Terraining Mini-Contests: Beyond the Pixels

[Pharaoh_]

Results

Judging by Bernkastel

Sin'dorei300

Creativity: 10/15
Detail: 8/15
Technique: 8/15
Aesthetic: 9/15

35

The idea of performing a ritual of some sort on a rooftop is a quite interesting conclusion and stands out from the other entries in its own way.
Yet, the occasion could've been improved with a more worthy sacrifice than a fancy farm animal.


View from the rooftop is nicely executed, but there are things that bug me off, such as the clock tower's lower part,
I am not sure if it's part of the building that's below it or not and it seems rather out of place,
and then as for the other rooftops, they're completely empty compared to the one that the character is standing on which is quite strange.

But there's something I'd strongly suggest you to work on, the sizes of objects. Everything near the character is big,
which ofcourse is understandable,
however when you take a look to the right and see the elevator, that is clearly only a small distance away it gives us have a gigantic chicken, candles, laptop and some very big cigarettes.

Also the angle where the character is in, is clearly too close to the ground unless your character either has very short legs and is on his knees, or is a rabid midget with a habit of sacrificing giant chickens during full moon.
The sizes are not doing this only up close, but also the antenna in the distance is very.. And I mean very big. The lights are also quite strange. Even though the streets infront of the first buildings are lit, there's no light in any other place in the city.


However, I appreciate the fact that you chose not to make everything on the classic ground, but instead went with a more unique idea.
I will now nag about the sky, if instead of an ingame sky you would've created your own, maybe getting few reference terrains from here and there,
That way you would've created a more unique look for your terrain and the sky wouldn't be so drastically clashing with the buildings and the moon would fit in better.


Your overall execution of the terrain is good. But I'd ask you to pay more attention to object sizes and details overall in your future terrains.

Fight on~!

eubz

Creativity: 8/15
Detail: 7/15
Technique: 9/15
Aesthetic: 9/15

33

This terrain is rather much what I expected to see in this contest. The character closing in to backstab somebody. Original, yet a fitting conceit for the contest.


The direction of approach and height of camera were well executed in your work. However the scene is quite surrounded by all the cargo containers,
if instead of placing the containers there you would've left the right side of the screen uncovered, you could've added several details there,
buildings and perhaps cliffs and such, also leaving the sky open giving you the ability to boost the look of your work.

You've left the area behind the golem quite an unfinished look and the ground tile could've been different, as this one looks unfitting and strange for a place like this,
also you could've thought of using different shrubs instead of the blizzard ones that are very green and healthy looking.

It's quite a pity that you never changed the doodads near the staircase, as from this angle all that you've placed in the middle give a feeling that you hadn't thought of what you're doing.
Perhaps if I hadn't seen your wips, I couldn't figure out what it's supposed to be.
And as I am not a very big fan of using unit models in a terrain, I really prefer creating them from doodads when I use them.


You caught the element of approaching the target well, and that's what I like . But the dense fog and bad lighting doesn't give this piece the right atmosphere, it being surrounded with doodads,
with a few gaps here and there showing nothing but fog s quite dull.


I like the idea that you had for this one, still there are many ways that you could've improved it. I'd suggest you to look into these flaws that I mentioned and try to improve your future work.


I'll be looking forward to it~!

Kari0003

Creativity: 10/15
Detail: 8/15
Technique: 9/15
Aesthetic: 9/15

36

The moment I saw this, it reminded me of Red Dead Redemption, perhaps because of the zombies and the terrain of the area. The way you went for this is pretty good.


The angle makes it look like if you were behind the brush observing the situation, making you intrigued of what are the characters intentions. You've done a nice environmental detail with creating a cliff with trees on it.
But you've left a very open space next to it, without any details at all, giving it an unfinished appereance like if something was missing.
Also the ground is not very detailed which could be improved with tile variation and such which is highly suggested, as in a terrain like this, the ground does have quite a role.

I'm amused that you took your chances and decided to make the sky by yourself, but there are some suggestions I have for you to improve the skies of your future terrains.
Make the sky doodad bigger or move it further so it will not be infront of the other objcets that you have placed. Then I must note you about the cloud that's inside the tree, it has a strange light on it,
hard to say if it's intentional or not, but it's very odd. Yet, I do appreciate the attempt.


The sky itself is rather dull and lacks a lightsource. Having one would have an improving effect on the whole terrain, granting a more unique look.
Placement of the buildings is nicely executed for a little town such as this, but the buildings themself could use a bit more details.
And the fact that the barricade has been built to the middle of the town is quite strange, considering that they're built to defend after all.

Proportions in your terrain are good and you have given it thought while making this. Your high usage of unit models, does not appease me though.
However I could say that you're steadily improving, and with practice anyone can get far.


I have a feeling that I might hear of you again~!

RED BARON

Creativity: 8/15
Detail: 8/15
Technique: 6/15
Aesthetic: 7/15

29

I can see that you're rather new to all this. Nevertheless, you had a basic idea that goes in well with the theme.


The concept you have is a good idea, but the execution could still be worked on. You could've considered positioning the camp in a more efficient place for assaulting unaware travellers.
You were actually the only one with some tile variation and that is a good thing, however you might've wanted to give some thought to details such as the grass being damaged,
due the fact that it has probably been trampled for quite some time.

The blocks look like they do not belong there, and I doubt these men have been dragging around blocks that are double their size.

I like it that in this piece the target has already been stabbed, unlike in the other ones where they're only preparing to do so.
But there we have another thing that requires mentioning. The hand is very large compared to the bandit even though the angle is good the camera is a too far from the target making the character look enormous.


You've added quite a few of nice little details, which I like.
But some of them are quite strange actually, for example, a candlestick or a carpet in a forest.

However you might want to give a bit more thought to the background, as it's not just lacking a sky, which would be very highly recommended to have,
but the whole flora looks like it has been tossed around without giving it much thought, you might want to take references from real forests. For example,
your choice of brush is not the most fitting, and the trees are too close to eachother.


Your concept is nice, but as I said, the execution could use some work. You might want to take a peek or two through some tutorials and such.


Ganbatte~!

The result can be found here.

kari0003 receives 25 reputation,
eubz, RED BARON, Sin'dorei300 receive 5 reputation each
Bernkastel receives 5 reputation as well.

Thank you everyone for participating, along with the judge! Although I expected more people to attend, it turned out pretty good

 

[Amargaard]

Gratz Kari!

 

[kari0003]

Woah, thank you very much!

I agree with my judging, i need to advance my skills more, especially in these lightsource and shadow stuff.

This was a fun contest after all, i liked it

 

[Bernkastel]

I am glad someone liked it.

 

[RED BARON]

Heh

While I find myself in an odd mixture of agreement and disagreement with the judging I agree that I did nothing what so ever in regards to light, sky or anything of that kind, same thing with size of unit compared to knife.
In some ways I don't really agree with the judging in regards to brushes, trees and so forth - however I understand why it was judged so. The prime problem being I build this as a terrain, since thats what I am used to.. so about 60% of what I actually placed is not visible in the picture, which removes a lot of the sense from it. The whole grass area is in fact not part of the camp, since the camp is placed near a lake.. which again is not visible

Note to self is to build the terrain from the cam view instead of the default view - because it looks quite good from the above angle. So yep, I am new to creating cam terrain, though quite old at creating seen from above terrain.

Thanks for judging and nice idea for a contest. I hope something like this will come along again, maybe with a bit more allowance for adjusting the arm or whatever photo element is to be attached.