PaD: June 10 Commentary

Shadows: Since this was a sunset piece, it was really defined by its shadows. Unfortunately, I failed at these. I still have no idea why I wanted to go with gradient shadows as opposed to cel-shading-esque shadows, since I know the latter works much better with irregular shapes. Fluttershy is the only part that didn't turn out looking rather artificial, and even then mostly because she's just so small.

Clouds: I have "Fill" and "Stroke" in quotes because they aren't really a fill or a stroke. Rather, I made the clouds in the same way I usually make hair: by laying a solid object on top of another, slightly shrunken on the edges. It produces a nicely uneven border. To the get the interior wisps to line up right, I draw a triangle-like shape and snap two of its nodes to the paths of the Fill/Stroke objects below, then match their slopes appropriately.

Grass Waves: By setting the gradient on these so that one end reaches the color of the grass below before the edge of the object, I was able to "hide" that side of the wave. Then, since the other side grows to a darker, contrasting color, it looks like it builds up and then suddenly drops off again. Not a bad effect, but I'm not entirely satisfied with it.

Source svg: [link]