Hill Top Zone

Perhaps. The softer and less pronounced it is though, the less I feel like it leans either way. Also, maybe I'd like the current mock up more if it were redone - tidy, clean and high quality .

 

Then would it make sense in Emerald hill. I never was a fan of the trunk to those trees.

 

4 trees, 1 (mo)ckup

 

I don't know about anyone else, but to me the trunk now seems to blend in to the background a bit too much - I mean, if you took away the black shading on the edges of the tree, you've have thought it was meant to be part of the rocks in the background; the colour is almost identical.

 

I'm sure the parallax scrolling of the background will take away a major part of that illusion.

 

Life has a way of making you humble
Day after day it's bringing you to your knees
all's okay, then everything crumbles
And all that you perceive is blowing away



Not washed out : (

 

Would someone be able to send me the level for me to make mock-ups or put my new one in a mock-up.

And now that I'm thinking about it, was that catapult ever finalized? And if so, why wasn't that object criticized for being to plain. I remember all the nutty swirls and stuff that were going around only to be left with something so simple and plain.

I'm not complaining about its current design, but why make the tree so complicated in comparison?
I think the hamneggs first trunk is kick-ass. I don't know if its because its a jpeg or the top of the tree underwent filters, but something funky happened to the tree top as easily seen with the bleed into the new added bottom leaves.

 

The database is your friend.

 

Are these overlayed with your tree top or something? I'm liking the softness of them. Although the staff seem to want a reimagining of the tree top, I think the current tree top would look pretty good if it were just cleaned up a bit. And this softening goes some way towards that.

Also, I really liked that swirl on the catapult .

 

That was the first time the database pulled through. But then I found the catch. When I open the file the trees weren't on a separate layer.
I'm not going to cut up the grass trying to get Test Object's tree base out. So I just put mine behind it.

And you didn't say anything about the simpleness of the catapult and its relationship to the the complexity of the tree.

 

Don't mind my crappy editing of the taller trees, but here are three large mockups with the edited trunk, improved treetop(albeit butchered), and everyone's favorite premium model Acme seeSaw, complete with SWIRL.

A nice contrast with no glow:


With glow:


And significantly dark. Dark like any high-altitude tree. Just a tad darker, and a lot shinier.

 

It's actually not bad.

 

Use PNG's, I don't know if photobucket is changing them to jpeg. Crop the picture, we don't need to see everything. I've used imageshack.us and I've never had a problem. You just need to make sure its not too big, resolution-wise and file size wise. But really it shouldn't be a problem. Only time I hit them was with that big wallpaper of Chemical Plant Zone I made.

I would say the middle trees with the glow are probably best. Its hard to tell when the picture is so small. But viewing it small really shows how big a problem your shadows are. They are overwhelming black. You should be hitting a dark brownish color. Refer to the sprite for colors. That is always what I've done with all my trunks. Make sure your highlight color is similar to that of the sprite and make sure your darkest shadow color is similar to the sprite. Right now its kind of a burnt redish-brown.

It should be a different color than the background. At least I think. I've never compared the sprites.

Edit: I still like this one the best
I linked the post, there are getting to be too many pictures. I like that one because you can see the scraping-ness/scratchiness of the shading which got lost in your newest versions. But even before that I think I like that highlight better. Just needed to changes the blacks into browns. The way its textured is almost like it was carved into the tree, its so cool. Like you took a razor and shaved the tree and there was your highlight. I also think I liked it more because it was closer to the sprite colors. The sprite is orangey brown. Yours are more redish-brown as stated above.

 

While this is pretty much how I wanted it to turn out. I can't help but feel that the dark sides of the trunk make it look like it has scanlines or whatever you call it. Could do with being a bit lighter to fit with the other art better.

 

Photobucket only turns .bmp into .jpg. Just upload them as .png and you'll be fine.

 

I am very excited that this beveled version appears to have pulled into the lead. This was my favorite concept from the beginning. The luminosity looks good, but is a tad too bright. I am also happy to see the atmosphere idea I had brought up is being used. I think the trunk should be similar in color to the background, given they are from the same palette. I agree with you, a mixture of these two is probably best. Currently the one is too washed out, and the other is too dark with too much contrast. Could you mix these two? I think it could be the final design! Oh also, the contrast of the branches shouldn't be so much greatly lower than the trunk (such as with the shadows they are casting onto the branches below), it makes the branches look washed out, also.

 

Have a mix, leaning towards the dark side. Should I reduce the contrast more, or what? And on another note, does anyone else use the NVidia control panel, and if you do, what are your settings, so I can know how exactly you are seeing things? I have mine pretty much at default, with digital vibrance at 50%.
And also, about using the original colors, those are rather bland browns. I kinda like the sunrise effect on the trunks with the current colors. It goes well with the background and atmosphere. But if anyone wants it bad enough(AKA not very badly), I'll put it up.

 

So is this a no go?