Messages

I am going for the steriotypical 'Captain America Macho Man look' but with some realism

Some modifications:



Things to consider when you want to create a strong/superhero looking figure:

(i) Make the head small
(ii) Make the shoulders broad
(iii) Make the waist thin
(iv) For a superhero look he must be tall (easily done by reducing the headsize; also don t forget long legs (legs should take up half of the bodylength))

In your version he looks bulky but you must contrast this with thinner sections to accentuate the muscles, otherwise he ll look overweight rather than muscular.

But as commented he does look strong and confident in the initial version.

Some modifications:

About 130 kb

(i) Changed the reflections in the window which didn t seem to correspond to the monitors (the left monitors were pretty much pure white while the reflections were darker green).

(ii) Changed his headshape. It had a midget sort of head shape, with the forehead and jaw sticking out.

(iii) Changed the nose which seemed a bit odd (I ve seen noses shaped kind of like that before but it still seemed unnatural).

(iv) Extended the eyebrow which ended a bit short. Also made a small highlight on the lower eyelid.

(v) Altered the arm. My first impression was also that he seemed very tense even though I ve seen the pose in relaxed situations before.

All in all it looks ridiculously good though. Might as well have been a photo that had gone through a couple of filters.

The perspective s still heavily distorted from what I can tell.

While using two vanishing points could be helpful if the roof was tilting downwards (not sure whether it is), it s a bit confusing way to start to learn perspective.



I ve reduced it to a single vanishing point and drew guides to some of the objects.

Microtutorial:



By starting with the floor square you can see how much space it will occupy.

The same thing about the wall. By starting with the square closest to the wall you can relate it to other objects such as doors etc to make sure the height and width corresponds to the room in general.

I heard it was easier to make in photoshop, frame by frame...

Adding lasers etc is usually much easier in after effects because the tweening capabilities and since you can simply add it on top of the moviefile without splitting it up into seperate frames and edit.

The ways to do it differs quite much from how you'd do it in PS like programs though so it's often confusing to newcomers.

Some modifications:

About 800 kb

Score (midifile, ment to be viewed, not played)

(i) Added some sound effects at the start since it sounded very empty.

(ii) The chord progression was very repetative so I added two violin sections and a viola section and made a more fluid and varied progression. (a female choir is also doubleling the string parts to give more warmth).

Tip:

When using strings or similar multipart instrument it makes a hugh difference in what way the chords progress to the next.

A general rule of thumb is to make as small changes as possible when changing chords, that is, the individual parts should make as small jumps as possible. In the original version the chord is simply transposed to the next, meaning the changes are pretty big each chordchange.

I m presuming you are using a tracker and have a single instrument that has a recorded chord. This saves some effort and in the older days saved precious channels but should be avoided today in my opinion since it doesn't give you any control over the individual parts.

Illustration:



To the left the chords are simply transposed meaning all parts change each chord.

To the right the changes are minimal creating a fluid arrangement.

Edit: Forgot to include the midi file

Some modifications:



Believe most things are selfexplanatory.

Nice style/character btw.

Edit: Some additional modifications

oh come on loominous, ive looked at this drawing for a while now and i really cant see anything wrong with it at all. Theres no point nitpicking at things just for the sake of it.

Reflections that shouldn t exist and shadows cast in the wrong direction is hardly nitpicking. Even they were, it s the kind of smaller things that can be improved once artwork reaches this quality.

So instead of criticising the pretty much only constructive criticism present in this thread, start looking more closely or keep quiet.

Some things:



(i) Many of the reflections/highlights (I marked some with blue lines) shouldn t be visable from the viewers position. Some of them might not be reflections of the lamp, but doesn t correspond to any highlitten spots shaped in the manner from what I can make out.

(ii) The chair shadow is off from what I can tell. For the shadow to be cast in the manner of the pic, the lamp would have to be more deeply set in the room.

(iii) Some flat surfaces, such as the paper bin marked with yellow, seems to contain too strong radial gradients, making them loose their depth and shape.

(iv) The plant leaves, marked with green seem to be lit from the right without lightsource present (don t think the lamplight could bounce of the walls to create that particular effect).

Beside from these and some other minor things, I concur with the praise given.

More noirish feel to it, although that may not be what you re after at all:



Just upped the black level and made the ceiling a bit darker.

Very nicely rendered btw.

Some modifications:



The gist:

(i) Moved his eyes downwards and apart. Also removed the whites which in my opinion always makes the eyes look stary and mad.

(ii) Relaxed his pose by lowering shoulders and tucking in elbows as well as making his stance more casual.

My monitor seems to be somewhat inaccurate so I m not sure how bright the picture actually is, but since it s a sunny day the highlights should be bright, almost glowing since they re reflecting strong sunlight, and the horizon almost white.

Some modifications:



(i) Made the shadows darker, brightened the mid/highligts, added highlight to the piles, all to give more depth to the image.

(ii) Removed some confusing shadows from the roof and wall in particular.

(ii) Removed darth's gradients that sort of clashed with the style imo.

(iii) Decreased the saturation of certain colors.

(iv) Changed some colors.

The image becomes more sterile when depth is added which can be countered by adding textures (handmade) and details.

Some modifications:



The jist:

(i) Removed the blacks and replaced with darks.
(ii) Changed the general light from front to left, creating more depth (I hope).
(iii) Changed the sky color and tinted the whole piece more red and blue.

Some modifications:

Quick edit:



(i) Altered the head height, the views didn t correlate.
(ii) Fixed the side view glasses which were oddly bent.
(iii) Pushed back his head, and gave him more back head.
(iv) Added front view ears since the sideview once aren t covered by hair.
(v) Altered side view ears.
(vi) Modified the front view glasses.
(vii) Pushed back his shoes to give him heals.
(viii) Lowered shoulders to give a less tense look.
(ix) Modified hairshade and shape.
(x) Gave him some shoulderblades.

Turns out my monitor has been very poorly calibrated which explains the first edit's darkness.

I modified both edits, and here they be:

Quick compulsive edit:



(i) Added brighter light coming from upper right (PS: lighting effect)

(ii) Modified the shade on the girl and bag to correspond more to the light

(iii) Modified the hue of the girl and bag (PS: Curves)

Does sound like you have a cold, but your voice is very pleasant.

Ogged version (250 kb instead of 2.5 mbs)

Can dl a free ogg encoder at: www.vorbis.com

Some modifications:



(i) Added shadows to objects (stand, fence)

(ii) Raised the black level (in PS: levels, drag the left arrow rightwards)

(iii) Darkened the tone of the side of some objects (stand, box to the left, small edge at the bottom)

(iv) Added a gradient in the sky, making it darker at the top

(v) Added tones on the front trees to give them depth.

and probably something else.

Edit:

(vi) Lowered the saturation somewhat

(vii) Tinted it somewhat (more cyan/turqouise). Just a personal preference.