Gypsy Forest...again

[TheInquisitor]

Hi guys,

For any of you that have been around a while, you may remember a long time ago that I attempted to make a forest backdrop for an RPG battle scene. The effort ended up turning into a right fiasco. I got stuck with it to the point that I gave up.
http://www.wayofthepixel.net/index.php?topic=11912.msg121394#msg121394

Since then, after a second attempt where the file corrupted, I've now gone for a 3rd iteration and here's what I've come up with.




Updated:



I'm much happier with this effort. I'm happy enough with it as it is, but I thought I'd show it here before calling time on it as a piece of work. Now I'm looking for your verdict on whether it's good or could do with some work help to take it the next level because, once again, I've hit a brick wall.

- I've re-jigged the frog man since the original version, giving him a changed (and probably more anatomically correct) pose and a darker outline, to help make him a focus of the piece. Considering this is an RPG battle, I didn't want the character to blend seamlessly into the background. What you guys think about this compared to how the hero looks in the scene?
- Do you find the whole scene too dark and recommend I increase the contrast in the shades?
- Any other recommendations?

I'm open to design changes, palette changes etc. Perhaps not anything as drastic as a complete redesign though.

Help is most appreciated
Thanks
Inq

[Facet]

Some nice stuffs since the last time around, the leafy vignette is pretty sweet. Did a ruff, non-drastic edit:



There isn't much continuity between the fg vignette and the bg pines so I brought a bit of that forward, I reckoned the pines were a bit regimented; all triangles, no trunk or branches, so I mussed them up a tad. I also tried to demonstrate the VP with the clouds too, and took out the trees in front of the sun as they put a stopper on the depth; made the gap between the trees into a clearing rather than an infinite gamespace.

I don't think it's too dark; where it matters anyway, probably the warm lightsource would grey out the the greens more, thinking realistically, the moon from before would be a better fit if you're up for putting that back in. Obviously the characters aren't showing any effect of the light from the scene but I guess that isn't on the menu .

Only noticed later it was double res .

[PypeBros]

I really love it. Yet, I think there's something to be fixed in the guy's hair highlight.
Either the hue is off, or it is excessively de-saturated.

[TheInquisitor]

I see what you're saying there with splitting the details of the trees up, Facet. However, I'm trying to get a close approximation to this tileset that I made.



You can see on here that the trees are very cone-like and cartoony. Your replacement designs definitely have merit and, fairly enough, I didn't even consider that approach. Do you have any midway point between our two shapes that you could recommend so that they may look a bit more tree-like, but still retain that cartoony "pine tree" look?

Your vignette is very interesting. In fact, I'm impressed how you've managed to quickly sketch in some very nice, tree looking shapes. I think your version looks a little busy, so I'll try and make a foreground that's somewhere between yours and mine.

I really like the way you've done the rim of orange on the tree tops. This was something I was really struggling with on the original effort on that other link. I dropped it this time around because I was finding it too complicated. Now that you've shown me that, I think I'll go and put it back in. I'll also change my palette around the sunset to match yours. It looks better and more natural.

I've decided that the darks on the frogman creature are too dark. I'll be changing this. I don't think I'll go back to the night scene/moon though, I prefer what I've got now.

PypeBros:
Yeah, the saturation and colours were just me experimenting with colour mixing. It's not my strongest area but seems to work out. I'll be editing the characters soon.

Keep your posted for the next version
Ta.

[Seiseki]

The frogs face freaks me out a bit because of how flat it is..
The sun looks a bit tall..

And if you can do it without pulling attention from the characters, you should add rocks, tree stumps, logs, mushrooms or something to the background, since it's quite empty.
I'm also thinking due to the sunset, the shadows should be longer. But since the characters don't follow the lighting of the environment anways, so I dunno.

I saw this piece and the titleset when I was searching the forums and I remember it because it's very well done! Keep it up

[TheInquisitor]

Not much to show here, but I've started out by adding some orange shine onto the trees and reduced the trees in the background (in front of the sun). I've also, with this edit made the sun "shorter". Is this for the better?

[TheInquisitor]

Made some further changes to the picture. Added more of the sunset shine and edited the two characters. I think the frogman looks noticeably better.

[TheInquisitor]

Hi guys, I'm back again...



Made a bit of progress. Focused on the sky and followed Facet's example. I have to say, it looks a hell of a lot better, so thanks Facet. I think this is now getting closer to a finished product. It's been suggested to me that the Frogman creature is "a bit boring" and poorly designed. Is that agreed with?

Also, should I add some sunset reddening to the near-most trees and the leaves in the foreground?

[Ymedron]

The face at least is a bit vague and unresolved. The chin is so low contrast, I actually have trouble seeing where his mouth is.

I drew some frogpeople ambhibianpeople, maybe that will give you an idea what you want to do?

[TheInquisitor]

Thanks for the help there, Ymedron. That's excellent! You've obviously got quite a knack for creative poses.

I really like the leftmost and rightmost ones. The left for it's pose and the right for it's design, especially with the way he is sitting. I never really considered drawing the frogman from the back, as if hunched over.

I'll look into trying to make a combination of those two designs.

Thanks a lot