AuthorTopic: Hellgate to Baator  (Read 10606 times)

Offline Gil

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Re: Hellgate to Baator

Reply #10 on: October 22, 2015, 10:40:47 pm
Maybe that portal ring is too thin? It makes it feel like the character coming out is not grounded in the scene and it seems to skew the composition. Also, I would put the black foreground bush on the other side, right now you've got two dominant black areas and they're working against each other, if you move the bush, it'll blend into the black portal and augment it. Lastly, I'd crop the image closer to the portal on the left side. The figure seems to gesture towards the right, so the space to his left kinda feels awkward, if that makes sense.

Offline Adam

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Re: Hellgate to Baator

Reply #11 on: October 23, 2015, 09:18:05 am
Thickening the ring is a great idea, this I'll surely do.
I've put the black bush in the right corner to balance the black portal, but - as said before - I have no idea about composition.
I'd be a bit sad to lose the tree foliage (I like how it turned out) by shifting the devil/portal to the left, but I've adjusted it a bit.


Is it getting better? Or do you feel the same?
Nice. Now do the whole thing with the EGA palette!

Offline Johasu

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Re: Hellgate to Baator

Reply #12 on: October 23, 2015, 03:31:21 pm
I've been thinking about this one for a few days.
Individually each component seems really strong.  I like the way that bush feels.  I like the way the landscape feels.  The portal and demon feel like a very strong representation.  I love the way the portal feels like a pool, the ripple around his extruding parts.

But I am struggling with a couple things.  The bush feels too dark.  Too no space heavy for the piece.  The remainder of the piece is so bright.  It's pulling my attention towards it in every version.

The demon's pose is also problematic in my mind and I find myself focusing on a tail.  It is so hunched over coming through there.  Obviously much taller than the gate.  But how can it maintain that pose.  One foot that far forward, it's torso bent towards it's forward knee and the other leg off the ground presumably stepping through.  It feels incredibly awkward and unbalanced.

The thicker portal is looking great.  I had some thoughts on allowing the portal and demon to feel more separated as it is breaching the boundary.

I made an edit.  Sloppily took out the bush.  Pulled the leg closer to under his body. (again sloppy) and played around with some portal to demon variations.
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Offline Gil

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Re: Hellgate to Baator

Reply #13 on: October 23, 2015, 07:43:00 pm
I find that new one to be better yeah. If you want to save the foliage, can't you mirror the background? Or would that introduce more problems?

Offline Adam

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Re: Hellgate to Baator

Reply #14 on: October 23, 2015, 11:09:24 pm
So I followed what Johasu suggested and dropped the bushes. Also changed the devil pose a bit:



After that I played around a bit, and discovered how much more menacing the whole piece looks in grayscale with harder contrast:



And I thought: why not merge the two somehow? And it turned out like this:



I think I like it. What do you guys think?
Nice. Now do the whole thing with the EGA palette!

Offline dpixel

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Re: Hellgate to Baator

Reply #15 on: October 24, 2015, 12:13:33 am
That last one looks great.  It just feels right.

Offline Adam

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Re: Hellgate to Baator

Reply #16 on: November 21, 2015, 12:15:20 am
I'm working on some stone house tiles right now. These are my first experiments (for now mirrored to save me the work):



Any suggestions? Nice references with ega stone walls?

Edit: Or a more simple one with less contrast maybe?
« Last Edit: November 22, 2015, 10:00:44 pm by Adam »
Nice. Now do the whole thing with the EGA palette!

Offline Gil

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Re: Hellgate to Baator

Reply #17 on: November 23, 2015, 10:06:31 am
I think I prefer B & C out of those five. D might work in a different context, like a dungeon, given a palette swap.

Offline Adam

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Re: Hellgate to Baator

Reply #18 on: November 24, 2015, 07:21:57 pm
I think I prefer B & C out of those five. D might work in a different context, like a dungeon, given a palette swap.

Thanks for your opinion Gil! Right now I'm also a bit biased for B.

Meanwhile I started to work on the NPC portraits. For this one I've used a photo of Naomi Watts as a reference, but in the end she turned out to be totally different.

I'm not sure if the gray highlight works. There are not much skin tones in EGA. Though I've seen some really weird color combinations to work, I'm not sure I can handle these colors well enough to try.
Nice. Now do the whole thing with the EGA palette!

Offline Gil

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Re: Hellgate to Baator

Reply #19 on: November 25, 2015, 09:09:30 am
Yeah, sure, that left one works. I've always been a bit weary of the red-heavy skin-tones like the right one. I'll also give you the biggest compliment one can get: seeing all your stuff makes me want to play your game :)