Sci-Fi Desert landscape in need of some TLC

[SpacePirateCaine]

Hello everyone.

I'm working on expanding my horizons a bit and work on my background art, and hopefully also bolster my portfolio a bit that way as well. I haven't really done anything even remotely like this before, so I have a feeling I have a lot to learn. I started this landscape here, and got quite a ways in so far, but I've basically run into a bit of a brick wall with the foreground. I'm relatively happy with the background, but the sandy foreground leaves a lot to be desired. Would anyone be able to offer some advice on how to fix it up?


Original


Bandy

Newest (Not-so Bandy)

I'm really trying to avoid creating extra colors just for AA, though I shamefully admit that I've already created one, which is begging to be used somewhere else. I've already hit 10 colors, but the top of the large hulking technological behemoth in the background is also a bit jaggy (above the darker half of the sky), and basically everything on the sand as well needs some TLC.

Also, if anyone out there could take a look at the steps I'm taking, and tell me if I'm doing everything bass-ackwards, please let me know what I can do to streamline.



Update

X1: Alright, brief update to show what changes I've started making. I darkened the low tones using a nearly unused AA tone. Fixed some shading issues where shadows should have been pointing in the other direction (Left side of the image). Now that I've had some time to rest, I've also healed my laziness and am getting really down 'n dirty with the pixels - no more sloppy shading down below (I'm sure that statement won't hold water).

x2: Also added yet another tone, specifically for the purposes of Anti-aliasing at the top of the 'technological behemoth' in the background so that the top won't be quite so jaggy.

x3: Fixed some compositional issues, as the obelisks were tending to line up with that secondary tone in the sky, added some highlights and fixed some bad double-pixels. Tried to make the transition between the foreground and middle-ground a bit less abrupt. Desaturated a whole lot.

x4: I made a drastic alteration to the palette following some of the advice imparted to me by Progz from AGS forums, and also fixed a small issue with over-AA in a dune or two. Also, there was some gnarly banding going on around the sun (Thanks Helm!), that I took steps to rectify. I actually suck at identifying banding issues, so someone please let me know if I caught it.

x5: Alright, thanks to Buloght and EyeCraft, I've seen the light, and gotten over my fear of more direct transitions. Hopefully I've nipped the gnarly banding issues in the bud, but please let me know if I've missed anything or things are still problematic. I'm still learning.

[EyeCraft]

Hey.This is looking SWEET. Newest is definitely improvement over original. I think you need to bring a colour down nearer towards your darkest so you have something to work with AA-wise. Also to give more sense of aerial perspective you might want to lower the contrast of the dunes as they recede from the eye, or transition the nearer dunes' shadows into darkness similar to the nearest dunes. Even better, add a sandy haze in the distance. There's a bunch of banding going on throughout the dunes, I don't know if it can be destroyed with the colours you have, but I do think it can be reduced:



Little bitty on the top-left corresponds to bottom-left of your piece. Other bit is from bottom-right. But you might just want to try killing banding altogether by using sharper transitions between light and shadow line bottom-right of my edit.

I think you need to bring the palette into line some more, value-wise. I played around a little bit with it in my edit. Only 8 colours, there.

[buloght]

I saw your pic on pixeljoint, and wanted to mention the banding/blurry aa on your dunes and made a edit. EyeCraft already mentions it I see, but I'll post edit anyways.

[SpacePirateCaine]

Hey Buloght, and EyeCraft - Thank you very much - Actually, I've taken that to heart and I'm already working on fixing that and a few other banding issues in the picture. I'll be posting a new version here as soon as it's ready.

Edit: Alrighty - fixed that, hopefully. New version is up, as well as the second-newest for comparison.

[buloght]

Hey spc, that looks a lot better. However, you are stil banding along the edges somewhat, for example, in points 1 and 2. Try to brake that "staircase steps"-aa, it creates the unwanted look in the aa, the blurry-ness. I think there are some good examples of banding somewhere in another thread and how it looks (I cannot find it).

In point 1, don't aa 45 degree angles, it pretty much takes care of itself.

[Dr D]

I've seen some examples, but these cleared it up the most:

Jad's Example
Arachne's Example
Visual chart of Arachne's Example

[Ben2theEdge]

Quick-as-a-jiffy edit; the towers should be sillohuetted like the ground, unless they're made of a semitransparent material like crystal. And the lighlights should be angled directly at the sun.