Light outside corridor BG ~Outer ruins~ [FINISHED??]

[Gizmonicgamer]

This is the most recent "stable" version where I know what I'm doing.

Basically, it's a kind of Ico/shadow of the colossus-esque corridor, located outside, consisting of a walkway, a ceiling and pillars/archways. The light is very bright; behind the pillars and ontop of the "stairs" would be grass and a few withering trees. Behind that probably a small wall or something, i'm not positive.

Any comments, critique or suggestions thus far would be pretty helpful. I'm still not entirely sure how exactly I should go about the lighting of the pillars (being on the inside) in contrast with the stairs and floor. I want them to have more of a grey-ish tint and not be quite as contrasted as the stairs and the floor but I'm not sure exactly. I'm also not sure where I'm going with the empty space between the archways and the ceiling.

it was inspired by:
http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/shadowofcolossus/images/f/f5/Secret_Garden_image.jpg

C+C?

EDIT:
(presumably) Final version:

EDIT 2:
didn't like the easter tones so I browned it a little.

[Gizmonicgamer]

update/conceptual "forethought" into where i'm going with this peice

I'm not too sure about the lighting as a whole; the forward lighting makes a little more sense but I'm wondering if maybe adjusting it to be more centralized (at least on the pillars) would make look better.

C+C so far?

[Phones]

The perspective seems a bit off to me. While I feel like I'm looking at the pillars straight on, the floor tilings seem to be viewed from above. It's very bothersome.

[crab2selout.png]

It think it would be helpful to look up some references for that kind of architecture. I believe a series of arches supported by columns is called an arcade, so I did some googling and ended up with this wiki full of interesting drawings from a french book on architecture.
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Dictionary_of_French_Architecture_from_the_11th_to_16th_Century/Volume_1/Blind_Arcade?match=fr

Columns can have plenty of interesting styles. A good picture reference here on the classical orders
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_order

There's a picture of the Santa Sabina here, whch uses composite order columns to support the arches.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Santa_Sabina.JPG

[Tobe]

I'm not sure about this, but I don't think you can get the kinda light effects with a black outline...? The light supposes to be there due to glare, and the idea of having a black line in glaring light didn't seem right in my head. Any takers?

[Zoggles]

I'm not sure about this, but I don't think you can get the kinda light effects with a black outline...? The light supposes to be there due to glare, and the idea of having a black line in glaring light didn't seem right in my head. Any takers?

I was thinking exactly the same thing when I was looking at it - then scrolled down to read the comments.

It seems really awkward having that black outline separate the intense light and the glow on the pillars. The top curvature of the archways could be better too and the few upwards streaks of light at the top seem strange.


-Z-

[Rydin]

To show that the light is coming from the outside to the inside, you could show the light coming through and hitting the floor.

Quick photoshop illustration of what I mean:


Also, if you do this, make sure that the light on the floor conforms to the shape of the archway, and that the light is coming in at the same angle as the shading on the pillars (my poor example doesn't do this).

[Gizmonicgamer]

Most importantly, thanks everyone for their comments and critique!

It think it would be helpful to look up some references for that kind of architecture. I believe a series of arches supported by columns is called an arcade, so I did some googling and ended up with this wiki full of interesting drawings from a french book on architecture.
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Dictionary_of_French_Architecture_from_the_11th_to_16th_Century/Volume_1/Blind_Arcade?match=fr

Columns can have plenty of interesting styles. A good picture reference here on the classical orders
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_order

There's a picture of the Santa Sabina here, whch uses composite order columns to support the arches.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Santa_Sabina.JPG

Thanks a lot for the references! I'll see if I can't put them to use. While these are a bit more standard european than I was originally intending (I actually had a bit more of a mayan, maybe indian (or spanish??) kind of style in mind) it's been a great help in defining what exactly I should do.

I'm not sure about this, but I don't think you can get the kinda light effects with a black outline...? The light supposes to be there due to glare, and the idea of having a black line in glaring light didn't seem right in my head. Any takers?

Yeah, it's not done; the background isn't going to be pure white nor is the outline going to be black. I just haven't drawn the background behind that yet, that's all.

The top curvature of the archways could be better too and the few upwards streaks of light at the top seem strange.

Yeah, that curvature bothers me slightly. I've touched upon it slightly, but I'm not sure if I'm going to get too much more out of it. And I wasn't sure what I was doing with anything above the arch itself so I hadn't done anything about those yet; in fact I'm still not absolutely positive about that part, specifically.

To show that the light is coming from the outside to the inside, you could show the light coming through and hitting the floor.

Yeah, I was planning on doing that in-game so that I could add a hint of motion to it as you move through the room, and maybe have it shine on the character as well. But I took your suggestion to heart and in the most recent version I've touched upon it slightly on the floor.




Is this any better? I've added a bit of lighting to the floor and I've started trying to define the archs a bit more (with some help from crab2selout) while trying to retain the more simplistic style I was going for.

Obviously still a WIP; as evidenced by the white bars on the right side where I had to move the pillars because somehow they became uneven while I was copying and pasting them.

C+C please? Any thoughts on the direction thus far? Should I try and study architecture a bit more as to better deal with the archs?

[Gizmonicgamer]

update.

Not sure how I feel about it, really. Especially the angled light source. I'm thinking of maybe undoing that and going with something a bit more centralized, as far as the 'arcade' is concerned.

[Photocopier]

the pillars don't cast shadows?