December/January Challenge " Dead of Night"

[DEDDESO]

I know it can be considered somehow rude, but what can I add to my comment?
Trying to draw all those characters would be very complicated, human and horse proportions are something for skilled people, so my suggestion would be "don't put any character".
Jtougas has put external characters in his map because this is his map so if he wants to do it he's obviously free to do it. I can't add anything technical here. I can only say "choose better models"

[DEDDESO]

btw the bed sprites I used in my map for this lite challenge were downloaded from a site (of course there was no shadow over them) <-- oh finally a usefull comment has come up without even wanting it ! XD ok jtougas here's my usefull suggestion:
if you use models, paint on them, give them shadows using black.

[Jaxilon]

I think he means try to modify them so they have more depth. Your campsite is full of atmosphere so he wants your people to match.

[jtougas]

I know it can be considered somehow rude, but what can I add to my comment?
Trying to draw all those characters would be very complicated, human and horse proportions are something for skilled people, so my suggestion would be "don't put any character".
Jtougas has put external characters in his map because this is his map so if he wants to do it he's obviously free to do it. I can't add anything technical here. I can only say "choose better models"

No worries mate, I was just having a crisis of self esteem and sometimes I can be my own worst enemy. I appreciate your feedback

[jtougas]

Arel Latner couldn't quite believe that he was still alive. He had never seen a creature like the Orog before. they didn't exactly roam the streets of Riverhewn after all. He had been awoken from a fitful sleep by a roar from Nenshen. He was if he could admit to himself scared witless. He had seen Nenshen charge off after the beast with sword drawn. Latner knew he couldn't do something like that so he wasn't sure what to do. Beside him his twin brother Cadle was also stunned into inactivity. Arel wondered if he would ever see another sunrise....

After a couple of hours of shadow work. Let me know if they look right I've been standing behind a lamp for most of the day watching my own shadow to get a idea of how it falls (amazing how you take that stuff for granted.. )

###LATEST WIP###
December January Challenge.jpg

[DEDDESO]

nice.
we all know that the 3d isometric campsite is going to win this challenge, but we are still defending our honor

[jtougas]

nice.
we all know that the 3d isometric campsite is going to win this challenge, but we are still defending our honor

Thats a great map thats for sure but it's not so much about winning or losing as it is about having fun in the process.

[Ascension]

Doing shadows is tricky at first but once you understand them the theory of how to do them gets easy but actually doing them is way hard and time-consuming. Realizing that the light goes in a direction and the shadows are cast upon objects you can almost intuitively draw them out. The further the distance between object casting a shadow and object receiving shadow the bigger the shadow. So a shadow from the minotaur thing coming from the fire means that the shadow will be really elongated and bigger on the ground where the head is and less distorted near the feet. You also have to think three dimensionally in that a fire on the ground and a minotaur head up in the air means the head shadow will actually be skyward. Making them realistic is easiest in something like a 3d program unless you have actual people and a fire to stand around and act as models for you. But, for what it's worth, this is pretty nice, man.

[jtougas]

So something like this? or have I completely bogged it up?

###LATEST WIP###
December January Challenge.jpg

[Jaxilon]

And you might want to move the shadow on the sword because unless it's hovering in air the shadow you have for it is too far away. It's shadow would actually be like 2 or 3 inches long and right up tucked against it.

You also need to connect the shadow on the archer to his feet. Should be pretty easy, just paint it in with a low opacity brush. Things don't have to be perfect but if you have the time why not?

It is looking better already.

I don't consider myself an expert at this by any means but when it comes to light I try to put myself into the map as a light beam and travel from my source outward. When I hit things I imagine what would happen and where the shadow would go. The horses for instance are far from the light, so while they might cast some shadow it would be fairly weak because the light isn't very bright where they are. Also, the light is coming from a low source towards them so the shadow would probably be diffused against the forest for the most part. Anyway, "be the light", you know you want to