November 2014 Video Tutorial -- The Importance of Backgrounds!

[Crow Haven]

I like it, Stygg, it's a fun idea using the tute images!

[Gare]

I based this image on the backgrounds tut., hope you like the various tut. pictures. I said the tut. pictures guys!!

Stygg

There are quite a few gals on tg, too, stygg; and no, I do not request you to do a "beefcake" version of this composition, the give equal time to the Fairer Sex.

Is it okay to say "sex" on tg?

I think you've outdone yourself, stygg. I can't imagine anyone taking on as ambitious a background for a foreground person as you've done. Composition is fine, but your lighting is a little muxed up and this is mostly because the scene is so ambitious!

Paintings on adjacent walls will not/cannot have identical drop shadows, because we'll assume from the person's shadow that there is one primary light source, and yet the adjacent walls are 90 degrees in opposition. They're getting similar, but not identical lighting.

I'm too stupid to calculate this out just by hand, so I pulled two renders that might help you. By the way, it's a nice touch to split the shadow so it falls on both the X and Z planes (if this was produced by a camera or a modeling program).





Look carefully at the shadows cast by these frames. Compare what's happening to the frames on the right wall as opposed to the wall the girl is looking at.

(Just trying to see if everyone was paying attention)

I can envision a magnificently complicated scene lit by multiple lights, especially if this museum had directional lights over each painting. Oh, also? Paintings are usually hung at eye level; consider what a pain in the neck, literally, it would be to view a painting 10' high on the wall!

Critically, I give this work high marks, stygg, regardless of my observations. You invested the time, you learned from your own observations, you show initiative, and you probably go out wearing matching socks.

My Best,

Gary

[stygg2003]

Thanks for informative feedback Gary, will file the two images for future reference. It was somewhat ambitious of me but went ahead and then posted knowing it was not 100% but if you don't try and then post, then you will never get the feedback such as I have recieved from you of which I am extremely pleased with.

Stygg

[wizard509]

lighting is a little muxed up and this is mostly because the scene is so ambitious!

Paintings on adjacent walls will not/cannot have identical drop shadows, because we'll assume from the person's shadow that there is one primary light source, and yet the adjacent walls are 90 degrees in opposition. They're getting similar, but not identical lighting.

This shows what I was thinking very well.

Paintings are usually hung at eye level

True. Sorry I hadn't noticed the eye level part in my initial comment, although I have seen paintings in museums hung very high.

[Gare]

First, @ stygg— your attitude toward your work is even greater than the obvious amount of time and consideration, if such a thing is possible, man. Compositions are hard: no two ways about it. That's what prompted me to do some stuff on backgrounds this past month. It's just too easy for someone with talent to knock off a perfect foreground illustration and call it finished.

@ everyone: I'm exceptionally pleased that many of you took my striped wallpaper example in new and interesting directions. I realize part of this was due to the fact that GenoPal's server was serving up garbage instead of a stable product. I can and will say, "keep trying", because the public beta of 2 does indeed work for some artists, no idea what the criterion is, but I've been in contact with the programmer who apologizes (for being understaffed for one thing) and assures me that a stable version will be posted soon.

In the meantime, I sampled the area I showed in the video three times, and created a wood color palette once, and then rolled all the stuff up into an *.aco file. Yeah, it's an Adobe Color file, but it works flawlessly in Xara. All you do is unzip the attachment, have a document open in Xara and make sure you can see both the UI and the ACO file icon (which sort of means don't have Xara maximized onscreen), and then drag the icon into the page in Xara, not the color bar.

The colors will appear on the color bar, so in advance, it might be a good idea to load a preset page from a template that has very few colors attached to begin with.



That said, as this thread progresses, I see that Maya and others have tackled the beach ball (instead of kicking it), and overall I think you are all "getting it"...that a composition must have more than a single "hero" all alone by itself in the foreground.

Some of the most successful paintings in history were deliberately created to lead the viewer's eye from one area to another, let it rest on important stuff, let it move onto more trivial areas...it is a symphony done with vision.

My Best,
Gary

[stygg2003]

@ Maya - thanks for your kind remarks, it was fun although ambitious

@ Larry - thank you also and you were right in your observation Larry as Gary has shown.

My Best
Stygg

[Gare]

...I have seen paintings in museums hung very high.

Oh, when they hang a painting high, it has committed a capital offense in a state where the gas chamber and the firing squad have not been adopted.

Grin, Duck, & Run
Attorneys at Tomfoolery,

Gare

[Gare]

This is me trying to add steroids to this thread.

I've drawn a second image against pure white, but have a grid in perspective on the Guides layer for assistance.




As you'll see, the camera angle is closer to the ground than the mug and donut picture, and it can probably live with one wall, or three walls, or none. You decide, you're the designer, you give the foreground a nice background. There's a lot of colors from which to sample, and the floor can be wood, tile, you name it.

Wot say?

-g

[stygg2003]

Thanks for the new background file Gary and also I've altered my Art room image trying to implement the points you posted. It's still not perfect but I think improved it a little. The upper pictures are a bit high but with your tomfoolery lawyers I should only get 25 years

Stygg

[Crow Haven]

That's nice, Stygg!

Well, I tried a new background for the flower vase this time...