Levels & Items Art

I'd advice to try using an NTSC filter or similar before attempting to remake the art, just so you can see how the transparencies and inbetween colors were supposed to look like (translucent palms, etc).

 

<!--quoteo(post=208785:date=Jul 20 2008, 03:43 PM:name=Flare)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Flare @ Jul 20 2008, 03:43 PM) </a>
Some updating, I do plan on experimenting with things, since though I like the style of the characters and such, I also like some of the artwork that is going around.[/quote]
Looking great, the little specs are ace in my opinion. Please add some more here and there as you think will look appropriate. The green also needs more shading as Vincent mentioned and the reason for this is very logical. A low contrast area far away will look like all its shades are blended together. Therefore we should have difficulty distinguishing the lines between the darker shades of green.

ICEknight, I'm curious how you're feeling about this background work. I think it's looking sweet, but it isn't the CG style you were proposing.

 

My 15% Completed Palmtree:

 

I also think it's looking pretty good for a WIP, and I agree with your oppinion on the little specs, etc... but then again, we don't have any CG attempts to compare it with, so who knows if that would be a better choice. =\


By the way, Flare, remember that those graphics should be separate since they're made for two different scroll planes. Just in case.

 

Looking good Master Emerald, but the trunk is looking weird, and I don't blame you.

The way they draw the Palm tree originally makes no sense in a way:
Like, where the hell did the green color come from? Is that due to the lighting?

I guess it's back to reference photos

 

Yeah, I propose that, after the art for the game gets pretty far along, we have a massive Stage 2 for art production where we take what we have and tweak it to give it the glitz and glamor of AlchemistDefined's work. We have some decent HD art so far, but it's all still a bit too plain for what Sonic 2 HD really should be. Maybe CG effects could be really helpful here?

 

<!--quoteo(post=208838:date=Jul 20 2008, 10:23 PM:name=Master Emerald)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Master Emerald @ Jul 20 2008, 10:23 PM) My 15% Completed Palmtree:[/quote]

Go back to the green shines, because they were intentional -- there's a lot of grass in the level which would reflect green light at any shiny object.

The lighting section of this colouring tutorial says it perfectly.

This is a good example of why I opted out of contributing to this project -- between the lot of you, you simply don't have a fucking clue.

 

You contributed by helping him regarding shading.

Therefore your logic fails

Stop being so childish, and if you really don't care about this project, stay out of this forum.

 

New manually added shades to the coconuts.

No comments.

 

I've been experimenting with a little bit of CG modeling in Blender for the past couple of months and I have indeed discovered the importance of lighting effects.

We are not thinking about this the correct way, there is a key reason for the green that I believe I've figured out. It is a reflection, yes, but not from the grass....it's from the tree! Why do I say this? Well, look at the shape of the trunk units, the part that sticks out is below the green. This means that the green is reflecting from above off the bump (and also proves that the lighter brown shades in the center are meant to be a protrusion like the ones on the sides). But how can the green be reflecting from above you may ask; don't the fronds block the sun? No! Because the tree was modeled in CG with a transparency to the leaves! We can clearly see this transparency in its dithered form in the game. Therefore the light looks green, not white as it comes through the branches.

This is the way we need to be thinking about these things. We know that CG was used in the production of Sonic 2; knowing how certain basic elements of lighting work in CG (and real life) is essential to understanding the art.

If anyone has a better explanation for the green, I'd be happy to admit that I'm wrong and hear it, but this is how I'm seeing the palm tree's design.

 

My 20% Done Palmtree:



Be calm, I'll change the leaves. They're there only for a preview.

Completed Things:

Coconuts
Trunk
Vegetation below the coconuts

 

Looking better, but the trunk looks funny - I can almost make out heart shapes

The bottom-left coconut looks as if it were pasted into the image, rather than it fitting in and sitting comfortably
Bring the shades under this coconut closer to it - cause compared to the original image, the shades are closer

 

Keep in mind the leaves of the tree look the way they are so they'll appear transparent on a TV screen, set any emulator to TV mode and you'll see what I mean.

 

Another thing to notice is the tree is being viewed from a slightly overhead perspective, as evidenced by the uneven fronds, the angle of the green part below the coconuts, and the angle of the trunk. It makes you wonder what else has a different perspective then we're used to imagining it. Maybe the palm trees are all supposed to be leaning across the path towards Sonic.

 

ME, I actually like the style you have going on with the fronds being more spiked down. Can't say it's all that accurate to the original game, but I can't see a faithful recreation of vertical lines being what the project's after either. But I kid. Can you describe what you're going after in a more finalized version or are you just taking it one step at a time?

Either way, fantastic job with the art so far. Makes me wish I knew enough about Illustrator to put it to use for this once I have some time on my hands.

 

Please don't mistake this as work submitted for approval, I just made this quickly to illustrate some ideas I have:


To the right is a shot of the tree with Fusion's TV mode turned on. To the left is my ideas for the HD version.

1.) As you can see, with TV mode on, the frawns become more like big floppy leaves with transparency. I can almost imagine them being leaves made of green panes of glass or plastic. Some of the stems have a segmented leaf that folds over itself and makes a kind of combined transparency effect that changes the color.

2.) I blurred the objects that fall behind the leaves. I think this could give the tree more depth. The only thing is that it, if we really wanted to be anal about it, we'd also have to make the game dynamically blur anything behind the tree (since the background and such moves behind the tree). IMO, that sounds like a pain and it might not need such an excess just to look good. We'll see?

3.) You can see on the original that the leaves look like they're tattered on the edges a bit. This works against the idea that it's a thick, angular or round piece like glass/plastic. But hey, it could still somehow be like glass. I replicated the tattering a bit on this one leaf to see what it looks like. I think it looks better than leaving it plain and round. Now it looks "HD"!

4.) This leaf has some shading on it that, again, gives me the feeling that it's 3D glass or plastic. It would be interesting to give the leaves a bit of a specular sheen that makes them look that way. Also, for anybody that wants extra detail, I thought it would be interesting to add something like subtle veins on the leaves. Of course, the design of these leaves is fairly minimalistic, so I think straight lines would be the proper choice over complex, curvy veins.


Overall, I think the leaves are supposed to have a solid 3D look with transparency effects. The stems probably also should have some shading and highlights that heighten their 3D appearance. So who wants to take a crack at this style?

 

Now that's more like it. Nice observations.

 

When I see the original EHz 3d model, It's a fact that the palmtrees don't look like that.

EHz Original 3D Model (Sonic 2 Commercial) - High Quality
EHz Original 3D Model (Sonic 2 Commercial) - Low Quality