[Rag]

I spent about 2 hours so far, but I'm running out of ideas. Please tell me what you think and any ideas you might have about what could be added. I'd like it more dramatic, just not sure what I can add to help it. I had thought of placing a Mech being worked on and changing the name from WatchTower to repair station.
Thanks for any comments!

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I don't believe in born talent, only born desire. The rest is all work.

[McSteed]

To me the edges of the silhouette seem to sharp. It makes it look like a cutout on top of the image. Maybe try a slight blur to soften them.

[Matt Elder]

Hey this is a pretty cool image rag! It's a nice change from other things around. A couple of suggestions though. The tower in the foreground needs work. The light doesn't look like it is striking it convincingly. You need to add in some highlights to 'lift' it out from the background.

I like the tower in the background but it is the only thing that is 'faded' and just doesn't look right. If you had one or two more objects in the background it would make it a little more convincing. A suggestion would be a chimmey smoke stack or something as you could play around with the smoke coming from it, adding another dramatic element.

I think the other thing you need to think about is what is the focus of the image. At the moment it is the small tower that is the focus but if you add some highlights to the big one, this could dramatically shift the focus of the image.

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See ya on da flip side
Matt
http://www.mattelder.com

[Rag]

Did this help Matt? I wasn't sure how to go about lighting it and I forgot what some of the structures on the building where there for. (Old age can be a bummer sometime) I usually don't get many replies or crits, so thanks very much for takin the time. Anyone else care to help me out?
The crane device on the side makes it more present-day than I care for.

[Edit: Not sure why the image didn't show, maybe the JPG instead of jpg]
[Edit: Nope, misspelled. Duh!!!]

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I don't believe in born talent, only born desire. The rest is all work.



[This message has been edited by Rag (edited January 13, 2001).]

[El Caseron]

I like the first version better.

I don't think the highlights and the blurred out tower behind don't fit. Sorry Matt. The fast clumsy highlights destroy the neat feeling of the construction with the hard edges...

stored

[v1510nAry]

meh agrees with El Caseron

u just don't wanna be able to see through the tower in the background so keep the opacity at 100% and blur mabye

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- Inspiration never ends .....
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[Sumaleth]

Two comments;

. The title 'watch towers' doesn't seem to make sense since the towers appear to have some other purpose.

. There's a severe scale problem between the size of the trees and the detailing on the near tower.

Row.

[shardik]

that background tower would have to be maaaaaaaaaaaaaassive for it to be that blurred and still that large in the image

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-matt

[Rag]

Thanks everyone for all the advice. I really like this image and want to continue building it up. I agreed with everyone's advice (how could I not, you guys and girls blow me away everytime I visit).

I got rid of the back tower all together, so many folks had a problem with it as well as me. I changed the tower from a watch tower to a refueling station.

I wanted to try drawing a Mech so thought this would be a good spot to attempt it.

Because of the sillouette effect there's not much detail. I think I'm hiding behind that effect to be sure.

I really like the lighting I added even though it was a bit sloppy.

Anymore good advice out there? I'm really glad you're here to help us newbies out.

Thanks a ton!

[Sumaleth]

That's looking really nice.

Perhaps the faint hint of some clouds behind the silhoetted objects, getting underlighting from the setting sun, might add a bit of interest to sky. Not too obvious though.

Row.