AuthorTopic: GR#041 - Polluted Sky - Pixel Artwork  (Read 25685 times)

Offline leroy

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GR#041 - Polluted Sky - Pixel Artwork

on: February 18, 2011, 06:19:17 pm

24.2.2011 Posted  in PixelJoint
http://www.pixeljoint.com/pixelart/59862.htm?sec=date



..by finally managing some pixel-art worth posting.

v1


v2


v3                                                                             Maybe take it to this direction?                                     Or this?


I'm not sure where to go with this, or have it finished by refining.

Also ordered a cheap wacom tablet earlier this week, it will be nice to get back and let out my feelins' on a canvas
« Last Edit: February 25, 2011, 11:55:26 am by leroy »

Offline Âme

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Re: After a year I relieved myself.. ';..;'

Reply #1 on: February 18, 2011, 10:32:52 pm
I like the black one and the one with green smog the best but I think you should make the smog look like the look like its coming from the city not just one building. If its coming from a factory make that building look like one. Also the water is too flat. I dont think the horizon should be a perfect line. ;D Good luck!

Offline leroy

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Re: After a year I relieved myself.. ';..;'

Reply #2 on: February 19, 2011, 10:32:29 am
How does that look?
 I took out the greys as well.                                          Another color edit, looks more industrial.                                  And another, I kind of like this
« Last Edit: February 19, 2011, 10:59:16 am by leroy »

Offline leroy

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Re: After a year I relieved myself.. ';..;'

Reply #3 on: February 20, 2011, 10:24:10 am


Waves are hard so I tried simple. Really simple.

Offline Cure

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Re: After a year I relieved myself.. ';..;'

Reply #4 on: February 20, 2011, 06:02:07 pm
with all that room up top, you lose the city and skull, it feels like a detail pushed away to the corner rather than the focus of the piece, which is now chiefly the empty sky and pattern up top. I think having a taller ocean helped.

the colors seem kinda... healthy, for a smog cloud.

try putting longer troughs between the crests of your waves, I think they should sprawl out a bit more.

Offline Âme

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Re: After a year I relieved myself.. ';..;'

Reply #5 on: February 20, 2011, 07:04:25 pm
I didn't even notice that the skull was there at first! Of course now that Cure mentioned it its obvious but I recommend somehow defineing it better. Also as Cure said the colors are too....... natural, healthy and almost... happy. The green looks best against the greyish green backround and also makes the smog and skull the focus. The blue just dosnt work with it though. Mabey if you made it duller and used it for the water? Anyway good luck.

Offline leroy

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Re: After a year I relieved myself.. ';..;'

Reply #6 on: February 20, 2011, 07:44:27 pm
Thanks! Scrapped the water again and tried something radical

Offline Mathias

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Re: After a year I relieved myself.. ';..;'

Reply #7 on: February 21, 2011, 03:09:01 am
Good grief, that bit at the top is severely distracting. Completely dissonant, critically undermining your composition. I stare at it in amazement.

Why the shortened building reflections? Should be mirrored I'd think.

Offline leroy

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Re: After a year I relieved myself.. ';..;'

Reply #8 on: February 21, 2011, 09:47:41 am

Offline heyy13

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Re: After a year I relieved myself.. ';..;'

Reply #9 on: February 21, 2011, 01:30:19 pm
Of all of them i like these the best. The last few edits feel like steps back. I do think extending the canvas vertically could improve it but there's an elegance to the earlier versions that isn't present in the most recent.


Offline leroy

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Re: After a year I relieved myself.. ';..;'

Reply #10 on: February 21, 2011, 01:34:09 pm
Heeeyy worked on the clouds and heavily imitated Panda's piece http://www.pixeljoint.com/pixelart/39681.htm. Hope you like this the best now.  :P

EDIT: Little work on the skull to less cartoony



EDIT: AA'ed the shit out of it



Currently sitting at 19 colors and I'm sure there are some unnecessary ones.
« Last Edit: February 21, 2011, 02:46:02 pm by leroy »

Offline Stefano

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Re: After a year I relieved myself.. ';..;'

Reply #11 on: February 21, 2011, 02:43:25 pm
This water and clouds suits the rest of the image a lot better, IMO. Very nice progress!!  :y:

I still think it looks a tad too cartooney, though! It's not a bad thing at all if you were aiming for a cuter kind of look.
But I believe you're trying to convey actual death and menace, maybe related to the toxicity (metaphoric or not) of cities.

Maybe the skull needs to be less expressive and fleshy? I did a quick edit to illustrate:

Offline leroy

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Re: After a year I relieved myself.. ';..;'

Reply #12 on: February 21, 2011, 02:47:19 pm
That looks pretty nice Stefano, I'll find some references and work on it some more.  ;)

Offline leroy

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Re: After a year I relieved myself.. ';..;'

Reply #13 on: February 21, 2011, 03:19:05 pm
Too much? Just dithered the mouth area as I couldn't get it to look good any other way.

« Last Edit: February 21, 2011, 03:22:30 pm by leroy »

Offline pistachio

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Re: After a year I relieved myself.. ';..;'

Reply #14 on: February 21, 2011, 05:06:04 pm


Currently sitting at 19 colors and I'm sure there are some unnecessary ones.

So far I'm really liking this one out of the bunch, and how it maintains that "fluid" feel that makes it blend into the smokestack formation the most. But you can still see it's a bit WIP.

Offline leroy

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Re: After a year I relieved myself.. ';..;'

Reply #15 on: February 21, 2011, 06:17:26 pm
Therewego

Now with extra blend
« Last Edit: February 21, 2011, 06:35:39 pm by leroy »

Offline Martyr

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Re: After a year I relieved myself.. ';..;'

Reply #16 on: February 21, 2011, 06:43:02 pm
To be honest I liked the version without dithering more. It's consistent with the non-dithered clouds, buildings and smoke, stands out too much now.

Offline leroy

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Re: After a year I relieved myself.. ';..;'

Reply #17 on: February 21, 2011, 07:12:50 pm
Well.. I can't please everyone. But I can try  :D

Offline Wenruto

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Re: After a year I relieved myself.. ';..;'

Reply #18 on: February 21, 2011, 07:38:48 pm
I like the New version better with clouds and the water Great improvement  :y:
  dont really see the need for so many airplanes with trails in the sky i like the bottom one better it would be cool it theres one passing with a message in its tail or something
the face was way better without the ditherings
keep it up man i like it  ;D

Offline pistachio

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Re: After a year I relieved myself.. ';..;'

Reply #19 on: February 21, 2011, 08:27:48 pm
Well.. I can't please everyone. But I can try  :D

[snip]

Actually I think I have a new favorite. Keep it up!

Offline leroy

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Re: After a year I relieved myself.. ';..;'

Reply #20 on: February 21, 2011, 08:38:42 pm
I like the New version better with clouds and the water Great improvement  :y:
  dont really see the need for so many airplanes with trails in the sky i like the bottom one better it would be cool it theres one passing with a message in its tail or something
the face was way better without the ditherings
keep it up man i like it  ;D

Actually I think I have a new favorite. Keep it up!


Thanks! Wenruto I think it's called skywriting and that's a pretty cool idea. I'll work on it tomorrow.  :)

Offline michelcote

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Re: After a year I relieved myself.. ';..;'

Reply #21 on: February 21, 2011, 09:40:33 pm
Seeing your progress on this piece is very inspirational, though I think you might be exhausting yourself (basing this on the amount of individual changes you've made). I'd personally move on to something new at this point, it looks great and I'm sure you've learned quite a bit from it!  :)

Offline Konrad

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Re: After a year I relieved myself.. ';..;'

Reply #22 on: February 21, 2011, 10:34:42 pm
I like your last edit. Skull is looking much better than in your initial post. I prefer a wide-open jaw though to make it look like it's breating (out) the smog. But that's just personal taste.

Offline Gamer36

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Re: After a year I relieved myself.. ';..;'

Reply #23 on: February 22, 2011, 09:29:15 am
The third skull was the best, yeah it looks a bit cartoony but the current skull doesn't look like a cloud-like formation. The water looks great so far and so do the clouds. Since the things in the sky are supposed to be "sky writers" then you should make the write like a title for the piece.
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Offline leroy

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Re: After a year I relieved myself.. ';..;'

Reply #24 on: February 22, 2011, 01:02:09 pm
Arg pixeling skywriting is hard.

Done?



Also progress animation http://i.imgur.com/SRUmm.gif
« Last Edit: February 22, 2011, 01:14:39 pm by leroy »

Offline Elk

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Re: After a year I relieved myself.. ';..;'

Reply #25 on: February 22, 2011, 01:34:38 pm
I think you should make the water a little darker
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Offline leroy

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Re: After a year I relieved myself.. ';..;'

Reply #26 on: February 22, 2011, 01:49:18 pm
Pick one. I'm kind of digging the smooth-as-glass, but let's have a vote.

« Last Edit: February 22, 2011, 01:51:43 pm by leroy »

Offline pistachio

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Re: After a year I relieved myself.. ';..;'

Reply #27 on: February 22, 2011, 03:36:45 pm
Pick one. I'm kind of digging the smooth-as-glass, but let's have a vote.

[snip] [snip]

I'd go for smooth-as-glass. Sure it's not entirely realistic but so is the rest of the scene. It's pretty stylistic, but also rather fitting.

One suggestion I have is to have the jet-trails sort of fading out gradually, as shown here:



Well really it's just personal taste, but this is usually what I see happening when a jet leaves its trail across the sky. The highest jet is the only one that's really significantly affected. I also anti-aliased the birds slightly and made their reflections lighter. And there are a few spots where the smoke still needs to be cleaned up.. yeah, I know.
« Last Edit: February 22, 2011, 04:48:25 pm by pistachio »

Offline leroy

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Re: After a year I relieved myself.. ';..;'

Reply #28 on: February 22, 2011, 05:02:45 pm
I would argue that there isn't noticeable wind at all in the scene with the still water and clouds staying put so the jet contrails wouldn't dissipate as quickly. Also can you point out the spots in the clouds that caught your eye? I know the light blue twirl on the right is one but what others? I have been looking at it for so long I can't notice. :P


Eitherway here is a small update, I tried to address some edges
e: and now I read smoke when I thought you meant clouds.  :-[
update on update


by the way which one is better?
« Last Edit: February 22, 2011, 06:09:33 pm by leroy »

Offline Demian

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Re: After a year I relieved myself.. ';..;'

Reply #29 on: February 22, 2011, 06:25:34 pm
Hi, i like your work!



That was the one i liked the most, because of water. But the fading away of the smoke trails should be applied here too.



I like the one on the right side.
^^

Offline thepezman

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Re: After a year I relieved myself.. ';..;'

Reply #30 on: February 22, 2011, 06:36:02 pm
I like the the earlier skulls much better.

I loved how the toxic smog defined the majority of the skull, especially how it became the space in between the jaw.  Now the bone jaw is cutting back into the fog with such a crisp smooth edge that it gives no illusion of being formed from the smoke.  The end result makes it look like a flaming skull being propelled through the air, just turned green.

To be honest with the changes in the skull and the green to the side of it, it looks more like a tattoo than anything.  The green stuff you added doesn't fade into the environment or clouds it doesn't have a fading intensity as it spreads from the source it just plops down on top of it all.  Maybe this is what you want in the piece though.

Offline leroy

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Re: After a year I relieved myself.. ';..;'

Reply #31 on: February 22, 2011, 07:15:41 pm
I hope we can find a similar effect for the new skull then  ;D

Offline Moribund

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Re: After a year I relieved myself.. ';..;'

Reply #32 on: February 23, 2011, 04:23:08 am
Looks amazing but I liked the more subtle skull of the earlier versions.I also think the distorted water is much more readable. Maybe try something halfway?

Offline mrToad

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Re: After a year I relieved myself.. ';..;'

Reply #33 on: February 23, 2011, 09:35:33 pm
I also like the distorted water with the sun reflections on it, really makes it feel alive for me. Really good work I like it.

Offline Elk

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Re: After a year I relieved myself.. ';..;'

Reply #34 on: February 23, 2011, 09:37:14 pm
I think you should add more dissortions :O
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Offline mikdog

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Re: After a year I relieved myself.. ';..;'

Reply #35 on: February 26, 2011, 10:19:20 am
Looks cool. Only thing I'd do is possibly lose the two squares at top left and ight.

Offline Decroded

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Re: After a year I relieved myself.. ';..;'

Reply #36 on: February 26, 2011, 04:12:55 pm
I hope we can find a similar effect for the new skull then  ;D


Have you considered having hands as well as the skull?
I don't know if its a good idea but the shape of the pollution is almost like arms and torso if you wanted to try suggestion those shapes...
Just an idea.

Offline st0ven

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Re: After a year I relieved myself.. ';..;'

Reply #37 on: February 27, 2011, 01:15:58 am
looking at the most recent revision - the biggest distraction for me right now is the fact that the plane 'con' trails are so skewed from the purely horizontal horizon that youve established. it makes it look like a clash of perspectives.

you seem to be struggling over making the water reflective but subdued (closer to where i think you should be going with it to properly illustrate 'water') vs this perfectly reflective/smooth surface that reads to me that its more like an ocean of methane, or some alien, toxic fluid that has no business being next to a city.

the distortion is going to get bigger to the camera as well, which i think would do well at that point to start blending out the reflective imagery and focus more on illustrating the water :)

the skull pollution concept is pretty interesting to look at imo. its a neat concept for sure. lookin forward to seein ya decide how you want to handle the water and nail it so you can call it finished.