A dirt road and a car - I'm looking for ideas on how to improve this background

Nine Toes · Fri 09/01/2004 20:06:06

This is a little background I'm working on.

It's supposed to be one of those backwood roads out in the middle of nowhere... I'm trying to make it look like it's at dusk, just before the sun goes down (I'm making one for at night too)... and I'm going to try to add some trees in the back behind the grass....

I don't know... any suggestions? How to make the grass look better? Anything at all? I guess I'm pretty happy with the way that it looks, it doesn't need to be a masterpiece, but I'd like some ideas on things I COULD do to improve it...

Come on, Colossal... you're excellent with art... you know you want to comment...

EDIT:
I guess I should mention, that I didn't draw the car all by my lonesome... I kinda cheated on that one... I just took a picture of my old Grand Am and traced over it 'cuz I can't draw cars for $hit.

LordHart · Fri 09/01/2004 20:29:00

One thing I suggest is adding more orange and and pink for the dusk version of it, with nice fluffy clouds to capture those colours and to give it a more natural looking dusk effect.

I usually suck at these kinds of pics that deal with realistic lighting and colours stuff, so I might not be the best person to listen to. $:-\$

MrColossal · Fri 09/01/2004 21:24:22

varying degrees of dusktitude:

also: http://www.shelales.com/sunsets.htm

i guess it just depends on what level of sunset you want but the majority of the photos have more orange

i dunno what to say really, how done is the image you're making? the ground is flat perspective wise and the sky is a flat colour, what else do you plan on adding?

Nine Toes · Fri 09/01/2004 22:18:58

Well, I'm going to add some thick woods in the background behind the grass. Over towards the left side of the screen, I'm going to have the tree line stop, so you will see a pasture and the sky line. I also added some concrete road in the forground (the way it as you see above, kinda makes it look like it's on a beach) The image itself is pretty much done... I'm not going to worry too much about shading and stuff like that (I was never any good with shading anyways). I'm going to go with more orange tones for the sky (I always thought the sky looked cool that way) that and I want it to look like the sun has gone down and all that's left is light coming up over the horizon, kinda like what you see during dusk in the summer. (kinda like the pic on the bottom with the boat)

Gimme about an hour to finish putting the new touches on it, and I'll repost.

Nacho · Fri 09/01/2004 23:43:35

Or course... a loooong shadow after the car will help to give the impresson that the sun is setting.

Domino · Sat 10/01/2004 00:09:37

Dr. Jekyll?~MR. HYDE!, I really like the Pontiac Grand Am you have in your background. I had one of them cars many years ago. You did a good job on it.

For the BG, right now its a bit baron, but with work, i'm sure it will be amazing.

Shawn

Nine Toes · Sat 10/01/2004 00:10:34

Here it is:

I kinda like the way it looks. I mean, it's not fantastic, but it's good. Like I said, I'm not worried about how detailed it is and it doesn't need to be a masterpiece, so I guess it's satisfactory enough for me.

I drew the it all in MS Paint, I rotated the sign with GIMP... I'm pretty new to gimp, so I was wondering if there is a way that I can darken the entire image in it...?

Darth Mandarb · Sat 10/01/2004 00:36:11

The problem with the image is there's no shading on the car and no light on it.

I did this really quick!

- Added some darker shading on the side of the car away from the sun.
- Added some hi-lights to the side facing the sun.
- Added some light effects to the windows.
- Added some general shading to the lines of the car.

Cheers,
])]V[

EDIT - My first car was an '88 Grand Am!! Good choice!

Nine Toes · Sat 10/01/2004 01:03:52

Hey, that's awesome. Thanks for the idea. I'm really bad with shading and light sources, I would've never considered that.

I don't suppose you would mind if I used that pic, would you?

Actually, it's an '89, but yeah it was a good choice. I loved that car... then I hit a deer with it... *tear*...

Darth Mandarb · Sat 10/01/2004 02:50:50

QuoteI don't suppose you would mind if I used that pic, would you?

I don't mind if you use that at all!

My Grand Am was in a few fender benders, and was falling apart. We started calling it the 'Was Grand Am' before it finally got scrapped.

It was a good car!

])]V[

Nine Toes · Sat 10/01/2004 03:06:44

Excellent. Better than I would have done on my own.

Thanks for the help, Darth.

I still have mine, it's sitting up behind the barn, all smashed to hell. I want to rebuild it... I found a salvage yard where I can get all the replacement panels, radiator & a/c for it for 250$. I also want to tear out the Tech 4 that it has and drop a V-6 in it, seeing as it has about 170,000 miles on it. The V6 will give it a little bit of kick, to boot.

TheYak · Sat 10/01/2004 03:49:46

Heya. You said you don't wanna do a lot of detailed shading and stuff but (especially after Darth's edit) the car's a bit inconsistent with the rest of the pic. For one, it's got shading but we can forget about that for the time being. Second reason, it's casting a shadow. It's seriously very little work at all to have those grass-blades toss some shadows on the dirt and will add to the depth of the image (I think).

Also, the strength of the image is its detail, such as having a fairly realistic-looking car and that limit sign. The dirt has particles, as well. I don't think the grass is matching the rest of the image at the moment. Maybe a few more blade-details (or even fine-line scribbly stuff) might lessen the impression of a flat plane of grass. Some line-shaped speckling on the receding hill might also look nice, however it's far enough away that I don't think you really need it.

Also, it might just be that my monitor's set brighter than the sun but the forest shadows could be a touch darker. Since you've chosen a dark shade of brown, it helps give the impression that it's a thick forest. Maybe if you put in some nearly-black shadowing, at the same time giving the brown shadows more of a tree shap it might give it more depth/realism.

The road and yellow line might look a bit better at an angle (or at least not a perfectly horizontal line). If you addressed the road-edge like you did the dirt (where it meets the grass) it'd help mix it up a little. Finally, the yellow line. At the road's edge (at least in the US) the lines are often white. If it's a center-line, you might place it a bit more towards the bottom with angled edges to give a skewed-perspective look. If it is, indeed, an edge line, maybe a quick pass or two with some road-gray might make it look a bit more worn.

Overall, great image, I'm diggin' the mood and think it'll work well. Especially well done for MSPaint.

sergiocornaga · Sun 11/01/2004 04:09:38

Hey, that's looking pretty good. You could add some texture to the trees though.