Sky Texture Critique

[40oz]

I tried to "finish" the some of the sky texture bits found in doom2.wad and the alpha versions of doom. The clouds on the top half are taken partially from the pre-beta of Doom. I had to edit out the lightning (because stagnant lightning on a sky texture is dumb) and draw about 75% of the rest of the clouds from scratch. I'm pretty satisfied with the clouds.

The bottom half is partially taken from the F_SKY flat in doom. I drew the rest of the mountains. Do the rest of the mountains look like they go with the part I started from or is it too obvious that I drew it myself? If the latter, what can I do to make it look better?

It just doesn't look right to me. I spent about an hour touching it up but I can't seem to get it exactly the way I want. And I'm not sure how to go about it.

[EarthQuake]

The mountains look too unnatural and warped. What was wrong with the original graphics that you had to modify them?

[40oz]

They were too small to be used as a sky texture.

[Gez]

40oz said:

Do the rest of the mountains look like they go with the part I started from

Not at all. You'd be better off ditching it altogether. I'm pretty sure it's a retouched photo, not a painting. For example, if you look at this picture, you might recognize another mountain line...

[DoomsdayRooster]

It's not that obvious but if you take a look you can see that the F_SKY had a sharper light source. It also reminds me of a picture taken from a high-altitude camera, where the smooth features seen in your mountains aren't easily visible (it looks more jagged overall).

Have you considered drawing over F_SKY? Or maybe just using it as a base to trace out the rest of the mountain line and shading it as you shaded the others?

[40oz]

DoomsdayRooster said:

Have you considered drawing over F_SKY?

Do you mean like getting rid of the F_SKY graphic part of the mountains and just filling the void with my own drawing of mountains?

DoomsdayRooster said:

Or maybe just using it as a base to trace out the rest of the mountain line and shading it as you shaded the others?

That's exactly what I did, unless I'm reading it wrong.

[EarthQuake]

Wait, did you just use the F_SKY graphic to create those mountains? Or did you actually use the sky from the press release? I'm pretty sure it's large enough to use as a sky, because Doom used it in the beta... I haven't found a way to extract it yet, but I've seen it somewhere in some form or another.

Oh yeah:





I probably edited them a bit (the clouds were originally brown for example), but you've got something to work with.

[40oz]

Thanks for stealing the show... :/

Looks cool though, I may use these. I didn't know there were finished versions of the skies. I'm surprised I've never seen them in a wad before.

I just pasted the F_SKY graphic to the very right of the image canvas, then used the colors to draw out what I assumed the rest of the mountains would look like for the rest of the image.

[Quasar]

Those blue mountains have way too much of a Wolf3D vibe if you ask me ;)

[Dragonsbrethren]

40oz said:

I didn't know there were finished versions of the skies. I'm surprised I've never seen them in a wad before.

Download MBF: It comes with betalevl.wad, which has all four skies from the press release, ready for use in its -beta mode.

[Starke Von Oben]

Just search for Panoramic Mountain pics on Google images, it's a great means for making Doom Skies. You'll probably have to cut up a number of them and re-adjust the colours accordingly, but the results are stunning.

I would show mine but they're being kept secret.

[printz]

EarthQuake said:

The mountains look too unnatural and warped.

That makes them the more infernal. The warping is a change worked on by 40oz. Merely using the clouds and mounds from the press release instead would be a copy-paste job.

What's worse it's that it's out of palette, so I can't use it (provided 40oz accepts).

[40oz]

Starke Von Oben said:

Just search for Panoramic Mountain pics on Google images, it's a great means for making Doom Skies. You'll probably have to cut up a number of them and re-adjust the colours accordingly, but the results are stunning.

I would show mine but they're being kept secret.

Well it's not that I need a sky texture, I just like to make things using the resources Doom already provides because the finished pieces look like they'd fit in Doom. When I draw my own things from scratch, they look like my own style and not very fitting with the rest of Doom's textures and resources.

printz said:

That makes them the more infernal. The warping is a change worked on by 40oz. Merely using the clouds and mounds from the press release instead would be a copy-paste job.

What's worse it's that it's out of palette, so I can't use it (provided 40oz accepts).

I was unaware that the full sky texture even existed. I used the EyeDropper tool from MS paint for all the colors, I'm pretty sure it should convert to the pallete easily.

If demand calls for it I could finish drawing the rest of the mountains (and clip out the part ripped from F_SKY) and maybe recolor them to be used in a sky texture if anyone wants.

[printz]

40oz said:

I was unaware that the full sky texture even existed. I used the EyeDropper tool from MS paint for all the colors, I'm pretty sure it should convert to the pallete easily.

So you only used Doom colors there? If so, then I'll have to look deeper into why XWE messed it.

[Starke Von Oben]

40oz said:

Well it's not that I need a sky texture, I just like to make things using the resources Doom already provides because the finished pieces look like they'd fit in Doom. When I draw my own things from scratch, they look like my own style and not very fitting with the rest of Doom's textures and resources.

I understand that, but the original mountain ranges used in Ultimate Doom did exactly that - using a photograph. If done correctly you can easily make it look as though it is part of the original doom resource while being an entirely new product. It's just about getting the right colours here and there, and depending on what program you use (I use psp) the results are almost always satisfactory.

[40oz]

How about some green?

(BTW that's Doom2's RSKY1 flipped upside down and recolored)

[Starke Von Oben]

not enough contrast between the mountains and the sky.