Pixelation

Critique => Pixel Art => Topic started by: Tortoise on May 21, 2016, 07:16:57 am

Title: [C+C] Futuristic Cityscape
Post by: Tortoise on May 21, 2016, 07:16:57 am
I made this thing recently and I wanted to get some advice on it before I try and animate it, especially with making the background and making the buildings more interesting, thanks in advance.
(http://i.imgur.com/ouvHSDB.png)
Inspired by Half-Life and the look of the Dominion ships in Star Trek.

A smiley face for your troubles; :)
Title: Re: [C+C] Futuristic Cityscape
Post by: MysteryMeat on May 21, 2016, 07:10:04 pm
this is more for the animation part, but have aome of the ships facing the other way. gives it more of a busy back-and-forth feel.
Title: Re: [C+C] Futuristic Cityscape
Post by: wzl on May 22, 2016, 02:16:09 pm
This is pretty cool, but it lacks depth and could use some more.. visual explaining. some of these lights and doodads are there for no apparent reason other than "this is the future".
Also it is all very boxy and angular, yet flat, making it pretty..static or rigid.
I didnt do a full edit since its quite a big canvas, but i guess you can see my points.
I added a light source, gave the buildings more depth, tried to break up the very straight and monotonous windows and did some other things here and there.
Overall composition wise it is quite weak(something i didnt adress in the edit). all buildings have almost the same height, there is no real guidance for the eye, no eyecatcher, no focal point. this right now feels very much like "LOOK, CITY!". i'm sure you can work this out a bit more :)

I worked these out on stream, talking about it in some more detail, so you might wanna check that (although the first couple minutes got muted, thanks twitch)
City scapes are out of my comfortzone so i tried to make the best of it.

Twitch Vod (https://www.twitch.tv/megaweezl/v/67940793)

(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12237727/Art/wotp/Tortoise_cityscape.png)

Title: Re: [C+C] Futuristic Cityscape
Post by: MysteryMeat on May 22, 2016, 11:50:04 pm
oh man, color cohesion on that guy's rework is super good, I reccomend looking close at what he did there. Really reduced the eye-glare you get out of certain color schemes.
Title: Re: [C+C] Futuristic Cityscape
Post by: Tortoise on June 07, 2016, 10:43:10 am
Was away on a thing, but here's the thing;
(http://i.imgur.com/t1BTZ9l.png)
Title: Re: [C+C] Futuristic Cityscape
Post by: MysteryMeat on June 07, 2016, 12:05:35 pm
Looks kinda empty now, not sure if that works in it's favor.
Looks less like a city and more like a small town with a couple sky-scrapers in, like you see around michigan a lot.
Title: Re: [C+C] Futuristic Cityscape
Post by: heyguy on June 08, 2016, 09:11:13 am
I like your darker, more busier cityscape better. This has a more muted and foggy look to it. I feel like the lighter tones and the clouds sort of distract from the cityscape too. Are the longish horizontal pink lines on the buildings windows or lights? Because I'm not sure they'd look that same bright pink due to atmospheric perspective in the background buildings if windows. The bottom clouds look out of place to me too, especially the mid ground ones (unless this is a cloud city?), just my opinion though.

Also, on your original image, you had a tangent I found a little distracting. In the center, the building with the slanting pink windowed side and the building behind (slanting pink roof). They're positioned in a way where they seem to be sharing the same vertical pixel lines.
Title: Re: [C+C] Futuristic Cityscape
Post by: Tortoise on June 09, 2016, 12:05:48 pm
is this any better?
(http://i.imgur.com/gWmeYwj.png)
Title: Re: [C+C] Futuristic Cityscape
Post by: Double7 on June 09, 2016, 08:48:40 pm
Try adding some texture to the side of the buildings. Just a slightly darker color to make the image feel fuller and a little more crowded. As a city should feel  ;D

You could also try to add destruction to the city if it is being bombed (I assume that is what is happening at the moment), so some explosions to catch the viewers eye.

I really enjoy the piece though, the colors are very appealing and go together very well
Title: Re: [C+C] Futuristic Cityscape
Post by: Xer0bot on June 10, 2016, 05:02:02 am
I believe those are ships in the far and not bombs being dropped, read an article that talked about the ways viewers see things. If someone's seeing it as bombs then maybe make a change to that.. How ever I believe as OP said he wants to animate it later on which means that we'll be able to see that those are infact ships in the distance no doubt.

What I'd like to see is some of what wzi is showing, I remember the drive to work this morning, the sun was still under the horizon how ever the light was starting to show, or rather it could have been setting too, which left a lot of darkness how ever the atmosphere was lit up by a few shades. eventually going into blue.

I get the impression that it's foggy over there perhaps due to pollution..
Title: Re: [C+C] Futuristic Cityscape
Post by: wzl on June 10, 2016, 07:56:45 am
Nice to see you continue on this. I wanted to make an edit in the past days but i didnt get around to it yet, so lemme try to put my thoughts in words.
first off i noticed, even though you gave the buildings some perspective/depth they are incredibly narrow. buildings, hundreds of meters high, but only a few meters thick will not stand the test of time :P
i like how you changed the composition from a ton of buildings of similar height to something that leads the eye, but like others pointed out, it feels a tad empty now. One thing to remedy that could be more layers of buildings in the background fading out.
Another thing, since it feels kinda empty right now, you could add some towering silhouettes, buildings that will dwarf the ones in the foreground, make it more.. well.. mysterious, impressive, and a bunch of other adjectives probably.
Double7 mentioned bombs/destruction/explosions. i don't get the impression that this is what you're going for, but it tells that your viewers are not certain what actually you're going for. There is barely any story, all this tells us is, there's a big city covered in smog that is probably called panacea, if that's not the name of the building the sign sits on.
I'd still kinda like to address my points in form of an edit when i get around to it, since i feel i cannot accurately describe my thoughts on this without demonstrating what i mean :P
Keep at it!
Title: Re: [C+C] Futuristic Cityscape
Post by: Tortoise on June 13, 2016, 11:52:20 am
(http://i.imgur.com/ySOIfp0.png)
Not sure what to do with the billboard right now, but I made a few changes.
Title: Re: [C+C] Futuristic Cityscape
Post by: wzl on June 13, 2016, 10:24:28 pm
Here are two version with different moods. I hope i managed to get accross my previous points with these.
Be bold. make things happen, try to imagine what things would happen, have happened, or might happen in this place. Look at references for inspiration. bladerunner, deus ex, mirrors edge, random scifi concept art images. theres a lot more you can do with this! And most of all: dont be lazy  >:D

(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12237727/Art/wotp/Tortoise_cityscape4.png)
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12237727/Art/wotp/Tortoise_cityscape3.png)