Robot - WIP

[n i c o]

Hi everybody, this is an image i'm working on, i would like to hear comments & critics from you about the image in this current version Right know i'm only working on values, i will work on colors later ( The robot will be in reddish tones, and the set will probably be in brown & green tones ). I will also add some rust to depict a dirty set, and some smoke on the ground. Some modifications that i will do: the foreground will be a little bit more readable, and a soft light from the right will highlight the foreground and the robot, also the black outline of the whole image will be more overpainted

So if you have any suggestions to improve the image and correct some mistakes, don't hesitate

[ConCrete]

I do not understand what is going on in this image really...I have a robot thing that I think is getting interrogated or something...I think if you attached some sort of narration you would get a better response...

The values and edge control are gorgeous though...I would toss some mids in the lower right to give the eye something to look at in that corner.

[n i c o]

Thanks for your comment ConCrete, for the little story the little robot is imprisoned into the engine room of an hospital, where experimentations are made on robots. He is daily tortured, and what we can see in the image is that his torturers are coming back ...

The lower right of the picture will be more readable in the near future

[Chris Bennett]

There is nothing really wrong with this at all apart from a tiny ambiguity concerning the robot's right arm: The big nut he is wearing as some sort of bracelet (I think) is not recieving the light in a way that puts it far enough away from his elbow - if you see what I mean. Other than that marvelous!
Can I ask you a question: How do you proceed with the colouring phase - do you just tint everything with glazes or do you paint opaquely over everything? Perhaps you use a combination of the two?

[Strike_Hold]

I love the line-work and the monochromatic palette.

A suggestion: give the "torturer" character(s) a different color value from the protagonist -- maybe a warmer color.

[n i c o]

Chris Bennett> I understand what you mean about the bracelet, but it is intentional that it looks this way because it is supposed to be this big. About the colouring phase, my method is not the best: i fill the screen with a medium colour, and then i add shadows and highlights and finally i paint over the dark line which i should not have work so precisely because we won't see it in the end !

Strike-Hold> Thanks The robot will be in reddish colors, so he will pop up from the pic.

If any of you guys think, as ConCrete told me, that it is not clear what is going on this image, please tell me, i will try to improve this aspect, thanks !

As someone in the Cgtalk forum told me, the highlights were not consistent, so i correct them and gave more contrast to the shadows and highlights of the robot ( the robot is a bit more shinny in some parts ). I've also added the shadow of the buzz saw on the cylinder. This is the new version:

[Strike_Hold]

Originally Posted by n i c o

Strike-Hold> Thanks The robot will be in reddish colors, so he will pop up from the pic.

That's what I was thinking, but it looked like you were decided on him being on the cold end of the spectrum for some reason. I look forward to the finished work.

[Silent Stander]

i really love this pic. i must say though that i cant really figure out the shape of the robots body.. i can see the frog/horse he is riding on but other than that its a jumble... and you might want to get a second opinion ut the chain that leads from the fore to the middle seem to stick out in a weird way cause the outline is black. i think you need to get rid of the outline or even have it fade out or something...

[n i c o]

Silent Stander> Thanks ! In fact the robot is kind of a centaur-like robot, the legs are part of him. I wanted a weird design, but i understand that the lighting does not make its form perfectly readable. About the black outline, yes it is scheduled to remove it

[Chris Bennett]

Originally Posted by n i c o

Chris Bennett> I understand what you mean about the bracelet, but it is intentional that it looks this way because it is supposed to be this big.

I understand that nico - it's not the size that is causing the problem but that the way relates to the robot's shoulder in terms of lighting making it look nearer to your eye than the shoulder itself. This then thows the elbow out of kilter because assuming the forearm and the upper arm are the same length, the fact that the bracelet nut is nearer than the shoulder doesn't make perspective sense in this instance.

Really love the picture though! and thanks for the feedback on your colouring method.

[n i c o]

Chris> Ok, now i have understood My knowledge of the english language is not perfect I will try to fix that problem about the bracelet, thanks for pointing this

[n i c o]

This is another version, not the final one as everything is subject to change. What has changed from the previous version, apart from colors:

- Some smoke between the robot and the big cylinder ( this is a rough smoke taken from a low-res version of my image, that's why its shape is different from the robot profile ).
- The backlight on the robot
- Some contrast to the foreground lighting
- A test for the rust ( or blood ) on the big cylinder
- Some dust glow on the left of the image
- The tiled floor
- The blur on the foreground chain

On a previous version, the robot was more shinny, i will try this again.

As i am searching for colors, if you have any critics about this current version, i'm ready to read them, thanks !




EDIT: Above is another quick try on colors, i've replaced the blue with a green to depict a sick environment. I've also inclined the camera, please tell me if it's agood idea or not, thanks !

[wishcreator]

Man, the colors really make this - I love the detailed but still shadowy appearance, this is really turning out fantastic. Of the color versions, my favorite is the first one - very scary!

[Chris Bennett]

I think I prefer the blue version - everything seems more intense somehow. The green is good though - just seems a little 'clouded' for some reason.

[n i c o]

Thanks guys i do agree, i think the green version is too saturated. I will start from the blue one to make the final version, i would like to avoid to keep this bi-chromatic color version, though the image works this way i think.

[davi]

this is beautiful

[Robert.B]

this is brilliant!

[kev ferrara]

This is really great. Great sense of light coming out of your imagination.

Quick suggestion: The characters should be distinguishable from each other, I think. You've colored your "centaur" robot so he looks different, and it works... but the saw from the left and the "needle" poking at him from the right are also "characters" and they could use some different color to stand out. Maybe the saw could look bronze and the needles could look more like chrome. The chain coming in from the foreground also seems like a separate "character" that can be differentiated by color.

If you use "natural" metal colors (bronze, copper, chrome, tin, iron) on all the bad 'characters", the red of the robot will feel like "life" compared to all the dullness. The Green, I think, is too garish and unnatural.

Some of the other lesser "characters" like the large pipe in the back, and the boiler behind it... you can change their color/value just slightly so it still feels like the background, but also gives a better feeling of pattern. Right now the color pattern is suffering because everything is too much the same.

Great piece so far!

kev

[Cok3]

love your work nico, its looking great so far. I hope you dont mind me asking how you go about colorizing your black and white images. i've never got the color layer blending mode in photoshop to work for me, things just looked dirty when I used it. would be great to get insight on your process

[Chris Bennett]

That 'braclet nut' is looking much better! It has also meant that your eye can be led smoothly by those chains into the drama of the picture.
I agree with Kev that the torture instruments need something that distinguishes them as the agressors and subtle colour is the way to go about it I feel.

[n i c o]

davi & Robert.B> Thanks !

kev ferrara> Thanks a lot for your very constructive comment ! I was also a bit bored about the color pattern of my image, so as you said i slighty changed some elements's color of the scene.

Cok3> Thanks ! About coloring, i have no particular method, i used differents things for this piece, one thing which works well if you want to start from a grey value image is to use the gradient map ( available through the fourth icon at the bottom of the layers/channels pop up window ), it gives you the ability to choose the colors you want for each value of your image, for example you can decide to have red dark values while the other values of the image will be cold ones.

Chris> ThankThe final version is here> http://www.conceptart.org/forums/sho...d.php?t=133069

[simpo]

I really like this rendering. It is beautiful.