Rainy Tropical Island

[HunterWolf]

This terrain is a tropical island with mysterious fog and rain. I made it so I could learn to be a better terrainer through criticism and suggestions of The Hive Public. I'm also going to be making a map soon so I'm learning how to use the sunken ruins tileset a bit more.

OK here are the updated (and possibly final) versions!!!:
The Reef behind the island...

A Sacrificial Altar constructed by possible natives...

The "Tri-Waterfall" and the freshwater pond in the middle of the island surrounded by lush enviroment...

A view of the island from an explorer's perspective...


Things I updated:
-Made the island larger (again).
-Centered the greenery and trees towards the middle and on the mountain/plateau.
-Put the shells, crabs, and hermit crabs on the beach.
-Made the beach merge with the water smoother.
-Used custom trees instead of the cursed blizzard trees. (along with a couple more custom doodads I liked.)
-Put some sand dunes on the beach to make it not seem so flat.
-Made three GOOD looking waterfalls instead of one lousy looking one.
-Put a reef/backdrop in the rear of the island, and in the process made the plateau larger.
-Made the sacrificial altar ruins on top of the plateau.
-Put some fog in to give it more of a mysterious/rainy look.
-Might have done other things but I guess they're too minor because I can't recall all of them.

This is probably the last time I'm editing this terrain, cause I personally think it looks pretty good... but mostly because I'm bored with sunken ruins terrain for now and feel like moving on to something else... I'm still welcoming criticism and suggestions though!!!

 

[Darkey]

Bluntly put: it looks weird.

 

[HunterWolf]

Uhhh, expand on 'weird' please. lol

 

[Darkey]

Too many shrubs for my taste.

 

[HunterWolf]

Couldn't think of anything else to put there... it's actually more of a little oasis than an island... Anyways the shrubs make it look more "filled" instead of a big piece of sand in the middle of the ocean. I'll try to use something else next time though.

 

[mushi]

The things that do make it a bit weird are really just a matter of the colors working against each other. The sky and that one piece of coral in the center are kind of doing their own thing.

Other than that, there’s not much to say. Bad angle for a screen shot. The horizon line is unrealistic.

Oh, and just so you can keep this in mind on your next project. Ruins should show the remains of a structure. You kind of have these 3 pieces of debris in random locations. They don’t reveal anything about what used to be there. They're just sort of...there.

Anyway, good luck- keep at it.

 

[Darkey]

The things that do make it a bit weird are really just a matter of the colors working against each other. The sky and that one piece of coral in the center are kind of doing their own thing.

Other than that, there’s not much to say. Bad angle for a screen shot. The horizon line is unrealistic.

Oh, and just so you can keep this in mind on your next project. Ruins should show the remains of a structure. You kind of have these 3 pieces of debris in random locations. They don’t reveal anything about what used to be there. They're just sort of...there.

Anyway, good luck- keep at it.

I agree on all those points actually. Shrubs on such a small island doesn't really make it realistic since I assume that's salt water.

Put some critters there. A vulture or a crab. And some more shells. Less trees I suppose.

 

[HunterWolf]

I updated the project, (look at first post).

 

[Darkey]

It's better. But I don't like the ruin part. I just don't like the green ruin tile. And I think those trees are a little too random put. Put them where the shrubs are instead of randomly in the sand. And also maybe a little overuse of shells in the middle of the island, put them on the beach.

 

[ragingspeedhorn]

Atm. it looks sort of poor. Not much tile variation, same kind of doodads are spammed in a few areas, beach should be going smoother into the water and the ruins area does not look good, the tiles used there are just a small square area, it does not look like it fits. Best thing about this is the little pond in the middle which I think you have shaped quite well, besides from that I am sorry but I don't have much positive to say about this.

This is not meant as a hostile reply, just stating what I see and hope that you learn from it and improve on your next terrain piece.

 

[mushi]

Another thing no one has mentioned yet is that the spacing for the grassy/shrub areas is a bit awkward. Keep a sandy beach area, while making the middle (around the waterfall) nice and fertile.

If you want an element of mystery, think of how the movies do it. They keep the center of the island hidden with thick vegetation, implying something is hiding within it all.

I know your being bombarded with advice, but I can see your getting better already.

Try to bring out the waterfall. Add rocks and look at some other waterfall examples, Darth muppet just posted a screen shot in this board that’s not bad.

Darkey had a valid point about putting the shells on the beach.

And see if you cant find a few examples of ruins in maps. Don’t get discouraged and lose the ruins altogether. Keep practicing. Godspeed

 

[HunterWolf]

I know your being bombarded with advice, but I can see your getting better already.

No no I love advice/criticism. I mean I don't care for it when people just say "it sucks" but when they add to "it sucks" then I know what to work on and how to work WITH that certain tileset (or something totally different depending on the type of project I'm doing). Keep the advice coming... I haven't updated it again yet cause I've been busy, but maybe tomorrow or later tonight.

 

[demonsofdante]

Hmmm... For some reason islands with a single waterfall/pond in the middle seem to be a popular choice for new terrainers

One of the things you have to realize is that the vegetation would spread out from the pond, not dot the island itself. Also, the waterfall isnt really coming out of anything other than the ground and it looks really odd. Try not to use a single elevation of terrain either for a large portion of the landscape. It is usually very unnatural, especially when surrounded by virtually flat ground. Also, usually anyplace a tree is growing out of the ground, there will be other vegetation around the tree.

And the ground rarely ends as soon as it enters the water as it does on your island. Usually it carries on gardually for a bit before dropping down, unless the water is hitting a cliff.

And add some terrain fog to give the picture some atmosphere (It is in the Map Options panel in case you didnt know). Possibly rry a light blue and set the Z start to something low like betwween 0 and 2000 to get the right fog settings. Just play around with it for a bit until you find something you like.


And of course sunken ruins trees have got to be one of blizzards worst doodads. Definetly give the Ultimate Terraining Map a look at for much better environmental models, such as palm trees and more natural shrubs/grasses.

 

[HunterWolf]

Thank you for directing me to the Ultimate Terraining Map again... I had forgotten about it .

 

[Xzife_TD01]

It's a little...naked, if you know what I mean, almost all the terrain screenies iv seen (keeping in mind that this is from more advanced terrainers) have their screenshots close up. Maybe try taking a shot from just above the lake, or on top of the hill looking downward. When I first started terraining, (im far from pro, but this helped me) i found it helpful to look at the terrain from the angle im gonna take my screenie, and (depending on the angle between the angle of the camera and the plane of the ground) sometimes do my terraining from that angle. So my advice is: Don't try to terrain such a wide area of the map, do a small part of the island and take your screen close up.

 

[HunterWolf]

OK I updated this terrain again! Anyone who has already or hasn't even looked at this terrain I'd appreciate some more comments, suggestions, criticism, ETC!!!

 

[Darkey]

It really looks alot better now. But I don't like the way you heightened the tiles at Picture 2. And regarding Picture 3 try lowering the rocks a little so it doesn't look like they're floating. Also picture 4 has a really weird dug-out sand bunk at the lower right corner.

+Rep, I like your improvement.

 

[HunterWolf]

Funny that you mentioned the tiling cause I saw it after I posted, as for the rocks, I was kinda thinking that too but it looked good to me anyhow so I just said screw it. The dug-out in the fourth one... I see what you mean but I thinking that's probably just a tileset distortion... Anyways thank you for the kind words I like terraining now. (The more I think about it I think I'm just gonna let this project stay as is. As I said I'm kinda bored with the tileset for now and I think it looks 'good enough' for now, I might change it some time in the future, but not anytime soon).

 

[Mabus]

terrain on right on last pic (beach) is too bumpy, in real life you shouldent be able to cut yourself on the ground, make use of that soften tool, and a real beach isnt so bumpy, look at real pictures to see what to aim for, gl and gj