DSG 281: Environment: Other worldly Gladiator arena

[dsg bot]

Today's topic is: Environment: Other worldly Gladiator arena

[Rockhead]

such as the...THUNDERDOME!! Sorry, I couldn't resist I'm still so excited about all these DSG'ers competing against eachother.

[Jebus]

Cool, but does it mean, like "Alien gladiator arena". or "other place on the world than Rome gladiator arena". :confused:

[mtomczek]

It means a gladiator type arena found anywhere but earth.

[Mad Giraffe]

Well Jebus...that's completly up to you;)....'cos I'm making a whole setting..with different themes(lava, Ice, desert, etc.)...plus gladiators and game:P

Edit:Hmm Mtom...I think that the concepts on this site are most of the time out of an other world than ours, because they are mostly complety impossible in this world, not yet actually...Muawhahahaaa!..actually...isn't that the idea ogf a concept....that you think of something that doesn't already exist..and that you then draw it:D....

[paper slayer]

American heritage dictionary says:

otherworldly

SYLLABICATION: oth·er·world·ly
PRONUNCIATION: thr-wûrldl
ADJECTIVE:

1. Of, relating to, or characteristic of another world,
especially a mystical or transcendental
world: “The effect was dreamy, otherworldy” (Gioia Diliberto).

2. Devoted to the world of the mind; concerned with intellectual or imaginative things.

3. Concerned with an afterlife, especially when inattentive to the present.
OTHER FORMS: other·worldli·ness —NOUN

Hope this provides some inspiration :)

[Mad Giraffe]

Owkaaay..that 'dreamy'part in the explanation you found, Paper Slayer...makes me think if my idea is a fitting one, cos'my setting is competly not 'dreamy'....

[Matt Dixon]

http://www.vortex.plus.com/Arena.jpg

Very busy today, so just a quick mood piece for this one. About 40 minutes all told, which I think makes it my quickest DSG attempt.

Makes a change from yesterday's. I'm still hurting! ;)

[Valcon Jet]

Matt, that's freakin sweet, very good feel to it :)

I'm gonna have a superhard time with this, I've never finished an environment before ... But, I am excited about the challenge and certainly hope it evokes some good things :P I'll hit it up after work today :P

[Terayon]

Here is my attempt at a gladiator arena...

I changed where i had the pic so it should the link should be working now

http://home.graffiti.net/terayon:graffiti.net/ArtImages/BattleArena.jpg

Ive never really, done any kind of environment thing, oh well.

Matt Dixon: Wow, I really like that.

[Halis_Aetrous]

http://members.thegateway.net/jhinds/dsg_arena.jpg

[danielh68]

This is a massive pit where wars are played out. Above, spectators can watch and bet.

Matt - great environment. I like the cool color scheme and mysterious feel to it. Nice forms on the rocks too.

http://www.blitzdesign.net/dsg/gladitorial_pit.jpg

[plaf]

right. the thought behind this is pretty much, that they're a hawk/bat-like subterranean species, who come out whenever there's a full moon to do some fighting. all in good fun, though there's bound to be some casualties once in a while when you do your fighting in mid-air.

http://www.skjoldbroder.dk/gfx/24bit/aldi.jpg


matt dixon : for a quick mood piece i think you managed pretty well =) doesn't look that quick to me, to be honest.

danielh : sweet lighting. the whole setting is pretty cool as well, i love the idea of mass-brawling like that.


all ze best, engländer.

[Vimmzy]

here is my 10 min fastsketch, i don't have any inspiration what so ever.. just dont wanan do anything at all today, hate this feeling etc etc..

http://Vimmzy.dynu.com/images/arena.gif

great work everyone..

Matt: Great colors, kinda spooky..

plaf: OMFG! That is great, the perspective, i almost dodged the trickle of blood there for a sec..

[Miau]

hi
matt the mood in your pic is really nice
also like the other ideas, especially your danielh68!

heres mine: a fight is happening on mount arena today, watch it :)
http://miau.geekhost.info/images/sketches,speed/dsg281.jpg

[Carnifex]

i think this took me about 30 minutes or something...i'm getting better:D
http://www.photobucket.com/albums/1003/fisite/alienarena1.JPG
second try with my brand-new wacom graphire3 tablet,woho!this time in painter.:D
edit:cool pieces so far.miau,i think yours would look even better if you tilted the angle of the mountains too.

[paper slayer]

http://img2.photobucket.com/albums/v11/paper_slayer/dsg281oga.JPG


Virtual/Spiritual arena, losing means loss of rank
and status in the aliens society.

It doubles as a religious cermony
of worship, losers are viewed as
spiritually weak which is considered
contagious, and therefore they are
often shunned.

[Miau]

ahm im a bit confused about that paperslayer :confused: :)
.. hey all! where are the pics ! come on

[Iiori]

Doesn't look like today's topic was popular. :O

Quickie since I have a lot of college planning today.:/

http://members.lycos.co.uk/vbcserenity/art/dgsglat.jpg

Theres some really good stuff going on today. ^^ Id comment on them all, but back to planning..*Sobs*

OH daniel, I didn't get a chance to use the brushes just yet. Soon I hope haha.

[paper slayer]

Miau: Yep, It´s a bit rough, I had another pic in mind, didn´t have time since I got hold of this nice 3d modeling program,
found a head modeling tutorial, and now I am on my way of making my first head mesh. 3d is fun. :)

Anyway, What is It you find confusing?

That little black doodle in the
middle is supposed to be a floating alien hooked up to It´s computer shrine from where It fights other aliens
hooked up in the same way.
I´ll try and make an update tomorrow.

I like mood in yours btw, I especially like those little sparks.

[Idiot Apathy]

Hey who who'd have thought I'd actually make it to post number two in just two days... not me. Maybe I'll stick around.

For today's DSG I just started drawing with nothing but a perspective in mind, the rest just came together.

It's very rough, sometimes with buildings I start out with giant blocks as you can tell with this one heh.

Anyway here's my monochrome approach.



http://img3.photobucket.com/albums/v13/Ragnarok27/DSG-dec5.jpg

50 min or so in Photoshop

Starting to dig this DSG thing...

[Wystro]

On a volcanic planet, floating on an energy platform, two blue stick figures fight and die for your amusement.

Check your local listings for pay-per-view information.

http://sparkles295.tripod.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/arena.jpeg

[Idiot Apathy]

New to the DSG scene, was always amazed at everyones talent, not just the imagery and concept but the quickness and refinement of technique.

I don't feel I have the right to comment on everyones pieces yet, being that I am just a novice and that this is my.. 3rd post here... I just felt I had to comment on a few.

danielh68: Great concept, I just got to say you capture the sinister side of gladiator combat and then some. You take a small battle and make it huge, you take the peoples morbid facination and increase it even more.

Miau: Beatiful, almosts looks like the deep ocean. I'm think I'm learning as much from doing this as I am from examining others techiniques.

[Wystro]

Wow...there are so few right now that I'll brave some comments.

Idiot Apathy -- cold and chaotic at the same time...Tron on crack.

Iiori -- very otherworldly indeed -- eerie and strange. I love the crackling nimbus of energy around the aomeba-type things. Great job in nailing down the requirements.

paper slayer -- it looks like a chinese rice paper painting. I can't discern much detail, but it has both a foreboding and serene feel to it.

Carnifex -- it looks like Dune or Tatooine. It has a dry, spartan feel. I would suggest trying out the Wet Edges feature of the paintbrush tool. I used it to do the mountains and lava on mine, and it made me look much better than the effort I put into it.

Miau -- it looks grand and dangerous, like they are fighting on the top of Mount Doom. I wish I could see the actual arena, but the majesty of the setting really comes through.

plaf -- Dynamic angle and nice color palette...it is very hard to discern the figures. I think the blood is a great touch, and it's very jolting since the color is so very different than everything else.

danielh68 -- an amazing concept. I do, though, have a real problem discerning the upper from the lower level. That could be fixed if the lower level were on a different PS layer and you layed a very transparent layer or texture (like gausian blur) to add depth to the piece.

Halis_Aetrous -- great tower and color...I like seeing the sketchy thought lines underneath. I don't see any of the arena, so the tower can be anything. That said, your handling of the medium looks great.

Matt Dixon -- masterful palette, lighting and mood. I'd love to see something that gives a sense of its scale.


These topics are getting tougher! Tomorrows topic: create a solution to the middle east conflict through a one-hour sketch!

:) Wystro

[Valcon Jet]

Removed the image. It honestly has nothing to do with todays dsg. Sorry.

Sorry, I'll try and stay more on topic next time :)

[Wystro]

*cheers Valcon Jet*

[Bretton]

pirate pencil is really cute. ill reply more when there are more entries

[Wystro]

Thank you again, Valcon Jet! Taking your advice has removed a lot of the cheese factor...constructive critisism is my best friend.

:) Wystro

http://sparkles295.tripod.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/arenacopy.jpg

[stormeffex]

the mysterious disappearance of some of earths inhabitants can be attributed to the archaic practice of the 'kathorean' empire. the kathoreans abduct warriors from different parts of the known universe and pit them against one another in massive battles. their are huge arenas dedicated to the deaths of offworlders. here is one of their arenas, where a lone warrior must survive against an army to win his freedom.

http://stormeffex.com/dsg/battlearena.jpg

45 min

[lichtpartikel]

a tough one... unfortunately i had no time today to work on the arena and environments aren't exactly my strength.

40 minutes between 2:00 and 3:00 am:

http://www.lichtpartikel.de/relay/arena.jpg

sorry, have no time for comment.
matt dixon, plaf, miau: i just love your colors ;)

good night

[DraigAthar]

Boy, I've had even less practice at environment design than I've had at mech design, but I did try at least! I was tempted to just not do this topic, but how can I learn if I don't at least try the things I am not good at? Anyway, the idea I had was the interior of a big cave. The arena is a lava pit (I dunno who the gladiators would be in a lava pit, I didn't get that far with the idea) and the the viewing areas are all little caves set into the walls of tiers inside the cavern. So I wanted to draw the view as though you were looking out from one of those little cave viewing areas. I didn't get very far, though - I've run out of time for today.

http://thirdroar.com/dj/2003-12/dj190-arena.jpg

I will at least take the time to comment on other stuff, for once, though!


lichtpartikel - environments may not be your strength, but I'm glad you at least tried one!

stormeffex - neat idea, though the immense size of the arena wasn't obvious at first until i read the part about that being an entire army in there

Valcon Jet - heh, an insanity arena? ok, you get points for originality. ;)

Wystro - hey you had lava in mind, too! I think you pulled it off far better than I did, though.

Idiot Apathy - I don't quite understand the spaces you're trying to convey, but I dig the electric-like gridwork you've got going on.

Iiori - looks like an area for ameoba fights. :)

paper slayer - neat, but what are the big looming things on the right? they look like either people or mushrooms, I can't tell which. :)

Carnifex - reminiscent of a desert ... would be neat if you could refine it some more.

Miau - cool, it almost looks like something underwater

plaf - awesome, I love it!

danielh68 - eeek, looks a bit scary to me, I'm afraid of heights. ;)

Terayon - that's a fun idea, maybe the losers get pitched off the edge :)

Matt Dixon - this is my favorite so far, I just love it!

Hope I didn't miss anyone ...

[bkmini]

hey guys,

really nice work today. I won't be contributing, long day at work and I need to relax, but I will offer everyone constructive criticism today! You all have had plenty of compliments by others so far, so I will just second what was said before and offer ways to improve your works.

here goes...

licht: the only part I would change here is the interior of the arena. it looks too smooth right now, your light source on the outside is coming from the right, so the interior of the arena should be lit on the left, with some shadows being cast by the towers on the opposite side. this will add greatly to the depth in your pic.

storm: wonderful depth here, but you could make it even better by adding a bit of fog as the pic recedes into the distance. you can achieve the illusion of distance by gradually washing out the pic as you get further away. I would start with a grey at 10% opacity and with a blurry brush color each segment over the previous starting with the one furthest in the distance. do only about the last 4 segments and do it on a new layer so you can experiment a bit with opacity.

wystro: you should make the lava really bright in some places. directly under the gladiators you shouldn't see black. if you introduce some yellows and oranges using either multiply or lighten as your brush mode you should be able to get some nice lava effects. then go back in with the dodge tool to really push some hot spots.

idiot: my only suggestions would be to try to work in perspective, and to give the neon blue parts in the back the same straight-edge care that you gave the ones in the front. if you need help with perspective I could post a little beginner's tutorial to laying out perspective guide lines in photoshop. that is if there is not already such a tutorial...

iiori: the main thing that stands out to me is the open area looks kind of flat (2-dimensionally not level). you could really add some perspective to this painting with shadows. right now you have sort of generic shadows around the edges but none of those things around the arena are casting shadows. pick a direction for a main light source, even if it is a faint blue light or something and throw some shadows onto that ground.

paper slayer: some detail is what this pic really needs to make your alien stand out. the black lines are too uniform throughout the pic. try using line weight to bring things into the foreground and to fade things into the background. remember, dark is close, light is far.

carnifex: what makes this one a little difficult to read is that the rocks do not have a light source. clearly the gladiators are casting a shadow to the left, so all the right sides of your mountains should be light, and all the left sides should be dark. if you really want to get carried away you can start thinking about where the mountains would be casting shadows on each other, but that can get pretty complicated.

miau: make those lights in the sky actually cast a couple hightlights onto the top of the mountain and then you're done.

plaf: blend that initial highlight at the mouth of the pit (cave, whatever) into the black part a bit more like the rest of the highlights and you're done too.

daniel: if you have the gladiators (the red guys) on a separate layer I would just darken the entire sublayer below the green guys. this will really make it look like those guys are down in a nasty place, and the whole upper green layer will look much more removed and safe.

halis: lighting suggestion again. you have a very bright light source directly above your tower, so your tower should gradually get darker as it gets closer to the ground. also, any ledges, peaks, or parts that stick out of the tower should have a highlight on top and a dark shadow on the bottom. they should also cast shadows directly down.

matt: it was said before, but something to show scale would really help. right now with all the large rocks and the flame in the center the arena looks kind of small, like 10 feet wide.

sorry valcon: i don't know what constructive criticism to give willy wacom and pirate pencil. they are nice characters though.

EVERYONE: i hope noone thinks that because i didn't say something i like about each one before the criticism its because i didn't like them. i wanna stress that they are all good and i agree with all the other positive feedback that was given. you don't have to agree with me, just trying to share what i have learned.

[MrKayne]

Interesting interpretations everyone! Mine's all sketch today... hey, man, it's Friday... need to go get some drinking on. :chug: :D

Anyways, mine is an arena of super-intelligent aliens with telekinetic powers. Physical fighting bores them so the flock to watch Battle of the Brains! Yeah baby! Oh, by the way, those are all thought bubble, hence their great mind powers... they even cheer in their minds.
http://www.kaynecomix.com/dsg/281.jpg

I know a bunch of people are doing this to, but it don't comment often as I want to anyways. Ya know you guys an' girls are real DSGers, posting even on Fridays (even everyone who comments) - Rockin!

Matt Dixon - Nice one! Great mood, beatiful colors - not much more I can say.
Terayon - I've got little red x's... but, I'm sure it was cool. :)
Halis_Aetrous - I like your colors and I must admit, the tower design is pretty cool.
danielh68 - Nice work! Awesome idea, too... although, we're not far from that kinda of stuff now... :rolleyes: :nod: Oh, and I really like the look of the semi-transpaent pyramids and oblisks.
plaf - Man, I love the dynamic agle of this one, it's great!
Vimmzy - I'm getting a little red x here too... man... :(
Miau - Those molten rocks look great! Also, it kinda looks like that's underground in a giant caven... it's cool
Carnifex - Hey, man, that's great for 30 minutes.. and aren't tablets great? Oh, small crit tho... I think you should defined the peeps a litle more (w/ a harder edge or something) They almost look like little cornstalks. :D
paper slayer - Cool concept, but I gotta go with Miau... it is a little rough, I though of cave before technology. Still cool though.
Iiori - Wow! I like it... simple but really really nice!
Idiot Apathy - Neat design. I like the fuedal japan meets space design. The glowing cracks are cool.
Wystro - hehe... stick people ... volcanoes... always a winning combo! Like the update, looks better! :)
Valcon Jet - lol :D You know your doing good if the DSG is driving you crazy. Keep it up! I loved the characters, too cool.
stormeffex - I really like the way yours looks today! It kinda has this Middle-Earth meets the 35th century... very cool!
blichtpartikel - Don't sell yourself short, I like that design. It may be simple, but I really like the look of it.
DraigAthar - Great start! I think the gladiators should be given lava proof suits that dissolve after like 30 minutes or something... that would engourage them to win, fast. :)

Okay, I know there is not much critisizm here, but, hey it's Friday! Besides everything is pretty cool today. Neat ideas.

[fresh27]

wam. i had a huge crowd filling those hills, but i took them out cuz you couldnt see the pretty green :D

so, uh, they put these people in a cave and they fight to the death. yay.

http://home.comcast.net/~fresh27/CAVE.jpg

[Sapphire]

I was bored, and don't have access to a scanner so I couldn't use colored pencil like I wanted, and don't have a Wacom... so I just did this in PSP. The edges are too soft, but I'm too tired to fix it up right now. Two luminous, alien lizards battle it out American Gladiator-style on a floating platform.




http://sapphire-art.50megs.com/images/aliengladiator.jpg

[DraigAthar]

bkmini - it's really great that you put so much effort into your reply! I think that this sort of constructive criticism is incredibly helpful, and I appreciate that you took the time to comment on so many of the entries today.

[Terayon]

Mine doesnt want to show up anymore :P ill try to fix it......

My picture works now i put it somewhere else now

Anyways, wow, you guys really have some great stuff, i love all of these

[Wystro]

I guess I'm padding this thread up, but I wanted to apply bkmini's advice...I'm loving lava now -- thank you! Every suggestion is like gold.

http://sparkles295.tripod.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/arena3copy.jpg

[Beatnik]

The idea behind this is... the fight zones are at the top of each structure. When a battle is won, the loser is discarded into the mist below. When the battle is over, the fighters must move to the next structure and fight again. This continues until there is only one left. Each structure rotates at different random speeds and the fighters may be thrown should they lose their footing during battle. This is known as an "oshit!" and it's a crowd favorite. Many can be heard chanting "OSHIT" in hopes that it will somehow invoke a slip.

http://zmans.com/misc/dsg_281.jpg

[Signature]

I don't need replies! Actually comments make me feel bad!
These are just for fun and it is the best I can do with almost no refs and little time.

But much kudos to those who take the time.

And great stuff everybody. So much recently ...

http://andyart.de/images/oldandbad/dsg/mydsg02.jpg

Doesn't really look other worldly ... wanted to go for a hell feel.
At least that monster's head (it is supposed to be a chopped-off head) looks other worldly.

[MrKayne]

Eh, got bored, so I gave coloring it a shot. Not sure if it helped :D
http://www.kaynecomix.com/dsg/281a.jpg

[brkofdon]

hopefully ill have time to do this one, i gotta work on my environments more. so hopefully ill post one up before its too late.

.....thinking......

o and by the way...cool concepts ppls!! good job!

[Matt Dixon]

Halis_Aetrous - Looks as if the gladiators have to fight their way around the column. Very cool idea.

Dan - How the hell did you do that?! I wouldn't have the first idea where to start with such a complicated pic. Very impressive! ( I like the concept, too! )

Plaf - Very dramatic. Excellent work.

Miau - Fantastic atmosphere. That has a real epic feel to it.

Wystro - Fun to watch the develop. I like it a lot.

Valcon_Jet - :D

Stormeffex - Really nice feeling of scale.

Mr Kayne - Great! Telepathic cheering! :)

Beatnik - I think you have the beginnnings of a videogame design there. Cool.

Sorry they're so brief, and that I didn't include everyone -busy, busy, busy. It's great that so many are taking the time to offer such helpful comments, though.

( You're dead right about the scale, Wystro and bkmini! )

[Mykro]

http://members.fortunecity.com/mykro1/arena.jpg
Just under the wire. This was gonna be cooler, not enough time. I don't like the creature, but I like the idea of floating boxes and little people vs huge creatures in an huge arena.

[Miau]

hiho
im glad so many people joined today at last :) there are some really nice ideas!
thx for the kind comments about mine
just a few comments:
Mykro i cant see a pic
MrKayne: this idea rocks, and the color version looks also quite nice
Signature ok no comments :)
Beatnik lol ! i think this fight lasts about 5 seconds and everyones dead :D
Wystro your lava in the last one looks hot :) - nice concept
Sapphire fresh27 Draigathar like the ideas but you should work on the pics
Lichtpartikel cool concept and i like the approach of you coloring very much
Stormeffex reminds me of an UT level :) , nice
Valcon Jet funny :)
Idiot Apathy thx for the comment :) nice colors
Iori nice mood+colors, but its hard to figure out the actual environment
Carnifex hm its very messy... even for 30 mins i think... maybe dont use this kind of brush here, try to concentrate more on the shapes of the mountains
Paperslayer what makes it so difficult for me i think i that there is hardly a sense of depth in there

this is only what i think :) im no expert so dont trust me :D

[plaf]

thanks to people who commented on my dsg. glad to hear someone liked it.

bkmini: creds to you for the extensive, constructive commenting. hope to see your stuff here today? :)

miau: yours is awesome, i love the rays of light through the clouds. not to mention the red lighting on the cliff *drool*

wystro: yeah you're right. i guess i should have highlighted the figures more to bring them out, but hey. too late now innit =)

mrkayne: i love it =) reminds me a larson strip.

sapphire: you might not have had the tools you wanted, but there's something in that sketch that appeals to me.


all the best.

[Carnifex]

thanx for all the helpful crits...i'll see if i have time to work more on it.

[Xpressions]

Hi folks!

This would be my fist post here. Since Miau told how cool a bunch of people you guys are, I though I might as well join as I NEED the practice. So here's what I came up with...

C&C highly appreacitaed

http://www.auner.net/images/arena.jpg

Regards, Dave

:evilbat:

PS: Now that's one kewl smiley :D

PPS: Did some reworking here. Added some shadows and some highlights. Better now?

[Xpressions]

@ DraigAtthar:

Is that you Draig?? Off the Wetcanvas boards? Nice to meet thee again!

Regards, Dave

PS: So much for "global village."

[Carnifex]

i worked some more on it.hope i didn't overdo,but i kinda like it.
http://img1.photobucket.com/albums/1003/fisite/alienarena.jpg
hope you like too.:)

[Vimmzy]

sorry for the red X.. well, i can say it like this then.. my inet died during the night, and so my webserver went down..

[futureprobe]

Many really nice posts here. My picture only became a little alien tower structure at one side of a large paper, still at my desk at school. Time is not really a friend of mine at the moment. Hope I´ll be able to participate later this month - at least with something.

Keep up the posting. Real fun to see what everyone comes up with. Amazing ideas!

[bkmini]

hey everyone,

I'm glad you guys liked seeing some constructive crits in here for a change. carnifex and wystro, it's great that you took the time to go back into your paintings. congrats they look even better now. i'd love to take the time and do that kind of thing every day, but it took a lot of time. i'll try though...

plaf, check back for a late submission from me today. yesterday it was Friday and you know how it goes.

:beer:

Not much for me to do today so maybe I will do two DSG's!

later.

[paper slayer]

http://img2.photobucket.com/albums/v11/paper_slayer/dsg281oga2.JPG

Hope it reads better.

Thanks to bkmini, miau, mrKayne and DraigAthar
for the crit. :)

[Carnifex]

just on a side note:mrkayne,your picture would excellently fit on a comic cover.great one:)
thanx for your input bkmini,we'd all need more of that.

[Sapphire]

Plaf and Miau, thanks for the crits. And bkmini, though everybody's already said it, that was a really cool thing of you to do. I hope my next submission is in time for it to get that kind of detailed constructive criticism!

-Sapph

[Wystro]

One more addendum....no one is going to look at it, but I'm posting it anyway since I've gone Filter Crazy on PS.

http://sparkles295.tripod.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/arenacopybetter.jpg

[Idiot Apathy]

AHA! I looked at it...

Your a persistant bugga aren't you?

The lighting you added to the green flooring looks great and the lava and flames look alot more realistic, good work !

[futureprobe]

Just wanted to post my thing here. Did not come very far with it, but anyway...

Was fun doing it - simple and short between the work with my latest major design project. Tweaked the colours in Photoshop.

http://www.aeongate.com/danielbrandt/art/arena_thumbnail.jpg

Please klick here (http://www.aeongate.com/danielbrandt/art/arena.jpg) for larger version.

Sorry for the extreme delay. Scanned it the day after the competition was over... :)