the rocks should not be the focal point.
you want probably for this, 2 focal points which you have.
the sails. and the dome roof. Split it left and right - that way you will look at the whole image. and to whats important.

they should probably be less pointy (since they are shore rocks. the beaten down ones) and greyer. They can still have edges, like they dont have to be the smooth round rocks. But try to think almost of the rocks they put on embankments. those cold grey rough rocks.

*gone a googlin'


@Mash, patience is what I always call the best PA technique.

Not really. Everyone has mastered patience already, it's simply a matter of realizing it.

is this your final one.
it sure looks like it.

whaaaaa

i hate it ;)
you should scrap the whole project.
throw it away to never be remembered.
;)

Slightly bigger ship, lighter color kitty, changed pole direction, added some shadows, etc.

I think those barrels jump out a bit too much. Maybe you could lower the contrast on them a little? (Is that a question?)

Looks awesome.

•Ship is even bigger now, almost to scale.
•Ships wheel finally shows up : /
•New cannons.
•Barrels toned down.
•Masthead reworked.
• Pirate in ship with candlelight.
• female dog now a male dog.

you chose the wrong thread and site to spam punk.

For some reason I think the ship looked alot smoother before you made it this big... I think it's something with the shading...

I have to commend you for the amount of time and effort you've put into this and just look at the result ;p I reckon some work on the hull planks is in order to smooth them out a bit but you may already be planning that.

Heh, skeleton, I didn't notice that one earlier.

jalonso probably hasn't gotten around to that part yet, judging by the lack of cannons.

a wooden penis of course, in the ancient tradition of artificial pirate limbs.
now the dog hs 5 legs :D


Edited by Metaru - 27 November 2007 at 11:55am

ew its like almost the size of his leg

NICE! 

eek.
50% dither everywhere on the sails??
the change in colours is nice now. but now it has a grainy texture.
gradient your dithering, instead of using a constant harsh 50%
(a quick crit for ya in between homework assignments)

ill come back later.

WOW that's like an epic movie there of a world in the making. 

This thing is going to be instafaved 5 seconds after it's in the gallery. This I promise.

I feel like an idiot to crit something so minute on such an awesome piece...but those seagulls. Shouldn't their wings be in different stages of flapping individually?

well tsk mister!
is it a bad thing to look like my edit?
and theres more than 1 way to make a scatter, or a different way of blending opposed to 50% dither.


In between the guy climbing the net, and the guy standing on side of boat.
I only touched 3 little sections of sale, so you cant complain i did the whole thing.
In this way, I used line blending. its not really dithering, rather its just running lines of colour throughout at different lenghts. Alternating 1 short and 1 long, so you get sort of a jigsaw - puzzle piece type fit within the colours. I did it quickly too - so you can get the idea, and make it better, instead of me trying to make a good version.
Hopefully the idea / notion of this different method made it across.
But see - theres different ways for blending colours then just 50% dither.
You can either use this, line blending.. my initial dynamic dithering.. a combination of both, or something completly new and made up.





Edited by flaber - 01 December 2007 at 5:35pm

hahaha
im just sayin

Simply incredible, Jal. The amount of time you must have spent on this and your patience are mindboggling, and with a fantastic result so far!
You've got to post a link to the monkey island theme when you submit this, it goes wonderfully with the atmosphere of the piece!
--
I think the transition from the dirty green sidewalk and the red sidewalk needs to be smoothed out a tad more (more green on the left side. Maybe you could put some 4 pixel square splotches to represent grime more clearly :)

;)
allo allo.
So i sat back and took alook at your sails. Now that you retextured them, with the random pixels (cant figure out your technique, but if it works for you, then great!). But, its still abit grainy. Even the edits I made were abit grainy. So as I sat back, i realized.. texture can only fix so much.
Its the colours. You have it ranging way too much.

You are trying to have a full scale from browns to near whites all within the sails, which is causing too much contrast and the grainy look. You need to shift your ramp so that it only focuses on one. Either choose to be slightly darker, washed out, and browner... Or choose to have it more white, with little colour in the sails.

I made you a quick edit, that can show the difference. I didnt touch any of your pixels, nor shading, or anything. Simply just changed the colours. It seemed you wanted more brown,tan coloured sails. So I lightened the darkest shade, (becaues it was very contrasting to the others) and darkened your lightest shades so that they are more tan, than white. I also added a few grey neutral colours within the ramp, instead of just a progressive lighten-ing of colours.



Then I looked at the side of your boat.
I think i counted, roughly, 3trillion colours on the side of the boat there.
Maby, just slightly a few too many. Im sure you could make it with half or less the colours you have in there. But again, I didnt change any of that just strictly the colours.
im not sure about the greys on the wood. perhaps get rid of those.
I didnt darken the side of the boat too much, rather just got rid of some of those greys. Maby a deep mahogany type colour would work well there.

for the most part everything looks pretty well shaded and textured. its just the actual colours now. throughout your boat and town, there is no differential of light source. the very bottom of the boat should have the darkest ramp, but its near the same as the sails are. So now, its just a matter of adjusting your colour ramps to indicate where light hits, and doesnt.

There are sections within the buildings that are difficult to read because all the colours are very close to each other. its almost like, you need a bigger contrast between each ramp, instead of each colour within the ramp. if that makes sense. Your ramps all have lots of contrast within them, separating each colour out significantly. But when all your ramps do that, and to the same degree, you begin to loose detail, and light source, intensity.

I didnt take the time to care if you re-used those colours else where within the image. I just isolated each section as a separate pallete. That way I sill left room for you to work ;)

Darkening the sails makes every other highlight look too bright, as if the sails are the only spot not getting as much sunlight. By the way, is the entrance to the yellow tower supposed to be pitch black? I'm sure there would be some light that would make the floor and maybe a part of the wall visible?

Not at all, this piece is begging to be submitted, hurry up!