Rate the terrainer above you!

[ghenjis]

I figured this would be fun and help some terrainers get tips for improvement.

A person should reply to the post right before them and comment on a specific piece, or terrain in general of the person above them. The commenter would then post a link to some of their terrain pieces so that the next person could review their's and so on, and so forth.
Be sure to include:
-Constructive criticism
-Advice, tips for improvement
-Pros, Cons
-Things you like about their terrain
-What about it is unique and stands out
-Your personal favorite part of their piece/s
-A link to your own work for the next commenter to comment on

What shouldn't be included:
-Flames
-Insults
-A number rating, terrains shouldn't be judged by a number in the viewers opinion, this post is about giving advice and helping others improve, not judging.
-Braggery, we don't want to hear "my terrain is teh best u r teh sux0rz l2terrains" we're not going to hobble and consecrate at you feet.

Go!
A link to a lot of my terrains is in my signature.

 

[~Void~]

Constructive criticism:
I don't like the doodads you use for the environment. The hills are a bit off, either too smooth or too pointy, they just don't look right. The way you use your tiles and the tiles you use are a bit... odd (not good). Also, the scaling on a lot of your trees are waaay too big (like in the first few shots) or waaay to small.

Advice, tips for improvement:
Work on the environmental stuff. I hate to boast and point to myself, but I can't really give you any good examples of awesome environmental doodad/tile use other than my own work.

Pros, Cons:
Pros are you are great with buildings and making structures out of doodads. Not like making buildings out of 1000 arches, but like just the simple stuff like those log cabins and the tree villages are something I could never do.
Cons are that your environment is slightly lacking and the atmosphere is also not too great on most of your screenshots.

Things you like about their terrain:
FFS these questions are all the same! I like the buildings!

What about it is unique and stands out
Your use of trees to create structures, and to use scaling on buildings to make them just perfect (like the fort/walled town screenshot, and the third tree-village one, which stands out, because it would be one of the best I have ever seen if it weren't for the poor use of lighting and lack of foreground.)

Your personal favorite part of their piece/s:
The third tree-village one.

A link to your own work for the next commenter to comment on:
Search in the terrain forum for topics posted by me. Since I have no up-to-date gallery, I cannot post a single or even a few links.

 

[DungeonM]

Things I Like
You know your way around the editor, good use of doodads, options, tile variation, tilesets, ect.
Most of your terrains are really unique or presented in a professional fashion.
You make good use of your camera angles or have a focus present.
You know how to take a concept and work with it, some people don't understand this at all, being able to understand/work with a concept is something that is not only useful in Terraining but can be transfered to just about anything else in life.

CC
Don't like the texture stretching that shows up in a few of your terrains like the recent Mountain Path. I do the same thing but there has to be a more sensible way to create a cliff that will add a little more realism to the picture.
Some of your terrains are little oversimplified but I don't think that's really a problem as I believe that you intended it to be that way.

Advice
Maybe give a few of the newbies a little more slack around here.
Only thing I can add for terraining is to keep at it, you know what you're doing, as you work on it more you'll only find yourself getting better.


My gallery can be reached here...
http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/showthread.php?t=45116

 

[~Void~]

I'm going to do another one, but don't comment on me again, I just want to say a few words about DungeonM.

Your imagination is crazy and awesome and although some of your terrains don't come out really right, be it bleakness overuse of doodads or just unprofessional/unrealistic (bad use of foregrounds/backgrounds or fog etc.) you set the scene really well. I can come up with a story for almost every single terrain you have.

But one random question -- Why is it called Dung Beetle's gallery instead of DungeonM's gallery?

Edit: Also, I agree about being too harsh on newbies. But I often see what I advise being done, and it really helps a lot of the newer terrainers create some awesome stuff (or maybe it's just them... lol)

 

[DungeonM]

But one random question -- Why is it called Dung Beetle's gallery instead of DungeonM's gallery?

When I used to play Warcraft 3 on B.Net alot all my friends would call me "Dung" or "Dung Beetle" as a short for "Dung"eonM. I find the name entertaining.

 

[Gilles]

DungeonM:

Pros - You definitely have improved over time. From the start of your gallery you steadily improve! Props for that.

Advice - Use more background. Void is getting really good at it. You, like me, make your terrains end abruptly. They need mountains or something in the background. Even using fog to fade away doesn't perfectly work. If you were to trow something in the background you would faintly see it through the fog and I think it would improve your terrains a lot.

Terrain gallery is in signature.

 

[demonsofdante]

Gilles:
Pros
You def have a knack for terraining and you have a nice variety of environments. Almost all of the elements of your terrains go well together and compliment each other nicely.

Cons:
You dont have a lot of variety in camera angles or perspective which make your terrains quiet repetitive no matter what environment it is.
Your biggest problem is making realistic cliffs and you spam a lot of rocks to do it.
You dont use a lot of height variation and the lack of noticeable fog makes this even more obvious.
In a lot of your terrains are extremely detailed in the background but not the foreground, and vice versa. It helps to balance this out to make it seem more realistic and have a better transition from the front of the picture to the back.


My Terrains

 

[TheSandWraith]

demonsofdante:
Pros: Love your indoor terrain, very, very good with those. They all also use a wide variety of doodads and interesting objects which I like. Another thing that is cool is the many different fogs that you used, they look cool. And finally, the way you used certain doodads to be used completely different (such as the aquarium, which was sooooo cool).

Cons: Mostly I liked it all, except your outdoor terrains. The elf-forest one is good but most of your outdoor ones seem like the plant-life was randomly placed all over the place. It needs a more natural look to it. Nature does grow randomly but not too randomly. Try making it looking natural without going overboard, if that makes any sense.
Overall they all looked spectacular, keep it up man!

Old Terrain
New Terrain - Look for it at the bottom of the first post.

 

[The_wand_mirror]

Pros: Your war3 styled terrain is good, i like the ashenvale thingy and how you make it to be a good terrain and get a screenshot out of that with almost only War3 doodads. Your new terrain looks rloy cool. The second one of the newest thingies link is awesome =D

Cons: You may use the smoothen tool more?, and try to make more things visible when taking a screenshot. Make more visible for people to look at. Also it seems you need to raise the fading level of the fog effects.

CC: And further than that.. i dont know you that well. So we will see what you become, i think you become rly good =p

 

[UchihaSasuke.gr]

The_Wand_Mirror

Pros:He is creative and has very ncie ideas...

Cons:...but poorly done.He should have put more effort!