Hill Top Zone

Why a blue tint exactly? Shouldn't it be green like the rest of the tree?

 

To me, the objects in the foreground are much cooler than the objects in the background. They are surrounded by blue rock and appear more cool, since the tree is somewhat reflective as well, I think it would make more sense and create a more realistic atmosphere, if the tint was blue.


I grabbed this as an example, doesn't really show exactly what I meant, but you get the idea. Image how it might be if the leaves were more reflective and planar. again, I am not talking about tinting everything blue, though that may be an idea. I mean just replacing the red tint in the leaves with a blue tint. thats all.

 

Sorry for using black text underneath. Enlarge to see labels on a white background.

 

Hmm, the green-tinted one looks more colorful (better to me), while in comparison the original looks like it dried up a bit...

Since the level is filled with vines and green grass (not to mention the clouds in the background that would bring the consequent humidity with them), I'd assume there shouldn't be a reason for just the trees to look dry, so I'd go for the more greenish ones.







[/geek]

 

It would help some more if they were put in with that HTZ mockup. Then they can be compared to see if any clash with anything else considering that the other art in that mockup is final. As for the one I prefer. I'm more for the green tint one.

 

After I sucked the yellow out, the highlights looked very dull so I needed to go and place them back in there because the original colors are clearly yellow green. So you can see the highlights I put on there are not well blended compared to the original which also has a radial highlight toward the top. Also note the shading under near the leaf shadows. So what are your thoughts with that?

 

...Perhaps a middle point between those two?

 

Ask, and ye shall receive.





Maybe me and Maximus should get married. We complete each other :3
Whaddaya say, hun?

 

Looking sexy, I'm pleased you removed those abrupt shadows on the outside branches. Sure would be nice to see the yellow-green and yellow-blue with the background...

 

...but now the grass is starting to look a bit flat and textureless, don't you think?

 

Looking awesome I can't wait to see that in game, but...

I agree. Maybe we could texture in a way like the tree just to make it stand out from your usual EHZ grass and also to fit in with the tree.

It might be quite a lot of work though...

 

...Or maybe we can use the tree that already fits with the grass and everything else, instead of fixing the other tree until it looks just like a textured version of MaximusDM's. Just saying.

 

1. I don't like the textured trunk, not that I have a better solution. I think it clashes with the grass too much
2. I don't like the bright yellow - it feels too colorful and I always thought of hilltop as a more earth-tone/mute level, not a BAM YELLOW IN YOUR FACE level. The blue-green actually looks really good to me, but I can see Ice-Knight's point via the yellowish vines. Green Green is my vote
3. Maybe it's just me, but I kind of feel like the leaves look too thick. I don't know how to fix this either

That's everything I've got. Hopefully this post is helpful to someone!

 

I changed out the trunk, and lengthened the grass...

 

That tree looks good, as does the grass, but they look really wonky together.

 

How do they look "wonky" together? They look damned near perfect to me.

I did think the grass looked too bland next to the tree before, but it looks fine now, IMO.

 

Here's two mockups with MaximusDM's normal and greener versions and the chequered trunk, for total untexturedness.

 

Concerning the tree's foliage, I prefer the right tree's center, with the sides of the left tree.

The right tree's center looks less cluttered compared to the left tree. The details on the sides of the left tree don't pop out as much as they do on the right tree, but that's a good thing, as the sides on the right tree have these bright green rays slanting right under the shadows of the central foliage, and it pops out too much.

 

The right tree seems the right direction.

 

Mainly because of the vast color difference. I don't intend to be an original pixel fag, but they originally did use the same palette.

Less significantly, the tree is A LOT more detailed than the grass.