Forest Path Background

[Redwall]

(2x)

Any comments, criticism, etc, would be great.  As I'm going to be doing at least a few more backgrounds of this forest, I'd prefer more general comments than the specific composition (is that the right word?) of the image (e.g. how the grass looks rather than the placement of a tree).

Ideas on how to make the path look more like, well, a path would be good, too.

Also, can everyone see the farthest back trees? They should look like just some dark lines towards the top of the image.

Finally, on a somewhat unrelated note: my copy of Photoshop displays colors rather oddly; for example, the saturation was apparently much lower in this image than Photoshop was displaying (I upped it about +30 for this display) and I've had hue problems as well. Any ideas as to why this is? It's a relatively new copy of CS2... luckily I still my old version 3 to depend on when the new guy fails me.

[TheYak]

It's outstanding quite lovely.  I love the low-color look to it.  It actually reminds me a lot of Out of This World (What was it European-side? Another World?). 

The only thing that bugs me about the path is obvious (and intentional, I daresay) banding.  The shapes break it up somewhat, but it looks more like sand-dunes.  Unless this is meant to look like a beach-side forest why not keep it all the medium shade with the darker shade portraying leafy canopy?  The lightest shade could be used to denote small hills. 

You've put a lot of work into darkening the areas in shadow, but some of the plants look awfully flat compared to the rest, in particular the group in the middle of the path and the left-most. 

If the character can't go anywhere but on the path, you could use a slight AA/blur on the back trees, they look a little pixellated.  It's not as bad 1/2 size but some of the shaded areas still stand out.

I can see the furthest back trees just fine, though I do have to concentrate a bit on their outlines.  A shade or two lighter might do it.

As far as CS goes, the issue's probably Adobe Gamma.  With any Adobe image-manipulation program, it uses its own gamma settings (often also found in the startup menu).  You should have a control panel applet that'll allow you to tweak it.  If you've got a monitor color profile, you might try loading it for both the display and for PS.  If not, have the image open on desktop (preview, browser, something non-adobe), and run the adobe gamma applet.  Tweak it until the images look more or less the same.  You could try the gamma wizard, but I don't like the fact that it's not telling you how your choices impact things and its very poorly documented.  I much prefer to fiddle with the levers, knobs and buttons myself.

(Opening in PS Elements, I noticed it was less saturated than in standard viewing, so you question helped me re-tweak mine.  Thanks!)

[IM NOT TEH SPAM]

I don't know if it's just me, but the lighting seems very inconsistent.  In the far backround it's dark as night, which is fine, but on the other side it looks like the daytime.

[Andail]

Hm, I think it's good, but "outstanding" is an overstatement imho. I think you have paid way too little attention to textures and shadows, leaving many flat and generic areas.

I did a remake, using the same amount of colours, but with some more care:


It's not easy working with such a low amount of colours, but I hope my paint-over can be of some help as to how to use them more strategically.

[Tuomas]

I guess it does look a bit uphill... you know what I mean. Either that or the frontal tree is a short one... Andail did a great job but it still looks like the terrain is going up... I don't know if it's only me, and can't do an example right now, but think of it, and if it comes to it, find out what you can do... Otherwise a great piece!

[InCreator]

Andail showed you right way, I guess.
Nice colors and overall atmosphere, though dirt(?) color should be slightly darker.

Some weeks hours of adding insane little amount of extra detail would make it perfect.

I personally would start with heavy bombardment on everything with noise filter...

[Redwall]

It's going to be in a RON game, so I avoided noise in favor of RON's "style" (as it were) of flat shading.

I appreciate all your comments, especially Andail's paintover. Hopefully I'll get an edit up by tomorrow.

[Kweepa]

It's not really in the RON style. Not that that's a bad thing in general, but unless you're going to redraw all the backgrounds, it might look a bit out of place.
It also seems a bit too zoomed in to fit as a general RON background.
There are already some forest backgrounds in the RON resources - admittedly they're a bit ugly, but they might give a better idea of scale.