FINAL | WORLDS | 2D | Egypt 2.0 | adam_roush

[adam_roush]

Adam Roush
adamroush1@gmail.com
adamroush-art.daportfolio.com
https://adamroush.artstation.com/
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Here's my entry, a sci-fi Egyptian city, where people have built extravagant new structures inspired by the ancient architecture.

[hebronppg]

Really nice result man... btw nice to meet you
I know in this phrase you still figuring out your idea, shape and also point of interest. However, your pharaoh statue at the right side seems not match with overall images. Perhaps, if you remove it or repeat the statue inside the city (with a different angle absolutely), it would be great.

Btw, it just my opinion, and i also guess you have other reasons why he there.

[adam_roush]

hebronppg: Thanks for the critique. I'm planning on having more artifacts throughout, so that the pharaoh statue doesn't look so out of place. I was thinking about having some tech-y stuff on that statue, so it seems like the new society altered the old structures when building their city.

Making some progress. Added in some lighting on the rhombuses and a few of the buildings, lighting effects near the sun, brightened the river and added some shadows to it, and a whole bunch of other things I can't remember. I'm planning on adding some blue tech lights and holograms to the rhombus structures, to balance the colors a bit more, plus add more interesting shapes to their shadow side. I know the bottom left needs more work yet, plus I need more ancient structures to go with it.

Does it make sense, the river to be brighter the closer it is to the sun? Also, the foreground structure, on the right, has an edge light: does that make sense, or would the light be obscured by the structure?

[hebronppg]

Really nice progress Adam..
Personally, adding blue light on your rhombus structures will become a good choice. It will make a color repetition between the blue lamp on your below city and your rhombus. However, adding too bright blue color, in particular on the big left rhombus, it would lead the viewer eyes to that blue lights, and maybe it will ruin your focal point. So, my suggestion just give a low saturate blue color, similar like the blue color in your below building. Adding blue lights also help viewer to understand what kind of your rhombuses.

The river also has enough light right now, it doesn't need to add brighter color, but it will become your decision later in the middle of your progress. Perhaps add reflection and some little scale of ships, it would improve your result

Thank you

[adam_roush]

I'm overdue for my weekly update, so here it is! I added reflected light to all the buildings, gave the floating structures more detail and hieroglyph holograms, put in more depth, and finally addressed the missing buildings in that bottom left corner. It was kind of fun weaving the highway and city together. Based on some critique, I took out the pharaoh statue, though that spot feels a little empty now. (Unless giving your eye a break in that spot is a good idea.)

I feel like this is close to being done, though I know there's a ton of little things that need addressed yet, like adding blue reflected light to the backs of the buildings, big shadows, those cuts in the ground, more fog/ exhaust, maybe more holograms, and the requisite lens flares (/sarcasm). I was also thinking about adding boats, or spacecraft, or something to give off that living city sense.

[volenck]

Wow... that blue really brings some energy to the piece, very good choice.

[adam_roush]

It's been a couple weeks, so here's my progress. Lots of updates to the lighting, depth, and color balancing. Just added some lighting vfx to pop the sun and the center double-pyramid structure. I also threw in some spaceships to liven up the space and point your eye leftward.

Now the question is: is what i have too much? I have a tendency to overdue lighting effects, b/c it's so fun, but I'm not sure if I overdid the lens flares? The spaceships have lens flares in the engine area, that I have turned off in this image. Sure, they look great, but I don't want you to focus on them. Are the engines, as is, too distracting? I'm hoping the blur I added to them, plus the stronger lighting on the sun, will keep your eye from focusing on them.

[adam_roush]

I got a ton of good critique over the weekend that confirmed that my piece was just too much. Too much blown-out lighting, too many focal points, just too much of everything. Personally, I still like the previous version, though it's not realistic.

This new version diffuses a lot of the light/ city in the foreground, and focuses your attention towards the sun and the background pyramids. There's more atmospheric depth, less intense colors, etc.

I feel like this piece got ruined. For a while I felt really good about it, it was looking great, but this new version is just kinda boring. All the fog and atmospheric stuff just kills the energy, the details, etc. I've spent way, way too much time on this one and now it just feels kind of blah.

[hebronppg]

Hello Adam, long time not to visit your thread
It seems great now, I mean far better then the first one i came here. I liked your way adding fog to add depth here. The ships also guided viewer eyes to your focal point. Nice solution I guessed. I also liked your way to reduce the saturation level some of your blue decals. However, i am sorry, the blue decals still blur your point of interest. Your focal point can be anywhere around the blue decals. Perhaps, it because my eyes jump from one blue decal to other blue decals. Reduce some of them will improve the quality of your image I guess.

Finally, reducing/ erasing some of the blue decals parts need to be practiced. I can't predict it further without trial and error.

Keep it up man.
I think we participants still have enough time before October 17th

best regards
Hebron Ppg

[adam_roush]

@hebronppg : Hey, thanks for the critique. I agree that the blue holographic elements were a little too saturated and bright, and thus distracting, but I like them too much to completely get rid of them. With them off, the scene looks empty to me. The revised image above is me trying to balance what looks good and what I want it to be. (BTW, your piece looks amazing!)

I've been watching some Feng Zhu videos about scene design and direction, etc, and made a bunch of changes that hopefully direct your attention more towards the sun.

• First, I ditched the foreground spaceship, whose bright exhaust just wasn't working.
• I also switched directions of the 2 middle ground ships to the other side, so that they're pointing towards the focal point.
• I greatly desaturated the entire image, and lowered the opacity of the holographics.
• The city below felt too dark and nearly dead, so I re-added in some subtle street light and window lights.
• There's also more depth in play to give the city more scale.
• Finally, I made subtle tweaks to the overall color and brightness.

I hope these alterations make this a better piece.

[hebronppg]

Thank you @adam_roush for your compliment. I am glad to hear that.
Btw, after you have reduced the saturation level of your blue holograms, your focal point seems clear now. Finally, I like your last progress now. Cant wait to see your next progress or maybe your final result.

Keep it up

[adam_roush]

RELOCATED POST FROM AUG 29.

Hi,

I've been working on my piece for a few weeks so far, and I think I'm finally at a point where I like the direction it's going. I'm doing a sci-fi Egyptian city, where people have built extravagant new structures inspired by the ancient architecture.

Here's where I'm currently at:

I'm still not very far yet. Some of this is a little sketchy, or experimental, and I'm still working out values, lighting, details, etc. I'm going to add more buildings and details to the floating rhombuses and add in more Egyptian structures. Like I said, very much a work in progress still.

Here's my work up til now.

From the simple sketch #1, to laying in simple structures and organizing the terrain in #2. I flipped the composition as it made more sense by wip #3. I thought just having tall buildings felt a little bland and flat, so I swapped them for those floating rhombuses, modeled in Blender.

I'm very interested in hearing critiques, if you have opinions or advice. Thanks!