First background for first game

[Dropped Monocle Games]

Hey guys and gals, we have just started our first game and this is my first "real" try at making a background using my graphics tablet,
I would love some feedback on how I can improve on this (or how much you love my work?  )
I have never been very good at getting perspectives correct, so I'm unsure about the line of trees on the left and the boulder on the right.

Thanks
[imgzoom]http://i.imgur.com/eDytchM.jpg[/imgzoom]

[Anian]

A few observations:
- that end of forest is just a bit too clean, unless it's a man planted forest, it's usually not that straight of a cut
- the part at the end of the forest, after the first hill lines, what is that? I just don't get what it is, a dust cloud with a ridge at the top or what? And it's almost in the middle of the screen as well
- one thing to watch out when drawing clouds (well most of the time), at least I try to make the both ends of them be in the same height otherwise the cloud looks crooked, like it is here. And add more of them.
- try making/sketching boulders as if they're made of separate circles/clumps (you can make them sharper in the final drawing if you want), it will also make it easier to shade and paint, because you probably know how to shade a basic ball
- add more things, add another rock somewhere, more blades of grass here and there add logs around the fireplace (like for sitting around it), add tree stumps, flowers
- one thing about the trees, they generally look ok, but what might make much better is... hold on let me find a tutorial *sound of googling* ...there it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLieqskA3eY - you can draw your own leaves, but watch how he positions them on a tree, he makes smaller circles and draws leaves on the end of them, right now you're drawing fine, but some of your leaves just get too big, this is how you can make them more controlled

Hope that helps. You're doing fine with the new tablet.

[Dropped Monocle Games]

Thank you for your advice!
This background is meant to have a cartoony aztec feel,
I have changed the size of the leaves by following that video and also the tree line, adding some trees and bushes on the mountains and hills to give it more of a random feel!
Don't really understand what you meant about the clouds, but I have tried to make them less crooked and added one then one!
I think the boulder looks better now using your advice as well as adding more things like grass and stones (but the first image was more of a concept that I was planning to add more too once I had the perspective fixed)
I would still like to know if the perspective here works?

[imgzoom]http://i.imgur.com/pLxNVhF.png[/imgzoom]

[cat]

Nice work on the trees! I also like your clouds, don't see anything wrong with them. The boulder reminds me of a big turtle now, but this might just be me I'd move the fireplace a bit up so it's not cut at the bottom.

[Anian]

Wow, you work quickly. It looks nice.

- you don't have anything that is so deep or inorganic (like a boxy house or paths) that actually would show if the perspective is severely broken. Maybe that path coming from the woods - if you take that the horizon line is...well the horizon (somewhere at the bottom of those farthest mountains, about half the height of the drawing) - the path would not be viewed from so much above (you've drawn it like you're above it almost), but be a bit flatter/narrower, since it's viewed from the side slightly. Take for example the fireplace, you drew it almost from the side and it's on the same level as the path from the forest, so the path should be also from the side slightly (just a bit narrower).
But that is just fine tuning.

- those trees on the mountain in the middle again look kind of "artificial" in their position/grouping, that's probably work in progress, so nevermind

- the first horizontal line (from the bottom), might be ok if you're going for an Aztec blocky feel, but as is, it just looks like one of the mountains. In reality it would probably be less pointy, since it's actually close to the camera (it's not far away, so we still see the details and you can't just simplify the line into a pointy straight line).

- clouds (as you did them) end with pointy ends, if those points aren't on the same height, sometimes the whole cloud can seem like it's crooked (like it's leaning to one side or the other), just have to be watchfull of that, that's all. It seems okay now.

[Dropped Monocle Games]

-I have moved the fireplace / coals up, Thank you Cat

-The path is narrower now, hoping this lines up better with what you said Anian

-Also added a lot more tress to the mountains, still not sure if it looks better or not, just can't seem to get my head around that part

-have smoothed the blockyness from the horizontal line in the foreground, I still wanted to keep the angles as that is the feel I'm going for

-I understand what you mean about the clouds now, pretty happy with them like this for now, may get rid of them and just have a open blue sky but that may make it look to boring!

Thank you again for the advice, and taking your time to help me and I'm going to keep working on it

[imgzoom]http://i.imgur.com/P5kqeZe.png[/imgzoom]

[Armageddon]

Huge improvements there, good job.

The main thing that is still lacking is the center right area, it's so flat and plain no detail, no idea if you can walk there or not. I'm not sure if this is a tropical jungle or a Scottish mountain range. Also on the right center where the mountains end, I don't feel like the horizon line is that low, it seems like the sun is sitting in a void, add some straighter mountain lines maybe?

[Dropped Monocle Games]

Somewhere in the Aztec region of Central America, way back in time!
I think I have made improvements on what you pointed out...? I may start to try out colours
[imgzoom]http://i.imgur.com/cFNwzGa.png[/imgzoom]

[Dropped Monocle Games]

the title of this post is wrong now, as this is now my second game but here is what this background looks like now
[imgzoom]http://i.imgur.com/MWzehM7.png[/imgzoom]
What do you think?

[Gribbler]

I think it looks great. I love the blur on the leftmost tree. Very Broken Sword like.

[Armageddon]

Looking really good. I think the sun should be more defined and look brighter, light up the sky a bit along with having proper shadows on the mountains since they are so defined for the logs and tiny bushes. More grass blades would probably work too.

[Eric]

I feel as though the angle of the shadows on the trees on the left are a bit too far to the left. Otherwise, and agreeing with Armageddon's notes, I think this looks lovely.

[Khris]

Yes, it's a great background, the shadows are too short though. No matter the angle of the ground or the position of the sun, a point and its shadow will always line up with the light source.

[Armageddon]

I think it's weird because he's drawing the shadows as a perspective point from the sun, which is entirely wrong considering the suns light field of view is pretty much infinite. So the rocks on the left are casting a shadow to the right while the trees in the left are casting a shadow to the left. Makes no sense. Also for the colors used I think it should be more sunset, the sky should be less blue, right now the scene looks so bland and eye straining piss yellow.

[Khris]

It's actually totally correct, given that the sun's distance can be considered as pretty much infinite, which makes the direction of the shadows parallel "IRL", which in turn makes them meet in a vanishing point (which is always directly above or below the sun, depending on the angle of the ground).

[Eric]

[jwalt]

Very much nit picking, since I like the image. Wondering if the Aztec had axes capable of "sawing" that straight of a line on the log ends near the fire pit? I'd guess they could, indeed, use a hand axe to trim a straight edge, but would they have done it for a simple seat around a firepit? Just curious. Must be the frustrated Boy Scout in me.

[dactylopus]

That's a wonderful background!

I think the tree in the foreground might be too blurry.  Making it blur is good, though.  You might also want to blur the deep background some.

Well done!

[selmiak]

This looks very nice.
Giving the sky a more torquise-to-white colortint makes the sky look less rainy and using a really bright yellow, almost white with a glow effect for the sun could also look better.

[Dropped Monocle Games]

so after reading all the comments and trying to take it all on board, here is the updated version
•not so much of a piss yellow feel
•changed the colour of the sky and the sun (moved the sun higher too, for a different time of day)
•foreground tree has less blur
•made the shadows lighter to fit more with the colours??
•tried blurring deeper background elements but wasn't happy with the look, so changed it back
•also tried making the shadows longer but felt it was too overpowering

Thanks everyone for the input, I feel like I'm learning alot about backgrounds