- Joined
- Nov 6, 2008
- Messages
- 8,316
Sin’dorei300
4/10
I find the coherency to the reference picture to be rather lacking in this terrain, not only is the camera angle different in the terrain as opposed to the reference picture, but it doesn’t seem like there’s been put much effort into making it look similar at all. Completely flat tiles do never look good, not even when you gradually elevate them at random intervals. Now, you could pull the “but this is city tiles, their supposed to be flat.” And yes, when people build cities they do indeed make the tiles as flat as they can, but COMPLETELY flat is something even today’s builders actually struggle with achieving, that and “realism doesn’t always equal good.” It simply doesn’t look good, there should be some uneven-ties and slopey-ness.
While the structures you’ve chosen are probably the best choice you could’ve made for mimicking such a terrain, I find the execution of using these models poor. I’d have set the “time of day” to night, tinted the structures darker and used flare and glow models to make the windows come alive and I would probably have had the left row of houses facing the camera a tiny bit more than they currently do. Fog – There is none, and the “substitute” weather effect doesn’t look good at all, I recommend you go read a tutorial or get someone else to thoroughly teach you how to use fog, and understand it’s advantages, before you ever do another terrain. All in all, there’s a lot to improve on here, better doodad placements, better lighting, better doodad choosing, better fog execution...
Also... Units? UNITS? NEVER USE UNITS IN A TERRAIN.
Bernkastel
5.5/10
First off the bet, I’d like to critique Pharao_ here for two moments, you should’ve never allowed the use of a “video” as reference, it’s hard for me to judge the reference coherency of something as different from a terrain as a “video,” especially when it’s some damned anime where they blow up London... >.>
Anyways, moving forward...
I can admit that I’ve seen enough of the video link/thing to see that there is some form of remote reference between the... And the terrain. Now what the terrain is concerned, I can honestly say that I mostly find it a clusterfuck of too stretched textures and explosions. Now, if I were to disregard the “big ben” part of the terrain entirely and only focus on the ship to the right and the atmosphere, I’d likely have given you a much better score than I now do, for I do commend you for the ship and the sky, they do both look good. But there’s just too many eye-scraping things going on with that left part, especially what the explosions is concerned.
One doesn’t simply blow up Big Ben.
Elredir
8/10
Obviously, the reference picture looks way more epic than the terrain. Mostly because of its details and staggering camera angle, I’m not going to hold any of those against you however, considering both the details and camera angle of that reference picture would be a total bitch to pull off in the world editor. I must admit to always having liked your style, elredir, and this terrain is no exception. You have a good way of capturing specific emotions within your terrains by the use of doodad tinting, nice fog use and clever lighting and atmosphere. There is, however, some few things I still would like to address with this terrain, which also goes for most of your terrains in total. You seem to me to poorly chose some of your doodads, such as those rock models you seem to be so fond of using in all your terrains, those ones from XGM. Granted, at far enough a distance, or by using clever blending techniques, these rocks may not look entirely horrible, but you seem to not be doing either. They do, much like that tree model you’ve used on the left-hand foreground, have horrible textures.
For the rocks, I would recommend you use felsen or steinlord rocks in your future terrains, while both probably takes some getting used to, you’ll find they are just as versatile and easy to use as any rock model and in the end they will simply look better. For that tree, I would’ve suggested you’d used a collaboration of the “Deathwoods” trees from the UTM instead of the one your currently using, that is, if I’m naming the right doodads <.< Won’t say I’m too fond of the roots of the tree either, probably texture problem there, too.
Personally, I’d say the camera angle is a tad too close to the foreground as well, you really do get to see that horrible tile-texture, and really.. Don’t be fooled, EVERY tile looks horrible when zoomed close enough
Other than that, there’s not much I would like to point out in terms of what I dislike. I love the castle, I love the lighting and I love the atmosphere, bravo.
DSgamer
3/10
I find it funny how you chose a reference picture that can actually be done BETTER than the original using the world editor, sadly though, that’s not the case here.
The coherency of the reference picture and the terrain is... Well, not at all good considering you should have been entirely able to COMPLETELY nail that. Then again, I can see the similarities...
For one, the atmosphere is FAR too bright compared to the reference picture, “time of day” set to night and tinted doodads would go a long way to improve that, then throw a little dark fog into the mix and you’d have a much better terrain right there. Now, as with sin’dorei300 I won’t start explaining you how to properly execute good fog effects in your terrain, and if you don’t have one slick of an idea of what it is that I’m talking about here, go read up on some tutorials or something of the likes if you want to become a better terrainer in that regard. The camera angle, as with elredir’s terrain, I find being too close to the foreground, TILES NEVER LOOK GOOD CLOSE UP, why can’t people get that? Anyways, stretched textures, unvaried doodad placements, especially what nature effects is concerned, little to no creativity and poor execution.
4/10
I find the coherency to the reference picture to be rather lacking in this terrain, not only is the camera angle different in the terrain as opposed to the reference picture, but it doesn’t seem like there’s been put much effort into making it look similar at all. Completely flat tiles do never look good, not even when you gradually elevate them at random intervals. Now, you could pull the “but this is city tiles, their supposed to be flat.” And yes, when people build cities they do indeed make the tiles as flat as they can, but COMPLETELY flat is something even today’s builders actually struggle with achieving, that and “realism doesn’t always equal good.” It simply doesn’t look good, there should be some uneven-ties and slopey-ness.
While the structures you’ve chosen are probably the best choice you could’ve made for mimicking such a terrain, I find the execution of using these models poor. I’d have set the “time of day” to night, tinted the structures darker and used flare and glow models to make the windows come alive and I would probably have had the left row of houses facing the camera a tiny bit more than they currently do. Fog – There is none, and the “substitute” weather effect doesn’t look good at all, I recommend you go read a tutorial or get someone else to thoroughly teach you how to use fog, and understand it’s advantages, before you ever do another terrain. All in all, there’s a lot to improve on here, better doodad placements, better lighting, better doodad choosing, better fog execution...
Also... Units? UNITS? NEVER USE UNITS IN A TERRAIN.
Bernkastel
5.5/10
First off the bet, I’d like to critique Pharao_ here for two moments, you should’ve never allowed the use of a “video” as reference, it’s hard for me to judge the reference coherency of something as different from a terrain as a “video,” especially when it’s some damned anime where they blow up London... >.>
Anyways, moving forward...
I can admit that I’ve seen enough of the video link/thing to see that there is some form of remote reference between the... And the terrain. Now what the terrain is concerned, I can honestly say that I mostly find it a clusterfuck of too stretched textures and explosions. Now, if I were to disregard the “big ben” part of the terrain entirely and only focus on the ship to the right and the atmosphere, I’d likely have given you a much better score than I now do, for I do commend you for the ship and the sky, they do both look good. But there’s just too many eye-scraping things going on with that left part, especially what the explosions is concerned.
One doesn’t simply blow up Big Ben.
Elredir
8/10
Obviously, the reference picture looks way more epic than the terrain. Mostly because of its details and staggering camera angle, I’m not going to hold any of those against you however, considering both the details and camera angle of that reference picture would be a total bitch to pull off in the world editor. I must admit to always having liked your style, elredir, and this terrain is no exception. You have a good way of capturing specific emotions within your terrains by the use of doodad tinting, nice fog use and clever lighting and atmosphere. There is, however, some few things I still would like to address with this terrain, which also goes for most of your terrains in total. You seem to me to poorly chose some of your doodads, such as those rock models you seem to be so fond of using in all your terrains, those ones from XGM. Granted, at far enough a distance, or by using clever blending techniques, these rocks may not look entirely horrible, but you seem to not be doing either. They do, much like that tree model you’ve used on the left-hand foreground, have horrible textures.
For the rocks, I would recommend you use felsen or steinlord rocks in your future terrains, while both probably takes some getting used to, you’ll find they are just as versatile and easy to use as any rock model and in the end they will simply look better. For that tree, I would’ve suggested you’d used a collaboration of the “Deathwoods” trees from the UTM instead of the one your currently using, that is, if I’m naming the right doodads <.< Won’t say I’m too fond of the roots of the tree either, probably texture problem there, too.
Personally, I’d say the camera angle is a tad too close to the foreground as well, you really do get to see that horrible tile-texture, and really.. Don’t be fooled, EVERY tile looks horrible when zoomed close enough
Other than that, there’s not much I would like to point out in terms of what I dislike. I love the castle, I love the lighting and I love the atmosphere, bravo.
DSgamer
3/10
I find it funny how you chose a reference picture that can actually be done BETTER than the original using the world editor, sadly though, that’s not the case here.
The coherency of the reference picture and the terrain is... Well, not at all good considering you should have been entirely able to COMPLETELY nail that. Then again, I can see the similarities...
For one, the atmosphere is FAR too bright compared to the reference picture, “time of day” set to night and tinted doodads would go a long way to improve that, then throw a little dark fog into the mix and you’d have a much better terrain right there. Now, as with sin’dorei300 I won’t start explaining you how to properly execute good fog effects in your terrain, and if you don’t have one slick of an idea of what it is that I’m talking about here, go read up on some tutorials or something of the likes if you want to become a better terrainer in that regard. The camera angle, as with elredir’s terrain, I find being too close to the foreground, TILES NEVER LOOK GOOD CLOSE UP, why can’t people get that? Anyways, stretched textures, unvaried doodad placements, especially what nature effects is concerned, little to no creativity and poor execution.
The result can be found in here.
elredil receives 25 reputation,
Sin'dorei300, Bernkastel, DSgamer receive 5 reputation,
Keiji also receives 5 reputation.
Thank you everyone for participating!
