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BLPH [2010-07-06 00:08:16 +0000 UTC]

Overall

Vision

Originality

Technique

Impact

Without a doubt, compared to your previous space-related works, this is a definite improvement. Yet, there is still room left for becoming better. In the following, I will try to explain this.

Let us start off with the landscape. Using Terragen-renders is quite common, and most people struggle with the same issue: depth. This is one problem in here, too; the terrain seems to be relatively flat. A little more haze would have certainly helped emulating more depth. So would additional faint mountain-ranges in the background.

The atmosphere is some sort of an eye-catcher. Being extremely bright in the bottom-left will draw the eye immediately to this point. The white is almost screaming at you: "I am here, look at me and forget the rest!"
This is exactly the issue arising. The brightness deters the viewer from enjoying the entire image; for example, my eyes get always drawn back to this point. A more subtle glow, maybe even with a slight color-alteration, would have worked a bit better.
Additionally, the glow abates too fast. The white area suddenly changes to an extremely saturated mid-blue and quickly fades to black. A softer look would have worked well instead.

Following the slope of the mountain (which is a really good guide for the viewer's eyes) we end up at the planet. The double lighting is reasonable, seeing that it gets lit from the light source, which also lets the atmosphere glow, as well as the nebula. From a more scientific point of view, however, you would have to consider the distance between the object and the respective light-source. The nebula should, in that case, throw only a faint light onto the planet making the side turned towards the nebula only slightly brighter than the area in the shade.

The next point of interest is the bright white dot on the right side. It does not feel right in this image; the viewer has to think what this might be: a planet? Too bright. A close star? No flare and no star-like glow.
A little hint from the artist in form of the aforementioned could certainly help in that matter.

After leaving the deep-blue area completely, we are now reaching the cyan-colored nebula. Having two blue hues like here next to each other is not beneficial; instead, the two colors are literally biting each other. So, the color-choice is something that could be reconsidered for the next time.
The nebula itself feels, similar to the terrain, a little flat. Pronouncing its features and brushing in some shadows and highlights does make the difference in that case.
Additionally, it feels isolated by the enormous amount of black space surrounding it. This could be avoided by a little stronger starfield as well as a little smoother blending of the nebula. Look at your pieces from a couple meters away and check if you see any hard edges where there should be a smooth fading. Also, do not let detailed objects fade into flat, single-colored layers. It is like an attempt to merge an emoticon with a photograph: two completely different styles that do not match. Therefore, adding some more details (for example with faint background-nebulae) would be the best idea. In general, check out popular space-pieces (or any popular image if you want); you will notice that they will have a "flow" to it: everything seems to be created in one process. Try to imitate that.

I hope this was somewhat helpful to you. Keep going!

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Wormskulls [2010-07-20 00:24:51 +0000 UTC]

This is just epic. I love all the different shades of blue on it, and the sudden brightness of the nebula makes it stand out.

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Lizzys [2010-07-09 05:42:57 +0000 UTC]

The Space Art Pros seem to have covered all the feedback (plus more!) that I would've mentioned. Although the nebulae is definitely my favorite part, like `gucken said, it could still benefit from more detail. The composition is very classic, but it still works well.

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gucken [2010-07-04 20:00:18 +0000 UTC]

really cool piece! keep it up!
I really like the atmosphere here and the blue colour.
the nebula is pretty amazing, too!

Only nitpicks that I have are, that you should try to blend those different elements more. They look good on their own, but they don't harmonize together that well.
e.g. the colour of the nebula doesnt match the terrain's colour, as the greenish tone is nowhere else to be found. Same thing counts for the other way around, too

And the planet needs to be affected by the atmosphere some more.
Oh and try to maintain a constant level of details throughout the piece. The planet has many details, the terrain does so, too, but the nebula lacks some of those. It seems to be a tiny bit too blurry, so you should try to keep that in mind (I often forget about that, too).

Otherwise: great piece!
A bit confused about the second light source effects on the planet but not on the terrain, but other than that: keep it up!

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Red-Pen-Innovation [2010-07-04 18:33:10 +0000 UTC]

i love the colors, and the realness to it . Very beautiful

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