Finding a backround style

[ThreeOhFour]

gASK - Small rocks and root hole (heh) added.

markbilly - I don't want to get the whole black foreground thing going on. But I have darkened it a little. And added some more bushies.

SimB - I think you're right. I think I'm going to need to go back and sort out the ground coz I don't like it. Not enough dark spots, methinks. It is on the 'To Fix' list.

Evil - I'm not 100% certain what you mean, but I lengthened one of the branches because every time I follow people's advice things look better. So there .

Here is the latest:



I've made a very quick start on the sky. Just for a change.

Just looking at this thing, I realise I've used heaps of warm colours. Never ever planned that.

[gASK]

What Evil meant was that it does not look natural that the fallen tree branches all end at the top border line of path.

All other corections made it look waaaay better.

The sky itself looks awesome, however now the style does not exactly match the one of the foreground. But I will wait what it will turn into....

[Andail]

Colour perspective, man, colour perspective.
With such a deep orange atmosphere, distant objects are bound to get an orange tint, and get a bit washed out. So lower the saturation and the contrast of those clouds and hills and give them a hint of orange. It'd increase the depth of the image a lot.

[markbilly]

The main tree branches also seem to clash with the sky, making them hard to define. So, like Andail says lower the saturation of the clouds, but also maybe soften the sky generally colour-wise.

This background is going to be fantastic when it's finished.

[ThreeOhFour]

Okies, quick edit before bedtimes:



I haven't changed much, just altered colours. Will do more tomorrow.

gASK - Ah. I was not sure what he was saying. I shall have a go at doing that.

Andail - Gotcha. Hope the new one is looking better....

markbilly - I tried changing the sky colour and it looked wussy. I want like a deep sunset colour. But I'm glad you like the shape its taking.

Cheers for the comments guys. More soon!

[EDIT]: Update -



Slowly but surely, we're getting there!

Right - changes:

-Redid some parts of the ground. Textured whole ground.
-Changed colour of path. To be textured still.
-Antialiased clouds & planets
-Coloured ship

I'm pretty happy with the shape he's taking.

[markbilly]

Have you changed the contrast on the update a bit? It looks better anyway.

The ground texturing is looking fab now too.

All the things I think need doing: (I apologise for being such a critic! )

I've just noticed the outline of the mountains is a bit odd (the black isn't right), but I believe this section of the background isn't finished yet?

Also, the point when the path goes into the mountains looks a bit sudden, dunno how to rectify this but I'm sure you'll find a way.

The ship seems to be floating, should it be?

The hole the tree is supposed to have been ripped up out of is very small and insignificant considering the tree... It also looks like a smudge rather than a hole.

The sky has the right theme, but it looks cartoony compared to the style of the rest of the background. Maybe more shading, and cloudy-ness and fewer sharp edges and straight lines?

[ThreeOhFour]

Alright, some more edits:



-Started shading on mountain
-Shadow on ship
-Texture on path
-Root hole [ ] adjusted
-Sand colour to city adjusted

Hopefully I'll have this one finished soon. I'm getting a good idea of how I want my next one to look.

I must admit I'm pretty pleased with the fact that I've only used 44 colours so far.

And markbilly - no need to apologize for being a critic. Critics are what made this background look like it does now.

Cheers all.

Ben.

[markbilly]

The path looks fab.

How are you going to get your character to appear the bob up and down the little bumps when he's walking along it? Because that would look cool

And the mountain now looks sufficiently distant, and so does the city. Fuzzy compared to the foreground... This works really well.

[Sam.]

this looks really good, the style of shading you have chosen seems to require a more defined and solid edge to the boat in the background, as opposed to the loose freehand style it is in atm.

[markbilly]

one more thing...

it's the root hole again I'm afraid...

doesn't it need piles of earth around it?

[vict0r]

As someone once told me...

This is truly incredible!

This picture has changed so much from the beginning! I would just like to say its very encouraging (and inspiring) to see people willing to give such comprehensive and constructive criticism and paintovers. The backround has gone from bland to brilliant and is now (in my opinion) a very polished piece of art. Congratulations.

[ThreeOhFour]

vict0r - Hah! I didn't get that until I realised who you'd quoted. Thanks man.

Zooty - Thanks man - I've made the ship a bit sharper looking.

markbilly - I'm not sure how I'm gonna get that happening. Perhaps walkable areas? Glad you like the path - small dirt mounds added as suggested.

[Andail]

Typically I advice against gradients, but in some rare cases it can be beneficial.

Apart from that I added some depth using colour perspective, by making distant objects almost blend with the atmosphere.

[ThreeOhFour]

Ummm.... wow.

I wanna learn how to do that. It is tasty!

Can I do something like that without Photoshop/insanely over the top hand pixelling hours?

[Andail]

Well, the gradient is very time consuming to do pixel by pixel. I just used a PS gradient which I copied and opened in a new document, indexed and reduced colours with a pattern dithering.

Apart from that, the colour perspective is just about filling distant objects with colours close to that of the atmosphere, to create a blending effect. No filters or layers needed.

[ThreeOhFour]

Ok - that last image that I posted had a colour count of 50.

I've managed to halve that. Here is the pic (using Andail's version for reference on the distant stuff) with 25 colours. I must admit I'm very proud of that colour count.



Basically changed a whole heap of colours.

[markbilly]

I like this one best. The colours of the city and mountain as best (unless you are going for a sun set type feel)

The sky does look a bit odd just being a solid colour though... Maybe just gradient the sky and clouds like this:

[R4L]

Wow that looks amazing! And 25 colors.