walk on the giant tree

[Monsieur OUXX]

Hey all,

What do you think of this?
I mean, in terms of quality.

In my opinion:
- The anti-alianing isn't very good
- It's rather loaded and confused.
- The colors lack some contrast in some places.

If you feel like doing a paintover to point out some specific points, then try not to add more than 10 colors (you know what I mean, no super unusable photoshoppey-thing)

[Crimson Wizard]

I would not know it is a tree if not told before. My first thought was that it is some kind of walkpath made of giant vertebrae (spine parts) built in the caverns.

but then again, maybe it's just my wild imagination 

[Monsieur OUXX]

There were supposed to be additional tiles showing that the background is actually wood, but I deleted them by mistake yesterday night 

[Khris]

What's the original size? 320?
And why is it upscaled to 900? With blurring?

Sorry but how are we supposed to paint over this?

Here's a zoomed in view:



So we can't really tell if there's anti-aliasing.

In general it's a bit too dark but I can't really say much more. This is a close up of the branch of some conifer, right?

[Monsieur OUXX]

What's the original size? 320?
And why is it upscaled to 900? With blurring?

Sorry but how are we supposed to paint over this?

The original size is "this divided by 3".
There shouldn't be any blurring considering it was upscaled with "nearest neighbour" and then saved as a PNG. :-S Anyway you're not "supposed" to do anything. Just tell me to go dig a hole and then wait for death at the bottom of it, for my poor upscaling skills. 

[Scavenger]

The original size is "this divided by 3".

Unfortunately, computers can't handle 3x very well, since reversing 300% means resizing a picture by 33.33333%, effectively destroying it. Use only multiples of 2. It also wrecked your palette, since there's loads of noise now.

I think the main problem with this picture is it's pretty muddy. You need more contrast in places that are important, and less in places that noone will care about. Warm colours to bring out the foreground and places you can walk. Cool colours where you cannot.

[abstauber]

There you go

[Khris]

Unfortunately, computers can't handle 3x very well, since reversing 300% means resizing a picture by 33.33333%, effectively destroying it.

That's the first time I've heard this claim and I think it's demonstrably false. At least the programs I use have absolutely no problem with down-scaling 300% images back to 100% (provided of course one uses a nearest neighbor filter).

While a third of 100 is indeed some slightly "unwieldy" endless number, a third of 99 or 102 isn't and so EDIT: isn't 1 out of 3 numbers. ( )

Regardless, posting upscaled pictures is bullshit anyway. Browsers can upscale them correctly, provided you're using a decent one, and people won't have to fiddle with the image before doing a paint-over.

[Snarky]

And of course you wouldn't have an image dimension of 100 pixels in the first place if the image was originally upscaled x3. (Only every third number is divisible by 3, by the way, Khris. I feel like that ought to be obvious.  )

When downscaling, I never bother with percentages. I just enter the actual dimensions I want the image to have, e.g. 320x240. Since I create my canvas as an integer multiple of that size, there should be no resampling artifacts.

[FamousAdventurer77]

All the stuff about scaling aside, I like the style-- very old school and pixellated how I like it. Makes me think of a 1993 game! (Coming from me, that is very good.)

But it could use some shading/contrast here and there. I'm not sure what the picture is though-- a path within a tree? Tree root maze?

[Monsieur OUXX]

But it could use some shading/contrast here and there. I'm not sure what the picture is though-- a path within a tree? Tree root maze?

For the record, the image abstauber posted is not strictly the same as mine. Mine had slightly boosted contrast and saturation (as the issue woth contrast had already been pointed out by abstauber).

[cat]

Could you then just post your picture in original size? Kinda pointless to give critics otherwise.

[Monsieur OUXX]

Could you then just post your picture in original size? Kinda pointless to give critics otherwise.

OK


In order to understand the context better :

[Anian]

Hmm, the whole image looks like a inside of a giant alien done in early 3d cutscenes (it's even a tad blurry to complete the effect), it looks maybe a bit too "soft" like it's meat and not a tree trunk.

You could clean up the walk path part ofthe image and make the trunk (like the part that's not where you character steps) a little less unifrom, more diverese or maybe even with less detail. Plus, if the story permits, maybe make it so the part where you're stepping is maybe like a parasite that's on a tree trunk, unless this is supposed to be an very alien tree with stuff growing on it. But in any case maybe make more of those veins branching out, so it seems more natural, like putting small veins branching from under it, this is just pretty much a straight line, a very detailed and cool striaght line, but still too straight.

[Monsieur OUXX]

Roger.

[Monsieur OUXX]

OK, so I had another run and took in account most of the critics :
- Increased contrast
- Made the pixel art less messy and smoothier

My personal enhancements were :
- Added some small vines and leaves here and there
- Added moss everywhere

Please don't tell me it "doesn't look like a tree". It will (hopefully) look like a tree when I add the required extra tiles.
The part in green is unfinished, so don't comment on that.

Here at work I have 2 LCD screens, and each of them shows completely different colors. And both of them show different colors from my personal laptop, on which I draw. Here it looks all purple instead of brown. Darn!

[NickyNyce]

On my monitor the tree looks purple, not that my monitor is set properly though...the walkway looks pink... IMO the walkway where the character walks is the problem..I think its this part that makes it look more alien like. I think in order to change this I would use a large vine as the walkway instead of what you currently have, maybe put some large leaves, you did say it was a giant tree.

I believe these little fixes would definetly help get across that your on a tree. How about also having a branch come toward the front of the screen.( I know you said don't comment on the green zone ) but... The green part you have there actually looks the best, I like the swirl you have going on there, nothing in nature is semetrical. I also think the bark pattern is too small, I would double it up, in that green zone you have, that extra thick piece of bark or vine looks great. I would do more of that.

[Matti]

Wow, right from the beginning I thought it was meant to look purple. It does look very alien indeed.

Except for the colors I think it looks quite cool and the walkways are well recognizable.