Looks pretty cool. But what's that stuff on the sidewalk, water or a shadow?

Edit:

Also I thing kinda stick out for me. (I'm sure you already see it, but when am I going to get a chance to spot a hole in piece of someone like you again. ) Anyways, see that cyan building, and how the shadow falls behind it. Now look at the ship and how the shadow of the sails falls straight down.

Well that's it, I've had my moment of glory.


Edited by greenraven - 13 October 2007 at 7:54pm

Oh, there it is, one of jalonso's SUPER wip posts....

• The sails look good, but it doesn't look right. On a real ship, there are less poles, and the sails bend down. This way you can adjust to the wind. Here you can see what I mean: http://www.clevelandharborfest.com/graphics/ships/brig.jpg
• Maybe add cannons...? Or a Jolly Rodger (flag). Anchor too.
• Change the green rails to match the ones on the captain's deck.

*Oh, BTW its 'Yargh'

I admit Id be very interested to see the progress on one of your beautifull layered background :)  

Why oh great Jalonso.. Please tell me why.. you are sooo good?
It's turning out to be another pieze of great art.

I have a feeling this is going to be epic!No crits atm.

Thx Dragon. I will add a plank from the deck to the boat. I think the boat is too close to the dock too but I can't move the boat away because I'll be outside the template area (the sails). I think I have to thin out the dock and shorten the front walkway instead. urghhhh!

+2

Heehee, as I look at this the Curse of Monkey Island soundtrack is playing 
Just gorgeous, I'm looking for things to crit, and can't really find any... my only suggestion is that adding a fancy figurehead to the front of the ship might be cool... just 'cause you seem to love detail so much . 
The far railing on the stairs seems to be higher than the railing closer to us, but I think that's just me... iso perspective confuses me sometimes!

Hi Jalonso,

Probably I'm not worthy to comment on
anything you make as you clearly are much
better than myself.
BUT I'm doing it anyways to maybe aid you
with your work the way you always help me!
If only you could benefit from one pixel I
made it will be worth it!

WARNING: VERY SKETCHY !!!



I violated your piece with bad pixel, but I hope to show you some
areas that are making the original thing hard to read.

Usually the deck of a ship gets a lot of darks by all the  shadows
coming from the sails.
I made the house at the back as light as the front hoping
to lift the ship from it. Maybe you can try the pinkish color
to highlight the railing instead of changing the color of the
house to do the same?!?!

I thought the water could be filling the harbor more.
Usually a ship would not have its sails like that when
it is in the harbor. But it is more dramatic this way
and I like it anyhow!
I would maken the stone wall end on the sidewalk of the template.

My apologies if any of this isn't what you want or if
you are offended by my bad pixel-sketch.

As previously said I hope that just one of the idea appeals to you.

Kind regards from

M.E.

Hi Jalonso,

Verry well done on the last house.
The ship now comes to 'live'. The windows are now visible.
Ah... that water is nice! Could maybe use a white pixel
here and there along where the ship touches the water. (at the back)
Great progress all in all!

Best regards from

M.E.

The sails seem to be of a rather substantial thickness, though there might not be a way to avoid it. Or it could just be me eyes.

The shading on the bottom blue portion of the projection on the left-most corner of the yellow house seems rather flat to me, though I'm not sure where you can pull colours from. So it may be a moot point.

(And what is the brick construct in the bottom corner?)

But looking good so far.

The area where the flag, the green building, and the... things on the rear railing meet is a bit confusing to my simple mind. And while I'm looking at the green building, the brown on it looks pretty scrappy (I know the actual building is supposed to look scrappy; I mean the pixeling looks scrappy)

Also, the water doesn't instantly read as water to me. When I first look at the piece (and it's entirely possible I'm the only one who could be quite so dense) I think, "ah, a building made of a pirate ship" and then it slowly becomes clear that it actually IS a pirate ship in dock. Not really sure what could be done about it. I personally preferred your last iteration as far as the water goes; I feel it reads much better.

Lastly, I'm very, VERY unsure about this, so much so that I hesitate to bring it up, but are the two smaller domes on the rightmost building out of perspective?

I think he means the underground entrance.

I'm looking for the details now, beyond the obvious parrot, treasure, booze, skeleton,etc.

Alligator in the water

Woke up in a different mood

Yes, there should be a flag there. The Pixeldam template however does not give me room to add one so I placed it in the back.

I'm thinking of starting from scratch and re-pixelling everything to be extra clean and sharp : /

It's your call. Good luck with it. 

I dunno, I think it would be cooler if the buildings were changed to geive the piece a night ambience but not just another one of those blue-tinted night pieces. Show night with luminosity, not hue. Just throwing something out there.

I really felt something has been wrong here and couldn't quite picture it. I asked exocet what he thought as it relates to colors and he had this to say:

Hi,
I had a look at your picture. It's really nicely drawn but indeed the colours don't really work. It feels too dark for what I believe is supposed to be a day time scene in the Caribeans.  Generally I would use more saturated colours for the whole scene. Having mostly light colours and a few very dark patches for what's in shadows could work well as well, like those very sunny days when everything seems too bright.

The water could do with being much lighter and blue, as it's reflecting the sky. Also the reflections in the water look too much like they're reflecting flames. They should be less contrasted and less saturated.

The sails of the ship should use a pure white as the brighter colour and be less contrasted because they are probably slightly translucent.

I've done a quick and dirty test for the sails and the water:


Hope this helps, as I said the pic is cool but the colours don't really fit at the moment!

My thought to him:
I do agree with your take.
I was trying so hard to make it work with your Battersea palette which I think is awesome. I have never used someone else's colors and a challenge it has been. That has been the challenge for me on this pixel.
Now that you feel the palette does not work for this project I will have to reconsider what is more important, the pixel or the challenge : /
Thanks for your input,
jal






Edited by jalonso - 07 November 2007 at 5:01pm

Well I was trying to make a daytime scene using a strict palette.
The colors are just not right for this scene tho. I think that adjusting the colors to better fit may solve it and is worth the attempt. If anything I could just backtrack.

Exocet's colours were for a sunrise/sunset scene (or so it appears to me), and if you're going for full daylight, there's nothing wrong with adjusting the colours to suit that.  In this case, the light should set the colours, not the other way round 
I think you accomplished your challenge of using a strict palette; now it's time to accomplish what you think is the best pixel

Actually I now think that since the water wouldn't be so deep and dark, refraction would be more noticeable and reflections would only be subtle, like in Mario sunshine, this or this

Here's a rough edit of what I mean-