AuthorTopic: Mountain River Scene/ Cave Scene Now[C+C PLZ]  (Read 5644 times)

Offline Johasu

  • 0010
  • *
  • Posts: 187
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • @johasu232
    • Johasu232
    • View Profile

Mountain River Scene/ Cave Scene Now[C+C PLZ]

on: February 04, 2014, 05:18:39 am
   
I felt so encouraged by the progress I made on the river scene that I'm posting this cave scene that I did before the river. I was going for a dirt floor and cool stone walls.  I came up with this brown/blue color scheme.  I'm particularly frustrated with the closest wall segment, but happy to take comments and criticism on any and all factors of the piece.

[Current Version]
« Last Edit: February 08, 2014, 04:47:20 am by Johasu »
Gallery:  http://johasu.deviantart.com/gallery/
Twitter:  @johasu232

Offline Mrwhitepantz

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 26
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile

Re: Mountain River Scene

Reply #1 on: February 04, 2014, 05:25:57 am
Wow man, that looks really good. The water is definitely the weak point here. I'm not very good at water myself, so I can't offer advice, but the rest looks good  ;D

Off-topic, how did your blacksmith piece work out? I know that was awhile ago, but I haven't really had a setup conducive to using a computer since I moved.

Offline Johasu

  • 0010
  • *
  • Posts: 187
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • @johasu232
    • Johasu232
    • View Profile

Re: Mountain River Scene

Reply #2 on: February 04, 2014, 03:14:32 pm
 ;)  Thanks.  I have been practicing a lot.  Safe to say, a couple hundred more hours of pixel art since that blacksmith piece a few months back.

[I was struggling with the perspective on the room I was putting him in.  I may go back to it at some point and finish it up.  If I ever update it I will revive the thread, maybe.]

I definitely feel the water needs something more to it.  I don't particularly like the solid blue fill, but each attempt makes it seem like just a mess of pixels.  Hoping to get some helpful input from the veterans around here on it.
I spent about 10 hours on this piece so far I think.(appx.)
Gallery:  http://johasu.deviantart.com/gallery/
Twitter:  @johasu232

Offline Johasu

  • 0010
  • *
  • Posts: 187
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • @johasu232
    • Johasu232
    • View Profile

Re: Mountain River Scene[C+C PLZ]

Reply #3 on: February 05, 2014, 05:26:04 pm

Experimented with the water a bit.
Thinned the current lines around the shore and tried to go for a more natural ripple appearance.
Worked towards drawing the flow around the stream and the stones.
Also touched the nearest trees with a bit of highlighting, but Im not sure how I feel about that. :-\
Any thoughts?
Gallery:  http://johasu.deviantart.com/gallery/
Twitter:  @johasu232

Offline Mr. Fahrenheit

  • 0010
  • *
  • Posts: 326
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile

Re: Mountain River Scene[C+C PLZ]

Reply #4 on: February 05, 2014, 08:22:55 pm


I made an edit. Basically, as stuff recedes into the background it's color goes closer and closer to the sky color, due to atmospheric perspective. Besides that I tried reducing a lot of the noise you had going on, and tried to demonstrate that stuff farther away will have less detail and contrast, while stuff closer will have more contrast and be darker. For the rocks try doing larger rocks rather then gravel, because that will be extremely noisey. For the tree's just remember they are like cylinders/cones and should be shaded like that you did some bevel shading on them. Keep working at it man!

Offline Tapsu

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 37
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile

Re: Mountain River Scene[C+C PLZ]

Reply #5 on: February 05, 2014, 08:41:09 pm

[...]I feel like I am struggling a bit on deciding if I can do a better job with the water.[...]
If you want to draw the color of water into the picture (like screaming: bloody hell, this is WATER!!!), perhaps you should leave it transparent?
But instead, I would rather move towards something like this:

In the background it should be mostly reflection due to angle between the water surface and the view direction (I guess I made it too dark, sorry), and in the foreground it should be mostly the inside/bottom of the stream which is quite dark and not blue, more like wet stone in the bottom is dark, and even more so. Because how reflective water is depends on angle.
« Last Edit: February 05, 2014, 10:03:12 pm by Tapsu »

Offline Johasu

  • 0010
  • *
  • Posts: 187
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • @johasu232
    • Johasu232
    • View Profile

Re: Mountain River Scene[C+C PLZ]

Reply #6 on: February 05, 2014, 10:15:13 pm

My original from top
Followed by the first edit with the touches to the water and the highlights in trees.

[NOW]I toned out some of the contrasts in the gravel to blend it some and make it less noisy.
The next one down blended the trees towards blue, lessened the detail contrast, and took out some of the definition to blend them back.
Then I took sky/mountain tones and used them to redefine my water.  References of rivers show a lot of open sky reflection so I felt like maybe this was the way to go.

I still want to work on the closer trees.  Open for more comments or critiques and thanks to those that have chimed in.  I appreciate the help bunches. ;)
Gallery:  http://johasu.deviantart.com/gallery/
Twitter:  @johasu232

Offline Mr. Fahrenheit

  • 0010
  • *
  • Posts: 326
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile

Re: Mountain River Scene[C+C PLZ]

Reply #7 on: February 05, 2014, 11:32:50 pm
I'm noticing that you are making the tree's further away darker, when in actuality, they should be getting lighter.

Offline Johasu

  • 0010
  • *
  • Posts: 187
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • @johasu232
    • Johasu232
    • View Profile

Re: Mountain River Scene[C+C PLZ]

Reply #8 on: February 05, 2014, 11:48:16 pm
~Woah~ :huh:
I really thought it was an effect of narrowing the contrast between the highlight and the shading of the two colors.  It brings the overall shade of the trees to a darker appearance.
I moved the hue towards blue (for the sky)  which is a darker color than the yellow green I was using as well which also made them appear darker.

Now that I double check I see that I did darken the colors some off hand without thinking about it.  I will modify it in my next edit.
I am playing with the water and gravel some more.

I really haven't felt like the trees are THAT far back to warrant a lot of color shift.  Not that I disagree or anything.  Thanks for pointing it out.
Gallery:  http://johasu.deviantart.com/gallery/
Twitter:  @johasu232

Offline Mr. Fahrenheit

  • 0010
  • *
  • Posts: 326
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile

Re: Mountain River Scene[C+C PLZ]

Reply #9 on: February 05, 2014, 11:57:22 pm
It never hurts to exaggerate  :)