hate trees

[Dusty]

I personally like the way the strands of grass were darker... they weren't so dark that they distracted, but blended in nicely...

I think the problem with the water is that it's too 'cornered', that it gives the water a very straight look, like mentioned before, almost like a window. A way to perhaps fit this is to give the highlights a rough edge instead of straight.

The grass-to-cliff transition looks like it doesn't blend well with the grass. They all form a line as they have no tiling in them at all with the grass tiles. I don't think you should change the grass, not everything has to be typical of grass, I think it's something new and just looks appealing.

I like the trees, I think they fit the piece pretty well, and overall I like the style. Perhaps lighten the darkest shade on the trees? I also didn't think the tree trunk looked too 'plasticy', I thought the simplicity was fitting.

Perhaps lighten the cracks in the dirt path? Maybe some 'rounding' of the tiles could help, right now everything looks pretty square. Although not a bad thing, rounding things could make it look better, and also help with the water.

[.TakaM]

With your permiss takam i make a fast edit.



And well i make trees along time ago for a game, and think can help you to take some ideas about leaves, trunks etc..:

http://www.speccy.org/remakesgraph/panic2/panicp2.htm
http://www.speccy.org/remakesgraph/panic2/arbo1.png
http://www.speccy.org/remakesgraph/panic2/arbo2.png
http://www.speccy.org/remakesgraph/panic2/8marav2.gif
http://www.speccy.org/remakesgraph/panic2/8marav3.gif

while I certainly appreciate the help and dont have any problems with an edit , I dont really like the changes youve made, its a bit too much and doesnt really fit in with the look Im going for

Hey Taka, those rock walls look gorgeous.  All of this is hand pixeled? Amazing.

I'd say make the cracks in the path even lighter (but only a bit) because at first glance they could still be mistaken for a rock wall.

It's hard to tell if those rock-like shapes in the water are reflections or contintuations of the rock face in the water.  If they are reflections, first make more ripples in the water and have the rocks reflect off the ripples.  If they are the latter, they should go from lighter on the top to darker on the bottom, the reverse of what you have now.  Also do what Matriax said and have the water form to the rocks.  It looks like a window now.

Not quite sure what to do about the leaves yet.  I'll try fiddling with them later, but for now I'd say make the overall volume of the leaves less of a spherical shape and more organic.  I also think that the trunk is a bit wide for such a small leaf group.

make the cracks lighter.. Im not too sure about that. but okay I'll see what it looks like:
here it is with the path lightened 25% with the lightest shade.
I think it was kinda unnecessary
the rock tiles in the water are different tiles than the path or cliff. Im still not finished with them so I dont wanna post them and have everyone start on them , and yeah I will change the water ripples to a better result once the trees are finished
and great, I'd like to see what changes you made to the tree

My main problem with the image, although you could argue that it's for continuity, is that everything seems to have the same rocky pattern. It makes sense with the rocky cliffs, and the path looks good (although you called it a "dirt" path), but the grass also has a rock-like pattern.

well, quite simply everything is supposed to look rocky

I see what Invaderlupis means, it also helps me see why the trees and the water look off.

You've set everything up with yuor other tiles to lack strong highlights, be very desaturated, and especially be very blocky, with defining llines around but not in the shapes.

You have to apply that to the trees and the water tiles to unify them better.

yeah thats true, I think I will make where the trees meet the grass have the earth dry and broken.. it would merge in a lot better

I personally like the way the strands of grass were darker... they weren't so dark that they distracted, but blended in nicely...

I think the problem with the water is that it's too 'cornered', that it gives the water a very straight look, like mentioned before, almost like a window. A way to perhaps fit this is to give the highlights a rough edge instead of straight.

The grass-to-cliff transition looks like it doesn't blend well with the grass. They all form a line as they have no tiling in them at all with the grass tiles. I don't think you should change the grass, not everything has to be typical of grass, I think it's something new and just looks appealing.

I like the trees, I think they fit the piece pretty well, and overall I like the style. Perhaps lighten the darkest shade on the trees? I also didn't think the tree trunk looked too 'plasticy', I thought the simplicity was fitting.

Perhaps lighten the cracks in the dirt path? Maybe some 'rounding' of the tiles could help, right now everything looks pretty square. Although not a bad thing, rounding things could make it look better, and also help with the water.

well, the darker strands may have looked nicer (I think I will make the strands lighter than they are now so theyre a bit clearer) but the darker strands didnt make much sense really
the cliff top tiles dont merge in very well no, i think its another thing I'll work on after the trees, and if it doesnt turn out well, i can always just put transparency in the tiles so they blend in perfectly but I'd rather to it the harder way.
I am pretty happy with the trunks, I still will tweak it a bit, not too much though

thanks for all the crits guys

[Dusty]

well, the darker strands may have looked nicer (I think I will make the strands lighter than they are now so theyre a bit clearer) but the darker strands didnt make much sense really

No need to apply sense to style

[.TakaM]

Im pretty happy with this tree at the moment, still not quite finished, but I think its a good mprovement

[Faktablad]

I'd agree that it's a very good improvement.  It fits the style much more, and I'm sure you're on the right track.  I've got a few suggestions, though. 

Take a look at this kind of subtle edit I made:

<mine...yours>

**Perspective--This is hard to pick up on when making trees.  The perspective looks a bit too much side-on (as shown by the red circles).  I tried to fix that a little bit but it probably wasn't enough.

**Texture--I love the look of the leaves but it may be a bit too much texture for the eyes when you have many trees plus the pattern on the rock walls and path.  I went to the main leaf area and took away the really dark shadow shade and replaced it with one of the trunk shades, it worked fine.  Again, it could use a bit more tweaking, and perhaps you should make the leaf group look a tiny bit less flat and add some more shaping using shadows and highlights.

That's about it for now.  Can you post a full mockup with all the trees replaced so we can see the big picture?

[Lick]

I agree with Faktablad that the tree is having his own perspective adventure and should be kicked back in this mockups perspective. =P
Anyway, .TakaM, that's a great tree. I love the big clear leaves that give a focused effect, just what your mockup needed. Also loving the way you made that shadow 'contain' grass. The bottom of the trunk looks kind of weird to me.

[.TakaM]

thanks for the edit, youre right about the perspective and I'll continue with your edit
and heres a mockup

my v.2 trees:

your edits:

quite a difference

edit-

added more to it

[Dusty]

That water looks much better.

[l0rdtaz]

Try to gvie the stone road and walls a more grey/brown tone to them. As mentioned before, everything looks very "greeny" . Heh, even the water have a little to green tone to it, go more blueish, this piece nees some more color contrast, other than that, VERY NICE indeed!

[GOODNIGHTdestroyer]

Taka, I really really like these tiles. I can't find any serious crits, except the trees don't fit in my opinion. They are very good trees, but that stand out alot for some reason.