Please comment this room

[Wakeman]

This is a room I may use in a new game I am planning:





Please give me some comments! Coloring, shading, etc.

Thanks!


[Edit] The revised picture is on reply #12:

[CaptainBinky]

Hi,

I would say that although the perspective is slighly off, because it's a nice clean style I would live with it. I can imagine your game being quite easy on the eyes if you do everything like this

So really, the only thing I would do is maybe put something on the table (plant, vase, lamp?) and change the walls and floors to a colour that's a bit more interesting. Also, I presume that you plan to put books or something on those shelves..?

So... I like it!

Cap'n Binky

[Wakeman]

Thanks!

Right, I forgot to mention there will be books and items on the shelf in the game.

Actually, it is supposed to be the house of a old Chinese hermit. I initially wanted to use a "bamboo" wall, but the shading would be very difficult.....   Maybe I could try to use wood?

[CaptainBinky]

A vertical texture would be easiest to draw

I would pick something that isn't too close colour-wise to your furniture. The fact that things stand out in your background is part of its appeal to me.

[Tuomas]

In fact, you have quite a lot of unused space in the front whereas the table reaches as far from the wall as the chairs. Ok, I see it could be a small table, maybe then put something in front of the camera to make it give a roomlike feeling, if you know what I mean.

[The Ivy]

Hey Wakeman, I really liked your idea about the old Chinese hermit, so I tried to redo the room in a more Asian style.Ã,  I kept the painting as it was, it's neat.





Aw, it looks so lonely with tea for one.

You can see how I just used a repeating pattern for the bamboo walls.Ã,  The furniture I did with about four shades of dark red.Ã,  I tried to make the floor look more like a woven mat, although I'm not sure if I succeeded.Ã,  I still think the doorways would look neat with a dark bead curtain or something.Ã, 

The gold record in the cabinet is from back when he did his single "Tea (You Are too Sweet for Me)."Ã,  I don't think it was released in the States.

[Elric]

I've made a few pointer marks to suggest some corrections.

1. Positioning the table in the center/near-center of the picture, you instantly place it in a higher "priority" than the rest of the image. You set it as the focal point. But there are a few rules that help make an image more pleasing to the eye. As you can see, the table has 2 chairs on either side with an identical shape. This creates symmetry that makes the image boring. Both chairs are competing for attention and clash in the viewer's eyes. Along with the symmetry of the doorways, your image is split in half with almost equal parts; Yet again, this makes an image boring.

Another rule you might consider using, is that large objects tend to appear close to the halfway point of an image. A generic simplification would be : Place large objects near the center and smaller ones away from it. So the largest object -- In our case -- the library should be placed closer to the center. ( Unless for some reason, the table is the focal point of the scene )

2. The second point I want to make is the palette you used. For 95% of the image, you used neutral/earth colours. Gray and Brown. That's ok since it provides consistency to the image. But you also used the only warm color in your palette in the portrait shown in the image. By default, this sets the portrait as another focal point, since it is the only piece in the picture that sets itself apart from everything else. So along with the table/chairs you now have another focal point, thus making the eye travel left to right consistently and tiring the viewer after a few glances. I would save the non-neutral color for the focal point, or add color to the rest of the image to create pattern.

You should also add shadows and lighting on the objects too, it helps them stand out and appear 3d.

Good job, keep up the good work

[Candall]

Elric, that was an excellent formal critique.  I'm impressed with your knowlege of design.

However, you should keep in mind that this is a functional piece.  It's a representation of someone's home; therefore, it's a representation of someone's mind.  An old Chinese hermit may well have a deep longing for such symmetry.  The odd spot of red is certainly a design problem in terms of keeping the background in the background, but this will probably be settled by the contents of the bookcase and the table.

In terms of focal point, that's going to be the player character, rain or shine.

[Wakeman]

Thanks for all the comments!!!

I agree the table is a bit boring. I will add somethings like teapot on it later. However, the setting of the small table and arrangement of chair is what I intended to do. In fact, it is a common setting of chinese furniture:

The house owner usually sit on the left chair and the guest sit on the other side, and they would have a couple of cup of Chinese tea on the table when they are chatting, etc.

Ivy: thanks for the illustration! The bamboo wall looks much better than just plain grey wall! I will try to do something similar. The coloring of the furniture is sharp. I will see if I should use this color plan.
The woven mat floor is very good too. The problem is woven mat is Japanese thing..... Chinese usually use ceramic tile or wood floor. I think I may try wood floor.
Yet, just to clarify, it is the house of an old "ancient time" Chinese hermit, so the gold record and glass cupboard should not exist at his time!

Elric: Thanks for the comments. Actually, the old man will sit on the left chair in the game, so it is one of the focus. Though I think I would do some big change to the overall color palette. (Well, the portrait/painting probably take more focus now then it should. I added it only for decoration.....)

I'll post the revised picture later after it is done! Thanks again!

[R4L]

Sorry for the thread jack, but I don't get how is vanishing points are off. Isn't the point supposed to be in the middle?

[Gilbert]

I think Ivy's edit was good, but a bit not easy to one's eye in the bamboo walls, I'll suggest lightening the dark colours in the line to make them less contrast to the bamboo's colour (and some aspects like the glass which are maybe too modern for an ancient setting).

Personally I think the original walls and ground were okay already, considering the walls were built by ordinary bricks with cement paved on it (painting some parts of it with cement fell off revealing the bricks might be good too), it's also not a bad idea to have the walls made of wood, but dependings on personal likings, it might be considered dull to use wood walls and furnitures together (though I'll say it's moody, and actually quite common in reality). And the ground could be acceptable already if you consider it as just mud or cement ground.

One thing that should be considered also, is that whether the house owner is rich or poor, my impression is that he won't be very rich, maybe not rich enough to have "proper" ground like ceramic tiles.

[Tuomas]

EDIT: Was going to post to show what it would look like if the point was in the middle...
And another one that shows red lines going into the horizon and showing that the perspective is a tad off meaning the point isn't in the middle, atm there is no clear point.

But then didn't because I noticed they were saved as jpgs as was the original, and went all wrong because of the quality of it, I wouldn't bother to do it again, even if its not a big job to do...

[Wakeman]

Here is the revised picture.
I corrected the vanishing point problem, so it should look less disturbing perspectively.
A bamboo wall was added. Hope it is not too bad. The old hermit is poor, so he cannot afford the ceramic tile for the ground.
I also removed the outline of the furniture and added some miscellaneous objects.





Please tell me what do you think! Thanks again!

[cReative]

I don't like teh bamboo wallpaper.
Its too bright and otherwise the pattern is abrasive to the eyes.

Otherwise, good job.

[The Ivy]

I like it! It's a huge improvement from the original. I think the entire thing looks more cohesive since you decided to ditch the black outlines.  Right now the only suggestion I'd make is to move the table a bit forward. Right now it lines up with the bottom of the cupboard and the chair legs, which I think makes it look too small. Good luck!

[Neil Dnuma]

In Ivy's paintover the furniture looks better. Not only because of the table dimensions, but also due to higher contrast. Maybe you should boost it some, to make it grab the attention more. With the wall I suggest going the other way. Also, the part where it meets the floor looks unnatural, try rounding off the stems.

[Grapefruitologist]

Hi, uh, I really don't know much about art, but if you want an amatuer artist's opinion, I like the bamboo, but the teacups on the table are kind of hard to see. In fact I didn't even realize they were there or what they were for quite awhile. And the biggest book's perspective looks a little weird. But I'm really, really bad at perspective, so...

[Wakeman]

Thanks for the comments.
I will try to improve them.


Hmm, just one thing I would like to point out again. The size of the small table is fine for this particular setting of Chinese furniture. Please see the picture on post #8. (Look at the 2 chairs and table at the back of the photo.) The setting is quite common actually.