Outer space scene help

[Lazy Brain Games]

Working on a level select in the form of an outer space scene. I'm generally happy with the shadowing on the space station, but I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong on the planets. It looks okay from a distance, but up close its kind of yuck. Is there enough shadow on the planets? Too much? I feel like I'm close to making it look cool, I'm just not sure where to go next to wrap this thing up

Palette:


Planets with shadows


Planets without shadows:


Thanks for looking

[Phlakes]

The shadows shouldn't be dithered, and they should follow the rest of the shading. Don't try to make an independent shadow just to have one, but use black as another regular shade

[coffee]

What Phlakes said.

I think the main problem here is that the shadows on the planets are not big enough. They need to cover a much larger surface. I would also not set a clear line from where it fades, thats mainly what makes it look like holes. Instead make it gradient. or at least use some AA. Dithering doesnt fit in. would also make some kind of athmospheric glow around them.


Good luck

[Lorath]

In my opinion, the light source and the actual shadow arent correct that way.
The light is coming from the top left foreground but the shadow is showed  at the bottom right
foreground. The shadow has to be at the bottom right background... I hope you know what i mean
Maybe this explains it a bit more: The white point is ment to be the light source.


(this image only explains the light and shadows and is not ment to be rendered perfectly )


Be sure to place the shadow to the opposit site of the light source (very commonly spoken).
In your case of the chosen light source direction it shouldve been more like this:




But as Coffee said, try a bigger shadow and with this you need to arrange the lights position.
Coffee's posted picture explains it very well. The light comes from the backside of the planent and
so the shadow is more present on the front.
Btw, you did it almost right with the darker areas of the planet (not the black holes) but they need to be more darker.


So long,
Lorath