[WIP] Enchanted Room

[AlcopopStar]

Hello All,

So I'm trying to get this all polished up, eventually it's going to be a full mockup but for now i'm just trying to complete the room.

Current Edit:


A little hard to read but its a dungeon room giving way to something more fairytale-esque if that gives some context.

Still a ton to do, but I thought this might be a good stage to iron out compositional issues or pallet issues. (or anything else)

Looking forward to your thoughts

[RAV]

I can't be much useful, but I want to say I love it.

If it is a mock up for a game, concerns about composition from a strictly artistic point of view might clash with what makes sense for play at this stage, and it's weird, but if there's a disconnect in that, it worsens the sense of composition overall. Not saying this is the case here, just mentioning.

I like how organic this looks and all the objects along the walls is a nice way to make them interesting with irregularity when a lot of space is needed in the arena otherwise.

[Probo]

looks great so far! 

colours-wise, id maybe brighten the scene a bit and add a little more overall contrast. it is quite dimly lit on my monitor at least.

drawing-wise, i feel like we're seeing too much of the side of the tree? like its growing through the furthest wall almost. and that the soldier couldnt fit in the beds or use the furniture, but maybe hes a giant or something?

[AlcopopStar]

Thanks for the nice comments!




@RAV
Yeah the game angle is something I need to consider more. I've removed "collision" objects and separated them to a new layer, i'll probably go further in this direction and map out walkable areas in the coming days. I don't just want this top be a pretty picture but an area that has a sense of atmosphere, and I think being able to comfortably walk around it and interact, even if it's small, is part of that.

@Probo
Contrast upped! I'm always too timid with contrast. The solider is in fact an old sleeping giant. two other occupants are going to be in the room of more suitable sizes for the beds. Young Miss Sparrow and Ms. Owl.

Also corrected the side of the tree a touch. I'll probably reroute the roots when I mock up the walkable area. Also worked on the knight some.

I almost wish these forums had a darkmode, the light background of the forums makes this picture a lot harder to focus on compared to the way i'm saying it in photoshop. :/

Edit: dulled down the brighter grass a bit

[Probo]

I almost wish these forums had a darkmode, the light background of the forums makes this picture a lot harder to focus on compared to the way i'm saying it in photoshop. :/

yeah ive thought before that maybe like a mid-value grey or something would be a good colour for the forum. pics posted that are dark get annihilated by it currently, you definitely have to download to look at them properly in your own program.

the tree and wood colours definitely look better! maybe youve lost a bit of contrast between the lighter colours in the beds and giant though? makes the giant look like hes sat by a window or something getting hit by relatively strong light. that could be cool actually! or a white-flamed candle or something

the tree still looks out of perspective to me, maybe a good way to ascertain its angle would be to draw it as a tree stump first?

[Ryumaru]

This is delicious.

And yes, we need a darker skin option.

The dude doesn't feel like a giant to me, well, it looks like a normal human of about 7 feet tall and the perspective is a bit too exaggerated. Might would be easier with a character sprite alongside the other small scale stuff.

[Echo-07]

Hey Alcopop,

This is a great looking mock-up, I really like the room. The tree has a very nice flow to it and the colors feel balanced so far.

I had the same thought as Ryumaru about the giant. At first I thought there was a size issue between the beds and the giant armor, but then it made sense when you mentioned it was a giant. You can try making the armor seem bulky with thicker limbs and smaller head so it feels more like someone very large would be in it to indicate to the viewer that this is not a normal sized armor.

I see at the very bottom center the lighting indicates an entrance, if that is the case, you can push the light coming in from the outside a but more so it's clearer. Use the lighting to your advantage to add interest to that area of the scene.

When I look at this scene I'm trying to think who lives there what what other props you can put in there, especially in-scene light sources. You can try placing an old drafting desk against the wall with a bunch of rolled parchment around it and a punch of melted candles with a few of them lit. It'd give a cool light source and add to the story of the room. It's just a thought, but you get what I'm saying.

Anyway, love this piece and I look forward to seeing it finished. 

[AlcopopStar]

Thanks for the feedback

@Echo
Still working through some of your crits, but here is an update



Moved everything around a touch to try to get a more focused composition.

Added desk and candle and played with the light a touch. I liked this idea and i'll do more on this. I also plan to make the furniture a little more ornate.

Worked on colours at the entrance. need to work a bit more here.

@Probo

Tried to ground the tree a touch more and shifted it's perspective as suggested.

Dulled the light source on knight and beds, was going for more of an ambient lighting with them so I didn't want it to be was powerful as it was. Did end up lighting by candle though so good suggestion.

@Ryu

Added placeholder sprite for size comparison

I'll defiantly bulk the knight up a little next pass.

All those changes aside the bigger changes were composition & colour. I'm pretty happy with how it's reading now, so i'll start rendering more deeply.

[API-Beast]

Colors. Don't be afraid of brighter, mid range, shades, it's a bit dark. Also saturated green is a pretty problematic color, one which is very hard to get good looking, I would suggest desaturating it and mixing it with a few other hues.

[AlcopopStar]

bit of a gap between updates,



Touched on a lot of small things; pallet touch ups, redoing the dirt to be less distracting, ect.

More significantly I've been redoing the image to some technical specifications. Firstly I'm trying to fit everything into a 3/4 axonometric perspective. That's mostly just effected the room shape and walls at this stage, I'm going to adjust the objects to fit shortly. Though I did try to give the tree some more three dimensionality. All up i'm really happy how much depth the room has gained from this.

I'm also looking to get my grass and ground pixels into some tile sheets, here are some super rough planning images for that. As you can see the tiles are also axonometric. I'm mostly trying to figure out the most robust configuration, below is as good as i've gotten. (forgive the rough mirrored mockup version)





Everything is still pretty rough but I figured this could make a good place to see if anyone has any thoughts on game constraints like the ones i'm dealing with. Am I missing anything?