[AliasMoze]

Well, I just recently painted about 40 backgrounds in three weeks. I just woke up after the living hell I was in.

Here's a few samples. I'm really looking for feedback on these and suggestions for improving. Your feedback is definitely appreciated

BTW, the samples below are from two different animation projects.






[This message has been edited by AliasMoze (edited October 30, 2000).]

[sear]

hey, the first pic is really nice. the 2 others are cool too, but the first one is really smashing... indeed. scary atmosphere

[waylon]

I really like these. They all set a very strong mood. The first is my favorite by far, though as a stand alone pic, it's a bit dark. I'm sure it worked perfectly for the animation, though.

The second one... the lighting doesn't seem quite right to me, somehow. I think it's a few factors - the shape of the light coming in through the windows being the biggest. First, the light on the floor is a bit wide at the "base" (the end closest to the windows)... The other thing is that the blurring between the light and shadow is constant across the entire lit area, where in real life it would be sharper close to the window and more diffuse farther away. It also seems a bit bright for the rest of the image, though that's more personal taste than anything else.

The third picture looks pretty good. You could have probably made the light a bit more red, and pushed the shadows more towards blue, but you'd also need to change what's going on in the foreground a lot, which might not have been an option.

Anyway, you asked for feedback, you got it. I like them.

[General Confusion]

AM

great stuff, I really like your work!
I think waylon has some very valid comments, and I would like to add.

first image: maybe some stronger lit areas, on objects such as the rocks in the foreground or pebbles in the road, etc. would help to get the pic out of it's monochromatic styling, and help to push the realism effect a bit more. And it would also help to push the depth of field much more, because the values as it currently stands depict the tress at sort of the same value as they recede into the perspective, and the environments' atmosphere wouldn't allow that.

second image: what waylon siad sums up my opinion, however with the perspective invloved and the point of origin of the given lightsource, you can have the projected light throught the window be a thicker width then the window itself. I do agree with the sharpness qualities. Cause you have to consider what the scenes environment would entail, things like heavy dust particles in the air would cause diffusion, etc. I assume it's a castle and the maid probably has not been keeping up with her responsiblities, due to the constant uprising of the peasant rebellion, (what???)

third image: warm light equals cool shadows, is a good model to begin with when doing a painting. Especially when the strongest light source is a burning fire, you should exaggerate that rule to add some character. But, the rule is a good foundation to grow with, and also remember rules were made to be broken, so take it for what it's worth

overall, the imagery is really nice. The layouts as they stand are very interesting, just maybe some punchier colors additionally would make for a nice animation style.

post some more, very inspiring

later

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State of Confusion

[AliasMoze]

Sear: Thanks! The first one was painted after the other two, which probably accounts for its being a little better. I'm still learning, so they tend to improve with each painting.

Waylon: The first one is indeed pretty dark. It worked pretty well for the animation, but it's pretty damn dark by itself. It's a problem I get into that seems to repeat over and over. Trying to go brighter with the values.

I agree about the tapering off of the light. The window is very bright, but it's the effect I was trying to do. I agree though.

Third image, I agree. I should've pushed the compliments over more. Sigh. I usually over compensate. But I'll try to do it better in the next project.

General: Thanks You!

First image, yes, it is a little boring (they all are). I guess I get to bogged down in the technical. Need to spend some more time on thumbnails and blocking. But I'm getting better. The top image was blocked almost entirely with the lasso tool, which is something I've been playing around with. I get impatient sometimes, because I can't get the colors and values on there fast enough. I had roughly three hours to spend per image, so I guess I skimped a bit. Not an excuse. I have a hard time pushing the saturation; I think I have a real fear of going too far, so my stuff comes out too monochrome. I'll have to work on that.

Second, I think the image could be more interesting in general. The bricks looks like crap, among other things. The dust I did for the sake of making it more interesting. Screen time for this image: about 2 seconds

Third, again with the complimentary colors. Again, I totally agree. I think I missed some golden opportunities in this image. But that's what experience is for I guess.

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Thanks for the input, guys. That's the kind of stuff I was looking to hear. I get so fatigued looking at these over and over that I lose any sense of judgement. But what you've said is what I've been worrying about and trying to improve on, so that helps tremendously.

I general, I'm trying to work on the big gestures, the blocking stages of the paintings. It's difficult to get out of the cube-inspired technical thinking. I need to get better at design, especially for this stuff. Again, many thanks.

[General Confusion]

I think your design sense is right on. The layouts convey a nice feel. I considered that maybe these were going to be used in fast scenes, so I didn't feel that what you drew was at all incorrect. IMO I felt the thing that was lacking was the execution of color usage, not so much the layed out image. You should try playing with the different functions that Pshop has to offer such as curves, hue/sat, etc. after you have blocked in the basic form. It could be a good way to "enhance" your already nicely layed foundation.

Don't be afraid to use Pshop for all its worth, cause IMO you're not cheating by using the mediums full potential, just no lens flares

(P.S.- I'm not telling you to abuse filters or anything like that, but if you don't get the color, initially, punchy enough, why not throw a color correction adjustment layer above it to help you along on your travels)

good luck

and seriously post some more if you could, your work has such a fresh feel to it, and it is very inspiring

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State of Confusion

[Loukus]

I like da second one....

*blushes and goes away*

Joel Loukus