Red Riding Hood - Final plea!

[danlambert]

Stuck them together in a new thread as its easier, both nearly done I think, a few obvious bits of tidying up left to do.

I feel something is missing in the bed image, can't figure out what?

Handing them in soon, so any last comments or ideas would be much appreciated, thanks.



Edit, just realised I forgot to do the window in the 2nd on haha

[vardoburrito]

Are you allowed to do bounce lights? (Global Illumination)

-There could be a bit of green on the wall next to the blankets.
-Shadows should never be pure black. Unless it's the night??
-It's still a bit bright outside for the lamp to be that strong, no?

Else, have a good showing.

[Giacomo]

Looks good to me!

If it was me, I'd render in a lot more detail on the folds and wrinkles of every cloth object in both pictures—that will give them more of a sense of scale and focus.

[danlambert]

Shit, I was hoping this wouldn't happen. I know it sounds like an excuse, but if the shadows look black then my laptop display is definitely off. I've had problems before when I move images from my laptop to other macs they always seemed to look really dark, almost burnt. I tried re configuring my screen but apparently it's still off. I'm going to have to wait until Monday when I can get on the universities computers to see what they actually look like and try to adjust them back to where I want them.

Thanks for the suggestions dwardo

[danlambert]

Looks good to me!

If it was me, I'd render in a lot more detail on the folds and wrinkles of every cloth object in both pictures—that will give them more of a sense of scale and focus.

Thanks, seems obvious now but I reckon the folds are what was missing in the bed piece, especially on the blankets

[Giacomo]

Also, what dwardo said. Light and shadows always have color:

[danlambert]

That looks great, but it's not supposed to be a night scene, supposed to be during the day just a dark room. The candle was just a little experiment at introducing a 2nd light source.

I wish uni was open today, I really want to see what they actually look like

[vardoburrito]

Just to see where the darkest darks are, you could use 'Levels' to check.
While moving the black indicator, hold the Alt key. They'll get cut off naturally if you finalise the adjustment layer.

Or

You could turn all the blacks to the next gray using the second slider.


I've never actually finished a piece using these methods. I only use it to check.

[Mebiusu]

Hi Dan,
Nice development, just some quick thoughts designed to help. IMHO- In the first image, all of the wolf's fingers are the same length. The contour of the tree lines up inside of his hand. The tree is fusing with his hand rather than being gripped by the hand. It is anatomically unlikely. To remedy this, simply shave the contour of the tree inward a bit. Shorten his last two fingers at least. We would see much less of his hand and fingers {based on your perspective} in favor of a far more foreshortened view of the fingers. It looks like you are hiding undeveloped drawing behind that tree. His arm needs to be foreshortened toward the viewer. His other arm is far too long and lacking foreshortening. It {and his hand}would also cast a shadow on the ground plane, per your light source. The wolf's leg is not in perspective and it again seems you are trying to hide an undeveloped drawing behind lil' red riding hood. We would see part of his foot on the ground plane. In the second pic, she seems too small for the bed. Her head seems too big for her, even if you are going for that. Her shadow would be more visible and dense on the floor. It seems her resting hand would create more of a disturbance on the bed's drapery. Hope this helps you.

[danlambert]

Hi Dan,
Nice development, just some quick thoughts designed to help. IMHO- In the first image, all of the wolf's fingers are the same length. The contour of the tree lines up inside of his hand. The tree is fusing with his hand rather than being gripped by the hand. It is anatomically unlikely. To remedy this, simply shave the contour of the tree inward a bit. Shorten his last two fingers at least. We would see much less of his hand and fingers {based on your perspective} in favor of a far more foreshortened view of the fingers. It looks like you are hiding undeveloped drawing behind that tree. His arm needs to be foreshortened toward the viewer. His other arm is far too long and lacking foreshortening. It {and his hand}would also cast a shadow on the ground plane, per your light source. The wolf's leg is not in perspective and it again seems you are trying to hide an undeveloped drawing behind lil' red riding hood. We would see part of his foot on the ground plane. In the second pic, she seems too small for the bed. Her head seems too big for her, even if you are going for that. Her shadow would be more visible and dense on the floor. It seems her resting hand would create more of a disturbance on the bed's drapery. Hope this helps you.

Thanks for taking the time to write such a detailed response. I'll definitely change that hand, and add the shadow from the other arm/hand. I'll play around with the sizing and other issues mentioned as well, I have a feeling making her bigger on the bed along with the crease detailing on the cover Giacomo suggested will help fill the areas of empty space I was worried about. I'll try the head resizing, but I'm worried a smaller head may make her look older than I intended.

I was slightly confused as to what you meant by hiding undeveloped drawing behind the tree and red riding hood?

Thanks again

[Mebiusu]

I enjoy saving people the headaches of my past art mistakes.
I can see how I was not clear; I am in crunch time and wrote my above entry very quickly. Re: “drawing through” the overlapping forms-
I am not saying this is your mistake; I am merely saying my first impression of your image was that, the rendering of the wolf’s arms and legs lacked authority.
Any art director will tell you that one of the most common and glaring mistakes made by artists at the beginning of their careers is a failure to understand this principle of “drawing through” of overlapping forms. Most of us have done this, some still do it and their art still suffers from it.
If I do not draw what is blocked from view by the foreground objects, I cannot understand how that which is hidden affects those parts of the subject, which are visible.
I “draw through” the overlapping form and render the basic form and shadows of the hidden parts of the subject.
This informs my understanding of exactly where on that foreshortened arm that the elbow, hand or drop shadows will occur and how it influences my visible forms.
The placement of one form over another creates an objective perception via the relationship of the involved objects to one another.
In other words, if we see a woman in space, how do we know she is a giant unless there is a point of reference involving the juxtaposition of an object of known dimensions?
Now, a car floating behind her does not objectify her stature as greatly as a car placed in front of her would.
The overlapping of forms serves to objectively heighten our awareness of the strengths and weaknesses of a composition and it’s subject.
It is at this juncture of overlap that any problems in draftsmanship will become even more evident.
Sometimes the mistake in draftsmanship is simply the result of not drawing the covered object.
If it is merely a flaw in perception regarding how to compose and render that object, well that is easily remedied by study and practice.
If you need more help with this let me know.

[danlambert]

Wow, again thanks for the detailed reply, I understand what you mean now, and you were 100% correct with regards to the arm hidden behind the tree, as well as that leg hidden behind the tree. I'm guilty of doing the same thing on any other occasions as well. Thanks again for dropping some knowledge, I'll definitely make a conscious effort to draw the overlapping forms in future.

A few people have mentioned it so I feel I should clarify about the leg behind her head; you can't tell now, but my original drawing had the wolf with the typical 'werewolf' legs, with what almost looks like an extra joint between the ankle and knee, almost like an elbow to give it a more wolfy/monstrous physique than simply a skinny human form. The extra bend stopped the heel/back of the leg from protruding out past her head. Originally a little bit of the leg was visible but this got completely covered when I repositioned red riding hood a little way into the rendering process. I'm assuming it didn't look off to me as I know what is/was there.
In future I will plan out details such as this more thoroughly to avoid covering key features of anatomy, especially covering both legs like I managed to do in this image.

[Giacomo]

That looks great, but it's not supposed to be a night scene, supposed to be during the day just a dark room.

Sure. Even if it's daylight coming through the window, though, it needs to be either bluish (if it's reflected light from the sky) or yellowish (if it's direct sunlight.) Light and shadow always have color.

[Janos]

Ahhh, the little red riding hood images. I loved the other thread!

Things I like:
- That you do not see hoods face in both
- the crispness of her in the bedroom image. Take that to the other one as well
- The wolf design. COuld use a little more details though
- the folds of the grey cloth in the bedroom

But there are quite a few things I would overthink again:
- black shadows, white highlights make teh objects look VERY plastic, photoshop, digital.
- add textures (selfmade) to you images. The clothes, the threes, the floor
- wolf anatomy, especiyll him under the covers.... that just looks wrong
- perspective in the bedroom (all ratehr crooked)
- the day/night issue

Keep working on them. I love the idea and these images. They juzst need some extra work!