AuthorTopic: GR#074 - 2 WIP's - Scenery  (Read 9419 times)

Offline tomic

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GR#074 - 2 WIP's - Scenery

on: August 17, 2011, 05:02:53 pm
hey people,

here are 2 pixels that are lying on my harddisk for way too long.
useful feedback very much appreciated. help me getting'em off my dump! :)

1st one is this pitiable, lost robot looking for charge.
it's pretty close to what i would call finished, so i'm not keen to do any *major* changes, but i'd still like to hear your suggestions on background color and the blinking.. as pixeljoint's forum wasn't of much help there :/ btw my first piece using grafx2's layer support.


(basic version)

batterie blinking issue


as above, but w/ additional blinking display (not sure if anyone will notice that). maybe i should additionally do some red reflections on his metal-suit

or
background darkening to give it some sort of pulsating feel, is that any good?


as above, but inverted. better? i've seen it so often i can't judge anymore :)

background palettes

.. ..



2nd one
is something that evolved from a donkey-cart sketch and is untouched since early 2010.. but my fingers are itching to restart working on it again as soon as i finish some real constructions zones at work :/



palette does heavily suffer from playing around with the contrast between foreground and background (lots of color-doublettes here).. thus the first thing on my to-do list would be transferring fore- and background to layers and optimize the palette.

(and yes, i used parts of the background for my secret santa :) )


thanx,
tomic
« Last Edit: August 17, 2011, 05:08:38 pm by tomic »
looking forward to the secret santa hexqusite corps 2017

Offline Sharm

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Re: [wip] 2 works in low progress

Reply #1 on: August 17, 2011, 05:58:23 pm
On the first one I like the blinking inverted best.  Without the darkening of the whole thing the LED display looks too separated from the rest of the image.  I think a little red reflection on the metal would look really cool and make the light change in his eye display more obvious.  I love how lush and overgrown the greenery looks, it's obvious no one's been that way in a long time.

Second one has a great concept, but something is bugging me about the composition, I can't put my finger on what.  Whatever it is makes the whole thing look shifted inside the black about 5 pixels to the right when you aren't looking at it closely.  It might be because all the missing pieces form a line on the left while the donkey pokes out the right.  Maybe putting the bottom corner back in or removing a piece from the sky so the missing pieces form an implied arcing line to frame it in again instead of pushing you out.

Offline pistachio

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Re: [wip] 2 works in low progress

Reply #2 on: August 17, 2011, 08:57:43 pm
Just noticed, the robot overall seems a bit detached from the ground. A darker ground shadow/clusters of grass or some flowers at its base should help.
There's also a strange horizontal line just above the two bottom wheels of its right.. tire? This is likely a problem with pixel clusters.
By the way, the second option where the background is timed differently from the eyepiece looks best I think, and the reflected light would really top it off.

As for the second piece, the composition might be off because the donkey's pushed to the right, not sure.
« Last Edit: August 17, 2011, 08:59:25 pm by pistachio »

Offline Dusty

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Re: [wip] 2 works in low progress

Reply #3 on: August 17, 2011, 09:04:28 pm
Honestly, the battery indicator being part of the scene gives me the impression that someone is taking a picture/recording him more than it reflects his current status. Is there no way you can incorporate this into the robot instead?

Offline d00de

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Re: [wip] 2 works in low progress

Reply #4 on: August 23, 2011, 11:32:03 pm
About the first pixel, maybe you can change the metal plate on the robot chest in a sort of monitor and show the battery indicator there. I don't know if this is a useful suggestion but that's the first thing I tought.
Otherwise you can just delete the indicator, keep the blinking display and make the plug more visible! (make a longer wire or something). However, i love the background! :)

Offline tomic

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Re: [wip] 2 works in low progress

Reply #5 on: August 24, 2011, 11:37:14 am
hey again,

thanks for the feedback. here is a small update:
 

haven't noticed that he's somehow floating over the ground, thanks for the hint - i've added some grass and marks of his chains behind him.

about the battery-indicator: i really have difficulties dropping it actually, i still like the idea. already though about that monitor on the chest, but i feel that we've all seen that too often.
well, let's see. at the moment my main focus is on making the reflections look better, not yet satisfied with how it looks now.
looking forward to the secret santa hexqusite corps 2017

Offline PypeBros

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Re: [wip] 2 works in low progress

Reply #6 on: August 24, 2011, 01:43:29 pm
the whole scene blinking together with the battery indicator doesn't work well for me. I'd be tempted to do the reverse: darken the scene when the indicator lights up, as if the batteries were so low that there wasn't enough power remaining for both backlight and indicator.

There's clearly something odd with the idea of having the indicator "out" of the robot, as if the viewer was in low battery mode. It somehow suggest the presence of two robots being hopelessly looking for a plug. Some silouhettos of a left-for-dead robot in the distant background could even reinforce that drama feeling.

Hope you'll find your way to finish it: it's a nice concept and a great rendition... it deserves the final touch.

edit: oh, just saw you did the inverted blink already. http://www.piexeln.de/_wip/rob042_anim4.gif works indeed better, imho.
« Last Edit: August 24, 2011, 07:08:39 pm by PypeBros »

Offline JJ Naas

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Re: [wip] 2 works in low progress

Reply #7 on: August 24, 2011, 06:32:33 pm
Since the robot is looking at his raised empty hand, that seems like the focus of the entire picture, so it took me a good while to notice the plug in the other hand, still leaving me to wonder why is he looking at his empty hand..?

There's clearly something odd with the idea of having the indicator "out" of the robot, as if the viewer was in low battery mode.

I have the same impression. Kill your darlings: screw the battery icon. It's a bloody fantastic picture rendering-wise.
« Last Edit: August 24, 2011, 06:35:43 pm by JJ Naas »

Offline st0ven

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Re: [wip] 2 works in low progress

Reply #8 on: August 24, 2011, 10:26:43 pm
OMG tomic! Ive desperately missed seeing your art. very glad to see you here and posting and pixeling.

I couldnt help but to touch on your robot image a tad. Theres something about the use of the warmth in the background and having that be rather contrary to your cool values in the foreground that sort of bothered me. So basically instead of ramping the foreground hues to a blue, i tried ramping them more to oranges and reds (desaturating them along the way of course). it keeps the image looking a bit more consistent to my eye, but the robot stood out like a sore thumb. So i tried out some olives for the metal color vs the blue to see how it felt.



after doing some work on the colors i wanted to touch a few things to make the robot itself and maybe some of the grass around him stand out by letting some more light hit it. I didnt change too much, just some parts of the image to illustrate a point.

your pixel detail has always been something else, this is definitely no exception.

Offline tomic

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Re: [wip] 2 works in low progress

Reply #9 on: September 29, 2011, 10:43:59 am
hey again,
have been on vacation for a while, pixelation changed sinced a last logged in :O

great edit stoven, helped a lot, thank you! concerning the issue of the bothering warmth in the back with cool values in the foreground i did the opposite and decided in favor of a cooler background - fits the metal suit much better and the roboter still stands out enough. anyway decided to finally call it finished, needa focus on new projects... and the puzzle-donkey :)

thanks for the feedback everyone!
the final version is here: http://www.pixeljoint.com/pixelart/65435.htm?sec=date
looking forward to the secret santa hexqusite corps 2017