Fantasy Digital Environment Art: Wild Skies project [PIC HEAVY]

mistermojo · Feb 2013

I'm finally finished

The 6 paintings are complete and I'd really love some critique on them, please be as critical as possible it would be really helpful for my report, it's very much appreciated! Thanks to all who have helped so far!

1. Vyunne Network

2. Light of Larun

3. Galun Extraction

4. House Lyr

5. The Maelstrom

6. The Order of Irradiance

Original post:

[Deleted the original thumbnails to save space]

Okay, so for my Final Year Project at uni I'm working on creating 6 highly detailed digital paintings of different locations for a game concept - Wild Skies (http://www.projectholodeck.com/wildskies)

I've been doing a bunch of thumbnails and have started developing the best ones - These are very quick sketches but I'd love some feedback on general mood, colour and composition on each of these pieces

The details can be changed later.

Many thanks in advance for any feedback people give. I'm not the best artist so I really want to improve :poly121:

mistermojo · Feb 2013

Nothing at all? :P

Lloth · Feb 2013

Did you decide on which one's you'll be taking further? I love nr 4 and 5. Great perspectives. Some of the others are a little too cluttered to look interesting just yet (in my very humble opinion

Keep it up!

Twotents · Feb 2013

Personally I like numbers 5 and 6. Number 5 kicks the most ass for me though :P

mistermojo · Feb 2013

Lloth wrote: »

Did you decide on which one's you'll be taking further? I love nr 4 and 5. Great perspectives. Some of the others are a little too cluttered to look interesting just yet (in my very humble opinion

Keep it up!

Twotents wrote: »

Personally I like numbers 5 and 6. Number 5 kicks the most ass for me though :P

Thanks guys

Much appreciated; I have to do 6 different locations so each one is for a different location (6+7 are for the same place cos I'm not sure where to go with this yet).

Lloth · Feb 2013

I'd say go with nr 7. it looks so much more dynamic

mistermojo · Feb 2013

Lloth wrote: »

I'd say go with nr 7. it looks so much more dynamic

Thanks

I think I'm going to re-think the whole concept of the last 2 anyway, they're too 'stereotypical sci-fi city' at the moment.

Just a small update, I've been getting loads of great tips from some awesome artists which has been ridiculously helpful. I went over the first painting again with this in mind and I'm much happier with how it looks now:

mistermojo · Feb 2013

Here's some more, made a bunch of changes to the originals:

EDIT: Posted below

mistermojo · Feb 2013

Sorry about the massive images, made a sheet of where I'm at for pictures 1-5 and came up with a totally new idea for 6 cos I wasn't happy with the old ones. Let me know what you think

mistermojo · Feb 2013

So I was messing around doing some personal stuff yesterday and came up with (what I think) is a better image for the coastal region. Let me know which one you prefer

this one, or the first image in the post above.

mistermojo · Mar 2013

Spent a few days detailing, first one is pretty much finished and I'm getting there on the second too, let me know what you think

sybrix · Mar 2013

Hey, these are great. The wall edges of the cathedral and the edges of the bridge seem... warbly. I don't know the word for it, but it seems the edges aren't straight and are kinda wavy, which doesn't make the structure read as architecturally believable. The upper left window area closest to the viewer is the best example of what I'm trying to say. I feel like the outlines of the structures need tightening up.

Sorry I'm so horrible with words, here's a small example of what I mean:

With more precise tighter line edges, it starts to look more architectural and believable.

Love your work, I will be watching this thread.

Broadway · Mar 2013

Hey man, awesome stuff, I really like all of these. Just make sure your perspective is solid before you start detailing! The perspective in the cloud castle is definitely wonky in a lot of places.

This can be a helpful tool for quickly setting up perspective grids:

http://epicgames.com/community/2012/11/free-art-tool-released-thanks-to-epic-friday/

Other than the perspective the castle is good so far but I think you captured the lighting/colors better in the earlier version; don't lose the awesomeness as you add detail!

Keep it up dude, I'm looking forward to seeing the rest. Particularly that rainy one.

gyarados · Mar 2013

I love how this is developing so far. I agree with the others about the perspective "distortions". I think you pushed it too far, but it is my favorite piece out of the lot.

I think that the one with the flying fish looked better with the dragon looking head... it looked more fierce and epic. maybe you could show it striking down a ship or something.

mistermojo · Mar 2013

sybrix wrote: »

Hey, these are great. The wall edges of the cathedral and the edges of the bridge seem... warbly. I don't know the word for it, but it seems the edges aren't straight and are kinda wavy, which doesn't make the structure read as architecturally believable. The upper left window area closest to the viewer is the best example of what I'm trying to say. I feel like the outlines of the structures need tightening up.

Sorry I'm so horrible with words, here's a small example of what I mean:

With more precise tighter line edges, it starts to look more architectural and believable.

Love your work, I will be watching this thread.

Broadway wrote: »

Hey man, awesome stuff, I really like all of these. Just make sure your perspective is solid before you start detailing! The perspective in the cloud castle is definitely wonky in a lot of places.

This can be a helpful tool for quickly setting up perspective grids:

http://epicgames.com/community/2012/11/free-art-tool-released-thanks-to-epic-friday/

Other than the perspective the castle is good so far but I think you captured the lighting/colors better in the earlier version; don't lose the awesomeness as you add detail!

Keep it up dude, I'm looking forward to seeing the rest. Particularly that rainy one.

gyarados wrote: »

I love how this is developing so far. I agree with the others about the perspective "distortions". I think you pushed it too far, but it is my favorite piece out of the lot.

I think that the one with the flying fish looked better with the dragon looking head... it looked more fierce and epic. maybe you could show it striking down a ship or something.

Thanks a lot for the feedback guys, and the kind words

I'm really annoyed with the perspective issues, I put them down to tunnel vision after spending a few days painting each brick by hand and ignoring the big picture....lesson learnt I guess. Going to be hell trying to fix it as I didn't separate the layers properly either....

With the beast in the second picture I wanted to move away from dragons a bit, and create something a little more unique

/hipster.

I'm hoping to make the image a bit more dynamic when I add the weather effects and some waves crashing against the foreground rocks. I'm fairly happy with how the fisheye perspective turned out though

mistermojo · Mar 2013

Here's the next one, already spent days on this one so I'm going to stop before I overdo it

wolver · Mar 2013

The way you have done the clouds did not immediately make me thing of clouds there pretty mossy looking, it would be worth doing some studies of clouds and trying to render them more realistically as there kinda stodgy at the moment instead of fluffy.

How come no colour/glow on the lighting? def missing a trick! and for that matter why no bounce light?, seeing the monster and clouds rim lit by the bolt would make it pop way more.

and i have to agree with above the dragon was more dynamic, but i think you could do something interesting with the fish. it is flat on to the camera having the monster flow out and toward the camera or any more dynamic pose would be interesting. oh and the hole he is emerging from looks like a hole in the ceiling rather than a vast entrance in a cloud vortex

also a another vote here for it destroying a airship

and in terms of colour its kinda monochromatic, having a colour from the other end of the spectrum might help such as a red eye on the fish or red lightning or a burning red airship ^^

The_Blenderer · Mar 2013

cool concepts, but I tend to agree with what was said so far.

Clocktower
The perspective is more than a simple 2d grid perspective, it is a 3d grid with multiple vanishing points as you probably know and even if some of its elements are tilted towards the camera, the relation between them needs to be preserved so tighten up the details. some of the more glaring ones are the two towers and the small bridge archs which are not in perspective..

Electrofish storm:
In addition to what was already said , the fish itself looks abit flat which is strange in the heavily distorted fish-eye lens, kind of like it was pasted there. Would be alot more powerful if it came at us in perspective and was bigger since it is the main thing in the composition

I wouldn't fly an airship in that weather, way too suicidal.
Instead i'd like to see it eating a sky fisherman that attempts to hook it from one of the rocks maybe. but this is concept art so the ability to come up with something original is kind of important so have fun.

( If you like an interesting example that will probably make you laugh because there is a concept there that is actually a snake-fish thing being redone in fisheye lense http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rI6q6bv7do&list=UUbdyjrrJAjDIACjCsjAGFAA&index=5 )

Anyway I think have to change the composition abit and fisheye-lens is not an excuse to completely disregard perspective so keep that in mind also.

mistermojo · Mar 2013

wolver wrote: »

The way you have done the clouds did not immediately make me thing of clouds there pretty mossy looking, it would be worth doing some studies of clouds and trying to render them more realistically as there kinda stodgy at the moment instead of fluffy.

How come no colour/glow on the lighting? def missing a trick! and for that matter why no bounce light?, seeing the monster and clouds rim lit by the bolt would make it pop way more.

and i have to agree with above the dragon was more dynamic, but i think you could do something interesting with the fish. it is flat on to the camera having the monster flow out and toward the camera or any more dynamic pose would be interesting. oh and the hole he is emerging from looks like a hole in the ceiling rather than a vast entrance in a cloud vortex

also a another vote here for it destroying a airship

and in terms of colour its kinda monochromatic, having a colour from the other end of the spectrum might help such as a red eye on the fish or red lightning or a burning red airship ^^

The_Blenderer wrote: »

cool concepts, but I tend to agree with what was said so far.

Clocktower
The perspective is more than a simple 2d grid perspective, it is a 3d grid with multiple vanishing points as you probably know and even if some of its elements are tilted towards the camera, the relation between them needs to be preserved so tighten up the details. some of the more glaring ones are the two towers and the small bridge archs which are not in perspective..

Electrofish storm:
In addition to what was already said , the fish itself looks abit flat which is strange in the heavily distorted fish-eye lens, kind of like it was pasted there. Would be alot more powerful if it came at us in perspective and was bigger since it is the main thing in the composition

I wouldn't fly an airship in that weather, way too suicidal.
Instead i'd like to see it eating a sky fisherman that attempts to hook it from one of the rocks maybe. but this is concept art so the ability to come up with something original is kind of important so have fun.

( If you like an interesting example that will probably make you laugh because there is a concept there that is actually a snake-fish thing being redone in fisheye lense http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rI6q6bv7do&list=UUbdyjrrJAjDIACjCsjAGFAA&index=5 )

Anyway I think have to change the composition abit and fisheye-lens is not an excuse to completely disregard perspective so keep that in mind also.

Thanks for the feedback, I agree with pretty much everything and am trying to take it on board for my next painting. Those clouds were really bugging me and I spent so long trying to get them right, I think I just needed to move on to something different for a bit. If I have time I want to go back and correct the issues raised (especially the cloud temple one as the perspective problems keep nagging at me).

Here's the current WIP for the next piece, thinking about keeping this cropped as it is now as the perspective looks too extreme further down. This also means less work on painting the bustling evening market I was originally planning, even though I quite like the idea. Depends how much time I have, taking a day off tomorrow for my birthday

mistermojo · Mar 2013

So I just finished the third piece, this took much longer than I would have liked though, I need to speed up my workflow methinks. Feedback would be awesome

Johan3043 · Mar 2013

Wow that is amazing dude! Love the lightning!

mistermojo · Mar 2013

Johan3043 wrote: »

Wow that is amazing dude! Love the lightning!

Thanks a lot

Here's a small preview of the next piece, spending too long on these rocks really but fairly happy with how they look (grass not done yet obv)

TheWinterLord · Mar 2013

Nice stuff

mistermojo · Apr 2013

TheWinterLord wrote: »

Nice stuff

Thanks

I've finished the other 3 images and updated the OP with them

I'd love some critique from the community, it would be really handy for my report! Thanks for the help I've had already!

Broadway · Apr 2013

Hey man, I just came back to check on this thread and I gotta say I think you're kicking some ass in here. Since you're asking for more crits here are a couple:

1. In Light of Larun, I think the terrain in the foreground is a little too contrasty considering how far away it is from the camera. Also the edges on the clouds/cliffs to the right of the frame are a little sharp and they might recede better with some more blur.

2. In House Lyr, the main building is very noisy with not too many places for the eye to rest, maybe add some larger more "blank" shapes to break up all the little lines/dots.

3. In The Maelstrom, I don't get the feeling that the clouds are receding towards the horizon, maybe because they're not losing contrast quite the right way as they get closer to it? Particularly at the sides of the frame. Also I second what I believe someone above mentioned, the serpent looks a bit flat at that straight side angle.

4. Order of Irradiance still has some wonky perspective.

But, overall I think these are awesome and I like all of them. Good work man!

mistermojo · Apr 2013

Broadway wrote: »

Hey man, I just came back to check on this thread and I gotta say I think you're kicking some ass in here. Since you're asking for more crits here are a couple:

1. In Light of Larun, I think the terrain in the foreground is a little too contrasty considering how far away it is from the camera. Also the edges on the clouds/cliffs to the right of the frame are a little sharp and they might recede better with some more blur.

2. In House Lyr, the main building is very noisy with not too many places for the eye to rest, maybe add some larger more "blank" shapes to break up all the little lines/dots.

3. In The Maelstrom, I don't get the feeling that the clouds are receding towards the horizon, maybe because they're not losing contrast quite the right way as they get closer to it? Particularly at the sides of the frame. Also I second what I believe someone above mentioned, the serpent looks a bit flat at that straight side angle.

4. Order of Irradiance still has some wonky perspective.

But, overall I think these are awesome and I like all of them. Good work man!

Hey, thanks a lot

I can't wait to do some personal painting to get better in the areas I know I need to improve in (and get back into 3D stuff again).

fearian · Apr 2013

I was going to mention perspective too, but I thought I'd also point out that the reason it is most apparent in #6 is because of the shapes used. In paintings 1 and 4 you have very basic blocky shapes. This makes the perspectives easy but it's less interesting to look at. In the other landscapes most of the shapes are jagged forms and you can sort of get away with it, but iin 3 especially it comes across as quite flat.

I think a great study would be to try out some perspective drawing of wierd non-primitive shapes, and to try and sketch out the full 3d forms of rock formations before painting. I hope this helps and I didnt repeat anyone else! Love the paintings and the colours especially!

Fantasy Digital Environment Art: Wild Skies project [PIC HEAVY]

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