Thanks Abigail, I'm glad you like it. Kinda wished they turned out better though.

Anyway, I spent a little bit more time on these guys in particular the elevated hut thingy.
One thing I've noticed while doing this task is that I tend to go all primitive when creating buildings, but when it comes to creating vehicles I go all robotic/futuristic :S

 

David - yeh i definately need to push for darker values. i get really hesitant... i dunno why :S

Spent a bit more time on this than I'm probably expected to but I thought I'd spend this time to try become more aware of "what works and what doesnt work" with this process. It's quite fun... really enjoyed doing this piece.
I like how you can have NO idea what you're going to do and just come up with something as you go along.

Edit: Some more...

Hi George

Yes! These compositions are very nice! Try to pay attention at the edges as you refine them. Don't start going all soft edges!

Hope that helps

My next book cover addition!

Only black and white so far, but I do intend to apply colour. I tested colour with a colour balance layer and hue/saturation option but it didnt turn out the way I expected. Time to find an alternative (help if you can lol).
Basically used my previous book cover, and worked off that. Thought it would be kool to put one of my characters in there also :P

Edit: Refined character some more and applied colour. I think my colour application method was probably a bit retarded. Hopefully it's turned out okay. Spent enough time on this one for now...

Edit: Tried to make it read more the way I intended it to.

Hey George

Good attempts!
I think the problem you are getting in the color overlay, may not be in the colors at all, but actually in the values. I don't know what sort of color you are trying to achieve, so I can be wrong on that comment.

Hope that helps!

Finally stumbled across something I could probably work with. Between these 3 images there was a lot of recycling... if you couldn't tell.
Not sure how far I can take these environment-wise though, but I'm pretty sure they'll serve a purpose in my sci-fi work :P

Hey George!

Nice 3d meshes!

One thing I'm noticing in your work, is that you are doing the exercises by focusing on 1 tool at a time (like for instance on this last one, you went 100% smudge). That is in fact good for learning's sake, but try to do some work using all the tools you already know well.

I propose this, because each tool has a very distinct feel to it (ie: smudge is "plastic", selections are graphic, etc). If you only use 1 of the tools, there's a whole lot of contrast that you are leaving out. If you mix them, you can add alot of variety to an image, and thus make it more interesting.

If you still feel insecure about this, then continue doing what you are doing, which is good, but for each 5 pieces you do focusing on a tool, do an extra piece using most of the tools at your disposal (or all of them).

Hope that helps!

Final version. Not too sure how scifi you'd classify this scene, but it was interesting to just explore the creation methods and stumbling across MANY 'happy accidents'.  

Hey thanks Jason for the step by step 3D paintover. You make it looks so easy! For some reason I felt so restricted in my attempts...

My next (once again) not-so scifi scene.

Hey George!

I know I am not an instructor but I hope you don't mind that I painted over your work - makes it just easier for me to point some things out:

Your design has some interesting elements - I like the triangular shapes - even though it could become a technical problem since he cant lift his arm too high with this shoulders

Some minor issues:

His right shoulderjoint is a bit too far away from his chest and his right shoulderplate isn't wrapping around the right way - the belt area could also be more obious wrapping around the hip

Also, I adjusted the pose a little bit to show the weight of the arm

Hope that it helps! Keep it up mate!