Tips on adding swamp water

[Icey]

I am trying to turn the solid green area into swamp water but I find it quite difficult to grap that look.

I have this as of right now but it seems so- "fake"

Can someone give me any pointers on how to do this?

[joelphilippage]

Water in a swamp will be stagnant so their probably wouldn't be erosion on the edges. I think you should either make the water reflect the sky, or make it flow onto the grass a bit. Maybe you could paint clear water and add algae on top of it. There should be lots of reference pictures you can find that look like this.

[Icey]

Well I looked for swamp pics and I came up with this.


I need to know if I should keep that look or keep working at it.

[Monsieur OUXX]

Water in a swamp will be stagnant so their probably wouldn't be erosion on the edges.

+1. The whole point of a swamp is that the water is NOT flowing, therefore there can't be "cliffs", everything has to be rounded and rather flat

For example, in this picture you can see that the swamp looks all flat:


Usually, in video games, the swamp's water is :
- part green, part dark brown (to represent the parts covered with moss and shit)
- full of bubbles
- it has water lilles and reeds




That's VERY stereotypical but it's a good start.

[SpacePirateCaine]

Hey Studio3,

I think you're starting to get the idea of the swamp - though it still seems a bit over-clean to me. Not to say that swamps necessarily have to be mossy, peaty bogs, but I have a feeling that the idea you're trying to convey is in that sort of bent.

I think what you may want to do with your water is to add some scum to the surface of it - easily done by adding somewhat random horizontal streaks in sort of veiny patterns, then adding small light and dark highlights. I've created a very quick example of this here:



Interestingly, I looked at the very same images Ouxxey did while putting this together. The big idea is stagnant, sitting water, as opposed to streams - though they can be in locations that once had running water, creating the small chasms that you have in your current image.

You do want something to break up the monotony of the water: As Ouxxey mentioned previously, reeds or lily pads do the job well - I also might suggest fallen sticks or roots, as in my image above. I put some light highlights around it to hint at light hitting the water that ripples around the edges of the twigs. And don't forget that things have shadows and reflections.

Remember - every swamp is different, so there's no one right way to do it, but there are plenty of cliches that you can follow to get the effect you're looking for.

You may also want to look at this Background Blitz from a few years back for some inspiration.

[Icey]

Ah I get it. I have to go to school but when I get home I will resume the picture.

[Matti]

The main problem I see with all your pics is that you seem to constantly use certain brushes to texturize the background, thus making them look flat and like they're made of clouds (especially the swamp water in your third example in this thread).

Try to texturize yourself, like Caine did above, it looks way better and much more natural.

Otherwise your style is not too bad (I'm not too familiar with the FF series, but I hope you didn't copy their style directly  )

[Icey]

@Matti:  gave it a shot at texturing my self. What exactly do you mean by directly?



I am going to finish adding lilies and grass and twigs and stuff but I am going to use some as objects.

[Anian]

Kind of off topic, but why are there lamp posts in a swamp?

[Ryan Timothy B]

The government was tired of swamp creatures attacking citizens. The lamps were to eliminate the darkness, but they failed because it created shadows and we all know that evil creatures love dark shadows.

Oh wait. No. There aren't any shadows at all. Maybe that's why it looks like a flat scene.

[Icey]

[Snarky]

Yeah, I think that looks pretty good. I'd say currently the water might be the best part of that background.

I don't really understand how the water in the middle of the picture kind of fades into ground. Is that meant to be a gentle slope into the water, like a beach? It doesn't look right, if that's what it's meant to be. I think you're still going to see a sharp line between water and ground, though maybe with puddles on the land side and little bits of land sticking up on the water side.

[Icey]

The land is not flat so the water is supposed to be going over the flatten parts of the land. Except I dont know how to make land and water connect.

[Snarky]

I tried to sketch in a waterline, but it was a little tricky to get it right, and then I realized that I'd been mistaking part of the rotten log for a cliff. Doesn't make sense when you look at it in context, but the image is so flat now that it's easy to misread parts. So I spent a couple of minutes just filling in some proper shadows really roughly, as if we're actually serious about the lightsources.



So it's a bit messed up (that big puddle in particular), but I think it has a slightly better sense of solidity and depth now.

[Icey]

I added a few shadows and stuff. I also fixed the faded water to land.

The light is not that bright. I have a object over them to show the brightness.

I can't add some shadows to some areas duo to the fact that over the swap there is land.

I can't really edit the picture much more in style because I have to keep the same look of art in my game. But I do like yours a lot.

[Hudders]

The middle swamp is much better. I think you need more grass poking up and it should be browner.

[Icey]

So the grass should be browner?

[NickyNyce]

I think you need some lilly pads in the water...nothing says swamp like lilly pads. Space pirate caine's pic looks really good with scum on the water surface and the twigs sticking out.
I think if you add some bits of land raised above the water line would look good....and maybe add some moss to one side of the trees also, all on the same side, if i remember correctly...moss grows on the shade side of trees.

As for the lamp posts....it's going to be really hard to pull off a swamp look if you have light poles....First look at this pick to me...screams park

[Monsieur OUXX]

I think what you should simply do is raise the level of the water.

[Icey]

I was think about doing that but it would flood the place a the main player cant walk on top of water.