The Journey Begins Challenge (2D) Entry: Michael Dashow

[Vahn]

so lovely. always loved your style and this romantic piece is so playfull and promissing, cant wait to see your further progress, go go go Mike!!!:bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

quoted in 100% agreement :D

[MoonVisionStudio]

Great Pencils and composition! This one's gonna be awesome!!

[walrus]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/9566/9566_1143265510_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/9566/9566_1143265510_large.jpg)

Okay, so I ended up doing a draw-over of Kory's draw-over of my drawing. As you can see, there were parts I kept and parts that just wenren't working for me... but at least I jad to think about them seriously! I'm including Kory's post here for easy comparison, so that "this will go on my permanent record."

The left hand side was getting too crowded, so I just opened up the canvas more on that side. That messed up the overall rpoportions, so I also opened it up a bit on the top, too. This way the left column and the girl aren't so cramped. I shrunk down the middle column as Art2 sugested, and did some work on the ground to make it clear that it was further back. And of course I kept the improved ridge next to the bird.

The right corner just got too crowded for me, so I ended up sticking with something closer to the original. I curved the road around to get the zig-zag pattern suggested in the draw-over. I know there's still a major drop-off from the moreground to that mid-ground, but leaving on any serious journey requires a little leap of faith, right? I like the symbolism of the ledge you have to jump over to bequin a quest. And I like it compositionally too, so it'll stay... unless I get convinced otherwise!

To all of you who have posted about not being able to wait 'til I add some color... Yeah, me too! So hurry up and approve my l;ayout so I can start in on it. :-) Ah, I'll get there in good time... there's plenty of time left to go.
But I look forward to seeing what people think of this new revision.

-mike

[jeromoo]

Greetings, Michael! Why don't you go on with the next step! You'll improvise along the way! Great linearts!!! Is that a plucked chocobo :D All the best to you, mate!

[individium]

picture looks great, makes you curious about the rest of the journey. cant wait to see the colored version

[W-I-L]

just getting better and better.. i think the my fav thing about your piece is her legs!.. very nice:D

[Cyberone]

hey man its really looking really nice :) love the swirls on all :)

are you going to kep the same lighting (lighter even as it goes back) or are you going to make it a little more dynamic in that area???

anyway...its comming along cool...im really liking your recent updates :)

[walrus]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/9566/9566_1143341534_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/9566/9566_1143341534_large.jpg)

It's finally time for some color!
(but it's not too late to change the layout - feel free to keep giving inpu on that.)

I do color planning differently than anyone I know, so some explanation is in order. Many people just start sketching out color swatches and palettes. I prefer to take advantage of how Photoshop's layers interact and seperate everything out in seperate layers. Then I fiddle all day with the Hue/Saturation/Value sliders. So here's how it works:

In one layer, I paint in the shadows really roughly. Generally, I find a medium-value purple-grey works well. (although any color will do, we're just going to change it later anyhow!) This layer is set to multiply.

Another layer contains the hilights, in a pale yellow/orange and is set to Overlay.

I used the values from the previous posts to generate a Depth layer, which in the above example is light blue. This is the atmospheric fog, and is set to normal ink mode. (Keep in mind that each of these layers is just purple, just yellow, just blue, etc. I'm just showing them here on a grey background with the line art.)

Then I add layers for the colors of all objects in the scene. This is the equivalent of the Diffuse Map in 3D: It's just local color, no shadows or anything. And the Local color isn't one layer, it's one layer for EVERY SINGLE COLOR, so in this case I have 18 layers, each with a different color: One for grass, one for wood, one for the giant columns, one for the roofs, etcetera...

Now comes the really fun part: Fooling around with Photoshop's command-U all day!

[walrus]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/9566/9566_1143341618_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/9566/9566_1143341618_large.jpg)

So the colors I choose at first, the ones I mentioned in the last post, aren't the last word. Hardly. They're only the first word. Going into each layer and fooling around with its color can get you some radically different results. If it's a warm scene, maybe I want to keep the warm hilights and cooler shadows. But with the same file, I could cool everything off by going in and turning the shadow and hilight layers to some really cool colors. In image 01 above, I went for some really warm shadows and fog, a really romantic sunset scene, while I tried a more traditional blue depth in 02.

Of course, I don't just change the fog and shadow colors. Subtle (and great) changes in each layer are made to get the right effect. In 01, the columns are a really warm sandstone, while they needed to be a much cooler granite in 02.

The bulk of the work is actually just coloring in all of the different layers. After that's done, it's 10-30 minutes to come up with a completely different comp, like the four above... and the bulk of that time is often just from messing around with the sky!

Overall, 01 and 05 are fitting what I puictured in my head the most. The others are still valid - the moody greens and heavier shadows in 04 are really eye-grabbing - but it's not the mood that I want to convey. It's mostly there to show something different using this technique... and with this technique you can get some dramatically different effects from the same file. I'm not going too far afield here bacuse I basically know what I want. But I'll keep fooling around with things more 'til I'm happy. Small tweaks like what color clothes they should wear, or especailly what color the bird should be. (I pictured him white in my head, as out cockatiel Toby is white, but it doesn't work compositionally. You can't be afraid to change those kinds of things if they're not essential to the story.)

So there we go. More color tests later, I promise...

-mike

[monsitj]

many thanks for the process mate! very useful and I got a lot of new workflow from you !
do you coloring at final resolution? for me , my machine can't handel 18 layer at high res:banghead:
and like you said , I think you have 1 and 5 in your head , but for me I prefer 04 , I like the pale green at distance background ! anyway still have much time ! heheh!

[Nigio]

Hi Walrus, very useful and clear explanation of your way of work, thanks!
I find number 01 the most interesting.
I´m eager to see more of your colour process.

[adonihs]

number 4, FOR SURE. that one is perfect, to me.

[makaron]

first... thanks for the lesson... :applause:

and if the bird is going to a shade whiter... I would prefer nr 5 in colors, like the sky and the brownish pelars... but as you wrote, nr 4 is really eyegrabbing... mostly to me the colors on the characters... and the green grass... as usal, a hard choice...

[artvandeley]

Wow, what an impressive workflow. So much to learn . Can´t thank you enough for showing.
As for my favorites, it´s either 1 or 4. Hm, that´s not very helpful i´m afraid :shrug:
What i like about 1 and 5 is the clean shape of the group, making the scene easier to read.

I know these are just roughly made layers, but apparently the light in the BG is coming from a different direction than the one on the couple.

Keep it up, can´t wait to see more of your progress!

[Tris3d]

Sorry a feel really stupid here but could you just go into a bit more detail about the depth map for me? It almost works like a depth map you would create in 3d but you said set it to normal mode? Wont that just cover the drawing? Also are you able to use this map to apply blur? I expect not! Anyway, fantastic illustration as always and I really love number 5! It looks so warm in the distance! Makes you really want to travel there!

Thanks for the help!

Tris

[Nazirull]

Whoa walrus...thats a kewl revelations to me! Ive done this kinna 3d render passes but never occured to me to do it for 2d painting!! :banghead:

Hallelujah!!

Id go for no. 2. I has the morning feel to it and it great time of the day to start on a great journey.... :D

[beelow]

Hey, Michael! I like that u have shown how u use layers to color, really nice of u to put ur process up. I will have to try that now!:D I like 2 and 1. I would like to see that mixed IMO.:thumbsup:

[rawwad]

Hoho! :eek: It looks fantastic! Great color variants, I love all, but most I like variant 04. Keep great working :thumbsup:

[umbrellasky]

wow awsome colour sketches! I really like 1 and 2 :D

Great work!

[yoitisi]

:) theres some inspiration to find here. I say go for nr 2 or nr 5, the last one draws the attention more than the others. Only thing with it is that the foreground should have some adjustments in color I think because it looks a bit flat to me now.

[paperclip]

No. 2 and no. 4 are my favorites- I really like no. 4 as the colors aren't all so closely related and I really like the atmosphere in the background, it seems much more real than the overall pinkish scene.


Wanna see more tests! :)

[doomdragon]

Nice painting. :thumbsup:
I like number 1 the most.
In number 5 I don't like the color of that bird creature in combination with the sky. It's too similar and makes it look like it's just a big red gradient lying on top of everything.
2 Is nice too, but the red sky in 1 creates a nicer atmosphere.
I don't really like 4 it doesn't look as happy as the others.

But they're all nice, can't go much wrong.:)

[Vahn]

Interesting working methods you got there :)

her dress looks best in white (1,4) and i really like the white bird. Nr. 4 would br my choice of background colors .. its like the end of the world in sotc :D

[BaronImpossible]

No. 2 is way ahead for me, then No. 4. The yellow haze in the others doesn't really fit the sunny, grassy scene.

[assafk]

:eek:
Amazing stuff!

I like the atmosphere in no. 4

[TeckZ]

The 4th choice's better (imho)
its "in-image" climate belongs to this "project" ;)
Luck ya!

[Alouette]

very very nice color walrus,
i also prefer the warms picture 1 and 5.
but the atmosphere seems to be in the end of the day and not in the beginning ( maybe your red-orange is too saturate.... i don't know )

but it will be one of my favorite picture!

[Ramitxon]

Thanks Walrus for showing us your workflow. Certainly is a very personal way to work, and I must agree that it leaves plenty of room for tweaks. I find color scheme number 5 the most suitable for me for a countryside, being the most luminous of them. of course there can be hundreds of combiantions depending of the mood you want to express, but I think you need a warm and lively feeling for the image, full of vibrant colors.

[mybutterflyiris]

first of all I really like your work flow. :thumbsup:

Colorwise, I really like the bird color between 1 and 2. I also like the warm atmosphere of #1. However, #4 is the one that draws me. It has more contrast and makes the characters stand out more. Like if you compare the area with the central characters in #4 to #1 there's a big difference. I also like those nice foreground shadows that help lead your eye in. It looks like you realized this and tried to play with it in #5, but the colors look muddy imo.

[walrus]

Wow, thanks for all the comments, everyone! Havang an international site like this is so cool: I go to sleep for the night and by the time I wake up, it's already late Sunday somewhere else on the planet and everyone's had time to log in.

I'm not going to be able to answer every single person's comments but let's see if I can hit the general themes:

I appreciate that people like #04, and it is a beautiful color scheme (if I do say so myself :) ) but it doesn't fit the romance of the scene the same way the warmer shots do. I mostly threw it together to demonstrate the process... and because this process lends itself to doing way too many color comps just because it's fun! As Ramixton noted, you could do hundreds of these. I'll probably do more, myself. You'll notice there are some skipped numbers in there: It's not because I can't count, but #03 and #06 just weren't as good as these.

Oh, and Iris - you're completely correct on your call on the shadows in 04 and the muddiness in 05! :) So that just shows that 05 needs more work... no kidding! But everyone: keeping in mind that I'm shooting for as romantic as possible, do you all think that 04 is really the best choice?

Tris3D - No need to worry, I'm happy to explain as best I can. First off, look at the last greyscale I posted, in post 254. I had that up on screen in Photoshop and turned off the Line Art layer, so all I had were the values. It's a nice, simple greyscale image... Which happens to be the exact same thing Photoshop uses as Alpha/Selection Channels! So if i look in the Channels tab, I'll see that the R, G, & B channels all have the same image in them (with no color data, R, G, & B will always be the same.) I copied one and made it a new channel, DepthMap. Then I changed Levels so that the furthest background would be pure white (which, for a selection, means fully selected) and the foreground was pure black (completely unselected.) Load this DepthMap channel in as a selection and fill with a color. I place this OVER every other channer, top of the stack, so that it's obliterating everything, even the line art. Because if we had lines in real space, they'g get fogged out too. But of course the entire layer doesn't have to be 100% opaque. I'll fool around with the settings so that some local color and shadow and light are still coming through, maybe ~50-60% opacity?

And because we still have that DepthMap layer as a selection, sure, you could load it as a selection and then apply a blur filter to the whole piece. Right now, if I wanted to do that, I'd wait until the entire piece was done and I was blurring one flat layer, it might look great. Wouldn't it be nice if you could apply blurs and distortion effects like that in their own layer and turn them on and off, like you can now with Adjustment Layers? Someday...!

Monsitj - I'm working as lower resolution myself, something like half-size for the color comps. I don't have it in front of me, but I think final res is something like 3500-4000 pixels across, about 18-20 inches at 300dpi (the size of my line art.)

Torsten - Good call on the light direction. This is what I get for moch\king up the columns in 3D but not the figures. :-/ That's for dropping by, always good to hear your input and encouragement, I can't believe you're actually learning something from me! :)

Let's see, several people commented on the bird's color. See, here's the conundrum: Cool, white bird pops against background with its hue (warm/cool contrast) but not value, and the yellow/ornage bird pops in value but not hue. But I don't want to make it a big blue bird! I'll keep messing with it, of course.

Simon and Alouette and others commented on the background haze being too warm/not quite the right color, I'll try some more things there, see how something bluer looks...

I hope that covered the big issues... Thank you, everyone, for all the great feedback!

-mike

[MichaelCTY]

wow mike, sorry that I was busy! these colours r lovely, really hard to choose,but I like 1 and 2
but I afraid that if using red and orange keys for the sky and cloud,wil be like sunset,I think if the time is set in monring will be more suitable for a begining of a journey
,but thats only my personal advices, hope it helps and sorry for my poor english:)

[Fahrija]

Awesome - I never could divide my approach like that. I very much adore no 4 > with the rays and the clouds in combination with the color scheme it looks like he´s travelling to grand and unkown places. The pillars look very heavy and the depth is cool also. furthermore it doesn´t look to romantic like in no 1. All in all the approach in no 4 shows he will have no easy ride ahead. my two cents overall.
great thread mike.

fahrija


.

[ralphmanning]

02 would be my first choice, then 04 my second choice. Or perhaps a combination of them both? Regardless of which one of those two, I think it's wise to go with 'cooler' hues to aid the illusion of depth in the image more successfully than with the 'warmer' hues in 01 and 05.

I like your way of doing things - very thought out. Great work so far, keep it up. I'm looking forward to seeing further progress. :)

EDIT: I keep changing my mind. I like 01 and 05 too - I cant decide! :cry:

[Tris3d]

Thanks a lot for sparing the time to explain the depth layer. It completely made sense and i'm looking forward to using that technique in future pieces. Keep up the good work and thanks for the inspiration.

Tris

[anzibon]

i like the pallette from 1. white bird is best IMO.

i like the atmospheric bg in 4. love the godrays in the clouds. subtle, but magical.



thanks such an interesting thread. i love seeing all the decisions you make being laid out to see. really inspirational stuff.
~B

[3dRaven]

01 has nice color balance :thumbsup:

[TheFirstAngel]

version 1 it has a great ballanced palette and the white clothing and birdy separate good from the background

[authentic]

I prefer 2 and 4 even I'm always fighting again blue skies. I think that orange ones gives an end afternoon impression which is in contradiction with the beginning of a journey. With a big adventure coming, you don't decide to go just before the night. Too much danger.
Good work.

[Chupacabra]

Hi Michael,

Colors chosen in nr.2 are very cartoonish, positive yet teasing... I would go with that one maybe.

Keep up, bro,

Khan alias Chupacabra

My Journey Begins (http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=323929&page=1&pp=15)

CG Portfolio (http://chupacabra.cgsociety.org/gallery/)

[JTD]

I prefer version 1 because it's the most playful and romantic.

[Nomad]

Loooove your work :love:


For the colors the warm palette of vesion 01 is IMHO the best for this scene.
Great image so far, I`m looking forward to see more progress :bounce:
and wish you good luck and alot of fun :D

[Zephyri]

this is a great thread for following the development of an idea... i love hlow you've messed about with every facet of the picture to get to where you are now. As far as the colour comps go, the one that immediately drew my eye to the couple was number two, thanks to her orange dress against the blue, and the fact they are the most saturated thing there. If you go for 1, I'd desaturate the grass just a little, as thats where my eye goes first. But all in all, it's an adorable picture!

[GonzaloGolpe]

At first glance,number 02 =)


▒Zalo▒

[walrus]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/9566/9566_1143582728_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/9566/9566_1143582728_large.jpg)

Thanks, everyone, for all the great feedback. Torsten's comment about the light direction not being unified got me to thinking, and I figured, once I already have a model for most of the structures in the background, might as well throw together a reall quick, ugly one for the characters too, so I can light them from the same lights. So I modelled these really quickly. You'll have to believe me when I say I can actually model better than this... I just didn't need anythign better for this piece. Mianly just wanted to see where the light fell and whay major areas were in shadow.

I haven't really had time to sit with this just yet and ponder on which one I like best. 07 is the only one with the characters' faces in light, but it's also a straight-ahead light solution, nothing too daring. The others come closer to being morning shots (assuming screen-right is east and not west) and get some interesting long shadows in there - check out the columns' shadows in 05! The characters - especially the girl - are pretty much in chadow, which is a shame, but I could light them up with some bounced light off of the ground (which I didn't bother adding to the lighting solution here.) Ever look at the brothers' Hildebrandt? Man, those guys were fantastic at bouncing light off of the ground to illuminate faces in shadow, really inspiring stuff.

I'm still going to spend some more time doing more color comps too. Just need more time...

-mike

[paperclip]

I like the faces in 2 and the shadows of the columns in 5.


Could this planet possibly have 2 suns? :D

[walrus]

Silly! The whole idea is to NOT mix and match light sources, to get a unified whole. If I wanted (or thought I could get away with!) having 2 different light sources, i could just stick with what I had before. :)

[paperclip]

I'm back. Surprised?

Well then, I like 6 best. It has a great 'early morning' feel to it, like he rose with the sun to set off on his journey. yee ha.

Sorry for the mix up earlier.

[walrus]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/9566/9566_1143610491_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/9566/9566_1143610491_large.jpg)

Well, I think I agree with you, Theresa. #06 hits the best morning light without flooding out everything (07) or putting the characters too much in silhouette. I've also made a lot of progress (i think) with the main colors. I took what I liked about the earlier 01 and 05, but added some cooling colors further in the background, so that they disappear into the back more and the main characters stand out warm on cool. But keeping in mind the render 06, I also worked at emphasizing that dawn light from the right. So this is what I'm thinking. Hopefully the two will work together pretty well...?

anyhow, off to bed now. More at some point.

-mike

[TheFirstAngel]

so far more or less solution 4, huh? looking great, still i think the yellow birdy actually desnt separate very good this way from the background.
Either way, great great piece, cant wait to see it finnished! go mike go!:bounce: :thumbsup: :applause:

[makaron]

looks fantastic with this morning light... good choice :thumbsup:

[EricClaeys]

I really like how this is coming along. It's a very playful and light-hearted scene in an appropriate style. The expressions look great and the colorful background helps polish it off. Perhaps something in the immediate foreground might give an even greater expance to the plain - just an idea... Nice work!

[V_Shane]

Nice color comp, I enjoy the sky and background feel immensly. However if I changed on thing, the would be the color of the bird, I would make him blue with a triadic of plumage.

[tomenas]

:) nice enviroment and "ostrich"

[paperclip]

Wow Mike, it honestly looks fantastic so far.

I would stretch out the shadows a little more to emphasise the morning light though...I think you've really captured a great atmosphere and I sense that you're approaching the final lap already, dagnabbit!

[arte-i45]

Excellent as always Michael, the early morning lighting is great! Looking forward to watching this journey progress. :arteest:

Matt :)

[MoonVisionStudio]

Looking good Michael! I would push the coolness of the bkgd against the warm foreground a bit more. I would also consider putting some color into the funky patterned structures you have in there. Your characters are great!!

Almost forgot, maybe some flowers sprinkled in?

[domclubb]

looking good. the further along this gets the harder it is to crit. Love the volumetric light shards and the overall pallette is great. Maybe a bit more contrast between the background and foreground. Anyway Keep it up. This is definately one of my favs.

[Vahn]

looks great ... could be afternoon sun as well tough :P

I agree with angel & v_shane ..only thing id change would be the birds color (the white version from colorsketch nr1 would be my choice if you go with this sunny bg ) . other than that it looks pretty solid :thumbsup:

[duddlebug]

The colours are looking great Mike!

It's all got such a lovely feel...

[Ramitxon]

Hi Walrus, I see you finally decided your colours. Great choice, each time I stop by your thread I like it more. I have no crits really, It is fantastic as it is by now, maybe I could improve the touches of blue on the background and the head of the bird could look less orange, but that are minor touches in my opinion. I am looking forward to see the it finished.

[MVDB]

Those 'rock' kinda mountain design things are very good, makes it very original!

Lovely colorsceme..

[artvandeley]

Wow, i´m sorry that i caused you so much labour on this light-part....

No wait, i´m not sorry at all :D , looks really better this way!!
I´m really getting more and more impressed by your piece,not only you picked a bunch of awsome colours here, you also have a great, experienced way to visualize your imagination.
Isn´t that still kind of a miracle, to share your own pictures in mind with others?

Anyway, still a few things to mention ( ohnoo, i´m getting a "few more things"-guy)
-The orange neck of your chicken gives little contrast on the colors ( donno the proper word...sry), and with it´s saturation it´s getting too important next to the couple. (Please, don´t ask me what color instead you could use..hey, i´m just complaining here, okeeay?
-You got three red spots in the picture, maybe it would be a good idea to tweak the boy´s shirt to a less orange red. I noticed there´s some space left in the colorscheme and it would help to focus our hero.
-Right now, there´s a lying "S" on the ground buildet by both the way and the lawn. That would be funny, if it helps the viewer to get into the picture so to speak. But since i don´t think you put it there intentionally, i would suggest to break it somehow.

You´re doing great, keep it up!

[walrus]

EricClaeys - any siggestions for foreground objects? I'm open to ideas... I tried putting another fence there at some point but it didn't quite work. What would you add?

Shane - I tried making the bird blue at some point but it looked too unreal. And now, with all of the warm colors in the foreground, not sure if it would work anymore.

Jose - I ahve another version of this scene with more purple in the background, but I worried that it made the scene TOO cool, and lost some fo the romance. Maybe I'll post it anyhow, just so you can see. It's tough, keeping things warm but also wanting them to have cool colors so they recede at the same time! Any ideas, anyone?

As for the different colors on the columns and the flowers, both excellent ideas, I'll work them in in the coloring stage.

domclubb - again, maybe I should add more purple into the background...? Hmmm...

artvandeley - You may be right about the bird's nech. It is going to be mostly in shadow, though... have to see how purple it gets. Any suggestions on the boy's shirt color?
And lastly, I'm not sure what you mean by the 'S' - could you explain again? If you mean the path on the right side, that was intentional, to draw the viewer in... but does it look unintentional? Or like it shouldn't be there...?

Wish I had time for more responses, but I'm late for a meeting. Byeeeee...!

[paperclip]

I hereby start a petition to get the old purple walrus avatar back!

[Anapäst]

well, i hereby vote for the old avatar...

but wait, what i really was about to say is..
i think some nice berry-bushes at the left and maybe at the fence could solve both the red- and the foreground-problem. the birds neck fits perfect for me, right now :)

[walrus]

Okay, look, about the avatar thing:

I'm the Art Director at this company that's making customizeable, animated 3D avatars for the web, and for 7 months I've been building/modeling/texturing/rigging/painting these avatars as well as directing a whole team of talented artists to make these things cool. Now maybe you all might be a little blase about the whole create-your-own-avatar thing because pretty much anyone on this site takes great pride in creating their own avatar, but this is a neat tool for the masses without your skills to create their own 3D avatars. So we just shipped this week. I pulled a 20-hour workday on Monday, and now we're live at Meez.com, and we're having our launch party tonight...

So I'm damn well gonna show off my Meez! :P

...

but i like the idea of the berry bush!


http://www.michaeldashow.com/forum_art/mike-meez01.jpg http://www.michaeldashow.com/forum_art/mike-meez03.jpg

:)

-mike

[Hexodus]

Oh yes, this is a friendly and warm looking story. I love your colors and atmospheric depth!

[navate]

This is delightful! I love your style and the colors are perfect. I hope you stick with them for the final version. Wonderful mood. The only crit I have is that the ridge the boy is standing on is a little confusing at this stage... it blends in a little too well with the rest of the ground so it's hard to understand at first that he's not floating, but I'm assuming that's because minimal work has been done with shading and detailing. Really looking forward to seeing this one finished. :) Good luck!

[ralphmanning]

Great choices with the final colour. It looks great! :applause:

But, I would like to see it with a white bird instead, so I could compare the two and decided which I like best.

As usual, excellent work so far - Keep it up. :D

[TheFirstAngel]

I hereby start a petition to get the old purple walrus avatar back!
joins that, we want back the walrus we know! i was shocked to see u gone meez!:scream:

[DoInferno]

What did you do to our walrus? You... Damned Mustache man!

[EricClaeys]

hmmm, perhaps nearby erroded mound in the left corner with some more detailed small vegetation and some rocks... sorry, no earth-shattering ideas for foreground images...

[gigantron2999]

i really like this so far, it's super fun and cute. and it really nails home the concept of "the journey begins"

can't wait to see more!

[SideAche]

Wow - Mike - This is looking great. Love the color - always like your characters. This is turning out quite nice. My only crit is that there are several lines with the roads and the fence that seem to be merging together. Also the width of the path in the middle ground is narrower than the path in the BG. I hope you don't mind but I highlighted with red where the lines are coming together. Just a nit-pick on a great piece that is coming along wonderfully.
http://www.sideache.net/images/9566_1143610491_medium.jpg

[walrus]

:banghead:
How in the world do I miss these things?!
I work on this for, what's it been, a month now? And things look great, and then you point something out like that, and it's so immediately and obviously clear, it seems inconceivable that I could have ever missed something so obvious!
(yes, that's a straight line waiting to happen, my gift to the first taker.)

Thanks for pointing that out, Cliff! It was too obvious for me to spot without help. :shrug:

-mike

[assafk]

Pretty colors :drool:

I'd like to see a well somewhere in that village =)
Oh, and some flowers...
And myabe a herd of those ostriches!

Im so excited...
Your work evokes so much imagination...
=P

[jayday]

I hope that as you seem too concentrate on the color, you didn' t forget a past comment about lowering the ground where the girl stands. Right now, to be on the same plane as the boy she would have to stand left of the bucket, which would put her out of reach of the "hero".

Actually, I think the whole foreground begs for more structural devices like a well, a rocky path, rock steps, flowers...something to ground the characters. I appreciate the curvy lines that echo each other on the left and right but I am sure you could reproduce that framing with these romantic devices. Maybe with a hint in those rocks of their past as part of those chewed off towers.

Like you I missed on those lines merging at the road and fence that SideAche pointed out.
Redirect the road behind the middleground houses? Done.

But it got me thinking about the fence; What would you think about a stone fence instead of the wooden one? I'll give you that a wooden fence does bring some fragility that contrast the massive towers.

Got to go. Inspirationnal work.

[jayday]

...to concentrate. Not too concentrate. My mistake.

[walrus]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/9566/9566_1143825867_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/9566/9566_1143825867_large.jpg)

Stayed up late last night to correct the line art and start putting in a "real" shadow based on 3D render #6. Just hitting the characters first, I'll ger to more on the ground soon.

Jayday, you were completely wrong: I HAD forgotten about fixing that ridge that the girl is standing on! :) I always liked Kory's drawover of that section, but got so into making changes on the house and tree that I forgot all about the most obviously needed fix. But now, I've also coverred all of the Cliff notes on the pathway to the right. Or at least most of them. Redirecting the road behind the house would have been too extreme, I don't think the eye would have followed the road that well.

I decided against a stone wall around the yard int eh foreground because I wanted to keep the perceived "technology" of the humans different from that of whomever build the giant columns. Just a small way of helping it be clear that the humans were just living in tis ancient land, but didn't craft it themselves.

I still need to add something in the foreground left. Thanks, everyone, for the many suggestions! A well, steps, more fence, a berry bush, another eroded mound, rocks... I'll have to sketch some in and see what works best.

Xeophex - Sorry, but I tried the bird white several times and it just didn't work. At this point the characters are popping form the background because tehy're dark on light and warm-on cool. A white bird didn't work with either of those set-ups, and just didn't read well.

Assafk - all great ideas. We'll see how visible they might be when they're so far in the background!

Thanks, everyone, for all of the helpful comments and support!

-mike

[makaron]

I would like to see some chickens or maybe a dog or cat in the left forground, some domestic animals to more home-sweet-home feeling...

[ralphmanning]

I would like to see some chickens or maybe a dog or cat in the left forground, some domestic animals to more home-sweet-home feeling...Sounds like a nice idea makaron. :)

walrus: do you intend to render entirely in grey-scale before adding colour?

[beelow]

That one column seems lonely behind that house, maybe u can add more or maybe not, but ur coming along nicely!:thumbsup:

[Comlock]

I realy like that cartoony style in this pice=) great composition and use of colours.
Im definatley gonna folow this one

Intresting that the girl has short hair, and the boy has white. It looks cool though

Good luck!

:wavey:

[Falcorr]

Hey walrus! Great background :)
This reminds be of somekind of chocobo racing.

Good luck i know you will end up with great picture :thumbsup:

[walrus]

makaron - yes, you're not the first to mention that. I think I'll just add them in later in the process. Chickens might give it a nice homey, farmlike feel - would it be too weird to have chickens and giant riding birds?

xeophex - yes, that's the plan. Pretty much I'm going to follow the same steps I outlined earlier, but in more precise detail. And then when the values and underlying colors are done, flatten and refine by painting more.

bryce - i dunno, that sounds sort of racist: what's wrong with columns being friends with houses and trees?! :) (j/k)

comlock - thanks, glad you like it. yes, I'm changing things up just a teeny bit with their hairstyles.

falcor_ - good to see you around, Juha. Thanks for the comments.

Meanwhile, I've done more value painting, but nothing worth showing yet. Just the same thing, only more of it. More later...

-mike

[makaron]

Chickens might give it a nice homey, farmlike feel - would it be too weird to have chickens and giant riding birds?

naaa, that riding bird seems to be a nice gut, he won´t eat chickens... or maybe a ridingbirdchick, or just two kittens playing... or, some birds from the forest... or just a flowerpot... or a waterbucket... gonna be intresting to see what you put there... :)

[paperclip]

Chickens might give it a nice homey, farmlike feel - would it be too weird to have chickens and giant riding birds?



Sure it's not his fault that he grew too big, you know? I'm sure he gets teased all the time by his smaller chicken siblings. :sad:

Tis not easy being different...you owe it to him to not make him feel too self conscious about his height and all that.

He's as good as the other chickens, you know? What's his name? Don't tell me you didn't even name him, you...you heartless...

[walrus]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/9566/9566_1143942940_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/9566/9566_1143942940_large.jpg)

You heartless what? You need a noun there... Might I suggest the one Carlos offered earlier, "Damned Mustache man?" Put it all together and I can be The Heartless Damned Mustache Man! Cool! :thumbsup:

Speaking of putting this all together, back to Value Layers. So I've gone over this before, only now I've been working on mch more finished revs of the various layers. To walk through it again, I start with just the line art and some areas masked out. On a seperate layer I paint all the shadows. That's my value study, basically. On another layer I add some hilights. This time round I also added a layer for bounced light, because you know there's be some light coming off of the ground too. The bottom left are the color test layers from the last color comp I posted. Put all of the other layers over it to get what's on the bottom right. It's not perfect: I'm going to have to refine a lot of those underlying colors now that I have some more accurate shadows to place on top of them. And of course, everything will get more painted once Iflatten it all and strat really working on it. But it's also important to get as good an under-layer for the painting as I can first. So no complaints about the colors just yet - I'm mostly posting this just to show process.

-mike

[beelow]

My 1st question, do u paint in layer masks at all?

2nd, if so, how many layers do u have masks on them to paint on layers, and which specific ones do u use?

I am interested in ur process now! Cool stuff dude keep rocking it!:thumbsup:

[Mythmaker]

Interesting technique... I liked the bold pure colours in the colour test, but this seems to be working well - a good compromise!

Keep at it - I want to see the finished piece! :thumbsup:

[naresh]

hey michael another cg award watin for you man....great idea and work too....:bounce:
keep it up...watin for final rander..
thanks
naresh

[walrus]

Thanks, folks! I appreciate the comments. :)

Bryce - Here's some more explanation of the process:

I don't paint layer masks, i use each layer as its own mask. Each specific color you see in the bottom left corner of the last post (the base color layer) is actually on its own layer. So I have one layer for grass, one for foilage, one for houses, one for roofs, one for columns.... etcetera, etcetera. Then of course I have the Shadow layer (set to multiply), the Hilights layer (set to Overlay), Bounced light and Depth (set to Normal) and the line art (Multiply) over all of them. Yes, it's a lot of layers! I've got 18 seperate color layers right now, not counting Shadow, line art, etc.

Why do i do it like that? Because it's really fast to make changes. If I want to test out a darker column or a cool-colored roof or something like that, I select the layer, Command-U (adjust Hue/Saturation) and I instantly get feedback on how darker columns would work without having to repaint shadows and hilights and all that. It takes a while to set up, but it gives me a LOT of freedom (maybe too much!) to tweak with color comps.

Some layers do have mutliple colors in them. There are three seperate layers right now for cloth, but there are more than 3 cloth colors. So they're buynched together, but at least it's easy to find them. And you'll notice the bird isn't one solud color: With the layer locked, i went in and airbrushed in some other tones on the neck and legs. I'll usually do that other places too: For example, skin isn't all one color, so I'll airbrush in some pink on the cheeks, ears, knees, anywhere where the skin would be more rosy.

The other thing this process lets me do is change parts of the image by using the alpha of any given layer as a selection. Supppose I want the shadows to get cooler as they get further back in the scene. I Command-Click on the Depth Layer to load its alpha channel as a selection, select the Shadow Layer and lock it, and fill with blue. Or Command-U to shift it to blue. Voila! Now the shodows further back are cooler.

Of course, this process isn't perfect. That's why I'll end up painting over everything once it's all flat. But at least this way I have a solid start.

-mike

[beelow]

Slick process dude, Iam glad that u took the time to explain ur process, Much appreciated Michael. I will try ur process one of these days. Thanx for sharing, this page is definitly archived! Keep up the superb work!:thumbsup:

[Tyrus88]

This is looking really great! I never thought about doing different layers for shadows, highlights, depts and so on... That's clever. Now I have learned something. :)

Thanks! :thumbsup:

[cyberarts]

I really like the way you work. I should try your technic next time. I really like your style too. Keep up with your good work.:thumbsup:

[spacesnail]

Hello Mike !

thanks a lot for sharing your nice technique !!

Manu

[ThierryS]

Those colours are so refreshing! Great work sofar and great technic to get there! Well done Michael!:)

[walrus]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/9566/9566_1144136729_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/9566/9566_1144136729_large.jpg)

Okay, I've finally assembled all the final color layers in full resolution (about 6000+ pixels wide.) Just before flattening the image, this is what the layers tab looks like.
Everything from 'hair' down are all just layers providing local color, or the "diffuse color," if you're into the 3D lingo. So all of them are set to 100% Opacity Nomal ink mode.
Everything above that is adding the lighting passes: One layer of shadow to make things darker, another to tint the shadows a lighter purple. Some hilights, and some bounced lights off the ground illuminating the underside of the bird and characters. And then of course the fog in the background, "Depth layers."

After this, things all get flattened and I start painting for real, not just futzing around with layers...

[walrus]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/9566/9566_1144136893_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/9566/9566_1144136893_large.jpg)

... and this is what it looks like all flattened, with all of those layers interacting together. Anything not working? Speak now, I haven't started painting on the flattened version yet! :)

Not that this is perfect (notice the weird halo around the fencepost?) but at this point the solutions are all mostly with painting, not with layer manipulation.

But it's late. Painting can wait for later...

-mike

[DeeVad]

Hi Mike,

Your idea is the best and your work is my favorite for the challenge. I hope I will have right.
I have no crits, but do you plan to add some dark grass/or object at first plan ? It could increase depht.
Your technique is clean and the result rock ! I learn a lot from your last picture, cause I work more with instinct, and I usually don't use any layer. May be I will start to use them to try your way to do. It look really usefull to separate shadows / and colors to make a clean drawing. Thanks for helping me on the challenge too, I answered you on my thread :blush:.

-Deevad

[MichaelZHsee]

wow mike*love whats going on here,u hav all the layers finely organised.thanks for sharing it mate*it'd definitely comes in handy with all the layers separated:thumbsup:very nice colors too

[adonihs]

looking great, but you paint in way too many layers haha. Thats not an insult, just, no way I could do that. Im set on 10 layers MAX, but thats also because we're two completely different artist. good job though dude =)

[MDN67]

Very good pic, i like your unique style, good job, like always:thumbsup:

[beelow]

Ur so structure and well organized!:rolleyes: :D

Thanx for sharing those layers now we get to see the artistic side of micheal hehe!:thumbsup:

[MoonVisionStudio]

Hi Mike!

I think you have some great depth working now! This is one of my favorites by far! All your images are always so happy or sweet (that I can recall).

I would be kind of hesitant to flatten it though. I dont work in nearly as many layers as I used to and I always simplify as I go, but to go totally flat gives me the shivers... you are a better man than me. ; )

Jose

[walrus]

Thanks, folks! yes, it IS a lot of layers... and at 6000x pixels wide, you can imagine how large the files size is, too! (I tried to open one of these files on my work computer to work on it during lunch yesterday. With everything else open, it took 20+ minutes to open the file!)

But I consider this just prep work: Now's when I really start "painting"... After I flatten it down to 3 or 4 layers. I won't make the picture completely flat: I still find it very useful to have the characters on a seperate layer, and the sky seperate from the scenery. For this piece I'll keep the foreground land seperate too, it looks like it will be handy for this piece.

Oh, and one more important thing: I FORGOT a layer when i took that screenshot of my Photoshop Layers Tab. Now you may think, what's one more layer? But this one is really useful, I highly recommend it to everyone. What I do is create a Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer and set Saturation to 0 and place it on the top of my image. Then I have an easy layer that I can toggle on and off which shows me how my values are looking.

Remember color comp #4 way back when? The moody green one? I worked on it some more, the colors looked great... but I could never get the values to read on that one. Having a Hue/Sat Adjustment Layer helped me to figure that one out pretty easily.

Deevad - Thanks for your comments both here and in your own thread, which were incredibly flattering. Thanks! I definately plan on putting something in the foreground to increase depth... but I haven't figured out what yet so I just decided to move forwards.

Michael - Thanks, glad you like the colors! I'm just glad I'm finally done with that part of the process - I enjoy it a lot, but it's now time to paint!

Adonihs - yep, different artists, different techniques. My layer-heavy method is actually pretty ridiculous, and I'd never recommend it to anyone... but it really works for ME, and that's what's important! :)

MDN - thank you!

Bryce - yeah, that'll be a nice change! :)

Jose - No, not better, just got to the point when I know it's time to move on. Besides, I have the unflat version saved, I can always go back to it... But experinece shows that I hardly ever do, except to "borrow" one layer's opacity channel as a mask.

-mike

[Muttonhead]

Nice! Wow, what a fun piece.

My only comment is that it would be nice to see the main character's faces get a little brighter as you begin hashing out the finer details. Right now, their faces seem so unimportant in the grand scale of the piece and they seem unnecessarily dark.

Totally awesome piece though. Way to go!

[AWaqas]

Great.. finally its time for paint. I cant wait to see what are you going to add on the next step.. darn, its beautiful already!!

[tilite]

Just from reading your last post I can see you have this totally under control and purely from that I cant even imagine criting at this stage, seems like everything is falling into place.

Great tip on the color correction layer, I've never even thought of that but as so as i read it I was like "OMG what an awesome idea".

1 last thing, nice piece you entered into the galleries, I noticed it in the forum leader voting section not 10mins ago, great work :thumbsup:

[MoonVisionStudio]

"Oh, and one more important thing: I FORGOT a layer when i took that screenshot of my Photoshop Layers Tab. Now you may think, what's one more layer? But this one is really useful, I highly recommend it to everyone. What I do is create a Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer and set Saturation to 0 and place it on the top of my image. Then I have an easy layer that I can toggle on and off which shows me how my values are looking."
(quoting Mike's post)


Great idea!

[FlaminGlow]

Hey michael, very interesting man, as your freiends said the work is well organized full of joy life and colors, nice rough coloring i realy would love to see close-ups if you can otherwise don't.:thumbsup:

[jevinart]

love the color and sense of distance you've created with your atmospheric effect. very nice job...

[Fahrija]

Hi Mike,

very interesting layer approach. I personaly get confused very fast using to much layers. Especially if I start working on the image again some days later. After flatten the image do you increase the number of layers again?

Some things I would like to mention:

- I very much like the complete background setting on the right side but I have the impression the pillar on the left side of the image isn´t allocated very concrete. I first thought it must be more saturated cause it is more in the foreground than the one on the right side but maybe it is the tree wich could need a bit more saturation or shading to get siluhouetted against the pillar.

-I have the impression it could be nice to add some bushes/stones/parts of a tree...in the foreground cause it somehow looks a bit empty. This could also help to avoid the clear horizontal seperation/Layering of the foreground, middleground and background. What do you think?

-What do you think about filling the air with live? Like in Ridley Scotts movie "Legend". Just a suggestion which can be completly ignored of course.


p.s. I would like to thank you very much for your comment in the droid thread. Your comments are allways very precisely and helpfull.


Enough words now. Great thread with awesome content > have fun with finishing.


regards
fahrija

.

[MrFreeman]

:)looking great Michael....feel like I've been away for a few days and yet you've nearly finished.

great characters and love the background!!

Keep going

:thumbsup:

[THECLYKE]

Wow

Great Colors

Great Characters

Great Poses.....

Great Everything

[mariam]

i like the style sooo much ..... ur work looks really very good

[ralphmanning]

Looking great! :beer:

Only suggestion would be about the bird: He is looking a little golden all over. His feathers don't differ enough in colour from his skin. For example, imo, his little wings/arms and legs should be slightly paler, or at least less golden than his feathers.

But that's it. :D Thank you for explaining your method and way of working - very kind of you. I really like your logical, methodical, organised and thought-out way of doing things.

Keep it up. :)

[W-I-L]

i think that looks great... no crits.. love the landscape

[Nikolay]

Very bright, and in my opinion very beautiful work!)):thumbsup:

[Miah]

Hi Michael!

Wow thats a really nice piece of art! Really well balanced, and I really love the color shceme you picked, with just the right amount of warm and cool colours. Somehow when I look at this illustration, it feels very welcoming and warm. The collosal structures in the background give it a very fantasy / dreamy feel which is great!

The grass looks so nice and carpetty, the kind you like to roll around on.

Amazing stuff!

[mickatt]

This thread is GREAT!!

You did a very very nice JOB WALRUS

thanks you very much for this great work

[Katea]

Ha this looks really good. I like it a lot. It looks like a game for teenagers which I find really cool. Great style :) The kids are adorable :)

[walrus]

Wow, all these comments! Sorry I haven't posted an update in a few days. I have a friend in from out of town through this weekend and am being swamped at work... only getting a half an hour or so a day during lunch to get any work done on this. Well, plenty of time left to go...

What I've done at this point is flattened it down to a manageable handful of layers. One for the characters, one for the background, one for the sky, plus the line art. At the moment I'm just focusing on painting in all of the details on the character layer. When you say it before, everything was one solic color (plus shading.) Now's when I go in and add al of the nice detial, kill the lines I don't need, brighten or darken as I need to, etcetera.

Sean - Hey, you changed your username. How boring now! :) Yes, I am definitely working on brightning the characters' faces, it's the thing I'm working on most right now.

FlaminGlow - Once I get some more work done on painting out detials, I'll be sure to post close-ups. At the moment it's not really worth seeing!

Fahrija - The layers might creep up again, depends on my confidence level: I'f I'm about to make a change that I'm not sure about, I'll do it on another layer. Or just something that needs to show up on top of the line art (which is over the rest of the painting.) For example: Rim light layer goes over the line art layer. A big glow on the right side of the sky that bleeds over the line art and columns will be a seperate layer too.

Yes, yes, something in the lower left. I know, I know! Still working on it.

As for "live" in the air - you mean like birds or something? That's a great idea, thanks! :)

Mr.Freeman - No, not really even close to finishing. I'm going to need a lot longer to keep working on this, but thanks!

Xeophex - You're totally right about the bird colors. More importantly, the textures have to work too - feathers versus bumpily-skin. I did some more work on that this morning, but have a ways to go til I have the right textures painted on that.

and everyone else - thanks so much for the kind comments and feedback. Stay tuned - more art to come, and I should have something new in the Finished Art gallery really soon, too: Check my signature later.

-mike

[Zephyri]

Hi Mike, this is looking great! The colours all work wonderfully together, and how you work with so many layers like that.. wow. That would drive me nuts! But it certainly does work for you. Can't wait to see you really get your teeth into the nitty gritty, I can imagine how fantastic this will look with everything like the bird and the rocks and that little bucket, when they've all got their own textures too. Keep it up, it's looking tremendous!

[Daniel-McMillan]

I really like the whole picture! You capture emotion in the characters, and set to course our imagination to look towards a new horizon.

--

[paperclip]

A great big :wavey: to the old purple walrus! I missed you! That heartless damned bearded moustache man, what did he do to you??


I just thought of something- what's the bucket doing there? It seems rather extraneous... sorry for pointing this out so late!

I'd like to ask you about the hue/saturation layer- what exactly goes INTO the layer? Do you put a color into it or.....do you just put an (empty) adjustment layer on top and set the sat to 0?

I'll be back!
theresa :)

[walrus]

Well, the way adjustment layers work is that they affect the entire image underneath them, not just one layer. Using the menu Image>Adjustments>Hue/Sat is fine if you just want to affect one layer, but if you want to affect a whole bunch at once, it's easier to use an Adjustment Layer instead of making individual adjustments ona per layer basis. It also beats flatteing your whole image and then makign that adjustment.

So what I did was go down to Create Adjustment Layer, and created a Hue/Sat Adjustment Layer. No alpha channel, no masks, just one simple layer. If I wanted, I could use this to recolorize the whole image purple, or make everything lighter... but instead I desaturae everything. Now I have instant greyscaleousness, which i can turn off just by hiding the layer.

The buckets there to fill out the yard, make it look more like farm home. Maybe it'll have seed in it, for all the hens wandering around the ard to eat.

Maybe I'll even have hens wandering around the yard to eat the seed too.

Besides, Zephyri likes the bucket. :p

-mike

p.s. have you gone and created your own Meez at meez.com yet?

[NinjaA55N]

hi there my friend! Its been a long time since I stopped here. Sorry for that :/
About the image.. there were made some scale corrections that really improved everything, the color scheme is just the one I imagine it will be, so overall thats already a great piece geting developed in the right direction. But I also must say that I find it quite empty of elements, there is hardly any happening. Although the environment is very interesting and original (I just love those sculptures with trees on top) the place is still "borring" if u know what do I mean (not in a bad way.. but the viewer expects more). Everything seems so static and without a reason. A crowd of other inhabitants of the village would help or a bunch of buterflies surrounding the couple maybe.. donno.. Characters and the environment is once again an awesome stuff but there is missing something that will cheer up this pic a bit, bring more emotional effect to it and give it a more clear story. But once again.. thats just my opinion :) Or maybe I missed something thats coming.. I really didnt read everything :/
Best regards and keep up the good work!

[paperclip]

Here's the Theresa Meez!

http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/6629/memeez0sg.jpg (in winter)

and here's the summer version of clippy!

http://img105.imageshack.us/img105/5676/meezcopy5po.jpg

That site is so addictive, darnit!

[ElectroNico]

Your pic is great ! I've no critics to say about it ! I like the colors and the design of the background, and the design .... of the rest of the whole image ;) Really nice work !!

[paperclip]

I vote 'YES!' for miniature versions of the riding bird to be pecking around the yard for seeds! That would be so cute!

Does he have a name? He needs one....I think I see a tear in his eye, little nameless giant chicken...

[walrus]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/9566/9566_1144627844_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/9566/9566_1144627844_large.jpg)

I had some time today and over some of last weeks' lunchbreaks to work on some overpainting. Here are how things are looking right now. I've been primarily focusing on the 2 human characters so far, not much on the bird yet (except for the screen-right leg.) I'll get to refine everything eventually...

Blaz - Thanks for your commetns, all excellent points. I plan on addressing all of them in the pic in the coming weeks: Birds in the sky and on the ground, people on the farm, smoke coming from chimneys. I'll get there when I detail those chunks of the pic. Thanks for calling my attention to it!

Theresa - OF COURSE the bird has a name! The human characters have names too. I just don't happen to know what they are, but that doesn't mean they don't have names. Everyone has a name! (Well, except for the original builders of the columns, but they're not around any more. Or at least that's what the legends say.)

Anyhow, still in progress, so don't be too harsh...! :-)

-mike

[MoonVisionStudio]

Looking Great Mike, my only comment is to look at the interplay of her legs and skirt. I think there should be more skirt hanging in the front. Bird is looking good, his expression is priceless!

[paperclip]

Looking REALLY good now! I love the gentle glow all over her legs and the side of the chicken's body.... I'm very impressed indeedy!

One crit! Yes, there's always one, isn't there?? I think his and her faces are unnecessarily dark compared to the backs of her legs- shouldn't he be recieving some bounce light from her face? Oh and also her face- it could be recieving some of that bright red from his shawl (cape thingy)?

Also- I think the light is a little too harsh on her face- it looks like her face takes a severe chisel cut on the side, so it becomes nearly squared off...make it look a little rounder, especially around the cheek/forehead area...BUT...

..you're jumping so far ahead, it's unreal. You have nothing to worry about! (besides these crits above, but they're nitpicks really.)

Minor edit: Her legs are almost exactly like mine. :D Way to go, man!

[Ramitxon]

Hey Walrus, I haven't been around for a good while. I see your image is getting better and better. I find the face of the boy a bit dark maybe, i think the shadow of the hair is too strong, being that the eyes are bright I see the face a little strange, tjhe position of his hand is a little weird IMO, apart from that, no crits, this one is gonna be a winner, or so I hope as it is one of my favs.

[DoInferno]

Beautifull light!! Nice rendering! Great to have the old walrus avatar back!

[Slav]

very nice work on the ostrich or what ever it is :) loving t3h color as wellt. keep :buttrock:

[individium]

man this is getting awesome i must really say that i didnt see it coming dude. everything is well done.

now im more curious about what will you do more with this picture. i already liked the theme now colors and light is wonderful too.:scream:

peace :buttrock:

[texxas]

Hello Mike aka walrus,

first I have to say I love the image and would like to give me the chance to tell you, what I think about it.

I don't know, if someone mentioned it before (too much posts in here) or it's just too late in this state of progress, but I think it would be nice, if you change the sexes of the both. The very first time, I saw your work in a smaller preview, I thought: "A cute, lively girl is taking initiative and going out for a little adventure in a slightly different, fantastic, 'good feeling' world. Her boyfriend wishes her good luck and is happy about the way she'll try to go."

The turning away from the classic distribution of roles would give the whole setting the extra touch of "difference", I think. For me, I was a little bit disappointed to see that reality isn't what I thought of. ;) The background of that thoughts is the wish for harmony and equality. See, if the girl is riding away, you (in the role of the boy) can lean back for a while with the feeling that she is going her own way in life and you have the chance to meet her with your own stories. No one is waiting for somewhat, everybody seize the given life. I hope you understand what I mean, can't express it in a better way.

If that is crap for you, forget about it and do what you've done before. Good luck for the challenge. :)

[walrus]

No, not at all, that is not crap for me and I'm flattered to see that this is the very first post that you've made here on CGTalk. Welcome!

I agree with you, it would be more interesting and more unexpected to have the girl riding away and not the boy. As for why I did it the way I did... sexism? Maybe, although I don't really think of myself as sexist. I've cetainly drawn my share of women in the drivers' seat. (I'm even working on an illustration of a female adventurer right now, sort of on the back burner while I complete this picture.) But I think for this particular piece, it happens that right before I started work on it, I was playing "Shadow of the Colossus" and watching "Princess Mononoke." If you know those two references, I think you all can tell why I immediately jumped on the guy doing the riding. Art never exists in a vacuum and all that. And It's not like I don't wear all my inspirations on my sleeve anyhow. :)

This topic has been covered in some of the earlier pages ('though who has time to go back and read them all.) And I think some of us agreed that another reason to have the guy going on the adventure is that the girl's legs look really nice while she's standing on tippy-toes like that too. Sorry! (insert sheepish grin icon here.)

other side note: Theresa - you have sexy legs!

But it's too late for me to change that big an aspect of my illustration. However, just to be fair, I'll post the sketch that I did a few years ago that inspired the girl in this Challnge entry. You'll see she's not necessarily a reclining wallflower:
http://www.michaeldashow.com/forum_art/swordsgirl.jpg

Anyhow, thanks for the great post.

As for the earlier posts on specific parts of the characters than needed improved lighting and color: Thank you, Theresa and Ramitxon. And also Jose with the point about the skirt. I'll definitely take your great suggestions.

-mike

[CCCCC]

Hi,
Very great job! Lighting and colors are beautiful!

[arte-i45]

Hey Michael, there should be rules against posting this type of work. :twisted: I mean my jaw literally hit the floor when I saw it. You are a master my friend, great looking progress as always! :wise::thumbsup:





Matt :)

[Tremoside]

Very-very friendly! Lot's of emotions. Maybe the girls hair should be longer. i dunno why but for the first sight that was confusing me :) Or somekind of decoration could be useful to make stronger differences between boy and girl. This is the only thing for me. Everithing else is just amazing. :thumbsup:

[Muttonhead]

Mike - Yeah, I was getting a little worried about being known as "Muttonhead" professionally, but you're right, perhaps I should lighten up :)

Piece is coming along nicely.




Sean - Hey, you changed your username. How boring now! :) Yes, I am definitely working on brightning the characters' faces, it's the thing I'm working on most right now.

[walrus]

I dunno, Sean, most computer-literate people these days get that folks have interesting handles. But I know what you mean: Around my office (all non-artists, we use AIM for intra-office communication and everyone has interesting usernames while I'm boring ol' 'mdashow.'

Tremoside - Sorry, but I've already been accused of being too sexist as is. :) Doing the "traditional" long hair is right out. Guess this'll just force people to look more closely at a piece that they otherwise might have just glanced over.


Useful tip-o-the-day:
This came up in David Freeman's thread and it seemed helpful to some so i thought I'd bring it up here: When I'm working on all this detailing of the characters, etcetera, I have two windows of the same file open at the same time: One zoomed in close and the other zoomed out so that I can see how small marks affect the larger piece. In older versions of Photoshop, You could just choose View>New View from a menu, but now in Photoshop CS, you use Window>Arrange>New Window for "yourFilename." It opens up a new window for the same file you're working on.

I have my preferences set to automatically resize windows when I zoom in and out with the command-+ and command-- keys, and when I do that, it resizes the window, covering up the second window. As I don't want to do that, I can either reset the prefs to NOT rescale windows, or I can just use the Navigator window to zoom in and out, which does not resize the window.

Hope that's of use to someone...

-mike

[jeromoo]

You breathe life in all of your characters most especially the unique creatures such as that 'plucked chocobo'. So far I am not going to crit your work just yet, because I need to see how the work will turn out first. My only concern is that the whole place looks a little lifeless. What about adding a flock of 'birds' in the sky or something like that?

I think we should start a contest on coming up with the best name for the 'plucked chocobo', just for the sake of fun :) !!!

[MoonVisionStudio]

Useful tip-o-the-day:
This came up in David Freeman's thread and it seemed helpful to some so i thought I'd bring it up here: When I'm working on all this detailing of the characters, etcetera, I have two windows of the same file open at the same time: One zoomed in close and the other zoomed out so that I can see how small marks affect the larger piece. In older versions of Photoshop, You could just choose View>New View from a menu, but now in Photoshop CS, you use Window>Arrange>New Window for "yourFilename." It opens up a new window for the same file you're working on.

I have my preferences set to automatically resize windows when I zoom in and out with the command-+ and command-- keys, and when I do that, it resizes the window, covering up the second window. As I don't want to do that, I can either reset the prefs to NOT rescale windows, or I can just use the Navigator window to zoom in and out, which does not resize the window.

Hope that's of use to someone...

-mike

Interesting! I will have to try that!

Thanks Mike!

[individium]

your work is great your tips are great!
thank you for the tips man:scream:.

ah and i didnt recognize it before but i agree with jeromoo about putting some more life.

peace

[Womgoose]

Beautiful.
Such hypnotic work and fantastic colours/lighting.
I adore this...
:bowdown:

[CaveatScoti]

As per usual, the colour and lighting work on this piece is something else. You're setting a visual standard here that's going to be hard to follow. Good luck!

[Atris]

Hi Michael! Really glad to see you in the challenge! :) I derived great pleasure poring over your work! I like colors and the atmosphere very much! And just awesome details! Good luck! :)

[FlaminGlow]

michael, Great man what a job you did there, :applause: .

[APHA]

HERE IS MINE (http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?p=3435042)

[Pat-Piper]

It sure is crowded in here, Michael, and I can see why.

I really like the sketch you posted of the girl with the sword. So cute! So perhaps you can make the girl in pic look even more like her? As it is, the one now has a really squarish jawline that goes even behind her ear. A bit manly really. I also agree that the shadows on the boy's face is slightly overdone and with his eye mysteriously unshadowed, it looks like a depression on the right side of his face.

Just minor nitpicks, hope u dont mind....because other than those, it's prefect. Just love the rendering of the bird so far too!

[walrus]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/9566/9566_1145031403_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/9566/9566_1145031403_large.jpg)

Hi, all. I've been getting in a little time to work more on the characters. This is hardly done, but I thought I should post it anyhow to show some signs of progress. Silly me, this thumb is going to look exactly like the last one and no-oine will know I've made any changes, but if you've made it this far, kudos to you!

So what's new? I've done a lot of work on the feathers (though there's more to go,) some work on the chicken legs (but no progress on his fleshy neck and arms - i'm planning on a bumply plucked-chicken kind of texture.) Some progress on clothes, but the girl's dress needs some more attention. This morning I redid her face based on Pat's notes, though I still have to get to the boy's eyes. I've worked on their hair but I'm still not happy with hers. And I have hardly touched the bird's beak.


Pat-Piper, thank you for the excellent suggestions! I woke up early to work on her jawline and face some... Does this look better? (I will get to his overly-bright eyes but haven't had time yet.)

Catch you all soon... I have plenty more time to work this weekend! :)

-mike

[ahbeejieh]

:) I love this. It made me smile. Keep up the terrific job :thumbsup:

[makaron]

I just love this big bird, his face expression is priceless... and I admire how you handle colors and shadows/lights...

and of course, happy easter http://hem.bredband.net/makaron/chick_24.gifto you...

[OliveBeard]

This is incredibly bright and whimsicle. It definitely oozes with cuteness.

Is the disney-esque style merely a side-effect of it being incomplete, or is that the effect you're going for?

Can't wait!

[walrus]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/9566/9566_1145075194_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/9566/9566_1145075194_large.jpg)

I spent hours today trying to find various shortcuts to drawing chicken skin. Could I make a pattern and distort it into place? No. Could I use that trick where I paint in grey ona layer set to overlay with a bevel/emboss layer (see my Spectacular entry, and that of SquishMe's for more details.) Anyhow, no. In the end, I painted the dots all on a seperate layer set to overlay, and then slightly blurred the layer, offset it, and filled it with a dark color to make it slightly shadow-like. But I just had to paint every single dot by hand. Tedious? Yes. Worth it? Yes.

Or maybe. I may have overdone it. What do you all think? I can always go back and erase some of it: It's on a seperate layer (or 3.) :)

I fixed the boy's eyes, too, Pat, but you'll see it in the next update.

As for the cartoony aspect, OliveBeard, what you're seeing here is pretty finished, at least in the foreground. Haven't touched the background yet. And I'm still determining how dark and what color I'll make the lines (which are on a seperate layer.)

More tomorrow, I think. Yay, Saturdays!

-mike

[beelow]

Nice textures dude, ur moving along rather nicely!:thumbsup:

[makaron]

this update is so good it gives me goosebumps!

I like that birdskin... it goodlooking and funny

[paperclip]

Wonderful chicken skin! :applause: No crits from me! :thumbsup:

[kornel]

:applause: Bravo! I love your funny and beautiful pic! :thumbsup:

best regards: Kornél

[Lc]

yep, very nice skin texture. I love your characters and the environment u made !
keep it up, it's very fun =)

[CoreyArtE]

Haha, I love your style walrus, no crits, keep it up.

[walrus]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/9566/9566_1145145163_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/9566/9566_1145145163_large.jpg)

I pretty much finished detailing the house in the back left. Just the house, though: Haven't touched the column, grass, nor the tree itself.

And I did end up muting the chicken-bumps in a lot of places, they were just too intense. A few chicken bumps go a long way (and you can quote me on that!) :)

-mike

[paperclip]

Goo goo g'choob...


I love the latest update! The house is so adorable, especially the little yellow flowers in the flowerbox, it makes the house seem so cozy and cute.

:love:

NO CRITS...and you know how darned picky I am!

P.S- I DID quote you on that. :cool:

[walrus]

You're too predictable, Theresa: I wrote "you can quote me on that" knowing that you specifically would. :D

Meanwhile, I've been working ont he same scene. You may not have found any faults, but I found several as soon as I clicked "submit." The door has its hinges on the outside but is swinging inwards. And the roof/lawn was too clean. At the insistence of my wife, I've added some leaves on the roof and ground under the tree. And the shadow on the house side from the front section of the house wasn't correct. I went back and looked at that original 3D render I did, whose whole purpose was to help me figure out stuff like this, and corrected the shadows to fit.

Anyhow, thanks for the notes (however predictable ;) )
Catch you all later...

-mike

[paperclip]

I bet you knew I would say this: that you know exactly what I'm about to say anyway, so I won't say it. :D

By the way: I LIKE the roof/lawn clean- it makes it look like they've just been married and have just moved into their new home and are still in that stage of keeping everything perfect and now she's kissing him goodbye while he rides away on his journey. Aww..so cute!

[MDN67]

always a good joob with a unique style, good pic

[ElectroNico]

The chicken skin effect is excellent !!! GREAT work again !

[Womgoose]

Beautiful.
Such hypnotic work and fantastic colours/lighting.
I adore this...
:bowdown:

I still adore this.. upgraded to desktop wallpaper. :love:
Any chance of a full image update or are you going to make all our jaws drop at a later date?

[individium]

chicken skin is great and house looks good i was going to tell the roof and door but you already said you found it. i thing grass looks good enough this way and doesnt need anymore work.

and i think no one can eat any chicken with that kind of expression :)

[jeromoo]

I love the chicken skin texture! Looks like that chicken gets goosebumps watching the couple gets lovey dovey LOL. The house is coming along nicely too. There should be lots of stuff in front of it like bundle of logs, well, barbeque pit :), chicken hut and the like. Make the place looks really lived in and comfy so that there will be a stark contrast between the coziness of home at the left and the harshness of wilderness at the right.

Loving this piece!

[walrus]

A chicken hut right next to the barbecue pit?! Wow, it's like one-stop-shopping for a nice BBQ chicken meal! Actually that's a bit sick, but hey, it was Jeromoo's idea!

I am still trying to think of other things to make it feel more lived in. Logs are a nice idea. Any others, anyone?

I've also been doing a lot of sketches of other creatures you'll see in the yard, mostly birds. From hens on the ground to finches and sparrows and small birds on the fence. You'll love them. They're adorable. I'll post them later, I haven't even scanned the sketches yet.

and i think no one can eat any chicken with that kind of expression :)

Apparently, Jeromoo could.

upgraded to desktop wallpaper...
Any chance of a full image update...?

Have some patience! I mean, most of the background hasn't even been painted yet. Won't it make a better desktop when it's further along? Anyhow, once I work on it more, I'll update something larger. Right now I'm workin on a chunk-by-chunk basis... primarily because the files get too large if I work on everythign at once, so I chop out sections to work on bits at a time.

Theresa - I knew you were going to say that I would say that you would say that... oh, never mind! :)

-mike

[arte-i45]

Hey Michael, this is looking nothing less that amazing! Did we expect anything less, no I guess not! :p I love all of your attention to details. :applause:

Matt :)

[Muttonhead]

chicken skin = fantastic. You sir, have very accurately captured that disgusting bare chicken skin look. I daresay you are the undisputed master of disgusting chicken skin at this moment.

Yeah, the door is wonky, but hey, the chicken skin makes up for it.

Question though, how does that chicken skin detail translate to the piece as a whole when zoomed out? Does it read?

-Sean

[walrus]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/9566/9566_1145332798_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/9566/9566_1145332798_large.jpg)

Here are the details on the lower right corner, the farm and further back, the town. You can see a farmer struggling with his bird who's not really in the mood for ploughing today, a whole pen of birds in the town nearest the forest, a few early risers wandering around the village, some smoke in the chimneys... Details that I hope will make people thing the place looks a little more alive than you dreaded it would be earlier. (And I'm not done yet!)

Matt - thanks for the kudos, glad you're enjoying the details... here are some more for you!

Sean - Wow, what a distinction, thanks! The chicken skin reads at a medium view but not when zoomed out all the way. But then, that's viewing it at about 20%, I'm not too surprised you can't see a detail like that so small. They'd be really scary bumps if you could! :)

-mike

[hungthai]

absolutely love your style. great detail work. keep it up

[Ocular Magic]

This is definitely one of my favorite entries of the competition. I love the style, the emotion involved, etc. Can't say enough good things about it. I do have one small observation that struck me as ever so slightly out of place. And, I may be totally off base here. It seems that all of the shadows, even the ones in the background are clearly defined. Except for the shadow that falls on the path in the latest detail. The path looks as though it is concave, which I would think would cause a harsh shadow to be cast from the ground line that is curved up on the right? Follow what I'm saying? Like I said, staring at this picture and admiring it so much might have thrown my perspective off. Keep up the awesome work Mike!

[paperclip]

I really like the village and the 'choconobo' being handled in the background, great touch there! I want to buy the house in the far right back, the one with the three windows, it looks so cute...


I think you should increase the contrast on the stones/shadows in the immediate foreground, (in the middle of the road) as...well..I think it'd just look a bit better, but feel free to ignore me, you are after all a far better :arteest: than I am!

[MDN67]

great update, great details, great style, i like it, great job

[authentic]

nice details

[Ramitxon]

Fantastic update Michael. I love the way you are adding detail. Thank you because I'm learning a lot from you.

[anzibon]

love those Burtonesque curls of the ground on the foreground horizon.
mmmm, mmmm! tasty.

~B

[MoonVisionStudio]

Great details! Go, man, GO!

[walrus]

OcularMagic - Hi! Thanks for your post. You're absolutely right about the foreground needing a sharper shadow. Oops! That shadow definitely needs to be sharper...

Do folks think the background shadows should be softer?

Theresa - Actually, the shadow depth works fine when you zoom out and see the whole picture, but for now you'll have to trust me on that. Or head back a few pages and look at the last full-image comp. I don't like painting with really dark shadows, I prefer to have them fade to a neutral color, often a muted purple. Such is the case here. I couldn't darken the shadows more here without needing to go back and darken everything.

As for the house you like, that's a the home of the bird trainer. If you look carefully, you can see the whole paddock in the back with a few riderbirds in it. Not the best smelling place, though, which is why she's got no neighbors. :)

anzibon - Y'know, I hadn't consciously realized it, but they are very Burtonesque. Not that I have any problem with that, so thanks!

everyone else - thank you for the kind words, and just for tuning in.

-mike

[jeromoo]

Quote:
and i think no one can eat any chicken with that kind of expression :)


Apparently, Jeromoo could.


Yeah, I think it tastes best roasted with teriyaki sauce! Now I know where the guy is going! He's going far east to get the teriyaki sauce! Explains the goosebumps on the chocobo! Its got a foreboding!! Beware my feathery friend! :D

I love your latest! You pulled of the sense of depth and texture well here! Very interesting building designs! I wonder where those chocobos stay... latched outside in the grass? Then don't forget to add water trough for them! :) I sensed you are going to put a few more townspeople there too! Can't wait to see them!

I get a feeling of Animal Crossings in your piece! ;)

[Marjo]

wow ! all these details ! it's great !
The color are so sweet.
i really love your work !

[arte-i45]

Yet another great looking update Michael, I especially like the way that you're rendered the path in the foreground! :D

Matt :)

[sirBS]

Cosy place :) :thumbsup:

[individium]

village is wonderful, youre doing really great. hobbits of shire will be jealous when they see this place.watching your posts are one of the most educative things around this forum, thank you teacher:D

:bounce:we want more we want more:bounce: (updates)

[paperclip]

So, if I bought the house, the choconobo paddock would go with it?

Tell me what the choconobos do...they can be ridden or eaten. Do they keep your grass down for you? Sounds like a good deal!

[GHOGHNOOS]

very very good .

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=335266

[RedSquirrel]

This image is really turning out great, great style and the amount of detail thats being put into is absolutely brilliant! :applause:

[walrus]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/9566/9566_1145563651_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/9566/9566_1145563651_large.jpg)

Here we are, the middle-far background all painted in. The further back I go, the less I'm relying on line art, more just sketching things in as I go. The line art is too dark already, anyhow. You're seeing it here at 100% opacity, but later on I'll go back in and make it a lot less intense and colorize it to fit the piece more... just not yet.

The interesting thing about doing this painting here is trusting the process. You know, the convoluted manner or arranging layers that I outlined earlier where I come up with shadow colors and hilight colors and all that. It provides me with colors that work... provided that I trust that those colors work. Take this forest of trees, for example: Getting in there and painting the details, I could swear that I'm painting in greens and golds and purples for the trees and hilights and shadows. It all looks green, doesn't it?... But if I use the eyedropper to look at most of the colors in this post, they're all reds! Pretty much everything on those hills there is between a hue of 10-40, clearly a red... but in context, they all read as what they were originally intended to be, but they also fit within the entire piece, fog and all, too.

The foreground, with the grass and fence, I haven't touched that at all. Please don't make fun of my gress yet! But I do have some surprises for that area, stay tuned...

Jeromoo - a lot of them stay in the paddock behind Theresa's house. And there ARE people wandering around town, they're just in scale to the town, so they're very small.

Individium - Teacher? Well, I guess... if you need lessons in making chicken bumps, I'm your man. (And I'm not even that good at it, I just have the fortune of being the first one to bother to try it! :) ) Anyhow, you asked for a new update, so here it is.

Theresa - Yes, the paddock goes with the house. The birds can be (and obviously ARE) ridden. There's a bird-drawn carriage in the last pic, though it's very small. And the bird on the farm pulls a plough, though he's not quite in the mood today. They're kind of like horses, but smarter. (No offense to horses.) They're really not eaten (aside from Jeromoo.) They can kepe the grass down, but it's not generally easy for them to pick at so they prefer bigger fare, something they can easily grab off of bushes. (Or out of holes - I think they're omnivorous.)

Marjo, mmbenya, sirBS, skyfox, & redsquirrel - Thank you for your kind comments! Glad you're liking it.

Anyhow, back to work for me...

-mike

[adonihs]

looking great man, i love all the tiny details and the way you paint it =) great job, just checked out your tutorial actually..good stuff.

i wish i had more time to work on my mine, curse the sickness inside me right now =(

keep it up!

[MoonVisionStudio]

That is some great detail work! Cant wait to see this one finished!

[max112358]

amazing level of detail and cool style, looking forward to the final version.

[individium]

ok as soon as i start a chicken bump class here, we'll call you :P

marvelous work again, where can i get a choconobo for myself :)

[LexLe]

It is very interesting to look step by step as you work and to study at you.
Yours faithfully Alexander

[walrus]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/9566/9566_1145740628_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/9566/9566_1145740628_large.jpg)

I've been working on adding more detail to the grass and more flowers and greenery. And also some more life to the picture, in this case, hens around the yard. And some liitle birdies on the fence, stuff like that. Those 2 hens in the upper left? They're actually on the far left of the picture, pecking around the bench.

I also ended up increasing the size of some of the trees in the background, just under the fenceposts: I noticed that they were too small for the perspective I'd set up once I saw them in the whole piece.

-mike

[paperclip]

There's nothing cuter than your latest update except possibly this:
http://www.caffein8ed.com/fazed_stuff/ani_kitten-zzz.gif

These chickens are so adorable and your grass is looking great. I particularly like the little bluebells, great touch!

[walrus]

I dunno, I don't find red Xs very cute myself. :shrug:


But I do see the point you were making. Thanks! :)

-mike

[arte-i45]

Hey Michael, yet another round of great updates! Beautiful job rendering the chickens, they are too cool. :wise:

There's nothing cuter than your latest update except possibly this:
http://www.caffein8ed.com/fazed_stuff/ani_kitten-zzz.gif

These chickens are so adorable and your grass is looking great. I particularly like the little bluebells, great touch!

Hi Theresa, now that is one cute kitty, I am glad you posted it! Right click -> Save Image As. :D

Matt :)

[makaron]

awww... the bird on the fence that hug his birdie, awww... sooo cute...

and the hens are such a cute bunch too... :applause:

[walrus]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/9566/9566_1145758477_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/9566/9566_1145758477_large.jpg)

Thanks for the comments, Matt, Theresa, and Mona. I still can't see Theresa's picture - red X here, but at least I get the idea that it was a kitten.

I spent the rest of the afternoon painting in the columns and tree on the left. I've also made a ton of small little changes since the last time I posted a full shot like this. Hardened the shadow on the lower right, fixed the sizes of a lot of trees... You'll notice that the trees on the columns have drastically shrunk. Now the trees are in scale with the rest of the piece. I fixed the door on the house on the left (and notice the new door hardware, too!)

Aside from more small repairs, I can only see a few areas left that need major work. The lower left corner still needs something, still haven't decided what. I'm thinking of the same flowers I put by the fenceposts. :shrug: And of course the sky needs to be completely repainted...

I'm sure folks will help to point out other areas that could use some work too. Don't be shy now!

-mike

[Squibbit]

great scene, i like the peaceful feel to it


.

[jeromoo]

Wow, finally I get to see the picture in its whole. Try adding another water bucket at the bottom of the girl with a pole to carry both of them lying on the ground? Since this place is like a meadow, more flowers (like daisies) among the grasses would be sweet! If you like, add a rooster at the roof of the house ;). The clouds look different from the rest of the environment from the way its painted. It looks a little unfinished there.

I like how your work is progressing along!

[makaron]

I still can't see Theresa's picture - red X here, but at least I get the idea that it was a kitten.

if you have a PC is easy to see whats under the red X. just right click on the red X and choose
properties, copy the adress/URL and paste it into a new internetwindow. and then go to. or enter. in this case its http://www.caffein8ed.com/fazed_stuff/ani_kitten-zzz.gif :)

if you have a mac, I not sure how it works tho...

and I really like the hen beside the big bird, how she looks up in a mix of scare/admire upon him... and for the left corner, the same flowers as by the fence would be nice I think. To tie things together, or maybe 2 little babychickens... that would raise the cutenessfactor even higher... ;)

[Pat-Piper]

This is looking excellent, mate! I love the chickens and birds too. I think to finish it off (other than the sky u have mentioned), some shrubs and flowers would be nice. And I suggest a tree crown casted shadow on the lower left too. That would make the characters seem a little less like standing in full light, since their shadows is at four o'clock but they seem backlit. And personally, can I ask for a windmill in the background or a wind vane on the rooftop of the house? And o yea....a scarecrow too, u gotta have those! :)

p.s. sorry I didnt answer your question earlier...yes....the changes look great, even though I still think her jaw and chin can be a little lighter....but that's just personal taste, so I'm not suggesting anything. Thanks man for even taking my comments into consideration! Cheers !!!

[fouiny]

Great! Very good use of warm colour. It gives to the scene an incredible atmosphere. I agree with jeromoo about clouds and flawers.

[paperclip]

Man, you are so close to being finished now.

I sure hope you enjoy winning that prize waiting for you....

[walrus]

Thanks for the comments, everyone (even those of you who don't bother reading any of the notes I type, where I clearly say I haven't touched the clouds yet. But then, if you didn't read that then you won't read this either... :) )

I still couldn't see the kitty, even on a Mac, so Mona sent it to me. All I have to say is "aaawwwwwwww!" (and thanks, mona!)

I like Jeromoo's suggestions about a rooster and another bucket, but I don't think they'd fit into the scene compositionally. Can't get it too crowded. so they'll go in the back of the house along with the chicken coop and fire pit.

makaron - good, it sounds like you read the expression on that chicken's face just right, I'm glad! No more chicken, though... like my cuteness factor needs to be any higher! :) (Plus, something animate in the lower left would attract the eye, while I need something that the eye will slide right over, or around and back into the picture. Compositionally, I need to round that corner out with something that frames the picture without grabbing the eye.)

Pat - good idea about shadows in the lower left.Flowers on the grass would be nice too. I can put a windmill and scarecrow in, but they're going somewhere back there... won't fit any place where they'll be immediately obvious. Real estate prices are high, y'know...! :) Thanks for your notes.

Theresa - yeah, I know, I got so excited about working on this that I paced myself poorly, I didn't mean to be this finished this soon. Now everyone will ignore me for a month. In the past I've tried to go at a speed that gets me to the finish line 1 week before deadline, to avoid the FTP rush. Well, i still do have a bunch of fixes and things to add... slowly!

-mike

[OrjanSvendsen]

I really like this entry mr. walrus sir =) Great colours, atmosphere and design. Great imagination workin on that background ;) If you were to change anything i'd say make the clouds a bit more defined or detailed. They seem a little too roughed out in comparison to the rest of the pic. I woulda added a bit more bumps and shapes.

But hey, my money is on you ;) (you and neb)

[Zeitwolf]

wow. just magnificent. such vibrant colours, and great theme. Great!!

[MoonVisionStudio]

Great, Great image! Cant wait to see the sky done! I think you have yourself a winner here!

[beelow]

I think, that u can add some more people in the background, my buddy had pointed that out, and I agree. It may add more depth and life to it!:thumbsup:

[paperclip]

God-rays! God-rays! On a separate layer, so that you can remove them if you don't like them!


:D

I know,I know, but it's applicable here too- I think God-rays would look great!

[individium]

i agree about putting some flowers around and some people. and im waiting for the sky to be done i think it'll come very nice and the only problem i figured out in this picture is the shadow of the face of the choconobo; too dark for us to see the expression on her face and the eye of her is too white it looks like its taking light and that also gives a contrast and makes the watcher see her expression harder. and ithink this is a problem becouse i think its the most important character of your piece. and i also think youll be one of the prize winners.

cheers:beer:

[walrus]

individium - good points. showing that expression is an important part of the piece. It's important that I make the face clearer to read. I'll work on that, thanks.

theresa - well, of course i'm going to add god rays! just look at post #299 - I've got them in there. now i just have to add them back in on a new layer. But they'll be there, along with a lot of that warm sunshiny glow that that post also has. But fisrt I have to paint the clouds in the sky. Did you know that I haven't painted them yet? ;)

bryce - but there are lots of people around in the scene - they're just so far in the background that they're really small... barely 2 pixels tall in this shot.

pat (again) - i thought about it more, and there won't be any scarecrows. People here have a different relationship with birds than we do, and no human would be that insulting to a bird's intelligence to assume that a stuffed human effigy would work to keep birds from eating crops. I think the come to some sort of mutal agreements instead. (I did add 2 windmills though, but they're really small.)

-mike

[MattDixon]

I haven't had the chance to watch this develop but it's looking lovely, Mike. Love the little details, and the colours you've chosen are great. Looking forward to the finish!

Hope all's well!

[jayday]

Small, small thingy.... Should the middleground houses be a bit bigger, because they appear smaller than the ones further away.
And without cluttering the foreground, you could make a very few patches of dirt in the lower left part of the picture.

Your progress on this is very educationnal. More points for you.

[MichaelZHsee]

whoa michael~i've been away for awhile and here u r overwhelming some fantastic updates in ur entry.very very nice going mike.i'll just sit back and enjoy the rest of ur progress.keep it coming:thumbsup:

[Riddick]

Hey hey, pretty picture!
There is a great depth!
I love the big columns!
Good luck!

[Miah]

Hi again Michael!
Just thought I'd check back on the master's work! Wow, I really love the details you've added like the dirt on the road and also the textures of the huge rock towers! Great stuff man.

[Jarouch]

Nice work, I like it, hardly to imagine better. Is there any way to improve this ? Good luck Jarouch

[walrus]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/9566/9566_1145996442_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/9566/9566_1145996442_large.jpg)

Matt! Good to see you! Glad you like how it's coming. With you gone, I had to take up the mantle of "the cute entry" all by myself. :) But we've missed all you guys. Cheers to Jonny and Aly too, are you guys on crunch time for something?

Jayday - excellent point about the sizes of the middle houses. I fixed them in this post, how do you think they look now? They're bigger, but they're still closer to the village than the farm in the foreground. I'll add some patches of dirt in the foreground too, but that'll be a later post. Thanks for your advice!

Michael - Thanks for the post. Hope you'll be updating yours soon, too.

Riddick - Thanks! Here's a bit of a close-up on how the columns are looking.

Miah - thank you!

Jarouch - well, I hope so, I've still got lots of time! I think it will definitely look better once I finish painting the sky and do the light effects.

Bryce - look - more people in the background now!

Pat-Piper - if you look very carfully in the back left, there are 2 windmills, one on either side of the road (the left one is a less traditional upright whirligig design.)

Individium - I made those changes you suggested on the StriderBird, but it's not in this capture. But it does look better.

Thanks, everyone, for dropping by!

-mike

[beelow]

Ahahaha! Can barely, even see then, forget what, I said, move along!:D

[britt]

Hi Mike,

This piece looks nearly finished... Not sure if this has been mentioned, but I think some more foliage variation in the foreground could help enhance the image. Another item that is a bit distracting is the pointy ledge on the far side of the path. For some reason my eye is drawn to its shape, or maybe it is the shadow that it is casting. A softer edge or smoother transition in the shadow might be something you could experiment with.
Keep up the great work.

-Britt

[adonihs]

hey mike

looking good as always,. great tiny details in there =) and lovely lightly you got going on in the clouds..cant wait to see it finished, very impressed

[Pat-Piper]

Windmills? I guess I have to use a magnifying glass...hehe...but thanks for humouring me anyway. Windmills or no, it's a great piece of work.

[Chupacabra]

Michael, your efforts and skills are most respectable. You have my votes.

Best,

[jevinart]

really coming along nicely!

[MDN67]

It's really a very very nice pic, the ambiance of mornig is really good, always a great job man:applause:

[Mu]

Hey there,

just stumbled into this thread and fell in love with your entry. I love the sense of distance it conveys from the nearest birds on the fence to the morning horizon.

*subscribes*

[oceanbluesky]

Hey Michael, charming scene! Love the sense of the houses being at a slight angle too, kind of dynamic...

[Neubius]

oh wow , excellent.

nice pallet , absolutely love the structures in the background.

[Srulo]

Very strong feeling of depth! It's definitely one of my favorites.

[NinjaA55N]

its been about time for me to stop by ur thread again :) hi there buddy! hows going? I see u r progressing just fine and the image is geting developed into the right direction. As u mentioned a bit before, u still need something to put in to the left lower corner. There could be flowers indeed, but think also about adding some different size of grass. Right now the grass is the same size all over the image. It really is a bit empty than and it calls for some details. So, there could be flowers, bigger and smaller grass, some shadows also, stones, some dirt as well, different color of grass.. and here r some image examples how u can approach to ur "problem" :)

http://os-gorje.s5.net/projekti/Mediciob/slike/regrat/regrat3.jpg
http://i.jubii.dk/film/wallpapers/Brother%20Bear/brother_bear_03-1024.jpg
http://www.screenselect.co.uk/images/products/screenshots/3/16353-2-large.jpg
http://us.movies1.yimg.com/movies.yahoo.com/images/hv/photo/movie_pix/walt_disney/the_lion_king/pumbaa3.jpg
http://www.newtrino.com/photo/128273.jpg

I hope u'll find at least one thing to fill that space there. Im also thinking about a blue background... or at least a bit more blue there in the back. At the moment it seams that the whole piece is in the same level.. its true that in the back there arent so many details as in the front, but with some blue scheme there the pic would get more depth. This is all just my opinion. I know and Im sure that ur piece will be awesome when u finish it, no metter if u use some of my advices or none. So I just wish u good luck and keep up the great work :)

[walrus]

Hey, everyone! thank you all for the nice notes.
No update today, at least graphically... It's been a busy week here.
But hey, check this out:
http://www.michaeldashow.com/forum_art/mikeGuitar.gif

For those of you who've been paying any attention to this stuff I'm doing at meez.com, we just released animated gif support yesterday, and how cool is that? :)
okay, so I'm excited, sorry! Back to the challenge:

Bryce - but you were so insistent! :D

Britt - I could maybe make that point less pointy, but I like the harder shadow. I had it much softer earlier in the development, and then someone (I can't find who it was who suggested it right now, sorry!) called me on it, pointing out that all of the other shadows in the foreground were more hard-edged. And they were right. I think it fits the piece better this way, sorry!

Adonihs - Thanks! Hope you're feeling better, too.

Lots of people in the middle there- Thank s for the votes of confidence!

Blaz - Hey, good to see you again. Thanks as always for your feedback, and for the great reference shots too. I've been doing lots of sketches of flowers and plants lately, myself. It's spring here in Northern California, and as I walk to the bus in the morning, I study all the plants along the way, and sometimes take photos. Those purple plants by the fenceposts are some that grow in my neighborhood. Just yesterday I was doing sketches for how they might fit in the lower left corner.

I know that right now the grass in the foreground is looking all the same. It's the second-largest area I still need to work on (after the sky.) I've ben taking careful note on my walks about all different grasses, clover, little flowers... and of course as I walk and look, trying to decypher in my head, "Okay, how would I turn that into a custom Photoshop brush?" I'm still new to messing with those, but that's how i did the grass that's in there now, tinkerred with one of the out-of-the-box brushes until it suited my scene and painting style. Think I'll try it some more.

So yeah, expect a lot more flowers and plant life and variation in the foreground. Maybe the background too, not that I look at some of Blaz's references. (Thanks again for those.)

Think that's all for now... thanks for stopping by!

-mike

[walrus]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/9566/9566_1146257002_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/9566/9566_1146257002_large.jpg)

I've done a little work on the sky. I plan on adding stronger glows and the god-rays this weekend, maybe.
I can't decide whether those birds work up there. What do you think? I can't seem to find a better place for them, though. Any ideas?

I also added the flowers in the lower right corner. Again, I could really use some feedback about whether they're working.

I have NOT done anything new to the lawn in the front aside from adding those corner flowers, and still plan to do some more based on peoples' feedback, so hold off on that for a while, okay?

That's all...

-mike

[paperclip]

Ceci n'est pas god-rays?

[adonihs]

Hey mike, awesome so far!

As for the birds, id say ditch them, if you feel weird then go with your instinct. Personally, and to be honest: the first thing my eyes caught were the birds and not the characters so to be they distract a bit. They dont LOOK bad, just kind of distract you. I think the lawn looks fantastic as it is, clouds also..the so called "God Rays", personally I say leave them out, its up to you though. The clouds are epic enough, and adding the rays (which I always used to do) would just overwhelm them, unless they were on a low opacity..preferablly around 25%. But ya the image rocks man, great job so far!!

[oceanbluesky]

which one's the girl??? i'm serious!

Wonderful image Mike...actually I like the birds very much...perhaps they should be toned down, almost invisible against the clouds as your previous viewers suggests as an alternative to ditching them altogether...sunbeams would be great too!

[walrus]

Theresa - Maintenant, non. Attendres-tu.
Et merci pout the nice stuff about me you said in your thread. :blush:

Adonihs - Thanks for the honesty, juyst what I was looking for. Of course we can't always just go with our first instincts: If we did, there'd be no reason for all of these progress threads! :) That spot up there seems like the only half-way decent place for the birds... except for the fact that it's just above the characters' heads, which is, as you say, distracting. :/
I do want to do more work on the lawn and the sky. Don't worry, they won't be strong god rays, but I always intended more indication of light streaming in from the right. They'll be a lot lower opacity than 25%, though. I think it's my post #299 that has the comp wiht them in... or just stay tuned, I'll post them here soon.

oceanbluesky - If you couldn't tell that the figure on the left in the short skirt and sexy legs and thin waist was a girl then perhaps you weren't looking closely enough... Seriously! :)
Thanks for chiming in about the birds and the sunbeams!

More updates later today...

-mike

[akahraman]

......:bowdown:......

[MoonVisionStudio]

Michael,

I think this is the best I have seen from you. Truly a masterpiece.

Just one little intsy bitsy nitpick, I would think about breaking up the flock of birds in the distance. Other than that it is gorgeous!

Best of Luck in the judging!

[paperclip]

Je ne dors pas. J'attends. Oh and about the nice things I said-c'est vrai. de rien, je vous en prie. :) Ok, enough of such wanton insanity. How is it possible that we only have a few weeks left on this? It used to be 2 months left...and now... :eek: