(http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q200/Bobbix/isle2.jpg)
This is the screen where the title screen and first part of the intro scene will take place, and maybe used to separate time periods--essentially, this is the establishing shot, and you will see it a lot, so I want it to be good.
Criticisms, suggestions, etc?
(Sorry for making paint-overs not really an option... ;))
The fog is too much. There's no real sense of light direction. The island this building is on is way tiny. No one would ever build something that big on an island that small. The tower is too close to the horizon line and is an eye killer. Either bring it way below or way above. The water looks more like a sky. A little haze on the horizion line wouldnt hurt.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v458/evil1359/crappy_fort_paintover.jpg)
Threw a title on top of it to see how it would compose. Not a great paintover, but maybe it will help you.
Good point about the rock, and I'll see what I can do about the fog and the haze.
I didn't even notice about the water, but you are absolutely right. I made the texture too small. I fixed the rock, and the water.
And are you saying there is too much fog or the fog itself is too much, and should be done away with?
As for the island size, well, I used this as a reference photo:
(http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q200/Bobbix/ref.png)
I am trying to make the island hillier.
THe horizon should be slightly curved, like this:
(http://www.scottpix.com/gallery/travel/Fiji/002042t.jpg)
And, if you add more ripples/waves in the water like Evil's paintover, they should get smaller and smaller till they are not visible as you go further back.
And I think it might be slightly better if you moved the island up a bit, and a little left, but now I'm nit-picking :=
Here is a fogless redo:
(http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q200/Bobbix/isle2a-1.png)
Well, Here is my "quick" take on this:
(http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c299/Infarock/isle2a-1.png)
-I added the moon (obviously) and stars.
-Added gradient to horizon so the water and sky blended better.
-I softened some of the edges.
-I added a shadow of the island casted by the moon.
As I said, this was a quick paintover, but I hope it helps!
Good job so far! :=
Thanks, JRock.
*hits head* The Moon!
How did I forget the moon???
I'll get right on that!
I suppose the gradient will be a job for Paint Shop Pro, however.
Keep in mind, if you add the moon, make sure you move your light source.
Okay, I've add the moon, done some other stuff, played around with radiosity, totally redid the island, and here is what we have:
(http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q200/Bobbix/isle3-2.png)
What do you think?
Sweet job on that island, water etc. Should the horizon be slightly rounded still if you zoom in like you have? I'm honestly not sure, and never even noticed that before!
As for the stars, a little more size variation might help break up the monotony. Looks pretty good though to me.
The sloping island works nicely, good idea. I like the lines of the piece much more now.
The lighting and texture work are, a little flat, though. It could look nice to tone down the contrast of the moon some, and use more varied stone textures.
(http://img128.imageshack.us/img128/8349/imagesys8.jpg) (http://imageshack.us)(http://img255.imageshack.us/img255/6674/fortjesusmn9.th.jpg) (http://img255.imageshack.us/my.php?image=fortjesusmn9.jpg)(http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/2130/fujairahcastleoo5.th.jpg) (http://img442.imageshack.us/my.php?image=fujairahcastleoo5.jpg)
Another thing that might help is a faint second light source with a bluish tint, for the light coming from the sky. The sky light can be pretty omnidirectional, and would benefit from really soft shadows, or an effect like area lighting or radiosity.
QuoteWhat do you think?
Nicely done, but extremely boring.
All of these few details are very clearly visible which leaves no chance that there's something we don't see --
like more details. I'd describe this renders as "naked".
Paintovers? I can't edit your 3D-scene, but even this case can be
fakedetailed with a paint program.
* Decreased overall saturation and contrast little bit.
* Added more stars. Current stars sucked somewhat - same size and intensity!
* Went totally overboard with blue stars. My bad!
* Added fake fog, which is cleared in the middle, leaving only detailed bit of sea and castle in full visibility.
The fog has no realism in it, but as a still-screen design element, it's not too bad choice.
* Brought carefully some green back to the island. For a cliff-island, the island geometry is too simple.
Not an edit I'd use, but maybe gives you some simple ideas.
(http://www.increator.pri.ee/i/critshelp/isle_inc.png)
For a game title and possible main menu:
I'd put title where evil did, but this wouldn't be too good idea, since contrasty moon in black sky getting behind title text and making it look bad. Another, and maybe better choice is to put title text into lower-right corner, because there's very little of details and large area for this.
And for a general suggestion: Avoid large contrast and saturation combinations!
If they are used, it must be done with extreme care. But low saturation is a formula for beginners to achieve good-looking images.
The sea was WAY too blue and castle blended too much into island on your last render.
Another point I'd like to bring out is that... on the scene, it's the end of the world.
Google for nighttime sea shots. Sea always gets lighter near horizon or darker, and we sense that it continues after the horizon. Or horizon sky gets lighter near the sea... On your image, sea suddenly... ends!
This is where fog could really do the trick...
Alright, here is an edit I really like:
(http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q200/Bobbix/isle3.jpg)
CHANGES:
*Changed to widescreen format, because I like the look and it makes natural room for the text parser GUI.
*Desaturated the water, although before InCreator suggested it (I guess great minds think alike ;))
*Added fog.
*Added stars.
*Darkened up the castle.
*Made the island a bit more natural (less simple)
*Added more green to the top.
EDIT: Told.
EDIT2: GUI.
Now the water and mist/fog is too bright to be moonlit. Look how dark the island is and then compare it to the water. But the rest is nice. I like the sky. Some details on the island would be great. Maybe a few dead trees, a small wooden boat pier etc.
Dude great job on the stars :) Still all seem to be one size, but whatever at least it's not so formulaic now.
Less major update (and hopefully [at least close to] my last draft):
(http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q200/Bobbix/isle3-2.jpg)
CHANGES:
*Added a dead tree. (I assure you it wasn't a random "Oh I'd better place a dead tree in there like he said." It took maybe half an hour to get it right)
*Darkened the fog and water.
*Changed the size of some of the stars.
*Moved the moon (ever so slightly)
*Made the castle a bit lighter.
How is this?
EDIT: I have again forgotten an object pronoun.
EDIT2:
*Resaturated the green top, so that it contrasts better with the night sky.
Okay, I once again totally redid the island.
(http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q200/Bobbix/isle4-1.png)
Whaddaya think?
give the castle and island a bit more light as though you can almost see the colour of the grass(take a look at increator's )
give the sea a little bit more definition it looks like the island is popping out of the clouds almost like a mountain
Maybe a subtle touch of blue in the night sky, Nightskies (although most believe its black) are blue due to the light refracting around the edge
Lose some stars
Your onto a winner
if i think of owt else il yell lol And unfortunatly i cant draw in 3d
nice work so far though
I just knocked this up using Bryce presets, and a smidge of photoshop manipulation.
(http://homepage.eircom.net/~limpingfish/Island.jpg)
It might give you an idea for lighting your scene. :)
LimpingFish...
You make me sad... :'(
I'm stuck using Moray...
Alas, I have no moneys!
I have no money either. ;D
Bryce 5 was given away free for a time by DAZ3D.
You should try Terragen (http://www.planetside.co.uk/terragen/win/).
It's free and pretty easy to use. You're limited to 800x600 renders, though, but other than that it's fully functional. There's a number of plug-ins available for it too.
I always felt that moray+povray was kinda clumsy, although I haven't tried it for years, but on the other hand I haven't seen anything really nice made with it so I assume it's still the same. Terragen gives you outstandingly beautiful terrain renders with minimum effort, sadly it's pretty much all that it can do (I don't know about plugins, been years when I last used the whole program). But I would choose Blender+yafray for all-around-free-3d. Maybe give them a shot, but if you feel more comfortable with moray+povray and you feel the features are enough for you, then stick to them.
As for the picture. Horizont can't be clear if there's fog. I like where you've gone with the shape of the island, before it was just a triangle shape, now it's much more interesting rugged shape. But the lighting, in your last versions you have the island much too dark and before you changed the shape of the island all I saw was a dark triangle. The shape change helped to see some structures on the island as silhouette but I think you need some more lighting on the building still. Also when the island changed, so did the all this "big stucture on small island" scheme, I'm not sure if you wanted this.
Some more observations. Your moon is not round :o (you don't happen to have 1280x1024 resolution on a 4:3 screen, do you?)
Wave size could be something between your's and LimpingFish's. This way the ocean would be more interesting to look at. The sky does look like if it was a photograph of stars shot in space, so maybe you could put some dark blue shades to it and make the stars a little less visible.
I started out with Moray and I have always felt an emotional connection with it, but I downloaded Blender around noon today. I'm gonna see if this is any good, and if it is, I'll switch, and remake the island scene in Blender.
Slightly offtopic, but switching to Blender might be the best decision, since it's powerful, adaptable anmd free :)
Now, if only the splash screen had Don't Panic, written in large, friendly letters... The interface rather sucks, but version 2.5 will have a brand-new interface, rewritten to be more user-friendly.
As for Yafray, I dunno... if your computer can handle it, fine, but if you don't have 1 GB of RAM, I'd suggent sticking to clever light rigs in Blender, with some photoshopping afterwards.
/$0.02