[Help] Mountain Scene

[Generic]

Hello everyone, I'm new to pixelation and thought I'd post something I just started working on to get some help hopefully. First of all, this is my first time ever trying anything like this. I'm mostly looking for help with how to shade the mountains to make it seem like it's covered by hundreds of trees. I also need help with what to do with the sky (the gradient is a place holder for the moment). And I'm not liking the contrast between the cliff and the rest of the scene. Any help at all will be greatly appreciated. Feel free to edit it all you want.

[Serena]

Oh man... mountains!  I've totally struggled with mountains.... so I made a little a little mini-tute.  First though, try to remember that mountains are shaped sort of like jagged pyramids connected together, not like cones!


1. Draw the peaks.
2. Decide your light source.
3. Draw some natural-looking zig-zags down the peak as guidelines for shading. Fork them now and then.
4. Using the light source as your guide, shade on the opopsite of the guides.  Make the shading gradually lighter (I used gradients, you can dither) as you reach the next guideline.
5. Repeat this technique with smaller lines to add more details.

[Ryan Cordel]

You should definately continue on, while taking the advice of the above post. I really like the atmosphere in that picture, it actually kind of 'pulls' you in.

[AdamAtomic]

hey serena that's a great post, i'll add my old explanation pic as well:



generic - you have the right idea with your rocks, just apply the same thinking to the mountains!

[Generic]

Wow thanks for the help guys. The pictures helped a lot because I'm more of a visual learned. I tried what both of you said about the shape, and the shading of the mountain. I think the shape turned out a lot more realistic looking, however, I think the shading looks really bad. If anyone can tell me what I'm doing wrong, feel free to do so.

[AdamAtomic]

hey that's definitely an improvement, but it is still pillowshaded - don't be afraid to let dark colors butt up against light colors, that is what will create the geometry of your mountain!

[Serena]

Ditto to what AA said... with regards to my example, you only want to dither/gradiate on one side of the block of color, buy mountains are so jagged, you can choose not to dither at all, instead using pointy shapes like AA showed in his example.

[Generic]

Alright let's see how this looks. I think it looks a lot better than my previous one, but it still doesn't look that great. I'm wondering if I should use another lighter color to make it stick out more. Any help welcomed.

[Serena]

Wow, that does look a lot better!  Not to confused with other techniques, but here's a cool pixel of a mountain range I found, maybe you'd like to look at it:
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/27271789/

[khorin]

My first edit woo!

I thought one little area needed to be lightened:


Are going to keep that outline on the mountain?