AuthorTopic: [CC] Mountain Tiles & Backgrounds  (Read 11304 times)

Offline eishiya

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Re: [CC] Mountain Tiles & Backgrounds

Reply #30 on: December 03, 2017, 01:13:26 am
I think it could do with having a bit of a side wall visible.

As for the flatness, just adding some cast shadows should help a lot! Don't forget that the building's front isn't just a flat surface, some parts stick out more than others.
In addition, I think you should ease up on some of the highlights and details, as they further flatten the image. If everything is fully highlighted and detailed, then nothing looks closer or further than anything else.
Don't forget to keep the lighting on your foreground objects consistent with the lighting in the background!

Here's an edit focusing on adding some cast shadows:

I got rid of the highlights on the bricks and the door*, and reduced the intensity of the highlights on the wood and thatch. I'm not sure the thatch highlights are useful at all, it might look better without them.
I made the wooden structure and thatch cast a shadow on the plaster, and removed the plaster shadows above the wood (what would be casting them?).
I did a very lazy job trying to flip the shadows, I'm sure you can do better than I did.
*I flattened the door a lot because it's made out of flat boards. There's no reason for it to have lots of shadows on each board. If you want to give it some wood texture, consider doing it with the edges of shadows cast onto the door (if there are any), or using some low-contrast colour that's neither shadow nor highlight, but a second midtone.

Something else I did was reduce some of your texturing on the wood, I made the shadows and highlights more solid by filling in some of the gaps you made for the sake of texture. This gives the logs more volume. Texture is nice, but you shouldn't let it get in the way of volume.

Edit: Didn't I critique the key icon and number being too close before?
« Last Edit: December 03, 2017, 01:15:55 am by eishiya »

Offline Sersch

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Re: [CC] Mountain Tiles & Backgrounds

Reply #31 on: December 03, 2017, 10:40:38 am
Wow, thanks for the great overpaint! Yes, casting shadows was definitely the biggest miss from my side. Also a bit embarrassed i forgot about the lighting direction in the background was different :D
I guess i also might overdid it a bit trying to get more contrast and details in this time.

Funnily i remember that i had fixed the position of the key icon and being unsure myself now i had to scroll back to the previous screenshot i posted here and indeed, it is fixed there. But i changed the minimap size recently and guess doing that i misplaced the key icon once again :D

Offline Sersch

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Re: [CC] Mountain Tiles & Backgrounds

Reply #32 on: December 03, 2017, 12:40:47 pm
Updated version:



(i made it myself easier by flipping the whole house to begin with for the lighting direction ;) )
I also added another shade to have some textures in the door planks. Now wondering if i should add this tone to the other wooden parts.

Offline eishiya

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Re: [CC] Mountain Tiles & Backgrounds

Reply #33 on: December 03, 2017, 06:29:51 pm
I don't think there's really room in the other wooden parts for the extra shade. Maybe just to soften up the shadow in a few spots? It feels a bit harsh.

Is the roof thatch? If so, the front edge would probably be flat, not rounded. That means it would be largely flat-coloured, texture aside. Photo example. Your shadows and highlights suggest a round shape.

I think it would look better if there wasn't grass right in front of the door, but rather something like a dirt path. Some extra props like barrels might also look good. Things like that will make the house look like it's been there a while. A lone house in an unbroken field of grass looks like it got plopped there by a tornado five minutes ago ;D

Offline Sersch

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Re: [CC] Mountain Tiles & Backgrounds

Reply #34 on: December 03, 2017, 09:27:50 pm
Yes i've tried to add some planks in front of the door, also i've been working on a blob farm today but i think you are right, some more decoration would not hurt.



and an animated version:


The part of the roof that is visible was intended to be logs, i had them in the same colors as the remaining wood at the beginning but it looked weird to me so i made gave them different colors. But it does look like thatch somewhat, maybe i should try to rework it to look more more like it?

Offline eishiya

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Re: [CC] Mountain Tiles & Backgrounds

Reply #35 on: December 04, 2017, 03:38:56 am
The shorter grass looks nice! And it's probably a simpler solution than trying to make a dirt path work without the luxury of perspective.

I think thatch would be better. Bending such thick logs like that would be very difficult, and roofing with log segments sounds like a recipe for wasted wood and a lot of leaking.

The house lacks the contrast of the trees that are in the same plane, so you may want to raise that, especially on the rocks.

The blob farm looks neat! I think it could use some indication of a fence behind the blobs, perhaps just a solid dark colour so it's not too noisy. You might need to space the posts apart more to make that read well, though. That would also make the blobs more visible.
The green blobs are a bit hard to see against the green background, especially with the fence further blocking the view. I think a more contrasting colour would help a lot.

Offline Sersch

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Re: [CC] Mountain Tiles & Backgrounds

Reply #36 on: December 08, 2017, 10:04:29 pm
yeah i think having a background fence is a good idea, i included that. Also made the dark colors of the house a bit darker:



I also tried to do some thatch but failed miserably so i gave up on that for now :p