Topic: KQ4

[Karens]

Anyone familiar with the King's Quest saga, please give some feedback or criticism, preferably of the constructive sort


The royal family, not sure if King Graham looks a bit... ugly?



and Lolotte so far,, still need to tweak the dress, but, maybe she's a little boring..



and Genesta, Im happy with her so far,, kinda looks like a child though;:

[antipus]

Wonderful, creative work!

The faces are different from the original look, but I actually really like the 3d treatment you've given them. Genesta, in particular, is a completely different look, but in the original KQ4, I always thought Genesta was unattractive, particularly in close-ups. The ears and big eyes give her a nice, ethereal quality.

My criticism is mostly on the texture of the clothes. Graham's tunic, in particular, looks like stretchy latex, and is so tight, it shows his ribs. That particular costume would fit Spider-Man better than the King of Daventry!  Other than that, I love Graham's face, although I could go for some more gray in the hair and some wrinkles (he's retiring, remember?).

Wonderful models, and beautiful colors!

[Karens]

Thanks Antipus ,
 I guess I assumed the pics would be scaled down and you wouldn't notice the fine details of the clothes,, (a 640X400 res with a black frame),
but I can tone down the shine and specular quality of the fabric, it does look a little cheap here and there, I agree,

and looking at Lolotte now she kinda looks like Yoda's evil half sister.. XD

[Tabata]

I like the characters and how they are done except the breasts of the women, because it reminds me more as if they got their skin painted than like wearing clothes.  :

[Karens]

I like the characters and how they are done except the breasts of the women, because it reminds me more as if they got their skin painted than like wearing clothes.  :

yeah, that sucks, I've already tried to remedy the problem, but the clothes still look too tight. It's going to be less visible when scaled down, the models, but I will loosen the clothes even more, thanks for the observation, I appreciate it Tabata

[Tabata]

A wrapped breast has a very a different shape - even in a corset you  won't find the shown effect between the breasts.

I don't have any skills with those programs, but you/the program may get a more realistic results in creating the clothes without using a real formed breast at the body?  :

[Karens]

Uploading two different versions; one with got more 'realistic' lighting than the other one with more uniform lighting and colors. Which one do you prefer and what do you think about the saturation of colors and contrast/brightness/darkness?
Other ideas and c&c would be greatly appreciated too

[Tabata]

That is extremely impressive! 

I prefer no. 1 with the intense reflections. The water tank is crazy good!  :o
Only the shadowed corner near the fireplace I prefer in no. 2, since the individual objects are to be seen much better there (the candles,  churn and kitchen appliances).

[Anian]

It usually isn't about realism or uniform (for the sake of lighting everything) but you should use the light sources to draw attention to things that are important, to draw the eyes to significant things and at the same time you can use less details and hide in the shadows things that don't need to be used/interacted etc.

But all in all I prefer no. 1. as well, it looks more dramatic.

[Babar]

I'd go with the 2nd one, simply because it'll probably be way easier for you to integrate your characters into the backgrounds in-game.

AGS has a few lighting/shading functions (shade/brighten/tint the whole character by a specific amount or colour), and you could probably have a few more coded in (characters having shadows, etc.), but even with that, you'd run the risk of the characters looking out of place, as if they'd been pasted onto the screen. This particular room may not be all that problematic (except maybe if the player moved the character to the left, shaded side of the bench so that technically, part of the character should be lit, and the feet should be in shadow), but you'd definitely run into problems in later backrounds.

[Karens]

THanks,  and that's a great way to explain how to use light! put the less important things in shadow,
I sometimes use shadow to accentuate objects, the more pronounced they are,  the stronger the shadow,, but contrast in pics is really hard to get right, too little and it'll feel bland and boring, flat and uniform. Too much and the pic will look fragmented and disconnected,

I think nr1 is best too, it's only got one light source coming from the window including some atmosphere and sky. The other one has 2 more lights,, as a result you see everything, which also makes it a bit flatter,

I think Im gonna go for a compromise and use nr1, but brighten up the darkest shadows like behind the fireplace etc, but try to keep the dramatic feel without making the animated sprite look out of place,

the kitchen belongs to the ghostly mansion, and is actually extremely similar to the kitchen in KQ3 in Mannanan's house, which I did a few months back to get some experience, it turned out way too bright and washed out;







as for dramatic lights, I did a 3d pic of Rosella being cooked by the 3 witches where I deliberately put in some intense green atmosphere and lights for all the witches respectively, maybe not too realistic, but it kinda looks like a storybook illustration, maybe I should try to keep it like that for the in-game graphics too;

[Lambonius]

You do realize that those witches are supposed to have no eyes, right?

[Karens]

Hey Lambonius,  and yeah, I know, I actually did some tests and it turned out with no eyes or just one they looked,, well,, weird... , so I decided to leave it out,, though this is just an illustration (not in-game),

[Tabata]

How about to lift the eye a bit more and place it, where the "third eye" is used to be?

[Karens]

How about to lift the eye a bit more and place it, where the "third eye" is used to be?

Yeah, that could work! I'll defin. consider that when Im creating the in-agme art of the witches,


Uploading 4 different different versions of the frogpond -during evening/night,, not sure what looks best?

[reagel]

I love the scene by day. The sky and the pool are magnificent! And birch trees.. I love birch trees!

Something seems off to me about all four of the night scenes though. They look more like viewing a day scene through heavy sunglasses rather then being outside at night. I think one issue is the clouds: at twilight and at night, clouds should appear darker, not lighter than the sky around them (unless they are lit by very strong moonlight, for example, but that isn't supported by the rest of your scene).

Also, all the colors seem equally dimmed. At twilight, usually blues seem to become more luminous, while reds  begin to look blacker (Again, except when there is a strong red sunset, but that doesn't seem to be the case here). I think the sky and the sky reflected in the pool look too greyed out in all of the four examples. I would suggest making the sky and pool a richer, more luminous blue, and then slightly highlight the white tree trunks and darken the red flowers.

During the day, the light is coming from the sky, but also from the reflected sunlight off the bright ground and grass. As you approach evening and night, though, the greatest source of light should be the sky, followed by the reflections in the pool. They should be much brighter than the surrounding landscape. They really should 'glow' a bit.

Hopefully that makes sense! I really do love your screenshots so far. This is a very exciting project!

[Karens]

mmm!, guess they're not dark enough, and yeah, the sky doesn't really look right either,
 I made a new one, though more of a moonlit atmosphere instead of a sunset with darker skies,
I also put in some extra color and brightness in the water, nice idea,

nr2 has more of an environment light while in nr 1 I added a strong blue light in front of the scene, I think I like that one the best,
 Im not sure if it's too dark though... ?

[reagel]

Wow, what a difference!

I'm torn between the images, personally. I love the blue light in number one and the way the tree trunks 'pop' a little bit, but I think the lightness of the sky in number 2 creates a beautiful atmosphere. There's more contrast, glow, and drama to that image.

The way you've done the clouds and stars is perfect, I think. It really looks like the very last trace of sun setting behind the pines (or just the beginning of moonrise) is lighting the clouds at the horizon. Very nice!

[Karens]

Yeah, I second that, the lighter sky is actually much better, more dramatic.
I'll go for the blue one then and keep the lighter sky,

thanks for the help Reagel!:D

[Tabata]

The night sky is a big progress! Nontheless I'd like to see a bit of the moon (to make an extra reflection in the lake). In that case you could go with number 2 because of more light resource in it.

The only thing, that is a bit strange to me are all those flowers opened during nighttime.  :