December/January Challenge " Dead of Night"

[Jaxilon]

It's looking great. If you have it on it's own layer, you might play with lightening up the darkness just a bit so you can show off some of those trees you have out there. It's almost pitch black out there right now It's sort of a toss up of you going for realism or usefulness. I'm thinking that since you have those nice trees out there it wouldn't hurt to show them off. Depends on how it looks and you have to make the call.

[jtougas]

Rog Nenshen swung his sword with his last bit of strength. The blade connected with the Orog's thick neck biting deep and drawing forth a river of blood. The Orog bellowed and fell dead. It's Orc handler seeing his protection dead at it's feet made a quick retreat and Nenshen was glad to let it do so. He surveyed the scene. Arel Latner lay curled into a ball muttering something in a sing song voice. Cadle his twin lay moaning on his back his cheat heaving and obviously in pain. Nenshen himself had not escaped injury a large gash on his forearm leaked blood onto the forest floor. Dropping his sword he clutched his wounded arm and offered a silent thanks to whichever God might be listening that they had survived this encounter but only just......

Following Jax's advice I redid the trees and added some more of my newly learned shadow technique. Feedback is requested and appreciated. Thanks !!

###LATEST WIP###

[Jaxilon]

That looks better and lets the viewer know they are in a forest. You still have a couple things you might want to address:

1. The center sword is floating because it's shadow is a foot behind it.
2. You have bright firelight behind a couple of the tents that has no way of getting there. Probably need to shadow it about 50% as there would be some light reflected off the other tents but go with what looks best.
3. There is a band across the bottom edge of your image that is missing some shadow. This happens to me at times and I'm not sure if it's an oddity of Gimp or something I'm doing. The shrink function has a stupid "shrink from edge" opt-in that screws me on this if I'm not careful.

Fix those up and I think you are ready for the presses.

[jtougas]

Thanks Jax for taking the time to look closely at this and tell me where I've missed something Sometimes I get staring at these things for so long I just flat out miss stuff. Here it is with your suggestions.

###LATEST WIP###

[Jaxilon]

I know what you mean I do that all the time. Sometimes I figure, 'ah, nobody is going to look at that' and then someone does and I have to kick myself for slacking.

That looks much better. The only thing I can say now is if you want to go more nuts start adding some highlight lighting on stuff. For instance, the two guys laying on the ground sitting up could have some firelight on their faces and chests, maybe the front of the knee, the tent cloth that is tight against a rope cord and that sort of thing. It's the small crap like that which will start really popping the image into life. So, if you have the desire and the time why not? Just make another shadow layer with the 808080 and work on highlights. See if you like what you get. It's going to be tedious though, I warn you now.

[moutarde]

This is really looking great JT If you havn't already done it, go back and look at some of your first WIP posts, the improvement is incredible

[jtougas]

This is really looking great JT If you havn't already done it, go back and look at some of your first WIP posts, the improvement is incredible

Thank you very much!! I couldn't have done it without all the help

[jtougas]

Leave it to me to have 5 pages of WIP.. Ok here is my first attempt at some highlights I think they are OK but I need some feedback to see if I'm on the right track. Again let me say thank you to everyone that has taken time out of their own projects to help me on this

###LATEST WIP###

[Jaxilon]

Dang, is something wrong with my browser or do you have a big-ol-honkin CC License in your sig? You know, they say, "bigger isn't better", right? I'm not sure I believe it though.

I think you might be using too big a brush for these highlights. They should be pretty small, almost like the shine you might see along a sharp corner. Unless of course, the whole surface is reflective. Take the horses in the back for instance. Technically the side of their bodies that is away from the fire should be shadowed when compared to the side facing the fire. Also, technically, the 2nd horse, unless it's much higher than the closer one would be in the shadow of the first. (hopefully that made sense).

The sword on the ground is glowing now and I'm not sure that's what you want. Maybe a tiny sliver of white near the tip closest to the fire and that's about it.

Remember too, we are getting into the tiniest of details so this isn't going to break your picture or anything. If it doesn't make it better than just toss it out. I'll keep my eye open for some examples of what I'm talking about if I see any tonight.

[jtougas]

Whoops all this map making and I can't even resize a sig pic. I see what you mean about the highlights I was actually outside a while ago taking pictures of how the sun highlighted things in the yard I think I have a better idea of it now...