AuthorTopic: [wip] The Emperor of Oaks  (Read 6282 times)

Offline Ashbad

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[wip] The Emperor of Oaks

on: June 02, 2014, 09:52:57 pm
Working on something a bit different

movement 1:
 

movement 2:
 

To be complimented by music I'm writing:

https://soundcloud.com/theashbad/the-emperor-of-oaks-movement-1

https://soundcloud.com/theashbad/wip-the-emperor-of-oaks-movement-2

Planning on seven movements, with the last one being a huge mixup of the previous six with added instrumentation, done in a psychedelic manner

Anyways, it is work in progress.  I'm trying to work on making it as chaotic and disrupting to the eyes as possible while lacking any real structure at a macro level (but with strong homogeneity at a micro scale, kind of like taking a small 10x10 or less area and colors/stripe directions kind of make sense and compliment/clash with each other somewhat intelligently.)  Trying to stick away from non-super saturated colors to make it more of an assault on the eyes.  As for why it's titled the "emperor of oaks", I'm looking to make it represent the chaotic nature of the forest, with many different fauna/movement/etc.  And I need some help with drawing the viewer's attention AWAY from any single point, or at least keep them from looking at only a single point, while making each part of the thing interesting in its own right.  I like the idea of repetition hence why in a few small areas I copy/pasted/stretched/rotated a few areas to make them slightly different but still in the same spirit.

Anyways I'm not the best pixel artist or visual artist in general, but I thought it would be a cool thing to try nonetheless.

Offline Ryumaru

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Re: [wip] The Emperor of Oaks

Reply #1 on: June 03, 2014, 03:15:37 am


Break up these areas and you will accomplish basically all you set out to do for this piece. More problem areas may arise after fixing these.

Offline FrostPumpkin

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Re: [wip] The Emperor of Oaks

Reply #2 on: June 03, 2014, 11:22:11 am
I like the concept behind this !
I have a few suggestions tho. I think the image lacks composition, for now it looks like a noisy pixel panel and it doesn't really make sense with the music. If you try to define a few shapes, whatever it is, doesn't have to represent something, it would help top give it more sense and that way each image could be different (not just a color swap)

Offline Ashbad

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Re: [wip] The Emperor of Oaks

Reply #3 on: June 03, 2014, 03:02:37 pm
Thanks for the ideas!  I'm not sure where I want to move from here, with single panel that's fixed in those areas or a shape idea, but here's my edit so far to make it more chaotic:



Put it into shapes (circles mostly), changed palettes for each circle, mixed around for a while until I stopped noticing a single point where my eyes were drawn.

As for the shape idea, I'm strongly considering it; maybe a silhouette of something related to the forest would work, but would take some time to make it not look corny.  Still thinking.  Thanks!

The main thing I'm realizing is that this is deviating pretty far from the music's sound, but maybe I can pull it together with your advice.

EDIT:



removed black and hid the semicircles better throughout.  Black was clashing too much.
« Last Edit: June 03, 2014, 04:23:38 pm by Ashbad »

Offline Ashbad

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Re: [wip] The Emperor of Oaks

Reply #4 on: June 05, 2014, 01:20:41 am
Thanks for the help everyone!  Here's where I ended up:



the shapes suggestion helped a ton.

I worked to make it even more chaotic, with the most noise around the center of the middle shape to draw the eye there; put it against black to make it look even bolder.  :)

Offline Seiseki

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Re: [wip] The Emperor of Oaks

Reply #5 on: June 05, 2014, 01:50:35 am
I'm not sure, I think the black negative space feels oppressive.
It's much more harmonic against a white background and with larger pixels.

Offline FrostPumpkin

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Re: [wip] The Emperor of Oaks

Reply #6 on: June 05, 2014, 02:23:51 am
I really like were you've got so far ! Tho I agree with seiseki on the black BG. White is defenitely an option, especially considering the nature of your music, but I do think you can find somethin that'll fit better.
The one you posted before your last message are really good too, not sure why. It feels less muddy, kind of lighter.

Offline Ryumaru

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Re: [wip] The Emperor of Oaks

Reply #7 on: June 05, 2014, 05:23:27 am
Thanks for the help everyone!  Here's where I ended up:



the shapes suggestion helped a ton.

I worked to make it even more chaotic, with the most noise around the center of the middle shape to draw the eye there; put it against black to make it look even bolder.  :)

Do realize though, that you've now created a composition; which inherently gives it structure and focal points/ directional flow.

What exactly are these "movements"? Are they images that will phase into each other or otherwise animate?

Offline Ashbad

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Re: [wip] The Emperor of Oaks

Reply #8 on: June 05, 2014, 01:09:55 pm
I'm not sure, I think the black negative space feels oppressive.
It's much more harmonic against a white background and with larger pixels.

I like that idea; but I think it only works for the movements I've either completed/worked on thus far.  I'm planning on later movements to be a bit darker and atonal so I'm not sure if it would hold for the entire thing like black.  Maybe I could use a white for the opening movements and black for the closing movements...   ??? I'll have to figure that out as I compose a bit more

I really like were you've got so far ! Tho I agree with seiseki on the black BG. White is defenitely an option, especially considering the nature of your music, but I do think you can find somethin that'll fit better.
The one you posted before your last message are really good too, not sure why. It feels less muddy, kind of lighter.

Thanks!  I thought that adding more colors would take away a lot of the RGB Glitch feeling and give it more of a paint-color look.  Glad you like it!


Do realize though, that you've now created a composition; which inherently gives it structure and focal points/ directional flow.

What exactly are these "movements"? Are they images that will phase into each other or otherwise animate?

Yep!  I focused a lot of the noisiest parts in the center slab to draw attention there (more detail), and since the outer two slabs have ends that are vertically center (or close) of the piece, they somewhat have a draw back to the center, while the final two middle slabs draw it back away.  Someone on PJ suggested to cut it off like this: http://i.imgur.com/Hcn5xpK.png  but I think it would make it too unbalanced and less interesting.

As for the movements, I was planning on different images for each musical movement, but right now I'm honestly not sure; I'm working to come up with something that represents the entire thing as a whole, which is hard because I'm only halfway through movement 2 and movements 3-5 are planned but only on staff paper + annotations + notes.

As for the movements,