Environmental Design

[John Uibel]

I know a lot of folks here are into character design and monsters/robots and such, but isn't there anybody doing good ol' environmental design, set design and other such "practical" design work? Please please let me see what you are doing. To get the ball rolling, here is a quick, albeit "finished" piece I did for a themed resort. Any help/suggestions would not only be appreciated, but framed.

JUhttp://photos21.flickr.com/29672621_6c4f3505a5_o.jpg

[PHATandy]

At the moment this is looking pretty good, i like the colours and the composition. but it looks far from finished.

The coloruing is very general and lacks any details. try working in a bit more variety in shades and colours.

There defintly needs to be more detail in the foreground and the characters.

This is looking quite good so far though. Keep it up.

[antquin]

stronger/better defined lighting/shadows, perhaps some details, definately an object that is interesting to look at. look at van gogh's haystacks for atmosphere. hey, if you're going to learn, learn from the best--and take hints from the rest of us.

[Phuzion]

I think it looks pretty damn nice! Note that he said it's for a theme park, thus defining the figures is pointless and a waste of time production-wise. Second, I don't know if any of you have ever seen theme park designs, but they're not usually full on finished illustrations, at least not in the early stages. So for the purpose, this is looking very very nice. I'd go there :P

Crits! I think there could be a little more distinction between foreground, middleground and background, just to clarify the depth a bit more. I'd punch up the dark in the foreground more, darken the middleground just a tad, and leave or lighten the background. Anywho, nice work!

Also, might I point your browser this way: Environments Thread (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=43791)

Peace,
-Daniel

[ApolloNuevo]

wow, really great. a quick and readable sketch. if i were you i would lose the humans except for a flat scale reference somewhere and focus more on the textures and levels that you are going to use in the middle ground. good post though!

-dan

[N D Hill]

It is pretty readable and you have a good sense of depth and space. I would go as far as saying you should lose the figures but I do think that they should be placed in a manner in which you get some better context as far as scale is concerned. Perhaps one more figure on the steps. I also think the sketch layer could be cleaned up a bit on the pillar to the right. That's really the only place where it gets a little incoherrent.

Really though, I'm getting a decent idea for the environment. It's articulate for the most part and you may even want to consider fulling rendering it as an illustration. I think that would work quite nicely.

[madster]

Completed? Possibly. "Finished?" Sorry, no.
This is a rough comp at best.
* Not one column matches any other
* What details are drawn in the columns (the frontmost one, mainly) show poor execution, with no symmetry or balance in the stones. The triangular stones are crooked and uneven, the rectangular stones are just as bad, with the vertical line of the column side extending outward from the base, rather than being perpendicular.
* The light source is poorly thought out, with far too bright a refraction off the edge of the frontmost column, and extremely inconsistent rendering of highlights throughout the rest of the piece. Most noticibly, it is totally missing on the wall ruins in the BG, and it looks like a last-minute afterthought on the remaining two columns, with just a splash of color to represent what should be an almost glowing effect on all the hard surfaces. Additionally, the figures would be almost outlined in the glow created by such a strong light source.
* The characters are anatomically passable, but are too rough to call.
* The linework is far too sloppy to call this "finished" in any real sense of the word...

Even for a theme park, this is really rough to imagine looking at, and feeling it as an environment.

If this is indicative of what you consider to be "finished" work, you would do well to try and put forth quite a bit more effort into your pieces...

As for the silly excuse that theme park art doesn't deserve much detail...well,
http://www.marksimonson.com/images/magnum.jpg
http://www.meghan-mccarthy.com/fireside_freakbanner2.jpg
http://www.onfocus.com/cam/2004/state_fair/fair_ride_art.jpg

People don't generally spend money at places that look too seedy and cheaply decorated...

~M

[John Uibel]

Yes, I know it is unrefined. I can do unrefined. Your comments, no matter how scathing, help. I suppose it would help for you to know I spent about 1 hour on the last one, maybe 2 on this one...

I can't seem to stop drawing edges, and start painting shapes. help.

Thanks,

J Uibel

http://photos21.flickr.com/29749700_9aeb0fbe49_b.jpg

[SebSprek]

In general I think the line work is great... I would say it's not painting with shapes is the problem, but you can retain your line work, just make more of a distinction between areas of light and dark... differences in edges... soft and hard shadows... these thinhs will dramatically make those pieces shine!

[pha3z]

i am a 3d artist but I look at a lot of 2d work by other artists. I will try to make helpful coment. :)

I see you want help because you cannot stop drawing lines and start painting shapes. Also a lot of people are saying that you are not defining the edges between color and shading well.

A large part of the problem is your brush technique. All of your brush strokes are done using a soft-edge brush on a small resolution image. THis leaves your image soft and lacking shading sharpness/detail. If you change to using hard-edge brushes that give sharp edges of color, you will find that you can create a lot more definition. You can ALSO create "illusion of detail" by building up multiple strokes of these hard-edge brushes. All of the hard edges layer together to give the impression of texture and details.

Again, I'm not a 2d artist, but I think that is the general trend i have seen in geat work. Take some tutorials on photoshop brush usage (if you're using photoshop). You'd be AMAZED what you can make your brush do for you. I can paint entire detailed photoreal diffuse surface textures from scratch for 3d art ONLY using clever brush settings. Its pretty neat once you get intimate with the power of photoshop brush options.

[stoph]

sorry if its already been pointed out but the use of light filters (or whatever youre using, im not a PS kinda guy..) scream "NOOB!"

not to say that you are, and not to cause offense, but if you want to push your abilities as an artist, why not paint in the light sources by hand? it will vastly improve your knowledge and understanding as to how light hits a surface and behaves with different mediums. just my two cents worth..