Topic awaiting preservation: it paints subs

Some months ago, some folks who know a bunch about programming but nothing at all about graphics decided to make a submarine game to run on cellphones, and got a hold of me to do the graphics. The game is nearing completion, and one of the last jobs was to create "box art" for the game. You know, a picture that makes you think the game is ridiculously detailed and impressive, even though the game itself looks like this.


[Clicky]

Like all the other graphics of the game, this one also had it's revisions. My original sketch and in-progress shots looked like this:
http://www.mahjqa.com/sub/subsub.jpg

Where "the team" (read: "they") decided the sub wasn't recogniseable enough and told me to "paste this submarine in instead" (handed me a screenshot from some other game).

In no mood for argument (this was after a day of revisions), thusly was done. I traced over the outlines of the game sub, and colored it. Results can be seen up there. something really irks me about the perspective, and I'm not entirely happy with how all the business turned out, but they seemed to be.

So. Er. Hints? Opinions? On the whole "stealing the outline" business? "Customers" that drive you insane?

This was just to post some work to show you folks what I've been up to and turned out to be some kind of rant.. so be it. mahj signing off.

the submarine seems to be slightly twisted ... mostly because the thing where the crew crawls out from (i don't know the word) is heavily crooked (it can be fixed! ... by fixing the top side of the thing so that it would seem a bit strange but at least intentionally crooked) (right now it's going to break off every minute)... also ... the torpedo comes in a 40 degree angle from the sub ... it should be going straight (afaik) ...it is probably necessary for the picture tho ... also the shadow in the sub's left side makes it look a bit twisted ... i think ... if you can ... try making it a bit milder ... maybe it helps ...
and you could add something living to the big empty green area (weed, fish...) ... maybe some bubbles too ... it doesn't have to be 100% realistic does it

then there are little things that you may want to experiment with
the reflection on the bottom of the barrels ... have you tried making it parallel with the light beams coming from above ... don't know if it helps but right now ... at first glance i though the barrels were empty and there were no bottom plates

you could try adding some mess around the big explosion ... like air, little black pieces of the barrel ... water movement ... i don't actually know what would be best but right now it seems too sterile to me .... bigass explosion but no impact on the surroundings... dunno...


you dont _have_ to change anything ofc but this is just what i felt was missing from the perfect picture
hope i was useful

btw i really liked this 1. sub from the subsub.jpg ... it would be so much better (than the cp version) if you added some detail etc ... like most people your team probably didn't understand the concept of a sketch ... oh well....

about ridiculous customers...

a 1-hour job took me a whole day once ... a simple poster ... because the customer ... changed his mind! didn't like the font! didn't have the sponsors' logos! didn't like the size of some words ... like the band's name ... that i though was important :S ... was supposed to be small ... even tho it was supposed to be a birthdayparty for the band (and the band was performing) ... then he didn't like the order of things :S ... and i got paid pennies ...

then i've had some sponsors contacting me about the colors and stuff on their logos ... for example the background is supposed to be white not light-grey ... how the fuck should i know ... it is fking blue on your website ... i have to change the whole thing now? ... oh yea... give me a fucking break

then a website ... is supposed to be plain but pretty ... ok ... fine with me ... i make a plain and pretty website ... but oh ... then their management whatever big board thing suddenly decides that my draft isn't plain (WTF) and oh shit! one part of the logo changes color when you switch pages ... which i thought looked nice ... since it was a crappy logo anyway ... but nooo....

(Edited by Arthurio on 08-25-2005 22:57)

Your original perspective kicks all booty over the stolen outline twisted version, for the record.

I'm sure that makes you feel much better, not.

agreed.


the thingy on top, is leaning to the left a bit and toward the viewer way too much. I think if you adjust for that, it should look a lot better.

Really what other people have said - the ocean surface and the sub's conning tower are at an acute angle (the shafts of light coming down form the surface help emphasise this) which would be difficult to manage with a sub like that (its balast and shape is designed to keep it relatively vertical in the water). However, you could come up with a scenario involving a holed sub, that depth charge going off in the foreground but essentially your original version has it.

The version they want can be "fixed" you just shift the conning tower over to the other side (its 10 degrees anti-clockwise so shift it around so it is the same but clockwise) and paint out the deck (it might be possible to just turn it into the side of the sub) which you wouldn't see from this. The Nautilius-like toothed wedge can probably stay as it is.

[edit: and I am awfully rude - they are both really excellent and with a few tweaks I think the one the client wants will look damn good too I probably prefer your first one but such is life.]

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(Edited by Emperor on 08-31-2005 20:58)