Critique => Pixel Art => Topic started by: Seiseki on February 24, 2016, 09:00:16 am
Title: Planets, Stars, Space
Post by: Seiseki on February 24, 2016, 09:00:16 am
Thread dedicated to Ambivorous who really wanted to draw a planet too! :hehe:
(http://i.imgur.com/3kk2TbU.png)
So I'm drawing a bunch of planets and stars for a big space background.
Here I've added in all of the planets and stars in a small image, but I'm gonna focus on the big "pumpkin" planet.. I feel like I could imply the shape of the planet better with the messy looking landscape and clouds.. It all gets so random though, I just push pixels back and forth without gaining much clarity. Also the shading kinda got lost for a bit, it doesn't look very round..
The tiny blue planet I'm kinda happy with.. Green one, not so much.
And while this is mainly for planets, I also feel like I'm running out of shapes for stars.. So any help here would be much appreciated.
Title: Re: Planets, Stars, Space
Post by: Gil on February 24, 2016, 09:24:32 am
Hmm, I think you're indicating too much shadow on the valleys. At this distance from space, with shading like that, it looks like we're either looking at a football sized object, or that the valleys and mountains on that planet are millions of miles deep or high.
Title: Re: Planets, Stars, Space
Post by: Ambivorous on February 24, 2016, 11:10:49 am
I'm going to summarise some of the points that were raised in the slack critique channel.
With regards to realism:
As far as back highlights (the light coming from the other side of the lightsource that would slightly lighten the darkest part of the shadow) go - this is space, where such a thing does not exist. Rather it is so faint you would not see it. The dark side of anything in space is practically pitch black. The light from distant stars is not enough to light the shadow.
Then we get lighting around the circumference of the planet due to an atmospheric (which may or may not exist on this planet) refraction. This could be added, but the destruction of the planet leads us to believe there is no atmosphere. That said, the original shading was potentially to imply the existence of clouds, so an atmosphere might be present.
This brings us to the details on the planet. It has been argued that such details would not be visible, however images of various planets confirms that mountains and clouds would leave some texture to be rendered. In fact, the uneven surface of Pluto causes an effect that appears to be the same as the halo caused by atmosphere. What this is actually is light bouncing off the mountain faces on the edges of the planet. The scale of the texture does need to be reduced though.
This planet currently resembles a destroyed Mars.
It has also been raised that a planet of this size and given the lightsource being a central star (though far away), the cutoff from light to shadow will be quick, with only a little transition - going from very well lit to pure darkness quickly.
Enough of silly realism:
We can simply render the planet as a giant plastic ball with a black background to read as a planet. Rendering with a sharp cutoff of light and shadow does really help reading as a planet though.
You can ignore pretty much every rule in the first list about realism and still get away with something reading as a planet, so don't take them as gospel.
I look forward to making an edit when I get home. Since this thread was made solely for my whims after all.
Title: Re: Planets, Stars, Space
Post by: Seiseki on February 24, 2016, 11:37:18 am
All really good points :y: And yes I'm striving towards having an atmosphere, even if that might be unrealistic given it's destroyed state..
And I haven't decided yet, but I'll probably hint at the planets shape with some light stretching around the sides, just a little bit. The blue planet definitely does this to the extreme and needs a sharper cutoff.
Something I thought about too, the light source (the sun) can't be somewhere it can be seen in the background. Because I don't want to draw a static sun and I don't want to do some crazy stuff with pixelated lens flares and dynamically increasing the intensity of it. So I think it's best to imply that it's somewhere it cannot be seen.
Title: Re: Planets, Stars, Space
Post by: ErekT on February 24, 2016, 01:29:07 pm
The surface texturing makes it look a bit like there's this deep groove going around the planet like a band. I tried an edit to bring out the sphere shape more:
Title: Re: Planets, Stars, Space
Post by: Seiseki on February 24, 2016, 04:48:44 pm
Yeah, I started with some kind of jupiter-like layered approach, so the weird dark ring is a remnant of that. It looks better in your edit, but I'll also have to get rid of the gradual shading if I want to go for realism.
Another thing I've been thinking about is that realistically a destroyed planet like this would have a ring of debris around it.. So I might add something like that.. And I guess the destroyed bits wouldn't linger in the same place, but it looks cool. :-[
Title: Re: Planets, Stars, Space
Post by: Ambivorous on February 24, 2016, 06:34:25 pm
For my first edit I've gone with a plain, unrealistic planet with oversized features to get the general shape and idea down. Basically doing the opposite of every point in the realism list.
(http://i.imgur.com/8iQbE9R.gif)
I started by constructing a sphere in black space with the darkest colour outline and progressively smaller circles going towards the eventual specular. That was the basic, normally shaded plastic ball on a black background approach.
Then I started adding craters. Huge craters over a lot of the surface to get some light reflecting everywhere using the kind of method one would use to render most organic shapes on a larger supershape (as in, how you'd render leaves on a tree, or hair on a head). The result is a very cartoony feel, but I feel a very believable planet none the less.
I shall now commence adding more realism and different features and scale to the planet to see what works and be able to compare the lot.
Title: Re: Planets, Stars, Space
Post by: Gil on February 24, 2016, 07:55:14 pm
I like that already :)
Good job.
Title: Re: Planets, Stars, Space
Post by: Ambivorous on February 24, 2016, 08:20:26 pm
Thanks, Gil! Round 2:
(http://i.imgur.com/HyV9Eoj.gif)
I've really tried going for a much more realistic planet here. Placed next to the first one I made for that stark comparison.
This time I went with multiple kinds of surface features just to see what looks good and what's believable. I also changed the size of the planet (made it larger), so my features are smaller. Basically applied a bunch of rules from the realism list. I used a lot of colours here to try get a nice gradient, but I'm sure you could reduce them later.
Started with the same as the previous planet, but this time I did not leave my outline. Selected a bunch of extra colours to make my gradient smooth. Then I added a different colour (the slightly darker, redder, heart shaped spot) as a tribute to our one, true, celestial-cutey, Pluto, and because I really had no idea what to add. :crazy: Next were the dimples on the top right there, which I didn't think you'd find at many intervals. Could be slightly modified into craters as well. Attempted my hand at a mountain range in the bottom left. Pls dun luk its horid. :-[ Finally some cracks on the top left inspired by the soon to be breaking planet.
All said, I feel like this attempt is actually too realistic for your purposes though.
For the next attempt I'm thinking a mid-point between the two styles. I'll also add clouds and some atmosphere. No idea when I'll eventually get to actually breaking the planet, but this is very fun! Sadly though it is late and I must sleep, so more edits will be postponed until another night.
Title: Re: Planets, Stars, Space
Post by: Decroded on February 25, 2016, 07:50:51 am
ermagerd that one on the right is looking nice :-) it needs more work most obvious things are the cracks in the brightest area have too much darkness, should be much more subtle. the mountain ranges are more interesting than the cracks though they need to have colours more carefully balanced out also so its less harsh.
man I feel like having a go at this I wish I could get on computer >.<
Title: Re: Planets, Stars, Space
Post by: Ambivorous on February 26, 2016, 09:36:40 pm
Wanting to edit some edits now hey, Decroded? :P
(http://i.imgur.com/wkMnSvN.gif)
(http://i.imgur.com/XAEJOrz.gif)
Gas giant variant!
Mix of realism and stylisation. Colour count could easily be lowered. I've used saturated colours for that cartoony feel (could have just as easily used desaturated colours for extra realism). Could have done more with the texture.
Started this one the same way as my realistic approach, but with fewer colours. Shifted my hue a little towards yellow and then red to get some variation to my cloud. Layered the clouds equally and in order. Then added some thin lines of cloud. Added a tiny amount of texture to the clouds. Could have done a lot more and we have all these colours to use. Then I just brushed the rim with lighter colours to give that atmospheric refraction feeling. Also added a brighter specular. [Edit: Removed by suggestion of Wzl. Left original in spoiler tags for comparison.]
I think this planet is the correct balance of real and symbolism for what you're going for, Seiseki?
If I do make another edit I'll be partial cloud cover on a rocky planet I think (with some liquid maybe).
Title: Re: Planets, Stars, Space
Post by: Gil on February 26, 2016, 10:07:51 pm
To sell the idea of bands of clouds, I'm really missing the gestural quality of the eddies. Get some swirls up in dat.
Title: Re: Planets, Stars, Space
Post by: Ambivorous on February 26, 2016, 10:48:17 pm
*heavy sigh*
(http://i.imgur.com/MHIQf5O.gif)
Added some damn eddies... Make your own edit next time. >:(
Title: Re: Planets, Stars, Space
Post by: 0xDB on February 26, 2016, 11:11:34 pm
By the power of my local favorite beer, I feel obligated to inform innocent bystanders/readers of the fact that Ambi is not a grumpy old man and that we're having endless amounts of fun over this edit-war on slack. Peace out. Carry on.
Title: Re: Planets, Stars, Space
Post by: Ambivorous on February 27, 2016, 08:01:17 pm
Haha, thanks for looking out for my name. :P
Wes has actually asked me to make some planets for him, so to start with I made a rocky planet with partial cloud cover and liquid water!
(http://i.imgur.com/6kXorWX.gif)
Basically the same process as all the others really. Used the same style as the gas giant, but with continents and some cloud swirls (and a massive storm).
Making more planets for Wes and when I'm done with all of them I'll show them off. :y:
Title: Re: Planets, Stars, Space
Post by: ErekT on February 27, 2016, 08:07:24 pm
Oh that's lovely stuff! Wow.
... outline looks a little weird but hey.
Title: Re: Planets, Stars, Space
Post by: Gil on February 27, 2016, 10:10:52 pm
That looks gnarly bambi. I like it. Nice eddie.
Title: Re: Planets, Stars, Space
Post by: Ambivorous on February 28, 2016, 07:30:42 pm
Thanks guys! Here are all the planets I made for Wes:
(http://i.imgur.com/LU0eJrB.gif)
Same style and process, just a bunch of variations in details. Hope it helps, Seis, and thanks for the thread and giving me the opportunity to make planets! ^^
Title: Re: Planets, Stars, Space
Post by: Decroded on February 29, 2016, 01:27:03 pm
hot dang these are nice.
the green one seems like palette could use a little smoothing out.
Title: Re: Planets, Stars, Space
Post by: Mr_Hk_ on February 29, 2016, 02:08:45 pm
Those are nice planets ! But I feel like they could really use a small amount of AA.
Title: Re: Planets, Stars, Space
Post by: Chadtech on April 23, 2016, 08:50:20 pm
I added a haze around Ambivorouss gassy planet. Then I also played around with the surface details to try and look more stormy. What do you think? Im not really satisfied with either edit.
(http://i.imgur.com/9TPt3xC.png)
Title: Re: Planets, Stars, Space
Post by: Chadtech on April 24, 2016, 01:04:27 am
I added more features, and brightened and blue-shifted the shadows.
(http://i.imgur.com/bASj5FB.png)
Title: Re: Planets, Stars, Space
Post by: LeafyMystic on April 30, 2016, 06:33:07 pm
These are lovely! I really like the cloud cover, you've really given the planets personality.
Title: Re: Planets, Stars, Space
Post by: DawnBringer on April 30, 2016, 08:35:03 pm
Beware the banding!
Title: Re: Planets, Stars, Space
Post by: Skaz on April 30, 2016, 11:52:23 pm
Really love those planets. Might have to do something similar one of those days ;)