[WIP] The Crash Site

[pixelblink]

Hoping that for once I actually finish something.
Here lies a ufo crash scene in the desert. The sun has almost set completely. I'm kind of confuddled with how to light this bugger and the sand though. For the most part I'm okay with certain areas but don't wanna move ahead if I've overlooked some key point in highlighting. The lines are still jagged and will be cleaned up in future edits. Please let me know your thoughts so I can improve and finish this piece.
<<old vs new>>
Updates:
Rounded out the left side of the dome more. Changed the smoke into more of a billowing shape. I like the colours more now on the smoke. You won't see another update until much later tonight or tomorrow since I've gotta run to work.

[Crazy Asian Gamer]

Generally, lines should be cleaned up before the coloring starts....  but I'd be a hypocrite if I criticized you on that.

Pure white isn't pure white when the sun is setting. The light comes through a whole load of filters in the atmosphere, and it appears orangy to us. Therefore, in sunsets, your ramps should be yellow-orange shifted in general.

Sand casting shadow onto ufo? Check light source: best aa sand into ufo without any of those shadows.

Use those atmospheric shades in the sand. You wouldn't want to be wasting colors now, would you?

Study your AA. There are times where you cross the critical point, and end up blurring the piece, and other times when it just doesn't help with the jaggies.

For the most part, the sand that's disrupted from the UFO crash is the most accurate in the piece. Definitely revise that... err... sand dune on the right side of the piece.

That's all I've got. Good luck in finishing.

[Takai Soyokaze]

Just redo the piece, I can't see why you started before cleaning up your lines, and it would be a hassle pixel perfecting the things you should have already done.

[pixelblink]

Takai: I don't usually even begin with lineart. I usually feel out a piece by rough sketches followed by colour fills and then the fine tuning. It's worked fine for me in the past. Redoing something for no reason at all seems even more a waste of time.

C.A.G.: Thanks for your help on this. I've shifted some of the colours to that yellow-orange hue and it looks better now I think. Dragging/AAing that sand onto the UFO was a good idea and I dunno why I didn't do it to begin with. Tried cleaning up some of that AA problem you mentioned... what do you think now? There's still some problem areas I need to figure out. All in all, I've redone the sky altogether and am quite pleased so far. The dunes have taken a better form and hope to add some more character to the background by adding some desert plantlife/wildlife perhaps.
My blue alien may make an appearance in this somewhere... not sure yet. Again, thanks for your help

[Feron]

It loks like a plastic toy in a sandbox.  Perhaps add more ufo-stuff, lights, doors, bolts, guns, windows, vents.

Nice pallette  , works well with the overall feel.  Perhaps also add debris from the ship to make it look like a crash, at the moment it looks like someone neatly placed it in the sand...

[pixelblink]

Thanks Sharky-boy/Feron. My next update will surely have some additions to the UFO for sure. I like your idea of having debris... although I kinda also like the idea of it being a toy in a sandbox as well... hmms. I like the pallette as well. Been trying to avoid selecting just different shades of the same tone lately. Cheers mate!

[Lawrence]

This reminds me so much of the crashed UFO from Return to Planet X on Timesplitters 2 
I think the smoke looks a bit too solid, here are some good references for the smoke: Smoke 1, smoke 2, smoke 3, smoke 4, smoke 5, smoke 6.
I think it might be a good idea to try making the orange dome cast some sort of caustics and to put in some radiosity of some sort. Nice palette and nice work so far

[pixelblink]

Thanks Lawrence.. found some other useful references on Flickr as well. Changed the smoke completely. Will try some caustic stuff later. Not sure about how to do the radiosity you mentioned.

[Aeon Vision]

Wauw.....

Its really neat, only thing: i think you've overdone the smoke, it looks nice, the colors are great, but there is just to much smoke.

Thin it in a bit and it'll be fine i think.