Practice Background

[Fizzii]

Well, I was trying to do something a bit different with atmosphere, colours and lighting from what I usually do... I would like to know if there are any irregularities with my use of colour, shadowing, or other

[Ubel]

Wow! That is really good. The tree and the rock are very well drawn.

But the grass seems a bit strange. I mean it doesn't really look grass. Is it grass? It looks more like some green liquid. Might be just me though.

[skw]

Great! It reminds me of some Loom's backgrounds and I really like it! I have only two things to accuse: these shadows are a little bit too schematic as for me and the grass "texture" should be more irregular (to look more realistic).

Hope I'll see the effects soon.

[Fizzii]

Is it grass? It looks more like some green liquid.

Green liquid - heheheh, I like thatÃ, description Well, I did do the grass the lazy way (that is, using the grass brush in Photoshop, which often turns out blurrier), but that's because I was trying to get the colours right more than detail as such.

But here is one with revised grass anyway:

these shadows are a little bit too schematic as for me

How do you mean?Ã,  I don't quite understand...

Thanks for the critiques!

[Ubel]

There's nothing wrong with the shadows in my opinion. It's almost perfect now. Only the sky bugs me a little. It's just so... empty? Hmm... Might be just me again. Oh, and the grass looks great now.

[What a loser.]

Your backgrounds are always amazing, you should invest some time into making some nice tutorials. 

[TheYak]

Near perfection.  Agreed that the sky looks a bit empty but it might not be a bad thing.  It has a bleak and lonely feel to it now.  The picture's coloring is superb with everything complimenting everything else rather well. 

The skyline appears hazy and the gradient leads me to believe that the sun is setting (or has just set) somewhere in the upper portion of the picture.   The shadows seem very hard-edged and a bit contradictory to the sun's position.  It would also seem that with shadows that straight and long, and the time of day being rather late, that the hill's shadow would over-shadow the objects a bit. 

[Khris]

The background is really good, so my critique's quite nit-picky. Sorry

-the mountain behind the tree looks like it was split in two and put back together at different heights.
-the proportions of the tree are a bit wrong, e.g. the lowest branch is almost as thick as the stem.
-the sky suggests a sunset/rise, but the shadows aren't long enough.
-the sky's gradient shouldn't follow the shape of the ground like that

[Fizzii]

Thanks YakSpit and khrismuc!

Yep, the sun is supposed to be setting - except that the shadows aren't on the right side (I guess my excuse is that the viewer is facing south rather than north ) As for the empty sky - I think I'll leave it empty because I don't think clouds are imperative to this piece

Third edit:


- changed mountains
- fixed sky gradient a bit
- gave the shadows more diffraction and longer, hopefully
- slimmed down the tree branch
- added shadow to hill slope

Thank you for the comments

Alias - I have been writing some tutorials on and off for a few months now - I will post them when I'm done - maybe in a month's time, after exams.

[Raider]

Awsome, mountain still a bit... the same 

[Ubel]

I think the second edit was better...

[skw]

these shadows are a little bit too schematic as for me

How do you mean?Ã,  I don't quite understand...

Sorry. Well... it seems you've understood me anyway (I mean, that the shadows need bluring, due to fact that the sun is located far away on the horizon), your new edit is almost perfect, but [hmm...] I don't know if the second wasn't better... In my opinion, you should leave the sky empty - it's a marvellous view of a rising dawn.

Greets!

[UP]

Eh, in my opinion the shadows seem to go a bit wrong way, as the sky's colors don't suggest that the sun is actually in that direction. I hope you get what I mean... But that's not a huge problem.

[Redwall]

The only problem with shadows like that is that it will look odd when you put characters (without shadows) on that background. . . assuming it's for an adventure game, of course.

[Fizzii]

Eh, in my opinion the shadows seem to go a bit wrong way, as the sky's colors don't suggest that the sun is actually in that direction. I hope you get what I mean... But that's not a huge problem.

I'm guessing that you're saying that since the yellow is on the horizon, it would suggest the sun is there, or nearby there, because otherwise the sky should be darker? (And so the shadows should be toward the viewer, and the tree and rock should be more silouhetted, or something?) Um, ok, I guess I'll have to study light a bit more. Thanks

The only problem with shadows like that is that it will look odd when you put characters (without shadows) on that background. . . assuming it's for an adventure game, of course.

I'm not making an adventure game with this picture. It was an exercise

[TheYak]

I think I said it poorly the first time but, yeah, because of the perceived direction of the light source, I would expect the shadows somewhere between -30 and -45 degrees from their current position. 

Overall, I like the recent edit.  Like is a bit weak as I was beaming a bit having seen something impressive become more-so.  Other than the shadow-position thing, my only other problem is one that was introduced between the 2nd and 3rd edit.  The hill is shadowed some, but it seems to have blurred the outline and details a bit.  Maybe it's an unfortunate side-effect of the shading but I liked it better with the foreground in focus and the comparitively hazy background.  I've also been looking at it like an adventure game screen, though.  The loss of focus due to lighting conditions might be more correct for this scene but if it were a game-screen, it would detract from character blending and player focus.  (Sorry, far too wordy for simple comments).