[Joachim]

Hey, I posted this on the lumental forum so I guess some of you have allready seen it, but anyway, I thought for the sake of being a bit more active here I could post it here as well. It's just a background I made for a norwegian kids game I'm working on at the moment, called "bl�fjell", which you've probably seen me posting things from earlier.
For the first time I feel that I work with a game that have a consistent style and quality, probably because it's a lot smaller than f.ex IGI, so it's much more time to refine and make sure that everything has the same style and with a smaller team it's easier to cooperate and have the same visions....and for the first time in a long while I feel that's fun making art for games -I got sick at doing realtime after IGI and hope I will never do it again

anyway....


[ August 07, 2001: Message edited by: Joachim ]

[Vgta]

Very very nince a few questions first, what medium is it? what is the original size.

It looks very good and very tight, the only things that jump off (to me at least) as not being as rendered as the rest of the picture are the truck and the phone booth. I'll figure out what it is that set those too apart, the only thing I can think off now is that there is not enough chaos withing those too objects. hope that makes sense, I'll add more later.

Incredible looking piece though.

[nil900]

wow that is one of the most amazing images I've seen here recently. No crits from my side just one question: did you use a photo as reference?

[Superbug]

yo. I saw this on lumental and read on it. Really nice picture of course.

i just have a question for you. What type of brushes do you use (photoshop I presume). Your pictures are very nice and sharp. I unfortunetly can't achieve that sharp effect, as my pictures appear a bit blurry. Any suggestions?

I really like the clouds at the top left

[Cos]

Really kool Joachim! Your painting has gotten so good.. I love the textures you worked into the ground. Critswise I'm not too sure, maybe the telephone box looks alittle cardboardish? just a nitpick tho, the image is really nice.

Hey I noticed on lunamental you bought one of sciekeviczs sketchbooks! would u scan some pages for show? I'd really like to see them.

[Red Leader]

People seem to be against the "carboard" look of some of the objects in this painting. I look at them as stylizations, and think they work great.

I love the atmospheric perspective...you've set a great mood with this piece.

My only crit is that you've got a nasty congruency on the car port or whatever that building is on the right side:


Those lights are too close in size and vertical alignment, confusing what plane that foreground light is on (even if it's more saurated, etc...this might be just in the low res. you've posted here though...

Just a little thing really. Beautiful work.

[ August 07, 2001: Message edited by: Red Leader ]

[KOryH]

Amazing work! the detail and composition are very solid. I also enjoy your color choices, very compimentary.
One thing that does bother me is this. the direction of light. It apperars to me at firsy glance that the setting sun is just out of frame to the far left. However, the shadows seem to be cast from a source over the viewers left shoulder. this gives the scene a slight "staged" look and that it is a backdrop of some sort.

[jamonch]

Great work Joachim!

I like the detail in the tree and background. Also, the dirty snow looks excellent. Must have taken you quite a while to complete this piece.

I too would have liked to see more emphasis in the truck and tele. booth.

Keep up the good work!

jam

[Joachim]

hey


vgta, it's photoshop. THe original size is about 3000 pixels width, but it will eb used in 640*480. I see your point about the car and phone booth, but personally I don't feel that they are painted differently, just that they have a more individual color than the rest. It's partly done on perspose, but maybe too much I don't know ? For me, I don't see that as not fitting, but since I've painted it, I guess it's hard for me to see it in an objective way

nil900, thanks ! No, I dodn't use any references. pure imagination. I had some rules of what had to be included, but the scene is made from imagination.

superbug, thanks ! Yes, it's phshop. I usually do only the regular cpherical standard brushes, but I vary a bit. no fancy brushes. To get things sharp, well, hard to say. Use paintbrush, be careful to define edges and shapes, and not make too many strokes to explain things, that's the only tip I can think of. Try different approaches, don't get stucked with detailing, because that's not what is really needed to get an image sharp and "detailed". ...sounds like stupid yoda talk, hehe, but I'm not good enough in english to explain these things in a short message.

jim S, THanks Jim ! , I agree to every single comment you wrote. It's just those things you never notice. (Bad exscuse): though it may sound silly, I've noticed that the more I clean and refine and fix things on this, the more errors pops up. Since, there's so many things that has to be correct to make it "real", I wouldn't be surprised if 20 new mistakes would be easy if I fixed these things...Really good observations, if I had the schedule to work a bit more with this at work, I would fixed it right away, but it's being used in a rather low resolution, so I don't think it's worth it anyway. Btw, that car lights are supposed to be on, there's going to be a character around the car. thanks again !

dixter, thanks a lot. No, I didn't use any references. I'm happy I did it from head, it's a great feeling to dream youself into a setting and vizulize th epicture in your head. When I painted it, I kind of felt that I was there, and thought of things that was behind the objects even.....this sound very artsy fartzy I know =)

eviltoylet, thanks ! no no, no 3d -me bored of 3d...hehe, yeah, the lights are on...but doesn't outside light usually turn on around 5-6 o'clock, they do that in norway, esp. at wintertime =)

chapel, run down, what do you mean ? thanks...agree, more things going on could be nice....my only exscuse for not doing it is that wil will be very scaled down in the game.


farwalker, thanks ! The snow on the bottom, I do agree. But, I may sound stupid, but it was was my intention, because the whole game is going to happen on the far bottom part of the picture, the rest is just background. But,I might have gone a bit to far ?

awetopsy, hehe, you can blow sunshine in my ass anytime, hehe. Kidding. THanks a lot anyway, very appreciated !

cos, you got a point with the cardboardish....but in a way I kinda like it. But, I don't want to sound like a jerk that pretends that everything is suppose be the way I did it and everything was intentional, so, when I'll start the a new background image (tomorrow actually) I will think seriously about this. Sure, I'll scan som pics....watch out for the thread ! =)

red leader, thanks a lot ! THe crit about the light, yup I agree, never knew why I put it in there in the first place, it just followed through from the early sketch. Happily that such a tiny fix that it will take me exactly 10 sec, so that I will be allowed to do I guess, hehe.

koryh, thanks ! The lightdirection is slightly changing on the fences, I know. It's the work of a lazy guy, really =) . I've seen it myself, but never really bothered to do anything about it...please forgive me, thanks for pointing it out.

jamonch, thanks ! Actually it didn't take that much time, well more than a quick painting though, I spent two working days (14-16 hrs). good point about the booth and car.

Thanks a lot for these comments. I'm happy to see that there's so many that have given an effort to comment things that could be fixed as well. Because it's thse things that makes me see that I need to be more careful when I work and think more through things, people will notice. And, I have a bad tendency to just leave things as they are or make a cheap solution when I'm bored or feel fairly happy about the overall "look". Maybe it might sound like I took some of the crits a bit too easy, though I probably won't keep on working on this picture, the comments are really appreciated and they have been stored in my head and hopefully I will do better on my next.

[simuartist]

all I have to say is.......

[-Tepox-]

Damn that backgound is lovely! heh...I can almost smell the air! Yep.. I think it's my time to move high-res pics.... just have to buy more memory 256mb isn't just enough... *snif*

[Cos]

well I wouldn't think you were a jerk if you said you intended that look for the phonebox, maybe you did. Like Red Leader said its gives a stylized look. Ah Dunno.

[ August 07, 2001: Message edited by: Cos ]

[Anthony]

Great pic, glad to see that you took Fred's advice on that tree. ;]

[Jim S]

Hey Joachim!

This picture is really awesome. Makes me want to buy that kids game I saw it over at Lumental too, but I'm not a member there, so I couldn't comment on it

There are a couple of things in the picture that bothers me a little bit. Definately nothing major, just litte nitpicky things I've found after about 15 minutes of looking at/drooling over/admireing it.
The first thing I noticed is that the wheel tracks in the snow seem to get closer and closer together the further away from the viewer they get. And the coup� (?) of the little truck looks wider than the truck itself. Furthermore the garage roof is a little funky too, it kindof leans over to the left side of the garage. Another thing that jumps out is the tail lights of the truck, looks like the truck is running, or someone is breaking, if you know what I mean.
Unless the furthest away part of the fence is taller than the rest of the fence, I think it should be almost covered with snow, it looks as if the snow is a little deeper over there.
Dont get me wrong now, because I really like this pic lol.

The sky is absolutely amazing! And the distant mountains are looking so real.

/Jim

[DiXter]

very, very nice Joa.
I love the coloring and the light and details are great!!
Did you use any kind of refference?

[EviLToYLeT]

I could swear this thing was 3d rendered....

nice job as always joachim... like the textures you used.

ONly thing that bothers me is how these people are wasting so much electricity.. lights are on and its not even dark yet! Or maybe that's just my gamma again...

[Chapel]

Hey Joachim. I think I remember you saying that this was supposed to be run down or something. The painting itself looks perfect to me, but maybe you could add things to give it even more character. Like the truck could probably use some rust on the side. Maybe a few trash cans knocked over by the door.. etc.

[Farwalker]

This got my heart pumping when I saw it over at Lumental. It was very inspiring and I am glad I can comment on it.

One thing I see that you have really been improving on is the correct color of the lighting in a given scene. Since your first landscape post from this current project, to this one, the difference in the believability of the lighting is immense. The lighting just feels real, not pushed on to the viewer. It just backs up the visuals solidly.

My crit would be the front dirty snow seems more heavly textured then all the other elements of the painting. It distracts or draws my eye down to that area a bit too much.

Excellent job Joachim, and I am really glad to hear that your enjoying your art job making this game!
We are reaping the benefits!

[ August 07, 2001: Message edited by: Farwalker ]

[Awetopsy]

Joachim: I didnt post on WIP version pic because I didnt want to just blow sunshine up your butt. I really like how you've changed this image. I ve been staring at it trying to find something to crit and I cant.. but thats my limited paint-eye. Im glad you got rid of those silo thing in the background it looks much better like this. I really like the tones in the background on the houses and mountains.. look very nice.

great work. oh and the highlight on the truck really catches my eye....

[[wakestarr]]

Marvelous!

The mood in this one is so nice! Kinda get that long lost christmas feeling I had as a kid :) Seriously great picture.. I was going to comment on the lightning/shadow of the fence but since it's been done already I'll just shut up :)
I guess this is for the same game as the girl with the funny hat in front of some mountainsetting that you posted a while ago? It surely has the same feel and mood to it.

..wakestarr..

[Christer]

That is damn nice Joachim!

One of the best I've seen from you! Bl�fjell is looking like a fun project to do!

I really have to come and visit you again soon and check it out!

See ya,

Christer
__

Edit: what is this other 'lumental' forum btw?

[ August 08, 2001: Message edited by: Christer ]

[java]

This is awesome Joachim. Truly awesome.
The only thing i miss is a bit more snow. The snow looks kind of slushy, but I still think it would look nice with a bit of snow on top of the fence, tyre, telephone booth etc.

[Gordillo]

Awesome (as usual).

[cybertoker2001]

HOLY SHNIKES!
No crits from me, I love it.

Good work my man.

Take it easy,
CT2001

[Chester L]

DOedsbra Stoka!!
Ikke slit deg ut, jeg kommer snart!
HIls alle gutta og si at jeg er brunere
enn Stein og Eivind til sammen!

Chester

[Zorglub]

Someday I'll be as good as you...maybe not today and maybe not tommorow, but someday

Great work, oh and I want to thank you again for your help before and for that tutorial you made for me (the David one). It's been of great help and I think I'm getting better with time and practise.

[marc_taro]

It must be great to work on a game that actually uses your traditional art skills. That's a dream job for me! Two work on a game where the backgrounds are all hand done! Awesome.

Where can we read more about the game?

marc_taro

[Magpie]

Excellent, most excellent.

[Leo]

absolutely stunning Joachim!

The style reminds me Loki but anyway I like the image. Very, very nice.

-leo