Hey all, going to use these forums for school purposes for once :) . Going to be posting some pictures for an art project that I am doing, while using the Editor as my Medium, and I'll be posting more pictures or re posting with improvements, as i get them done to prove to my art teacher that I'm making progress. Its for a sort of comic strip that I am doing, Feel free to comment or critique as you wish. Heck post your own short story pics if you feel so motivated to do so. The simple premise is that two specters are sent on a rescue mission to infiltrate a base and bust out an important prisoner. I haven't made dialog yet so some simple descriptions are with the pics to clarify whats going on.
EDIT: Just giving this thread one last bump before it goes down into the depths of SCII Mapster, enjoy if you have never seen b 4 :)
thanks, I'm having trouble deciding how to do the actual base, weather to make it clean and well lit, or old, rusty and beat with allot of contrast like the pics above. and gradz on posting after 2 years lol.
Also I have never really done an indoor environment, so any doodads that would work well as walls and ceilings can be hard to come by.
TBH with the cave shots, there's WAY too much contrast. It makes everything look either much too dark or much too bright. I'd suggest going for an overall dark, normal contrast setting, and then adding plenty of omni lights around light sources.
Yeahh I see what you are saying there, ill have to work on the caves a bit more later, thanks for the critique :) . Btw FINALLY found some doodads that work wells as walls and ceilings without horribly stretching the textures to the point of ugly. need to add some people in the hallway tho now that I think about it.
yall prob thought this thread was over and done with ;) . Updated with some new pics with some improvements to the older ones, this project is due Monday so any critiques, praises, or dislikes are appreciated. I have lessened the contrast as you said Nebuli and made the blue fog less intense, probably the thing that was throwing you off earlier. Just posted the last one for the sake of showing what i"m planning next, and timing the take of the picture to their Spectre FLASH then gone shot is so much more difficult than I thought it was going to be. may b I could make them attack every .1 seconds to increase my chances...I'll figure something out :) .
Yeah getting the muzzle flare just right is always hard :\
Now for my critique:
The newer screenshots look worse than a lot of the earlier ones. You use fewer of the really high quality models and that changes the whole feel of it. It makes it all come out somewhat inconsistently. Also, regarding the cave, you should lower the diffuse a lot so it's very dark, then, as I said in my first critique, add omni lights around the actual light sources. Also, try to use some of Blizzard's fog models, they're great for atmosphere. One final thing about the cave: Lower the specularity. Right now, it's giving the rocks an unnatural shine. That's what threw me off the most in the earlier ones, I think.
Now, onto the new content in more detail: For "Enter Maintenance Hatch," I'd recommend moving the floodlights you used so that they're inside the wall; it gives a nice effect, especially with the Castanar floodlights. Also, maybe try to use some space platform archs around the walls. They give a nice sense of support for the roof. I suppose that also goes for all of the other indoor shows as well.
For the next screenshot, use some fog. It'll make the whole place look a little dark and foreboding. I'd recommend using the color 40,60,80 for the fog. It's a nice, dark, slightly blue color which works well for slightly gloomy atmospheres. Also, I love what you did with the lights on the wall, though I'd recommend recoloring the walls. Right now they're a bit too bright, so they don't really fit with the rest of the interior.
For "Found where prisoner is" and onward, I'd recommend darkening the floors a bit to better match the walls and the ceilings. One more thing regarding fog, I'd use it wherever you can see a somewhat long distance. It makes it look more real and atmospheric. Also, try playing around with depth of field if you have time. It can create a very nice artistic effect in the screenshots.
thanks once again, ill evaluate what you have said and play around with lighting in the caves a bit more, once i get all the pics done it will just be allot of little time consuming tweaks here and there, maybe while I'm at it make the prisoner Raynor or something :) .
Whenever i use muzzle flares i create a actor of type doodad and use the tychus muzzle flare (There could be others, try searching in the models tab) place it where i want it and then update it by scaling it 1% up or down and at the same time take the screenshot. I don't know how complicated that sounded to you or how much you know about data but just tell me if you want step by step or if you wont try it whatsoever.
Ok I still gotta recolor some doodads here and there but a few more pics and tweaks such as a light here, a doodad there, a touch of contrast and I hope to be done. Thanks for the help that was given :) and wohoo on my 200th post!!! :D
Edit: Eh...it said i had 200 posts an hour ago....now it says 188?...I'm confused...lol
Edit: k i posted again below and it suddenly jumped from 188 to 201, eh...lol
Edit......: ok a couple hours later i check this out and my posts are now at 189, so I'm officially between 189 posts and 201 posts. I believe I have found a little bug that corrects itself when you post but a couple hours later it seems to bug up again.
k improved on some of the fight scenes but my dad was pointing out to me the obvious that I need to work on contrast between the people and the background to make them more prominent. Nothing 2 or 3 well placed lights cant do, he also recommended some streaks from the rocks in the explosion and make it look more like an explosion less like some volcanic lava that randomly just started appearing. Just have to make 2 or 3 more scenes of them exiting the cave and getting picked up.
I agree with what he said. One suggestion for making there be contrast between the characters (foreground) and other stuff (background) is to use some more depth of field. Also, I'd still recommend using the fog tool. It could really help a few scenes here.
It's dark, probably too dark for most people to see without setting their lighting to high or above. I made a cortex map that had dark and dramatic lighting like that, and it looked great, but most people complained that it was too dark because they can't see omnilights on medium or low settings. Keep that in mind. It looks good, but make sure it looks good on low as well as ultra.
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Hey all, going to use these forums for school purposes for once :) . Going to be posting some pictures for an art project that I am doing, while using the Editor as my Medium, and I'll be posting more pictures or re posting with improvements, as i get them done to prove to my art teacher that I'm making progress. Its for a sort of comic strip that I am doing, Feel free to comment or critique as you wish. Heck post your own short story pics if you feel so motivated to do so. The simple premise is that two specters are sent on a rescue mission to infiltrate a base and bust out an important prisoner. I haven't made dialog yet so some simple descriptions are with the pics to clarify whats going on.
EDIT: Just giving this thread one last bump before it goes down into the depths of SCII Mapster, enjoy if you have never seen b 4 :)
These are absolutely incredible. Just... wow. Amazing job, keep it up!
thanks, I'm having trouble deciding how to do the actual base, weather to make it clean and well lit, or old, rusty and beat with allot of contrast like the pics above. and gradz on posting after 2 years lol. Also I have never really done an indoor environment, so any doodads that would work well as walls and ceilings can be hard to come by.
@joecab: Go
TBH with the cave shots, there's WAY too much contrast. It makes everything look either much too dark or much too bright. I'd suggest going for an overall dark, normal contrast setting, and then adding plenty of omni lights around light sources.
Yeahh I see what you are saying there, ill have to work on the caves a bit more later, thanks for the critique :) . Btw FINALLY found some doodads that work wells as walls and ceilings without horribly stretching the textures to the point of ugly. need to add some people in the hallway tho now that I think about it.
yall prob thought this thread was over and done with ;) . Updated with some new pics with some improvements to the older ones, this project is due Monday so any critiques, praises, or dislikes are appreciated. I have lessened the contrast as you said Nebuli and made the blue fog less intense, probably the thing that was throwing you off earlier. Just posted the last one for the sake of showing what i"m planning next, and timing the take of the picture to their Spectre FLASH then gone shot is so much more difficult than I thought it was going to be. may b I could make them attack every .1 seconds to increase my chances...I'll figure something out :) .
@joecab: Go
Yeah getting the muzzle flare just right is always hard :\
Now for my critique:
The newer screenshots look worse than a lot of the earlier ones. You use fewer of the really high quality models and that changes the whole feel of it. It makes it all come out somewhat inconsistently. Also, regarding the cave, you should lower the diffuse a lot so it's very dark, then, as I said in my first critique, add omni lights around the actual light sources. Also, try to use some of Blizzard's fog models, they're great for atmosphere. One final thing about the cave: Lower the specularity. Right now, it's giving the rocks an unnatural shine. That's what threw me off the most in the earlier ones, I think.
Now, onto the new content in more detail: For "Enter Maintenance Hatch," I'd recommend moving the floodlights you used so that they're inside the wall; it gives a nice effect, especially with the Castanar floodlights. Also, maybe try to use some space platform archs around the walls. They give a nice sense of support for the roof. I suppose that also goes for all of the other indoor shows as well.
For the next screenshot, use some fog. It'll make the whole place look a little dark and foreboding. I'd recommend using the color 40,60,80 for the fog. It's a nice, dark, slightly blue color which works well for slightly gloomy atmospheres. Also, I love what you did with the lights on the wall, though I'd recommend recoloring the walls. Right now they're a bit too bright, so they don't really fit with the rest of the interior.
For "Found where prisoner is" and onward, I'd recommend darkening the floors a bit to better match the walls and the ceilings. One more thing regarding fog, I'd use it wherever you can see a somewhat long distance. It makes it look more real and atmospheric. Also, try playing around with depth of field if you have time. It can create a very nice artistic effect in the screenshots.
thanks once again, ill evaluate what you have said and play around with lighting in the caves a bit more, once i get all the pics done it will just be allot of little time consuming tweaks here and there, maybe while I'm at it make the prisoner Raynor or something :) .
Whenever i use muzzle flares i create a actor of type doodad and use the tychus muzzle flare (There could be others, try searching in the models tab) place it where i want it and then update it by scaling it 1% up or down and at the same time take the screenshot. I don't know how complicated that sounded to you or how much you know about data but just tell me if you want step by step or if you wont try it whatsoever.
hmm interesting idea, ill see what i can do this that thanks.
Edit: I ended up just making a doodad with the model, thanks for the idea.
Ok I still gotta recolor some doodads here and there but a few more pics and tweaks such as a light here, a doodad there, a touch of contrast and I hope to be done. Thanks for the help that was given :) and wohoo on my 200th post!!! :D
Edit: Eh...it said i had 200 posts an hour ago....now it says 188?...I'm confused...lol
Edit: k i posted again below and it suddenly jumped from 188 to 201, eh...lol
Edit......: ok a couple hours later i check this out and my posts are now at 189, so I'm officially between 189 posts and 201 posts. I believe I have found a little bug that corrects itself when you post but a couple hours later it seems to bug up again.
@joecab: Go
Lol, I'm looking forward to seeing it. Also, just wait 'till you get 1000 posts :)
It's quite an oddly good feeling lol.
Also, if you want, I can give you one more final round of feedback before you finish the project :)
k improved on some of the fight scenes but my dad was pointing out to me the obvious that I need to work on contrast between the people and the background to make them more prominent. Nothing 2 or 3 well placed lights cant do, he also recommended some streaks from the rocks in the explosion and make it look more like an explosion less like some volcanic lava that randomly just started appearing. Just have to make 2 or 3 more scenes of them exiting the cave and getting picked up.
@joecab: Go
I agree with what he said. One suggestion for making there be contrast between the characters (foreground) and other stuff (background) is to use some more depth of field. Also, I'd still recommend using the fog tool. It could really help a few scenes here.
Just giving this thread one last bump before it goes down into the depths of SCII Mapster, enjoy if you have never seen b 4 :)
It's dark, probably too dark for most people to see without setting their lighting to high or above. I made a cortex map that had dark and dramatic lighting like that, and it looked great, but most people complained that it was too dark because they can't see omnilights on medium or low settings. Keep that in mind. It looks good, but make sure it looks good on low as well as ultra.