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Mood Art - Castle Scene


Darkness_Falls

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Okay, I've pulled an all-nighter here to finish this thing :P It's almost 8am here, and I should've gone to bed about 8 hours ago ;) Sooo, I'm going to upload my mood art here in a minute and then go to bed. Merry Christmas! My DarkMod present to you all is coming very shortly...

 

EDIT: Here it is. Sorry for the wait...

<pics removed. See my 12/27 post for latest version.>

 

 

Note: I tried getting a thief in the foreground, but it was just taking me toooo long to get him to look good. Sorry :(

 

The image looks fine on my monitor, brightness-wise. If you need to adjust the brightness of it before posting it anywhere, feel free.

 

Okay, I seriously need sleep now :ph34r:

Edited by Darkness_Falls
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Okay, I've pulled an all-nighter here to finish this thing :P It's almost 8am here, and I should've gone to bed about 8 hours ago ;) Sooo, I'm going to upload my mood art here in a minute and then go to bed. Merry Christmas! My DarkMod present to you all is coming very shortly...

I think it looks VERY good, but it still has this empty feeling somehow. I think it would be better if you could add something in the foregreound.

 

Nothing big. I think my earlier suggestion about a fountain may already be to much. But I thought of some kind of small statue right by the stairs. Or some kind of these old stone vases or such. In the same style as the stonesteps are done.

Gerhard

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Thanks guys! I'm glad I could make your mind twirl some more, TYROT :)

 

As for the empty feeling, Sparhawk -- sorry about that. It doesn't seem empty to me, but it's all in the eye of the beholder I suppose ;) I will admit I would've liked to have the thief in the foreground for you in this version, but I have put so much time into this thing already that I just wanted to get it out.

 

I agree a statue would look cool in there somewhere. And there are many other possibilities. But it all came down to time. I will look into adding something in the foreground in the near future (weeks), but I feel the current version should be sent out, as is, as part of today's media campaign.

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Very nice! How did you get the bush and grass to look like that?

Dear GIMG - I did those using a new friend in PhotoShop: the Pattern Stamp Tool. You can use the tool by using a default list of patterns that comes with PS, or create your own patterns. SH helped me realize you can do a search for 'free textures' on the web, then pull those into PS and create patterns from them. Check the Help file in PS for info on creating your own patterns. If the instructions aren't clear enough there, let me know and I'll try to help you through the process.

 

I think the grass pattern was a default in PS, but I created the bush pattern by layering a couple custom-created patterns on top of each other with varying degrees of opacity (one pattern was from a hedge, the other was from some sort of tree).

 

To help explain: when creating my bush and tree patterns from the original images, I only used a small square (200px by 200px?) from each of the original images as my source for the textures. (Why? You don't want the entire tree for the pattern; rather, just a clump of leaves.) After painting with the patterns, it was then a fine balance of burning, dodging, highlighting and the such to give them depth.

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Okay, I'm working on this picture again :) Don't send anything out to the public yet. I'm putting the thief back in the foreground. After I'm done, I'll let you guys decide which version you like better for distribution. It's 5pm here. I should have it done in an hour or two. He'll be a dark silhouette, maybe some subtle higlights, so I'm not sure if you'll see him very well, but alas ;) Might be better to have something (the thief) than nothing (no thief).

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Hello my DarkMod friends... here's the version with our thief in it:

<pics removed. See my 12/27 post for latest version.>

 

As with many Thief things we do, the picture stands out better on a black background. I'll get to check this out on a different monitor next week. In the meantime, I hope the brightness level is sufficient for your monitors.

 

EDIT: I just bumped up the brightness and contrast a tad on the following version, in case it helps some of you -->

<pic removed. See my 12/27 post for latest version.>

Edited by Darkness_Falls
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DF, this version is SO much better. You have balanced out the areas of interest now, and the knocked arrow helps direct your eye around the image. Great! (love the window, btw)

 

My only crit is that the bowstring looks like it is attached a little too far down the bow, other than that, this baby is ready for distribution.

 

:)

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Awesome! Glad to hear :D I'll adjust the bow strings so they're closer to the ends and then re-post the newer version. Should be done within 10-15 minutes.

 

EDIT: I've uploaded the newer version, with the strings more to the end of the bow. This version replaces the old, so the above post automatically links to the new version.

Edited by Darkness_Falls
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dear DF

 

man .. i should have already slept SOOO Much earlier..but i think team is getting crazy tonight...first you then ..GIMG then Atti ..then you...man ..let me sleeeeep...

 

THis one is looking soo cool... Im happy for you that spring also like it....GREAT job man...I even hear the sound of the bow....

RElease it ..release it...damn it..............

 

BEST!!!

Edited by TYROT
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LOL, the team *IS* going crazy! Everyone is using the holiday to go DarkMod bonkers!

 

Re-posted castle scene link (0.5MB)

 

UPDATE: I've posted the image in the ISA and TTLG forums as part of our holiday celebration, since it looks like I'm the only one logged in still. I had to use ImageShack for hosting. If someone is able to host this on a more typical server we'd use for DarkMod, please PM the updated URLs (thumbnail and full-size) to me. I think I used a 100KB version of my drawing for posting in ISA and TTLG. Please note the 100KB version is not the highest quality JPG image of it, but it's pretty good. The 550KB one is the best quality, obviously. Not sure which one you'd rather have out there; probably the 100KB version for easier downloading.

 

Thanks!

Edited by Darkness_Falls
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Yes, the charcater makes ALL the difference. I didn't want to comment before for fear of offending, but I can now honestly say it's excellent.

THe one nit I would pick is that you should include a second window in the castle to the right of the first - just copy and paste the existing window across, and so it's partially cut off by the edge of the picture and the bush- not an imperitive, but I think it would make it perfect.

Civillisation will not attain perfection until the last stone, from the last church, falls on the last priest.

- Emil Zola

 

character models site

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window in the castle to the right of the first - just copy and paste the existing window across, and so it's partially cut off by the edge of the picture and the bush- not an imperitive, but I think it would make it perfect.

Yes. That would balance the image more. Then there would be no need for something in the forground as I suggested.

Gerhard

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include a second window in the castle to the right of the first
Yes. That would balance the image more.

Perhaps, rabbits... perhaps! Probably won't be able to do it today, but it's a great suggestion.

 

Surely it's not as exciting as a multimedia extravaganza to see static mood art like this, but hopefully there's some benefit to the project ;)

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Surely it's not as exciting as a multimedia extravaganza to see static mood art like this, but hopefully there's some benefit to the project ;)

I hope that this will not be the last animation that we did. That's why I'm was not so happy that you posted it on the sites. But it doesn't really matter now. We must hold some good stuff back, so that we have new material for a new animation as we go along.

Gerhard

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I hope that this will not be the last animation that we did. That's why I'm was not so happy that you posted it on the sites. But it doesn't really matter now. We must hold some good stuff back, so that we have new material for a new animation as we go along.

Ah well, I'm sure there will be more artwork from us. The main reason for me dumping so many hours into it in the last moments was for the 12/25 media release. Springheel mentioned it was ready for release after tweaking the bow strings, so i did. I didn't see TYROT's post in the other thread, where he said he was tweaking his animation and wanted to maybe incorporate my artwork, until after I posted it in those other sites. Oh well, it's not the end of our project. Sorry for posting it, but I feel it was warranted... considering the due date I gave myself for it was 12/25 so it could go out on media blitz day.

 

Castle-web-s.jpg

 

Click Here for Large Version (0.5MB)

 

Modifications made to latest version: Created softer edge on left edge of tower. Darkened the tree in foreground. Added amber highlights to tree in foreground.

 

EDIT: 8/28/2005 - I enhanced the appearance of the stars in the sky. Old version automatically replaced by new version when I over-wrote the Castle-web-l.jpg file.

Edited by Darkness_Falls
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Sorry for posting it, but I feel it was warranted... considering the due date I gave myself for it was 12/25 so it could go out on media blitz day.

No problem with that. It IS a very nice picutre and I felt a little sorry that you didn't deliver it combined with the teaser. But so we have an untaitned thread at least. :)

Gerhard

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Gotchya. I guess I didn't see it that way. I looked at it more as a double-whammy DarkMod kinda day. Early in the day they get a wicked trailer; later in the day they get some mood art I slaved over in Photoshop.

 

I thought as part of our media blitz day we were planning to release more than just the trailer. A media blitz often means an onslaught of several different media elements, not just one thing. So, although the vid definitely rocked this world, I thought it strange we only released one thing that day, up until my mood art post.

 

Personally, I thought I'd be tainting the trailer thread by throwing my artwork in it. But I can see your standpoint as well.

 

I also thought having two X-mas presents from Dark Mod would be considered better than one by the community. And having "The Dark Mod Team" listed twice on the front page of the ISA forums isn't such a bad thing. It's all about getting our name out there and market penetration.

 

We need to create a buzz and continue the buzz.

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