other thing I noticed is that the wood looks like it's being crushed, but the center tentacle doesn't look like it's crushing. I think inserting a few straight lines in it's outline at the right points would help that.
But so far, this is looking pretty sick.
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Another update. Forgot to say; thanks everyone.
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My critique is that it doesn't appear to be either underwater or out of it. If it was underwater (methinks) it would be a bubbly mess. If it was out of water, there would be lots of foam with all the movement generated by the kraken plus the waves.
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I think you could go a lot further with the crushing effect, and at the same time give the piece more visual impact with some 'action'.
Here's a little demo of what I mean:
(http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m93/Dustin99/Krakenforce.png)
The wood should probably be breaking outwards more, and the tentacle should probably be 'tighter', more constricting and forceful.
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I like this. I don't have much critique at this point, except at first I didn't recognize the large mass on the left, I thought it was the ground. Maybe make the eye bulge out a bit more so it's more recognizable.
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Yeah I think what Dr D said is what bothers me, it just looks like there is clean slice/cut through the boat.