AuthorTopic: A background for my friend  (Read 3894 times)

Offline Oceans Dream

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A background for my friend

on: September 16, 2009, 11:57:53 pm

Version 1


Version 2


Version 3

I was playing Magical vacation/Magical starsign recently. I liked the buildings in it, and how they aren't just a bunch of straight lines (moreso with Magical Starsign). I figured I'd give the style a try. I still haven't given this to my friend so I have time to make adjustments. Is there anything in this pic I can fix or keep in mind for future pixels?
« Last Edit: September 19, 2009, 05:02:40 am by Oceans Dream »

Offline EyeCraft

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Re: A background for my friend

Reply #1 on: September 17, 2009, 04:56:03 am
Oh, very cool! The first issue I noticed was the jaggedness created by the outlines. You can solve this by lightening or removing the outlines towards highlights, and AAing.

Lightsources are also mixed. The rocks imply an overhead bright sun, but the roof of the building and the red arch are dark and imply they are bottom-lit. The roof of the building in general needs clarification; it's hard to work out what the volumes are.

The poles inside the building don't really work well. For one, they appear out of perspective (need to be higher up in the picture and not shrink so much). Keep in mind where the horizon and vanishing points are when working with perspective. Two, their darkness doesn't match the lighting environment they are in:

Offline Randommonkies

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Re: A background for my friend

Reply #2 on: September 17, 2009, 05:10:03 am
neat start, the rocks are looking good. I think the stairs need some more contrast though.

Offline Oceans Dream

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Re: A background for my friend

Reply #3 on: September 17, 2009, 07:43:29 am
Wow, that's some great advice! OK, I was dumb to not even notice about the lighting on the tops, I need to make a note of that. It's pretty late right now but I will make an edit tomorrow. Thank you!

EDIT-
OK it's posted above
« Last Edit: September 17, 2009, 09:34:59 pm by Oceans Dream »

Offline thedaemon

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Re: A background for my friend

Reply #4 on: September 18, 2009, 01:11:34 am
Why did you change the top of the red gate to the same texture as your rocks? Has it been overlayed with rock on the top of the gate? I noticed you mirrored the image for the most part, and you are trying to force it to be asymmetrical by adding detail on one side different from the other. Well, for instance, your rocks on the right have vines but they are the same rocks as on the left. It's still very obvious that it's a mirror. Also your shadows on the steps seem too bright compared to the shadows of the rest of the scene. Oh sorry, you fixed that mainly, but the far edges where the rocks/steps meet could use a little more contrast methinks.
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Offline EyeCraft

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Re: A background for my friend

Reply #5 on: September 18, 2009, 04:49:33 am
That's a pretty good improvement, but there's still a number of issues. I've done a bit of an edit to show a couple of things:



I boxed the areas I had a look at. The main thing is dealing with volumes; shading according to form. A lot of things in the image are treated as shapes, rather than 3d objects. Remember to break things down into simple forms like cubes, cylinders and spheres. The top 2 boxes in my edit are mainly just this in action, as well as taking points from my previous post. The bottom-most box is just some AA example.

Now that thedaemon has mentioned it, the mirroring is pretty obvious. Some places are easy to mix up a little, such as the borders on the grass.

Offline Oceans Dream

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Re: A background for my friend

Reply #6 on: September 19, 2009, 05:06:34 am
OK, this is good feedback! It is a good point about the mirroring, so I went and fixed that. Also did some other edits, like having grass grow a bit over the bottom of the gates poles, changed the top of the gate completely, and worked with the poles on the temple itself. It's up top.
« Last Edit: September 19, 2009, 05:08:37 am by Oceans Dream »