GR#190 - Pacific Grove - Pixel Artwork Scenery

[st0ven]

this is how my eye currently interprets the perspective you have established in the scene.

Compositionally, watching your progression, it seems a bit random, but the progression adding more weight in foreground elements vs the rather static composition you started with was nice to observe.

The current perspective for me however is a bit jarring.

i applaud you for even having an attention span to attempt pixel art at 600x300 something. i very much do not.

[slym]

What awesome critique! To be honest I'm trying to minimize the amount of dramatic composition changes. I want to make sure I actually finish this thing, I started it in December >.<

With that in mind, I found that a few tiny edits went a VERY long way. Here's what I have so far:

[Indigo]

Everyone is right about the most critical issue with this piece is the perspective.  And I can honestly understand the sentiment of not wanting to make such drastic changes to such a large piece, but I highly suggest you try to address the critique anyway.  Your piece is still in such a rough state that it's now or never.  There's really not a lot of pixels that you've made a final commitment to.

With that said, I think there are ways to address the perspective with minimal amount of rework.  The perspective line where the cliff-side meets the water is the primary offender.  If you fix that one line, the piece drastically makes much more sense to the eye.  The issue here is the cliff is suggesting a higher perspective than what the sea-level depicts:

Currently, it's tip nearly meets with the horizon line which would imply it's as far away as that island you have in the distance.  Obviously that's not what's intended.

This can either be fixed by raising the horizon line to meet the suggested perspective of the cliff:


or you can lower the perspective line of the cliff to meet the horizon line:


Just shifting things around in this pretty rough state is fairly painless.  There are other contributing factors to the wonky perspective, but this one was the most major.  Between the two solutions, I think the rest of your piece supports a much higher perspective angle, so I'd probably go with raising the horizon line.

[Gil]

Indigo's comment is brilliant. I personally prefer the first edit.

[slym]

Damn yeah that was an incredible fix. Feels much better with this now.

[JoeCreates]

This looks beautiful.

I have to say I'm not a fan of the last edit, mind. One thing to note with the perspective is that the further into the distance the water gets, the more it should align with the horizon. In all versions the waves rotate counterclockwise as they get into the distance, which is in the opposite direction to what one would expect.

The previous edit makes the cove looks less round and extends the sea and makes it feel like we're looking down more than looking out. I think is only dampens the real issue, the fact that the waves now appear relatively closer reduces the effect of the waves in the distance looking off.

[Indigo]

This looks beautiful.

I have to say I'm not a fan of the last edit, mind. One thing to note with the perspective is that the further into the distance the water gets, the more it should align with the horizon. In all versions the waves rotate counterclockwise as they get into the distance, which is in the opposite direction to what one would expect.

The previous edit makes the cove looks less round and extends the sea and makes it feel like we're looking down more than looking out. I think is only dampens the real issue, the fact that the waves now appear relatively closer reduces the effect of the waves in the distance looking off.

I would definitely agree that my suggestion is not the whole fix to the problem, but only part (an essential part however).  What you say about the perspective of the waves is spot on - I was about to write a follow up post about that issue before I saw your post

as a side note, Slym, I think the latest palette change isn't as pleasant as what you had for the shallow water.

[slym]

Here's what I have now. I think from now on I'm just going to go ahead and clean and polish the textures and pump the rest of it out. This thing has taken WAY too long >.<

[Indigo]

with the increased contrast of your latest palette, you're beginning to lose a lot of depth in the scene.  Things, especially in outdoor situations, lose contrast as they move in the distance due to light diffusion (not saying this for your sake really, I know you know this).  The increased contrast is drawing attention to the fact that the rocks on the other side of the beach, although drawn further away, don't *feel* further away.

I suggest removing the darkest shades from that side of the beach, and reserve it for stuff on the close side:

[Fizzick]

My opinion may not carry much weight, but I preferred the blueish tint to the shadows of the original. It brought unity between the blues of the sea and the reds/greens of the trees.