AuthorTopic: [WIP] Snake, man.  (Read 10866 times)

Offline Feron

  • 0100
  • ***
  • Posts: 1123
  • Karma: +0/-1
  • Carpe Diem
    • View Profile
    • Pixelheart

Re: [WIP] Snake, man.

Reply #10 on: September 19, 2007, 05:37:31 pm
looks better as a normal snake imo...

Offline Opacus

  • 0011
  • **
  • Posts: 971
  • Karma: +0/-0
  • Entangled
    • View Profile
    • www.jimjansen.net

Re: [WIP] Snake, man.

Reply #11 on: September 19, 2007, 07:29:02 pm
looks better as a normal snake imo...
I kinda like the big overbite. Gives it a charm, and turning it into a normal snake just takes most charm away...imo.

Offline Arachne

  • 0010
  • *
  • Posts: 309
  • Karma: +3/-0
    • View Profile
    • Retinal Eclipse

Re: [WIP] Snake, man.

Reply #12 on: September 19, 2007, 07:38:14 pm
Feron has a point. The muscles lifting the jaw are attached to the cranium, so with such a large lower jaw, it should also have a larger head because of added muscle mass. It looks a bit awkward and out of place now.

Offline ptepid

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 31
  • Karma: +0/-0
  • Token Lurker
    • View Profile
    • ptepid's repository

Re: [WIP] Snake, man.

Reply #13 on: January 30, 2008, 08:19:37 am
*Casts spell of thread necromancy*

Yeah, I've had another go at this ancient piece again. I haven't really tackled the scales yet, wimping out on that front. Kept the underbite but reduced it a bit, and added lots of glowy stuff. :)
« Last Edit: January 30, 2008, 10:33:19 am by ptepid »

Offline ndchristie

  • 0100
  • ***
  • Posts: 2426
  • Karma: +2/-0
    • View Profile

Re: [WIP] Snake, man.

Reply #14 on: January 30, 2008, 03:07:04 pm
heh, that went from zoobooks to mtg faster than you can blink.

i like where it is going, but there's something missing in the colors.  you have red(pink), green, blue, purple, orange(brown), and that's a lot to keep track of.

my thought:

figure out your emitters and the gloss or matte qualities of each texture region, and put these lighting elements in.  you've started with the lightning bolts, but they only effect the rock and they seem to have no collective light which makes them very weak.  the red interior and underbelly also seems as though it should be giving off light.  Once you see how things work with all the lighting tossed in, either add more colors of lights (green and red can be in your lightning, too!) and then appply those colors to the textures too to make things unified, or take away more colors in the texture as a last resort.  the simpler way too without making the light psychedelic would be to just be more conservative with your colors, particularly the rock and snake body tones which can be made into at least one and a half ramps if not identical ramps (with concentrations in different ends to make the difference)

one thing for sure is that the green either needs to be more present, more important, or gone.
A mistake is a mistake.
The same mistake twice is a bad habit.
The same mistake three or more times is a motif.

Offline ptepid

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 31
  • Karma: +0/-0
  • Token Lurker
    • View Profile
    • ptepid's repository

Re: [WIP] Snake, man.

Reply #15 on: October 01, 2008, 04:13:07 am
I must be a master necromancer by now. Yes, I've been hacking away at this ancient piece again. I've been working on detailing in the rocks (mainly top center, right side obviously not done yet). Added some more colour to the piece with a jungle shot taking up some of the dead space.

And yes, I finally got rid of the overbite. It looks so ridiculous now that I see it with new eyes. Which is why I'm back here... I want to see what else I'm blind to through your helpful eyes, before I go nuts with the finishing touches.

Offline Helm

  • Moderator
  • 0110
  • *
  • Posts: 5159
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile
    • Asides-Bsides

Re: [WIP] Snake, man.

Reply #16 on: October 01, 2008, 04:44:24 am
Hello ptepid. You were 'finale' in the old days, right? You were one of the first people I critiqued when I came to pixelation! The memories!

Your biggest problem right now are volumes. You sorta 'fake' them with cool rendering, but your rocks do not really look like rock formations, your snake is not an actual tube, so on. I think you need to do a lot of drawing with reference (googling for rocks will help!) with a critical eye on what makes them as they are. Your color selection and generally the lighting is really cool, but all the shapes and forms in this are messy!

Offline ptepid

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 31
  • Karma: +0/-0
  • Token Lurker
    • View Profile
    • ptepid's repository

Re: [WIP] Snake, man.

Reply #17 on: October 01, 2008, 08:36:25 am
Hello ptepid. You were 'finale' in the old days, right? You were one of the first people I critiqued when I came to pixelation! The memories!

Your biggest problem right now are volumes. You sorta 'fake' them with cool rendering, but your rocks do not really look like rock formations, your snake is not an actual tube, so on. I think you need to do a lot of drawing with reference (googling for rocks will help!) with a critical eye on what makes them as they are. Your color selection and generally the lighting is really cool, but all the shapes and forms in this are messy!
It was "finite", but very close. :) Still go by that name in places where I can't change it (pixeljoint, etc).

Tried to take your advice here. Noticed pretty quickly that the rock formation I'd made doesn't really occur naturally.
I've done a quick rework of the rocks and snake shading using palette-based shading tools... making things even messier. Just want to know if this is what you mean regarding volume... is this an improvement, or merely different and still problematic?

Offline Helm

  • Moderator
  • 0110
  • *
  • Posts: 5159
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile
    • Asides-Bsides

Re: [WIP] Snake, man.

Reply #18 on: October 01, 2008, 09:53:49 am
Finite, of course! Finale? Ugh, I'm a moron.

Your tools are hindering your progress. Forget the indexed darkening for now and draw rocks with 3 shades only, highlight, middle shade, darkness. If you can't draw a volume with 3 shades, you can't draw it with 300 either. Right now you're adopting one of the demoscene faults: textural detail without actual information attached to it. It looks busy, but busy isn't good if it's not also clear.

This cave entrance doesn't read as a real place, as the rocks do not form a natural opening, the tree in the corner obfuscates more than helps, it's a mixture of disparate elements that don't work all together. Whereas obviously you enjoy color very much, it can't take such a picture as far as it should go without some design theory.