[Sakura] 浜で夏休み

[Flash Flyer - Sakura]

 

Yeah, this was my entry for this week's SoTW.

Idea is supposed to be a girl on the beach near the shoreline.

 

(I would've liked to have done other things, but lack of good renders and stocks to work from)

 

To be really fair, I feel something is still missing (had this feeling even before this piece got submitted). I tried adding certain effects in GIMP, but stuff didn't turn out the way I wanted.

 

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But yeah, CnC.

 

(I need to get back to doing GFX stuff)

[Catman25]

The render already blends pretty well on its own, and since c4ds and the usual effects might seem out of place, I think playing with the lighting and atmosphere to take advantage of the blending would be cool

[Icy]

The render already blends pretty well on its own, and since c4ds and the usual effects might seem out of place, I think playing with the lighting and atmosphere to take advantage of the blending would be cool

 

This. As is, you have so much to work with I'm having trouble seeing exactly where your lack of inspiration for the piece is coming from. Though imo, if the focal is a rendered out image, you certainly made it a bit too large. You want to be able to create some kind of foreground with the focus, the way you did it lends itself more towards a banner than a signature. In which case the top should have been cu... okay I'm rambling.

 

Point being, I don't see where you struggled to generate content.

• The focal shares the same lighting direction as the background so there is little to worry about there.
• The colors are for the most part equalized so you could make any foreseeable change without much editing at all.
• The waves share the same direction as her hair, so you've got natural atmosphere to work with.
• There's not too much going on in the background and still enough to generate content with.
• The clouds are varied enough to where you could use the stamp/clone tool to add in your own clouds of identical styling without it being too noticeable.
• Said clouds also in part share the same texture-ish of the wave lines, so you could certainly do something with that.
• The islands in the background are subdued enough to do something with them via clone/stamp tool and other shenanigans.

 

My complaint here is that you have a lot to work with but you apparently took advantage of almost none of it. Center the focal, shrink it considerably while keeping in line with the waves, see what the trees/thicket behind it can be done with and give it life beyond its current presentation. You have the tools, you have the resources. All on the image itself. Make use of it.

[Flash Flyer - Sakura]

(I had a reply written out earlier, but suppose YCM deleted the saved copy)

 

Basically, I feel that I could've added a bit more to the piece, well mainly more of the background. The render itself technically had the arm cut off in that position when I got it off Google; I didn't cut it like that. Might've done better at lowering the render height so you'd see the fingers (though it would cut off her cleavage to some extent). I tried to make the BG a bit lighter since original stock was darker than this. (I thought about using a background of one of the local beaches, but didn't really work; I wasn't satisfied with it)

 

Might've looked better if it were reversed (girl's on the wave side and not where the trees are). But yeah, I could've added more of the islands in the background with cloning; they're minimal enough to not distract from the focal point.

 

On the focus of the render itself, I had to find one that's not going over the PG-16 border that the staff members set. (This one should be fine, but yeah)

 

tl;dr, I think more could be done to make it more appealing, but at this point, all I can do is just do better on my next piece.

 

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Can only wonder who made piece #1 though...

[Icy]

Show the render and the background stock?

[Flash Flyer - Sakura]

Render: http://pre08.deviantart.net/fa8c/th/pre/f/2014/205/7/e/swimsuit_by_poppyoreos-d7s4tcf.png

(It's just a girl in a bikini, but due to recent discussions about permissible sexuality, I had to look for one that wasn't pushing it)

 

Stock: http://www.imgbase.info/images/safe-wallpapers/anime/anime_scenery/53437_anime_scenery_anime_tropical_beach_scenery.jpg

 

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Looking at them again, the stock image was actually fine; I probably added a slight darkening effect on it.

[Icy]

Angle is fine. Render does not cut off at any point that matters. You could have easily shrunk it to give it a greater effect rather than leaving it so... bulky.

[cr47t]

I think you did a fine job on this, whether it's an original work or an edit (can't tell.) Not too complicated, not too simple.

 

By the way, who is the person in the image? Is she made up by you, or a character from somewhere else? (If it's the latter, who, and from where?) 

[Flash Flyer - Sakura]

I think you did a fine job on this, whether it's an original work or an edit (can't tell.) Not too complicated, not too simple.

 

By the way, who is the person in the image? Is she made up by you, or a character from somewhere else? (If it's the latter, who, and from where?) 

 

It's an original work. 

 

As for the girl, it's from another series: http://poppyoreos.deviantart.com/art/Nepgear-Swimsuit-Render-470517135

 

(I don't know the anime, but yeah)

[Mr420QuickScopes]

I think the size of the girl is the main thing that makes it look, not bad, but, out of place-ish? For a minimalist effort, probably shrink the render a tad, and add some nice wind effects or something similar down the bottom mid to bottom right? Something like the blue in her eyes to help bring it out maybe?

 

All just my opinion though, which seems do substantially differ from others' xD

[Flash Flyer - Sakura]

Well, you don't actually have to be an expert in GFX to critique in this section; that, and unlike my area (CC), there isn't a prescribed method of critiquing (just don't rate and leave).

 

But yeah, I can probably try to make more of the girl stand out in the piece (if I choose to modify this, or make another piece).