mountain scene

[Monsieur OUXX]

Is there anything that shocks you in there, drawing-wise? When you look at it, is your eye drawn onto some unpleasant detail?

[imgzoom]http://68.media.tumblr.com/2069db18575d5ea1759bfb07ab412a8d/tumblr_okpot61idB1tsfksfo1_540.png[/imgzoom]

Since I know you guys and I know that there's always a rogue paintover happening at some stage, here's the PSD file (photoshop) : https://www.dropbox.com/s/giche63309kmcwe/02_agsforums.psd?dl=0

[Kumpel]

Each layer on itself looks good but the whole thing is just too much for me. Especially the background landscape really draws my attention way too much. Maybe bring the contrast down and the brightness up to give it a distant feeling and to connect it more to the fog layer in the middleground?
The Foreground looks also a bit boring. But that layer is not finished yet, right?

[Hazel]

The whole landscape looks nice but I agree with Kumpel.
It would be better if you make the mountains fade away in the distance, give the background some depth.

[cat]

For me it's the other way round - those rocks in the foreground, pointing to the left edge of the picture, draw all my attention. What is the main focus point of the image supposed to be? That golden structure? You could try to flip the left part of the foreground rocks to make them point towards that golden thing.

[Monsieur OUXX]

I accept the critics about the "main focus point" but that background will not be an ordinary background where the character walks around. It will be a credits screen where the character slides down on a sledge, starting from the rocks in the foreground, zigging and zagging left and right all the way down (while the sprite gets smaller and smaller). It will probbaly leave tracks in the snow. So unless someone has a brilliant idea, I will probably leave the set like this.

However regarding the contrast, yes, I can (must) boost the depth by playing with the contrast.

[Snarky]

Oh, that's a downhill slope away from the camera? Yeah, that's not at all apparent in the composition. Given the horizon, it seems a lot more like a flat, perhaps even slightly uphill surface.

[Danvzare]

Is there anything that shocks you in there, drawing-wise? When you look at it, is your eye drawn onto some unpleasant detail?

With the way you wrote that, you had me looking around for a hidden dick somewhere on the picture.

Oh, that's a downhill slope away from the camera? Yeah, that's not at all apparent in the composition. Given the horizon, it seems a lot more like a flat, perhaps even slightly uphill surface.

Agreed, I honestly thought it was just a flat landscape, not a downhill slope.

[Crimson Wizard]

As Snarky mentioned, it is not clear what angle I am looking at, given the horizon and what looks like mountain village (??) on the distance.

The strip of the sky stands out too much, and its too narrow, in my opinion. At first I realized I did not even notice there is one, it somehow completely fell out of my senses range.

[Monsieur OUXX]

it seems a lot more like a flat, perhaps even slightly uphill surface.

Damn.


OK here's an update that doesn't take that last input in account

[imgzoom]http://68.media.tumblr.com/c40b72c4d7b45177330243376c2d431a/tumblr_okqygfN2dm1tsfksfo1_540.png[/imgzoom]

[Mandle]

The new orange of the sky seems way too bright to me and looks like it was copy/pasted in without changing the lighting of the rest of the scene. You have also faded the mountains in the distance a bit to go for the misty effect but with the new bold sky colours this actually destroys the illusion of fading into the distance for me.

I feel the sky needs to be more washed out than the mountains... And probably just going for a very, very light blue would be good. The whole sunset look of the sky does not match the midday lighting I see in the rest of the scene for me. Snow is an amazingly reflective substance akin to a bicycle reflector and any slight change in the sky's lighting would be reflected on its surface greatly.

Also: I always got that the scene was a lookdown from a higher place, but the foreground rocks make me wonder if I was just lowered down into the scene on the hand of the Iron Giant...

[Kumpel]

In my third (or fourth) look at this I noticed the perspective of the bottle like structure. Just then (before you told us) it clicked, that I am suppose to look downward . But as the others said, the horizon is somehow not right. Maybe add some mountains that cut the orange sky"line" and extend the valley, which  atm looks like a small odd place, surrounded by dark structures (cliffs, woods, what?). Also increasing the sctructure on the right and/or somehow make it more like a thing to focus on, could help understanding the camera angle much better.

[Monsieur OUXX]

[imgzoom]https://68.media.tumblr.com/caea26782b6c09b135d17e57388b1ef2/tumblr_oksw6ifZK31tsfksfo1_540.gif[/imgzoom]


EDIT: Found it! I had simply forgotten to bend my horizon (that's just a prototype I'll draw it sharper)
[imgzoom]https://68.media.tumblr.com/5c8e3763a2f3a7c72c6db6b9317884f2/tumblr_oksz0qK0af1tsfksfo1_540.png[/imgzoom]

[Mandle]

Ooohhh...I love the animations on the Tibetan flag strings to call attention to the temple...but I feel they might be a bit over the top... The animations play up and down just a tad too much to look realistic to me... Maybe tone that down into a more compact waveform?

Also: The sky against the mountains still isn't convincing for me...Does it need to be an orange sunset sky as a vital part of the story? Does Indy need to arrive exactly at sunset?

If not then maybe go with a washed-out extremely light-blue sky to complete the illusion of the mountains fading off into the mist of the distance?

[Monsieur OUXX]

I feel they might be a bit over the top

Me too but I'm bad at animation..........
the link is here. (inside subfolder "stupa")
PS: I'm really happy that you managed to identify what it is. So far, all the people to whom I showed it couldn't tell what it is.

Also: The sky against the mountains still isn't convincing for me...Does it need to be an orange sunset sky as a vital part of the story?

It doesn't need to (even though it'd be more thrilling in a way), but GOD DAMMIT how hard can it be to successfully shade goddamn WHITE SNOW?
I shall look for more inspiration in references. Here and here and here

[cat]

I think it's much better now with the adjusted colors and the moved foreground rocks. Not much a fan of the curved horizon - do you really want to have a fish-eye look here?

Btw, what is this black joystick on the rock in the middle supposed to do?

[Monsieur OUXX]

Not much a fan of the curved horizon - do you really want to have a fish-eye look here?

Well I don't have to but that's what looks natural with this kind of top-down one-point perspective. Doesn' it?

Btw, what is this black joystick on the rock in the middle supposed to do?

It's the only lousy trick I found to enforce the perspective in the foreground It's a cairn.

[cat]

Hm, the slope doesn't look steep enough for this to work perspective-wise. It looks like it is somewhat hanging with a rather vertical edge at the end. I think it's the immediate transition between the slope and the clouds. I'd make the lower end of the slope a bit foggy already to indicate a smooth transition down. If the lower part is far away, also aerial perspective will start to show.

[Mandle]

but GOD DAMMIT how hard can it be to successfully shade goddamn WHITE SNOW?

That was one of my points from above:

If the sky if showing an orange sunset then the natural reflectiveness of the snow should also show the orange tones.

Snow reflects light amazingly, much like the reflector on a bicycle does. The ice crystals refract a huge percentage of the light back outwards.

So you could either put the orange tones into the snow or change the sky to a much more regular daytime look (I think the latter option would require much less work but might not be as dramatic)

Also: The horizon bend is working for me to create the downlooking perspective but like cat said it is just a tad too fish-eyed...Reduce the bend to a medium level between the original image and this latest one and it would look more convincing to my eye I feel...

[Snarky]

In order to have the camera angled down and still see the horizon, it needs to be a very wide-angle lens, so I think the fisheye effect is quite appropriate.

I do think the stupa suggests a steeper angle than is really feasible with the perspective, though. Also, I would add some rim highlights to the closer rocks, because if they are higher up they can't really be in shadow.

[Monsieur OUXX]

I would add some rim highlights to the closer rocks, because if they are higher up they can't really be in shadow.

unless they're in the shadows of some higher rocks
Seriously though I don't know what's a rim highlight. Off to google images!