AuthorTopic: Hide and Seek [WIP]  (Read 15549 times)

Offline Dex

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Hide and Seek [WIP]

on: December 11, 2008, 01:55:32 am
Since I've gotten a lot of critique on changing my RBG piece I'm taking a break from it for the moment and starting on something new. I've been working on this on and off for a bit now, and I want some feedback from you guys. It's appreciated!

CURRENT:


FIRST (D:):


« Last Edit: January 23, 2009, 12:13:09 am by Dex »

Offline I Am Uh

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Re: Hide and Seek [WIP]

Reply #1 on: December 11, 2008, 02:40:04 am
I smell potential. I think things need to be defined a little bit more though. Like the blue in front, I cant quite tell if that's supposed to be water or rocks. I need more contrast please.  :D
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Offline Dex

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Re: Hide and Seek [WIP]

Reply #2 on: December 12, 2008, 03:24:04 am
Thanks. It's just blue-ish tinted ground at night. I'm having trouble with unifying that palette and the rocks together.!



worked on the rocks, the boy, the setting and sketched a new tree. C+C!

Offline Dex

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Re: Hide and Seek [WIP]

Reply #3 on: December 14, 2008, 04:36:54 am


Another update. C+C please!

Offline Arachne

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Re: Hide and Seek [WIP]

Reply #4 on: December 14, 2008, 03:44:14 pm
There's not much difference in brightness between foreground and background, making it seem flat as if everything is the same distance from the viewer. It's much too bright for a night scene, and it's difficult to tell where the light source is. Some cast shadows would show where the light is coming from. You could simply show the moon in the picture to make it more obvious that it's night. The pose of the kid looks a bit 1-dimensional as well.

It's not clear to me what the relation between the kid and the lizard is. Is the kid its friend or its prey? The lizard would seem more like it's hunting if you gave it a pose to look like it's sneaking up on the kid. And it could use the tail to either grab the kid or distract him before the lizard makes its move, which seems fitting since it's already there and the kid is looking in the opposite direction.

Your color ramps seem to have very random leaps in hue and brightness. The result is a bit jarring. Maybe you could try to start out with straight ramps with more regular steps in brightness, and then compare the ramps and look for similarities. For instance, if you find two colors that are fairly similar, you can replace them with either one of them or a mix of the two. This way, the mixing of the ramps would serve a purpose, and it would also be more subtle.

If you start out with a grayscale or more or less monochromatic palette, you can add more interest to it by looking at where the colors are used. If you have large areas of a certain shade on elements that are supposed to be the same color and not much of it elsewhere, you can add color to that shade to fit those elements (shades on leaves or flowers, for instance, could have a green or purple tint, respectively). The color would mostly be on those elements, but it would also be a little bit of it in the rest of the image, so you'd unify the image without blending everything together.

Desaturate the darkest shades. Keep in mind that the more light there is the more color will be reflected and vice versa. There's not a lot of light at night, and that would make the scene look more monochromatic.

The darkest green seems really out of place in the background since it's very saturated, and too different from the blue colors in the rest of the ramp. For a night scene, it would fit better to move the darkest shades towards blue. Blue colors also seem colder. The warm colors of the kid's skin, shirt and the lizard's tongue would stand out more this way, since red and yellow seem warm. You have too much red in the rocks now, and that makes it blend together with the kid, making him more difficult to spot. You want to draw attention to him with either contrast in brightness or colors, and right now, there is neither.



Composition is also important when it comes to making things stand out and making a scene comfortable to look at. You can use lines to guide the viewer through the image, and add interest by using bright and dark areas and balancing them against each other. There's a lot to keep in mind, and I'm sure there are a few things in my edit that could use improvement. I think someone posted a link to this blog here. It has a lot of tips regarding composition, and I've found it really useful, so take a look and see if that makes it any clearer. :)

Offline Dex

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Re: Hide and Seek [WIP]

Reply #5 on: December 15, 2008, 02:17:57 am
Holy...Arachne, that's the best critique I've ever gotten, ever. It's so helpful, so unique, and so well-thought out. I wish you had MSN or something so I could get your opinions like that all the time, haha!

Anyways, I didn't greyscale it (yet I might later,) but this is what I've come up with. Some parts based on yours, some parts changed a bit. It's still really messy, but I'm liking it a lot more then I did.



I think this is a step in the right direction. C+C?

Offline CaKsTeR

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Re: Hide and Seek [WIP]

Reply #6 on: December 15, 2008, 03:20:03 am
His eyes are cross-eyed. Shouldn't they both be facing towards the dragon/dinosaur/lizard?

Offline Corinthian Baby

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Re: Hide and Seek [WIP]

Reply #7 on: December 15, 2008, 04:17:09 am
Reminds me of Fool's style man, he always has little kids in tight situations. Looks pretty sick.

Offline Dex

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Re: Hide and Seek [WIP]

Reply #8 on: December 21, 2008, 06:52:55 pm
got some crit in the irc last night, slowly taking heed of all of it, not all yet though, but ive addressed some major things

still a total wip lol

Offline 32

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Re: Hide and Seek [WIP]

Reply #9 on: December 22, 2008, 03:14:52 am
Wow, that bark textures brilliant.

Two things are bothering me,
The boy right arm (his right) seems to be just hangin' out the back of his head, his left also seems to be coming from the wall.
And the lizards tail doesn't look to me as if its actually coming from the lizard, seems more like a separate creature sitting on the wall, perhaps not having the part running along the wall might help.

Offline Dex

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Re: Hide and Seek [WIP]

Reply #10 on: December 27, 2008, 05:38:50 am


Update, started workin' a bit on the water, and changed some of the things you mentioned, 32. C+C!

Offline happymonster

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Re: Hide and Seek [WIP]

Reply #11 on: December 27, 2008, 04:23:00 pm
If the scene is only lit by the light of the moon then the rocks are lit wrongly in that they look lit from something in front of the tree. I think they could do with being darker and casting a shadow over the ground boy, which would make the scene seem more 'dark' (in mood) as well.

Hope that helps! :)

Offline Dr D

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Re: Hide and Seek [WIP]

Reply #12 on: December 27, 2008, 08:33:27 pm
Just adding on to that- Most of the scene is lit either too brightly, or from the wrong side, if it's being lit by the moon. The grass behind the rock, for instance, would catch little to no light, as the rocks are obstructing it from the light.

Offline Blick

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Re: Hide and Seek [WIP]

Reply #13 on: December 27, 2008, 08:35:54 pm
Being able to see just the top row of teeth without the mouth opened, partially or otherwise, makes it feel a bit like a child's drawing I feel. I think you should either have both rows of teeth protruding or open the mouth to expose the top row, which would probably make the lizard look much more threatening.

This is showing a lot of improvement already, keep at it.

Offline hotnikkelz

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Re: Hide and Seek [WIP]

Reply #14 on: December 27, 2008, 11:33:20 pm
Personally i think there's too much light on the boy, especially his left leg and the grass on which he's standing.  After all in the shadow of rocks the moonlight shouldn't be strong enough

Offline Dex

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Re: Hide and Seek [WIP]

Reply #15 on: December 28, 2008, 04:38:20 am


Here's an update with added darkness and more shadows. Keep going?

Thanks for the C+C guys!

Offline Pizza Tom

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Re: Hide and Seek [WIP]

Reply #16 on: December 28, 2008, 05:02:17 am
Maybe it's just me, but I think the darker version might be a bit TOO dark. I'd say bring out the highlights more.
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Offline fortunato

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Re: Hide and Seek [WIP]

Reply #17 on: December 28, 2008, 05:11:28 am
the grass looks mad sketchy still my dude. try to clean it up. also, his right arm looks like its bent backwards and folded out... its really weird. now about the colors... this is at night, and you cant see that well at night... you would NOT see all those bright colors! you can have the colors there, but try making them a tiny bit more saturated and make their shadows bluer, cause the light that you're getting is from the dark blue sky.

Offline Dex

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Re: Hide and Seek [WIP]

Reply #18 on: December 28, 2008, 05:49:27 am
Obviously the grass isn't done, dude

And the lightest parts are basically where the light would hit them from what I see, thanks though

Offline skamocore

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Re: Hide and Seek [WIP]

Reply #19 on: December 28, 2008, 05:54:38 am
Darker version is looking much better, it's starting to have a lot more atmosphere. =)

I'm having trouble empathising with the character at the moment. I assume you want this kid to be scared. But at the moment it just looks like he's got his mouth open. An edit:



Why 56 colours? =/

Offline Dex

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Re: Hide and Seek [WIP]

Reply #20 on: December 28, 2008, 06:00:26 am
Because I'm lazy and don't erase colors as I change them until I'm done and end up smacking myself several times. >>

Thanks for edit and comment, I'll try playing around with his expression.

EDIT: Also, I want the expression to be as if he's wondering if the monster is around the small corner, not looking directly at him, yknow.
« Last Edit: December 28, 2008, 06:03:36 am by Dex »

Offline Dogmeat

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Re: Hide and Seek [WIP]

Reply #21 on: December 29, 2008, 05:51:32 pm
Too dark now, I like what adarias was hinting at, I think you're trying to hard to make an impact within this scene when it can be done in a very subtle way. ALso, the dark colors completely ruin the earlier mood felt in the painting.
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Offline Dex

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Re: Hide and Seek [WIP]

Reply #22 on: December 29, 2008, 08:50:49 pm
...Adarias didn't post in this topic

It might change the mood a bit, man, but I'm going for realism here. Most of the opinions are saying keep it dark, though. I could lighten it a bit, but I'm not going to change it back at this point.

Offline happymonster

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Re: Hide and Seek [WIP]

Reply #23 on: December 29, 2008, 09:38:17 pm
I think the rocks are too 'interesting'. But that I mean that they capture the eye (at least for me) more than the boy or the monster. I think if you made them less detailed, more sketchy and darker that would work better as a background for the boy and the monster.

Offline NaCl

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Re: Hide and Seek [WIP]

Reply #24 on: December 30, 2008, 11:35:18 am
Hey Dex, this is looking an order of magnitude better then the original. Good work.

But, I have to say I think there is a fundamental flaw in the piece, which is that it seems there is a direct line of sight between the monster and the boy. It looks like they see each other. It would probably require a massive rework of everything to change this, so I don't expect you to at all. I just didn't see anyone mention this, and thought it could be important.

Besides that, the pixel technique is excellent in many areas, especially the rocks (great dithering) and water (the reflections actually look like reflections).

Offline Dex

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Re: Hide and Seek [WIP]

Reply #25 on: January 02, 2009, 02:18:04 am


Still truckin', WIP.

I'd like to point out I'd like less comments about the darkness of the scene now as I feel that it has a good atmosphere now. I just want general critique now.

@Everyone, thanks for the comments.

Offline hotnikkelz

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Re: Hide and Seek [WIP]

Reply #26 on: January 03, 2009, 03:32:05 pm
polishing time it seems to me :) go go go

Offline Dex

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Re: Hide and Seek [WIP]

Reply #27 on: January 07, 2009, 10:57:28 pm


Starting to slowly polish things and etc

C+C!

Offline Dex

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Re: Hide and Seek [WIP]

Reply #28 on: January 23, 2009, 12:12:31 am


Only a little bit more ta' go. Keep critiquing me, it's what got me this far!

Thanks to everyone who's helped so far, you guys rock <3

Offline hotnikkelz

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Re: Hide and Seek [WIP]

Reply #29 on: January 23, 2009, 04:35:46 am
I have a few problems, but i suppose it's subjective

My eyes are seeing 'outlines' in places where i think they're not needed

The trunk of the tree (that magenta line)
The outside of the boy's arms that (greeniish grey, and that dark grey)
The right side of the lizards tail, (strong green outline)
The right side of the lizard's head (strong black oultine)
I don't these outlines are needed.

The rock under the lizards head needs a bit more contrast at it's base. It's jsuta  tad too light.   

Offline Dex

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Re: Hide and Seek [WIP]

Reply #30 on: April 06, 2009, 10:15:35 pm


bumping this for final comments, etc.

you can check it here: http://pixeljoint.com/pixelart/41623.htm

Thanks for all the help pixelation!