Just experimenting

In an effort to broaden my horizons I spent some time in Photoshop trying something new. Let me know what you think.

Zombie RP map I made:

points De plane, boss, de plane!

XP

I played too much Call of Duty 4, so I stuck an AC-130 Spectre in there with a bit of motion blur. At least it ain’t the bloody Enterprise

Things at a distance wouldn’t be motion blurred. Basic physics yo.

Physics are meaningless when it looks nice.

Looks great B)

I guess so. The thing is pretty empty though, the grass could use tweaking. Might want to tone down the saturation a bit too.

Supposed to be empty, in a beautifully high contrast green field. A picture isn’t about just how it looks, it’s about what it symbolises.

True as that may be it’s not high contrast. Contrast is how distant the values of two colors are. Black and White are Extreme contrast. Green and slightly lighter green is relatively low contrast. That’s at least what I learned. There’s a chance I could be completely wrong, but I’m pretty sure the world isn’t misinforming me just for a big laugh.

Maybe I’ve been too hung up on aesthetics and rules. I’ve probably been missing the point of a lot of art since I’ve been so caught up with “practical” art, like the kind in games or instructional pamphlets.

Are the soldiers not important? Are they being left behind? Did they just get dropped off for a mission?

Well I like to leave it up to the imagination, but the idea I had when making it (which seems to detract from it slightly when I explain it) is that these 2 men are the last survivors of their unit, heavily outnumbered and under pursuit. One stops to comment about their imminent doom, and he finally sees the lush green field he’s in, and not the war he’s fighting.

Yeah, I didn’t mean contrast. Wrote that post at 6 in the morning.

What a fruitless effort at broadening your horizons…

As you can see from my other thread I have rather limited horizons.

You should make another one showing the pursuit. It’s a cool idea and I can only imagine it as a comic book. Maybe play around with the placement of objects. If the soldiers are important then make them bigger or make everything smaller. Also I just thought about this, it’s a weird transfer between the soldiers and the plane. Maybe move the text between them so our eyes can easily jump from one thing to another.

I like you idea behind it and think it’s only fair your artwork better reflect it.

Added a map I made for a silly little chat RP

I really like the first one. The only problems I have with it, however, are the splotchy clouds which go all the way down to the horizon and the text is a bit hard to read.

Fix those two things, and I won’t have any more problems with it ;D

Also, I disagree with Apricot. I wouldn’t make the people appear bigger/closer, as it would deter the feeling that the picture portrays. Well, I guess I can’t explain it that well, but I really like how the soldiers appear to be fading away in the distance.

I don’t entirely understand the second one…

Although the first one is great, you can imagine a whole story to it. I love how you shaded it and can’t wait to see more o’ your incredible artwork.

Oh the second one is just something I threw together for a few mates. Top down view of an area of land.

I love zombie RPs, I used to run two using the d20 modern system. What I did for a few of the maps was just cut up a city I found on google maps and stuff. Looks like you just painted over the middle of a city. You should probably cut and paste some different parts of a city, surround it with the outskirts. Also keep in mind the scale of things. Your van and cottage is the size of a big building in the city. If I can find it I’ll link you too a really nice pixel map I saw somewhere.

Scale is meaningless when you don’t care =D

Seriously though, it was a 5 minute job

Bump for update.

Made the map wider, added a beach and a plane crash.

Pretty good. No complaints.

Fixed broken link to map, also 1 sq km grid

The RP map is great! I don’t see those too often and it helps a lot that you added the grid!

I like the first one too, the text is perfect as it gives the picture some depth, I can finely read it. Art isn’t always supposed to be readable either, so a star on the edge for you, Crushproof! The text gives it an old feeling, which I seem to like heaps.

The cloudy feeling in the background is cute. I have a feeling that you used the great combination of a gradient and clouds. I like the gray surrounding the plane, it’s almost like it’s going to catch the whole picture. The only thing about the clouds is that they’re rather low and that they’re positioned like a picture taken under the clouds. Like if you’d imagined that you’d go out, look up when it’s cloudy and take a picture.

Next, the grass… I advice doing your own grass. x’D I’ve done grass using brushes too, but believe me, I got a lot of points from people… they don’t look real. x’D I got the advice that I’d instead fastly stroke the grass with my tablet and make it more random. Not all grass point right. ;P

The colors on the grass on this picture are pretty colorful… I’m not sure if the phrase “Perhaps today is a good day to die” is meant in a happy or a sad way. The upper part looks sad, while the whole bottom part looks happy, with two guys standing, looking up and thinking about the joy of life. The whole picture could probably flow better with colors closer to each other, my attention goes straight to the bright grass.

Overall the picture looks great, but improvement could make it even better! ;D I tried to give some constructive advice, so don’t take my words too harshly. I’d like to see more art from you. ;D <3>

I’m not an artist, so I have no idea what that means. I’m gonna go ahead and say thanks.