FINAL | WORLDS | 2D | Stolen Earth | Jonatan-Moonchild

[jonatan-moonchild]

I decided to go with frozen landscape and now it looks like this:

More will come.

Regards
Jonatan

[janbuczny]

cool designe, i like the arc shape objeckts .
Maybe you add on the third and last plan the same round elements to show some wide space
good luck

[jonatan-moonchild]

Thank you!
You right - third plan definitely needs more love. As for the arc shape objects - I hope at the end they will be more readible as craters, but first of all I want them to look cool, so... I'm really glad you like it :).

Regards
Jonatan

[jonatan-moonchild]

WIP 5
I couldn't spend too much time on this since last WIP and now I have to completely abandon the Challenge for two weeks - I'm taking a vacation and I will have no access to computer. But when I come back there will be still month till deadline so I should be OK.

This is where I'm now:

Regards
Jonatan

[obra-kalla]

This looks cool! Can't wait to see colouring over :smile

[jonatan-moonchild]

WIP 6
Finally I've found some time to push it a little bit forward, but still a lot to do. This is where I am now:

Regards
Jonatan

[volenck]

Those pencil sketches look absolutely amazing, you've really conveyed a great scale with them. I think that may have gotten a little bit lost in the WIPs, the size of city within crater really made the planet feel massive. Also, the debris in the sky - the planet rings or floating ice / rocks really have a great read on the 4th WIP, but have started to blend a bit in the 6th one. Maybe deciding on keeping them as a contrasting value - dark on light, might make them a bit more legible and recognizable as a cohesive shape.
Awesome work so far man, keep it up

[jonatan-moonchild]

Thank you @volenck ! I'm glad you like my sketches and I agree that later WIPs lost a bit of initial feel/vision. I hope I will be able to bring it back in the end. Currently I'm more focused on details (I can work on it about 1 hour per day), but I keep everything in manageable state so I think I'll be able to adjust/enhance things like colors, brightness and contrast, aerial perspective etc. later, so I hope my final image won't be too much disappointing. Thank you once again for the kind words and ideas for improvement . I will definitely keep them in mind.

Regards
Jonatan

[jonatan-moonchild]

WIP 7
I haven't posted anything for a while so I thought it wouldn't be bad to show where I'm now currently, and it goes like this:

There was no clear breakthrough in the matter because I don't have too much time for this (usually about 1 - 1.5 hour per day plus some extra hours on weekends) so I simply turn on all stubbornness I have and just keep working and pushing it forward step by step and bite by bite - until the deadline finally catches me. Speaking of deadline... it seems (surprisingly ) approaching, so I'll have to make time and push it to the limit. Well... at least my limit.

Regards
Jonatan

P.S. As for "stubbornness" and "keep working" - Iv'e discovered here on Cubebrush great motivational video by Clint Cearley:
https://cubebrush.co/clintcearley/products/mj4iq/the-attribute-motivational-video
I think we all have worse days when our weaknesses and doubts are overwhelming. When I have one of these days I watch this video and I'm back on track again - I've found it very powerful. So if you have some dark hours and thinking about quitting... don't do it - keep fighting!

[korontari]

Your work is going pretty well and progress is apparent! I definitely like the idea, very interesting! When you are pressed with time try to focus on key areas of the image so that you can show it anytime the deadline comes. I really like the lighting and fresh snowy feeling. At the moment I feel the image needs more distinct atmospheric perspective and more dramatic difference between fore/background. I think it is ok to sacrifice some details on the background for the sake of overall impression. Good job has already been done to make the image more vivid and painted but there are still many parts that looks "3d modeled", like big planet on the background and houses of the cities and those frozen in ice. Looking forward to see further progress!

[jonatan-moonchild]

Thank you very much @korontari for kind words and constructive critique - all solid points and I will keep them in mind. Currently I'm working mostly on the planets, Moon and rings / meteors. Soon I will focus on the cities, cargo bay, roads and remainings of the old world to deal with this 3D look which you pointed and to introduce atmospheric perspective to the image. As for "overall impression" - I saw your work and... yeah, you clearly know what you talking about!
Thank you once again.

Regards
Jonatan

[flamer]

Hey @jonatan-moonchild! I also this is one of the strongest piece I've seen so far. I really like the feeling of the snow and the lighting as well. I really like the idea how you made tunnels the side of the craters to get that road across it's such a nice idea.

I'm not so sure maybe I'm missing a point about those buildings outside of the craters. The bunch of the left slightly feel disconnected from the city itself. Are they some sort of abandoned buildings or ruins?

Also I do agree with Korontari, a bit of atmospheric perspective would help a lot. ^^
Also maybe it's just me but I feel those fields of snow outside of the craters bit too flat, like it would have been made out of concrete. Maybe that would help to sell the immersion a lot if you add a bit of snow dunes onto it, so it would blend more in the area around the crater as well and maybe that would also solve the problem what I've mentioned about the buildings on the left side.

To summarize it, I think you made a freaking good work so far with the illustration, everything looks so well made so far apart from those minor issues that I've mentioned. The shape language is pretty good, the lighting is superb! The colors, feeling of the piece and the composition looks awesome too! Keep at it!

[thakis]

Really nice work, as others have said, great composition and lighting. My main problem with your piece is, it still has a very 3D feel to it (in my opinion anyway). I'm not sure if you plan to make it more painterly in some way or not. For example, the buildings or the trees inside the craters are all pretty much the same and feel very 3D-ish if you know what I mean. The snow used to be like that as well, but it's better now I think.

Other than that, I really like your piece, I think it's one of the better ones and I can't wait to see it finished! Good luck mate!

P.S. Boy, oh boy do I struggle with those dark moments you speak of... There's times I hate my pieces so much I just want to delete them all >.< Thankdully, I have learnt the hard way now that all you can ever do is keep pushing forward... Hang in there bro!

[jonatan-moonchild]

Thank you very much @flamer and @thakis for the kind words and for your feedback! Yes you are right - there is still many pieces that I didn't touch too much after rendering them in Blender. To be honest I'd like to do a bit more in 3D - I always thought that split between 2D and 3D is a little bit artificial because 2D softwares and 3D softwares are just a tools and we should always use all the tools available to get the best results. But the rules are the rules and I definitely respect them. Especially that they allow us to use 3D renders as a base for painting, so they are not so much restrictive anyway. I will alter the buildings, trees and so on as much as I can in 2D. As for the buildings outside the craters - the idea is that they are remainings of the old world flooded and frozen as a result of the cataclysm. I agree that plane around the craters is now just a flat plane out of the render. I've made an indication that there is actually water underneath the ice near the tanker. Expanding that indication is on my (long) to do list.

Well... less than a week left, so... I'll better get back to work. Thank you once again. You give me extra motivation to bring this to the "final" stage - despite the fact that there's no such thing as "finished art"

Regards
Jonatan

[thakis]

I guess splitting 2D and 3D like that is an easy way to critique the works. I mean, you can easily pick a 2D piece as having a more painterly look or a distinctly appealing style. In 3D, I think there's less room to do that, so I guess they want to avoid putting overly realistic 3D spaces in the same place as painted or stylized ones, which seems totally logical to me. Plus, more prizes for more people, which is great

As far as the old world leftovers are concerned, I think you should add some visible cues that they are old/abandoned, or at least some snow piling on top of them, to differentiate them from the new ones.

Having so few hours per day to work on it sucks, I can totally relate to that Keep at it and good luck!

[jonatan-moonchild]

This is my final image:

and my Concept Sheet:

Thank you Cubebrush team for this great Challenge, judges for your time and effort and sponsors for the prizes. Big thanks to all competitors! Your feedback helped me alot and watching your progresses was a big motivation for me. Overall it was quite a journey and I must admit that there was a few moments when I was thinking about quitting... I'm so glad that I didn't! Good luck to all of you :).

Best regards
Jonatan

[flamer]

Very well done piece @jonatan-moonchild! It turned out as a really well detailed and well constructed piece! I also like the process of it! Well done! ^^

[korontari]

Very well done! I like the mood and lighting and general idea. It is somewhat too evenly detailed to my taste but you kept the focal point and overall impression is very good!

[jonatan-moonchild]

Thank you very much @flamer and @korontari! Your words are a great reward for all hard work :).

Regards
Jonatan

[volenck]

Great work man Very nicely detailed and a great story to go with it - wish you luck with the contest!