[Steven Stahlberg]

This is for a movie project that may or may not happen, kind of production sketches I guess, the night scene I posted before in another thread, but I updated it.
As usual, any c&c, overpaint, feedback, whatever it is I welcome it.

(edit: I updated the images according to the feedback below)





[ September 29, 2002: Message edited by: Steven Stahlberg ]

[Godwin]

wow, the horse one is really nice, u can really feel the action

the night scene, i dont think the clouds will still reflect the light when they're too far away from the moon? i dunno, something looks wierd about it, though the desert terrain is really nice

[TossMonkey]

Very nice stuff!

I like 'em both really. Although I think the first picture could make more sense, the knight may look better if he is actually looking at his attacker. He seems a little unaware of his surroundings.

[Godwin]

i think its depicting the crusades? the knights didnt really know their surroundings actually, and it looks like an ambush, where the horseman just jumps out, plus, the attacker seems to be behind him, i doubt he could see with that helmet on

[ September 27, 2002: Message edited by: Godwin ]

[Max]

Well done !!!

The Knightpic is marvelously.
The dessert looks very atmospheric.

Good job Steven !!!

[ September 28, 2002: Message edited by: Max Kulich ]

[Bg]

I always check out your posts, once again really nice work!

Is the first picture for the movie that Ridley Scott is probably doing after he has completed 1-2 other movies? Just asking because it's the only film that is about Crusades.. Anyway because it's for a film, I would try out a bit wider aspect ratio (especially if it's an epic film) and rotate the camera so there's no dead space on sides. On vertical images it's easier to make something look menacing ('cause it's easy to place one object higher than the other, there's lots of room), but I believe rotating the camera angle would do almost the same for wider image.. am I making sense here?-) If you don't know what I mean I can do an overpaint/repaint tomorrow.

btw. the horse necks and heads are really well rendered, looks almost real!

The second pic has nice feel, the place seems fresh and clean, drives the mood across very well.. I can't think of any suggestion that would make it better.
I'll take another look later, too tired right now.

See ya around, keep up the great work

[Steven Stahlberg]

Thanks!
Godwin, yes the clouds further from the moon may be a bit too bright still.
TossMonkey, I think I will try to turn his helmet a bit.
Bg, no it's not for Scott, don't I wish! I didn't know that, do you have any more info on that movie? You're right, I should of course make the aspect ratio more like widescreen.

[gigatron]

Excellent looking, on another note DIE CRUSADER DIE (those mutha fuggaz!!) Also didn't you work on the daylight desert pic that I was nuts about Whatever happend to that?

[Steven Stahlberg]

Please note, I've edited the above images (I always over-write the originals due to lack of space).
I separated the warriors a bit more, lowered the saracen, and changed the aspect ratio. I also made it dustier, since I think a battle with horses in sand will kick up a lot of dust after a few minutes.
gigatron, the daytime desert still looks similar, I tweaked it a bit but not a lot...

[Bg]

Really nice update! One more thing, the place is burning hot and the knights must be very tired after riding/marching from England to Middle east so I expect to see some vibration in the air (mostly on the ground level and places that are above hot surfaces (air above metal for example). The jumping horse man is looking great! The dust could perhaps look slightly better if it had more cloud filterish look on sides and more volume and dense appearance and it could even cause cool shadow patterns on the figures (and in itself), the gradient type cloud works very well on the middle and especially in the right bottom corner.
.. I was thinking about the setting of the image and came to a conclusion that it's pretty realistic, this is how I visualized the situation:

The formations were really large (means bad communication and slow reaction time), it's hot and the forces are exhausted of the long travel and they were marching in a place that has visibility of 100 meters on sides, in a country they have never been before.. the enemy on the other hand knows the environment, has slept well, is standing still, waiting for the right moment (moving armies cause vast cloud formations and are easy to spot), when the time is right they charge from their hiding location, prepared to attack and ready to defend THEIR land. The fastest horses can run over 70 Km/hour for 1,6 Km! It's possible that when the ambush hit only the knights on the sides had time to react, (turn their heads and shit their pants hehe) and the guys in the middle didn't have a clue what's happening. The fight was lost within minutes..

Ridley is now making Matchstick Men and after that he makes Tripoli (shooting starts early next year), when those films are done he'll probably do the Crusades movie, it's been in the back of his head for so long, if everything goes right he starts filming late next year, 20th Century Fox is the studio behind that project.. Universal and Dreamworks are thinking about making sequel to Gladiator, but I don't believe Ridley will direct it.

I think that's everything I had to say, oh yeah one more thing, I'm listening to Final Countdown hehe You Swedish have done lots of popular songs

EDIT---

Finally had time to do the overpaint, last two days went playing the newest Total War (it's a war game about the crusades btw. ). This was definitely the longest time I've spent on an overpaint (2 hours!).. I tried to include everything I mentioned before and some smaller changes that were not worth writing, the biggest change I did was the rotating of the camera. (Oops, seems like I eliminated the nice cool shadows, that wasn't intentional)



[ September 29, 2002: Message edited by: Bg ]

[Steven Stahlberg]

Thanks Bg! I particularly like your saracen's face, much better. And the breathing holes in the helmet are a good idea! You also made the knight's pose better, and making it darker and more saturated probably also reads better on film.

[TossMonkey]

Better!

I just noticed the knight seems to be sat very far forward on his horse... maybe it's just me I don't know...

[ahw]

Wow, stunning work !
I am glad to see you changed the dunes, too, it looks much less like water and more like a desert
Although when I thought about it afterwards it would have been a nice idea. But then again, you dont want to confuse people.

As for the first piece, well, I was wondering about the overall tone of it. It's very rosy, isnt it ? I am not sure what ideas you are trying to express, but maybe you could have made the tones more dusty, something more yellow or orange ?
Of course, that's just an idea. This rosy morning light is quite beautiful, too :P

[Hase]

looks great, but why the blurry speedlines? I think that it�s dynamic enough in itself without having to add something cartoony like that.. if you want more action, why not add some more background?

[gigatron]

Bg I don't quite like how you changed the horseman thats jumping to be so dark, makes him look like northmen barbars.