Cliff Shading

[Raider]

Hi everyone,

I need some help with making this look more like a cliff. The lighter ground at the bottom is supposed to be a cliff and when the character climbs down (out of view) he walks out to the pyramids (scaling will reduce him to about 2 pixels high)

How would I make the bottom part look more like a cliff over looking the pyramids? Paintovers welcome...

Also do you think the 2nd largest pyramid looks odd in its angle?

[matt]

how about this

[Misj']

How would I make the bottom part look more like a cliff over looking the pyramids? Paintovers welcome...

The easiest way to do this (from this angle) is by using some overlap in the image: if the cliff is slightly in front of the pyramids (or some oasis near) the eye will know that the foreground is not on the same level as the background.

[cat]

A rougher texture in the foreground with maybe some small stones and other detail and a smooth background could also do the trick.

[bog]

i think you need to make the foreground darker than the rest, not the other way around

[InCreator]

Image like this could be quite tricky to do.

Here's why you failed:

* There's nothing that gives a hint that pyramids are down and you are up. Making cactuses, rocks, anything that's small down there and big on the cliff would give much better impression. Could be extra hard because it's desert and deserts aren't packed with anything else than sand.
* The edge doesn't stand out enough to leave cliff impression
* Cliff doesn't have visible edges that could indicate that this - really is - a cliff.
* The pyramids have still very much side view, which makes things harder. If the were "seen" more from top, the task would have been easier.

Here's what I did:

* Brightened horizon to give impression of something far-far away and in the heat haze/fog
* Also, desaturated and lowered contrast to do previous. I think that's only way to do it if you want to stay in low-res, and not use blur (otherwise, blur would have faked nice depth-of-view effect)
* Darkened border between cliff and lower land, leaving impression of shadow/shade

It worked, kind of


Of course, that's an 5-minute edit (really lazy this time really, see how I messed up fog/haze) and you could do much, much better than this.

* Just pick up the idea and do it correctly
* Add something partial down below. I mean a cactus that's only half visible or rock, nomad tent or something. If it's half-visible, people should understand better that it's actually covered by cliff that is in the foreground.
* Add details up and down. Difference between their sizes also hint greatly about what we're seeing here.
* Don't overdo it like i did.
* This sand would greatly benefit from some noise. But only cliff part.

EDIT: For blur demonstration, it worked a bit better. But blur cannot be used really well with low-res.

[Nacho]

i think you need to make the foreground darker than the rest, not the other way around

No... Take a photo of any landscape and see that, the furthest, the most approximate is the background colour to the sky. So, if we have a mountain in the nearby, it should be green. It it's far away, a bit green, and almost blue/white, whatever. Except if the sun is rising, or setting in that place, then, yeah, it should be very dark.

[bog]

actually that was what i meant

[Raider]

Thank you all for your replies.

I have worked on it a little and come up with this...



I'm a little worried that the trees draw the eye too much and that it takes the focus off the pyramids. Do they distract you?

InCreator - If my memory serves me correctly, I believe we use the same program (ArtGem) so your paintovers were especially helpfull. Thank you.

[bog]

those trees are kinda big i think, almost as big as the small pyramid, is that what you want?

[Matti]

Also do you think the 2nd largest pyramid looks odd in its angle?

Yes!

[InCreator]

* Trees DO work, but look a bit too large and only 2 trees is rather confusing than helping. Try different things, and be clever about it. Little tricks - if they're well made - go long way. Maybe draw a whole little oasis there, with multiple trees (smaller), less saturated and brighter, and so on? When oasis lake is also partially covered, it would work better maybe.

* Yes, I still use ArtGem for 90% of what I do, including this paintover

* Even with landscapes like this, using one or two vanishing points (I'd use two to make pyramids) and go by all the rules you use to make interior backgrounds is a must. So get your perspective right, and middle pyramid too. See photos below too: bright things really ARE bright...

Also, SHADE. Bright sun should leave stronger shadows, and stronger shadows would make this background much better. Also, you could try contrasting out sand color, like all new 3D games do for HDR/daylight effect. I mean, make it really bright and outbalanced.

For easy shadows, simply draw filled black triangles onto new layer over right side of pyramids and ground, go to layer settings (ctrl-L), and set layer opacity to about 5-15%. If you want to save layers, after you're done with shadow layer, merge it (red '+' icon, then click on layer to merge with) with drawing layer.

Good reference picture

Another: