Planet of which I do not know the name of yet (hint, hint)

[Haddas]

Hello, excuse me for interrupting your otherwise pleasant day. I have finished drawing a planet. It's the first one I've ever drawn, so don't be too harsh. I know it's not totally round, but that I can still live with. What I'm more interested in is how does it feel. does it feel like a tropical planet, which it is supposed to look like? And how do the two moons in the background work? One moon is a barren moon, not drawn by me, but copy&pasted and then modified. The second one is a moon drawn by someone else too, but slightly edited. Give me pointers, how do I make it more detailed, and how will it work in the planned game in 10 000 years. By that I mean, that I'm going to draw that picture again, but it is 10 000 years later. I want to know the biggest problems before I go about and draw another picture, so that  I don't end up with two ruined pics.



3x

[JimmyShelter]

The picture looks really good. One thing though, the large planet seems not completelty round at the big green continent.

[Eigen]

It looks great, but maybe add some clouds, like here. And maybe make the water darker at some spots so it would look like it's deeper.


-Eigen

[Haddas]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v86/Haddas/Drawings/planetv2.png

Here's an updated version. Working on those clouds. and I know it isn't perfectly round. SHould've dealt with that in the beginning. hard to make it rounder now without losing details

[loominous]

Some sloppy lighting modifications:



Seems like you forgot the higher values. Everything looks like it lays in shadow which creates a pretty dull n uninteresting look.

If you're using photoshop or any similar programs, you can fix this quite easily though, and without editing the actual drawing.

There are various ways but I've come to prefer this method as of late:




1) Fill a layer with a desired color or greytone that you want added. If you'd like to add yellow light for instance, you'd choose yellow, if you want to add a blue shadow, you'd take dark blue.

2) Create a layermask (in photoshop by clicking on the button marked with red in the image above).

3) In the white box in the upper left corner, select an appropriate mode. There are quite a few and you can experiment with what they do.

3) Select the layermask by clicking on it (the black n white square beside the layerimage, marked with red in the image).

The layermask controls what parts of the layer that will be transparent, and which will be opaque.

It's shown as a black n white image, where the black areas are transparent, the whites opaque, and the greys semi transparent. A totally black layermask for instance will make the layer completely transparent.

4) You can now edit the layers opacity by either drawing, using the fill tool, using gradients or what have you, to make certain areas of the layer appear and other be transparent.

-

To see what the layers does in the image:

Click here (about 75 kb)

-

[Haddas]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v86/Haddas/Drawings/planetv3.png

Okay here's an updated version of it. Couldn't figure them masks out yet, and the clouds I render are so dang dark whatever I do!

[Haddas]

Ok, since nobody critiques the image anymore I'm assuming it is complete.
ZOOOM +10,000 years



It's not really ready yet, but I need help. The tropical moon has been devastated by something, the smaller moon has been covered by city, and the main planet is terribly polluted. also the lakes have dried up. Now I'm trying to cover the main planet with city too, but It's incredibly hard! I can't seem to get it to look good! I can't brag about the city covered moon either. it just looks like it's on fire ;(

[JimmyShelter]

Looks good.

You can use yellow and white dots as light for where the city is?

[Babar]

I don't think something in space can end up looking like that (the "chomped" moon), even if it was unnaturally "busted up". I'd suggest making the damage more "rounded". As for the planet, you should show pollution as thick clouds, not graying the whole thing. You could make it a dull brown to show that there is no more vegetation (in place of the green that there used to be). You can show cities as clumps of light on the planet. Don't know how this would work on the moon piece though, considering it is so small.

[Haddas]

I don't think something in space can end up looking like that (the "chomped" moon), even if it was unnaturally "busted up". I'd suggest making the damage more "rounded". As for the planet, you should show pollution as thick clouds, not graying the whole thing. You could make it a dull brown to show that there is no more vegetation (in place of the green that there used to be). You can show cities as clumps of light on the planet. Don't know how this would work on the moon piece though, considering it is so small.

By more rounded, you mean how much more? I made the planet that kind of gray so it would melt in better with the houses when they come on top. and by that I mean the WHOLE planet is COVERED by houses. Think Coruscant or the likes...

[Babar]

What I mean is that stuff that has been in space for a while is bound to have been "evened off". You don't usually see an asteroid with a huge piece of rock jutting out. So it does not have to be perfectly rounded (unless it has been like that for a long time), but it shouldn't be that sharp a difference either.
As for the planet, I don't remember seeing Coruscant from that far out in space, but I would assume it would just be one huge gray, with little shadings to represent when there is a huge difference between size of buildings. Maybe some places where the buildings are so high that buildings poke through the clouds. Aside from that, perhaps you could add some space rubble - old buildings, ships etc.

Take everything I say with a pinch of salt. I have no way of gauging your background except by using the "feel right ratio"

[Abulafia]

What are the chances of those two moons being in the exact same position of their orbit 10,000 years after the first picture?

[Darth Mandarb]

What are the chances of those two moons being in the exact same position of their orbit 10,000 years after the first picture?

Pretty good if the picture was taken at the same time of day I would guess.  However, they're not really in the same positions ...

I really like the moon on the left.  Looks like it  sustained a massive impact of some kind.  Neat.  I think, if the impact was recent enough ... it could stay looking like that I should think.  I don't know about the physics of it ... but it looks cool.

I like how the planet looks fresh and new in the first picture, and blighted and wasted in the next.  Very much like Earth'll probably look in 10,000 years.

[Iwan]

I don't think it really matters that the moon isn't rounded enough or they're in the exact same orbit. It still looks great! Thats what came to my mind when I saw it not that their not scientificly correctÃ,  and I've been watching BB1's 'The Planets'!

Anyway the over all picture great! I love the glow comming from the closer planet. But some clouds of some kind would look good.

[UP]

If you want to check out what a planet covered in buildings might look like, check out Taris from KotOR...

[Haddas]

Thought I'd post a WIP of covering the surface with buildings. Remember these buildings are huge, kilometers high. besides, I can't draw any smaller than this :|
(All buildings handpainted separatly one by one. no copy&paste here)




I'm not ignoring the C&C, this is just a work in progress, things are yet to implement. The challenge will be clouds, since all the surface water has dried away (the "docks" are for the space cargo ships to stop at. However, I might try adding more clouds to the 10,000 years younger version.


ALSO. The "(hint, hint)" part after the "Planet of which I do not know the name of yet", means you can openly suggest names, history or other info about the planet, since it's not really essential for the game progress, but merely for athmosphere.

"Tropical moon" -> Wasted crater =
"Small moon" -> covered in city =
"Tropical Main planet" -> "Polluted city-covered planet with no surface water" =

[Babar]

Fill it up! Put some sort of building on every square inch of the planet. Perhaps you can have a small area without any buildings, which would be the "artificial wild area".
As for names, here are some random ones I came up with:
Vnullf, because weird vowel placement is always a great idea
Aardappel, because it means potato in dutch
Shinn'Fel because wrong capitalisation is another thing that is always great, plus it has an apostrophe thrown in
Verspild, because it means wasted in Dutch

[Darth Mandarb]

I think the buildings are just too large ... they look great, but they're too big.Ã,  From out in space, even something kilometers high wouldn't appear that big.Ã,  (as I've never been in space over a planet with kilometer tall buildings I'm only guessing)

Personally, I'd recommend doing something more like this:



It was done really quickly, but I hope you see what I mean!

[Arboris]

pretty nice artwork there mate !

Well, the buildings look HUGE or its a really tiny planet (as suggested by darth mandarb and his good looking paintover). But if you wish to keep the big buildings try to make them look straight. It looks like your buildings are all leaning towers of pisa.
Try to set the straight by looking how the world is curved. Most of the buildings you drew should lean a bit toward the left, not the right.

Thats just my two cents, keep up the good work.

[Haddas]

I'm considering #1 and #3 of those names, Babar.

DM, what did you use to draw those buildings? Did you do it by hand?