Dream sequence bg outline

[Ptraci]

Hello everyone.

It's been a while since I last visited this forums and got some basic notions on how to start a game using AGS (maybe a year or so) and now, when I've almost forgotten anything I could have learnt back then, I'd like to get some practice working on a real project.

I wrote a short dream/awakening sequence to work with, but I'm having some troubles with bg design.

In this sequence, the main character walks on a floating platform that appears to be above his bedroom, and he can see himself if he looks down.

So I tried to make an outline of both things, but they don't look right together. Here's the result:



What do you think?

[esper]

The platform is using the same perspective as the rest of the room, meaning it's at an extreme angle, and rather than looking down at himself the character would be tumbling off the platform and landing on himself, which I think according to the laws of causality would cause the universe to implode. You don't want that, so I must offer you the following advice:

Don't draw the platform in perspective. It's flat at the angle you are looking at it.

Not to mention the room is very tall. And the bed is laid into the floor... Make it coming up the side of the wall, the same way the doors are coming up the wall.

[Ptraci]

No, I don't want the universe to implode XDD Thank you for your help ^_^

The problem is that I don't want the platform to be seen from above, with head+shoulders characters standing on it, and I don't know if normal standing characters would fit at all on a flat platform. I don't know how to solve this :S

Don't worry about the appearance of the room, by the moment it is more or less like a house in construction, flat surfaces with tings chalked on it to show where furniture (and in this case doors) would be

The room is that tall on purpose, just for the dream. When the character gets up, things go back to normality

[esper]

Understood.

Why don't you post what the room looks like normally (if you have it ready, or at least a rough sketch if you have that). Perhaps there's a way around the quandary at hand other than using this particular angle.... because, like I said, at that angle it would be very weird and unnatural to have the character walk on that platform. However, what you could do is this:

Since it's a dream sequence, you could put the platform into perspective with the rest of the room and have the character walk around on it to where looking away from the camera would be looking STRAIGHT DOWN AT THE FLOOR, and looking toward the camera would be LOOKING STRAIGHT UP AT THE CEILING. This would work a bit better, I think, since it's a dream and the character could very plausibly be on such an incline angle in a paranormal world. However, at it's present angle, it's just floppy, weird, and out of perspective.

That is, if the only reason you DON'T want to do it straight is because you don't feel like making a seperate head and shoulders sprite for your character.

Also, look at the size of the area the character would be walking on in comparison the the rest of the room. The walking areas should be much bigger, since the character is noticeably much closer to the camera and would therefore appear to be quite large.

[Revan]

I think the only thing wrong with this is as it currently stands the platform looks like it's going through the roof of the room, the perspective prblem is making it look like that....... but as it is a dream it doesn'y really matter (all i would do is maybe not put a roof in....... say just put a wiered space or night bg)

[Neutron]

download a 3d program ( blender for instance ) and use it to set up your lines, then just take a screen render ( in blender it's the little square button that looks like a picture on the main header ), and use it as a template for your room.  if you like to set up your rooms with lines like this, it's a much faster way, and making adjustments is as easy as translating the view.