As a starting sample, I will be evaluating one of my oldest screenshots:

Las Vegas

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Evaluation: 1.8

Tips for improvement:

Do not show black space on the horizon. Move the elevation up, or if necessary, put an object in front to hide the blackness.

Hide interface - The interface should be hidden in all screenshots designed for eye-candy purposes. To do so, press Control F12, or you can toggle the interface on and off if you are inside the editor.

Try utilizing animations and cinematic mode whenever possible. Make your units active instead of idle. Examples would be setting a cinematic pose to Amanra, or setting villies to farm or gather animations. Play around with the animation viewer found in Reyk's Editor.

Utilize map space better - a lot of areas on the map are unused. Try adding roads, nature, and more buildings and people to use this area better.

Terrain mixing - There are only three types of terrain in this screenshot - grass A, Atlantean Tile, and Cliff Greek. Blend in some different tiles to the city and some grass for the cliffs. If you need help, check Paperfriend's guide listing for some terrain mixing tutorials.

Obviously I could go on, but this is just a sample. Evaluations don't have to have images showing suggestions, but it would help.

Are you grading them? If thats the case I'm not posting any.

I doubt you are meant to

You will probaly score above 4.5
I will be quite useful, but I doubt you will get a big adience:
N00bs don't listen, experts don't post, newbs improve to fast

But gl, maybe I am wrong.

[This message has been edited by Paperfriend (edited 01-10-2007 @ 01:44 AM).]

@ Alex

Thanks to you, now I know I have just have to read your most famous code thread to be able to see html and bb writing!

Great idea, Alex. I think this will be very helpful for newcomers.

This should be stickied!

Let's wait till somebody uses it, shall we?

OK

nice kissing

Ok, the setting is decent, but there are problems with the rest, for starters, you simply don't seem to know how to use boulders: You use two different colours, but instead of spreading those colours, you simply put the second colour on a lone island. Either spread it, or use one colour.
Another complaint would be that you only use the big rocks. If you have ever been in nature, you will notice that there are no sudden rock walls popping up, you only find them in rocky terrains: Add small rocks in front of the boulders, and also add sprites. With this I don't mean you should make a patern, put some small rocks in the back and large rocks in the front as well.
The waterfall is ok, even while you can't really see where it is going.

Next: The top left corner, it doesn't fit, it bothers me like Bush is bothered by Iraq.

And most important: Bushes, grasses, rotting logs, water reeds, etc. I myself also found that some animals really fit well in the Marsh theme, mainly monkeys, boars and birds (hippos are too large). You might also want to try to pick a lighting, and to put some extra focus on the couple.

EDIT: It appear I need to add a number

2.3 out of possible 5.

[This message has been edited by Paperfriend (edited 01-10-2007 @ 03:48 PM).]

Here some more.

CSC Round 1 ~ 3rd place: I'm going to escape I know it!!
CSC Round 2 ~ 1st place: They're invading!!
CSC Round 3 ~ no place: Where did Wattson run off to?

I would rate Son_Of_The_King's screenshot 3.

You did the background waterfalls very well, and your animations were well thought through, it seems. Marsh terrain is also a nice change from the regular environment, and you used the space available in the screenshot area well.

The bad points, however, would be that the Boulder Walls look a little too massive when placed in large groups, especially on flat terrain, and the sudden Boulder Rolling Dead appeared somehow out of context. You could also have varied the forests - Tundra and Oak trees look pretty nice amongst Marsh trees.
As for elevations, I think you could have done better. The terrain looks a little too flat, the only place with a visible change of height is the waterfall hill. Experiment around a little with different brush sizes to get different effects.
It's a bit boring with only Marsh C (?) terrain everywhere, you should have given a little more space for terrain, and mixed it. Different Marsh terrains are of course the best, but several Gaia terrains and Grass B will also make a nice mix. Try them out. And as a final comment on terrain, please do not show undesigned areas in your shots - I can see the Grass A area behind the rocks.
Lastly, use more objects. In most screenshots I miss rocks and rock sprites, and they are very important for good map design. So you should have put in different kinds of rocks, bushes, rotting logs, some grass, possibly a Tamarisk somewhere, animals, maybe a pond and some water embellishments.

As far as I can see, you haven't changed the lighting either. It would look good if you applied a green terrain and unit lighting, for instance.

Conclusion: You put work into the units and the waterfall, but as for natural design you have the potentional to improve on many aspects.

[This message has been edited by I Love Bananas (edited 01-10-2007 @ 03:38 PM).]

@ Freaky2, choose only one screenie to be evaluated.

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Son_Of_The_King
Evaluation: 2.8

Lighting - I believe you are using the default lighting, if not, just ignore. Try to stray from the default lightings, try the others or make a new lighting yourself.

Camera Angle - the angle is pretty nice for the shot but I would suggest zooming in more. You can hardly see Athena and Arkantos when the screen is zoomed out so far.

Rocks - The rocks have a nice elevation effect but don't look that natural. Try blending in more grayish rocks and add some small rocks and sprites along with size changes below the boulders to give it a smooth transition. Also, the black boulder at the end of the waterfall does not seem to blend in too well.

Upper left corner - See Paperfriend's comment.

Marsh trees - Expanding from what ILB said, try to add some variety to the trees. If you need some inspiration, you can head over to the downloads and check out the trees in Project Marsh Valley by some fellow by the name of pEpsIdUDe_123 or look in the eye-candy thread for any marsh/swamp related screenies.

Other than that, nice job and nice use of animations.

I'll go with the one that lost.

CSC Round 3 ~ no place: Where did Wattson run off to?

Freaky2: I think it is a cool picture!
But the wall in the background is kind of disturbing (why not heaven?), and I don't think the night lighting fits very well. More Egyptian stuffs would be great (torches, obelisks, palm trees etc...)

I would give it a 3+ (I like it, but it is a bit empty)

[This message has been edited by Geniet (edited 01-10-2007 @ 05:31 PM).]

I like the screenshot Freaky2! I think the natural items and establishments are fine as they are. However,I would suggest livening it up a bit by any means you think would be acceptable. Another positive comment is the animations, or the lack of them. It looks great as they are and looks very natural; obviously _____ (forgot his name) is speaking even without looking at the dialogue.

The wall is a bit unattractive and doesn't really look well with the rest of the seen. I think you could have found an alternative idea for the wall.

Even though the shot contains no massive eyecandy piece, it is creative.

3.4

Ok, I got one. It wasn't received well but I think its one of the best I've done. (I haven't taken many)

http://i133.photobucket.com/albums/q78/CirrowPublic/screen72.jpg

And those people are dead not swimming.

[This message has been edited by Cirrow (edited 01-10-2007 @ 06:31 PM).]

It's not bad.
I like the use of the turning tool, it makes everything more realistic and much better.
The animations are also a plus.
I like the placement of the units, such as the ice blocks in the water.
It's nothing special, or too extravagant. It seems fairly simple, kind of mid way between bad and good. Good, but not spectacular.

3.1

One thing I would do, is to enlarge the boat, so it looks a tad more realistic.

City In The Sky

@ Sesharoo

I'm not gonna write a full review here, but it'd be better at a different angle, and if you raise the ground under the buildings just enough to get them above the clouds.

Just comments because I really like these 3 shots but we all know how fast a rating could kill them all in a second.
But let's talk a bit about the good side of a rating...
Did you push it to its climax...
or not.
Trust.
Faith.

I'm going to escape I know it!!
Where did Wattson run off to? ( Here, it's only about the name. It makes me curious... )
City In The Sky

( By the way should be able to see the creator of the pic's name within the url. I have no idea who they belong to... after a while. )

If you seriously rate those 3, it's gonna take them down to... 3 maybe. But those are in my opinion ones of the best I saw recently. Because of the idea in it.
So, what is their problem? 'cause there is one, obviously.
If you have a good idea and you don't push it to the end, it's just sad.
Those are great ideas, but could have been amazing images. Because they don't look good. Which means right. When you look at them, all you feel, is only the creator didn't trust it enough to make it looking amazing. They have a huge potential... which hasn't been revealed.
A good idea which hasn't been pushed to its end is just a good idea.
We want to see the idea, but more than this, feel the trust, the strenght, the love, the... damn'! 'kind find the english word! Help! Anyway the passion the creator was feeling when he came up with the idea.
If you trust enough into something... well, we have to see it!
Translation.
The faith!
Make it comes to life.
There is a name for that:
Work!
If we see no work, no trust, no energy, no power... why should we care, or be touched. Since it just appears you didn't care enough yourself... So, why should we?
Look at some masters work. No names...
It is also beautiful!
It looks real. Since it is so in their brain. They see it. Remember what Mozart was saying. He saw the music already, and all he had to do is to find a way to show it by writting it down. And getting sOOOOoooo pissed because he couldn't write fast enough, afraid of loosing something on the way.
We smile at his music. What smile is it? The exact same smile the music put on his face when he first heard it.
Show us your smile. To make us... smile.
One thing, and last, that comes to my mind, before I let you guys rest is this:
Very good ideas, okay but those look like s... ( I'm the worst at eye-candies, BUT I put everything I've got in it. I'm just bad. )
First the light. The lighting, AoM speaking. How can you seriously make us dream with such a boring weather...
Those are good shots, so 5
They could have been amazing so... 2
Sorry for that longets OFF-Topics post.
I've been watching this interesting thread for a couple of days, needing some time to live with it.
There we go.
You should live more with your images.
Then they would be alive.
I am no master.
( Just a bit of a teacher. And I love my job. )

Hey 15!

City In The Sky 2

ok i took most of your suggestions into account and made what i belive is a slightly better screenshot. I doubt I've captured its full potentail as I'm still learned and also not as good with eye candy, but its an improvment.

Arachne's Punishment

I really love this thread! I might forget about it and not look at my evaluation though, but I'll add it to my favourites

@ Olauwers

There we are! Great! I got really scared for a split second. Pretty good considering I'm well known as a real tough guy! Stick around.

Well, I've been in the eye-candy business for a while now (started with AoE3, which doesn't hold many good units for eye-candying, and then for AoM). I almost never came to HG though, my routs are at the Eye-Candy Guild, a site dedicated to AoM and AoE3 eye-candying (which expanded to general gameplay and such too lately, and might become a design team too, notice "might").

But thanks, for the great comment on my shot! It means alot to me!

Olauwers:

Definitely a 5.
Your shot really displays the possibilities of AoM design. It has great use of lighting, smoke, objects and animations, and is truly a masterpiece. I really have nothing more to say than: Great work! We need designers like you here at AoMH.

Sesharoo:

I'll give yours a 2.25.
For creativity, I'd give it a four, but you should have done a little more work. Placing a city in the sky is quite innovative. The lighting looks nice, though I think it could maybe have added some more light to it - after all, the city is high up in the sky. As for the design itself, it's hard to see everything so I can't really comment on that.

However, the negative aspects are: You must not show undesigned areas in your screenshot! I can clearly see Grass A behind the mist, in the upper edge of the screenshot. Think more over that when you set a camera angle.

The units are also a little boring, they are standing around without doing anything - I can only see one man doing something. Make Ajax run, let the Villagers pray to the Temple, sit around or sell things! It would make the shot a lot more interesting.
Also, more buildings and units would have been great. The top of the screenshot looks dead - your city is more like a village. Place a Wonder or some other large building there, maybe even do some more overlapping. Because as I see it, just plain mist isn't really interesting.
I don't see what the Nidhogg is doing there either, it's too dark and is too much of a contrast to the city itself. Use Caladrias instead, possibly some moving Stymphalian Birds.
The last thing I would like to comment is that the elevation is flat. Higher elevation below the units would be nice, as others have commented. Try it out.

Conclusion: You had a very nice idea, but it definitely needs work.

[This message has been edited by I Love Bananas (edited 01-13-2007 @ 04:54 AM).]