Background Blitz - Mystic's House - WINNERS ANNOUNCED!

[Grok]

My vote

Concept: Sox
Artistic Execution: Ykni
Playability: Grundislav

[Snarky]

You can open a thread on this forum if you like, loomie. (There's some rule against starting threads here without permission: Well, I officially give you permission.)

My votes:

Concept: Lots of wacky ideas, as well as some more "traditional" mystic dwellings, but I think I have to give this one to Grundislav, who manages to make a pretty normal-looking house look proper spooky.

Artistic Execution: Well, it's got to be Daniel Thomas, right? Just gorgeous. Would like to offer constructive criticism, but apart from the subjective taste of "it's a bit too much lilac for me", I can't really say anything.

There was plenty to like in many of the entries here too, though. Aikex WIP version was really nice, but I feel the final entry is a bit too muddy, and doesn't quite have the lightsources right. For Anke's pixel style, I think it could be improved immensely just by adjusting the colors: however, coloring is one of the things I find most difficult, so I can't really offer any advice. I find the high-contrast lighting of Cassiebsg's bg quite appealing, just wish the composition had done more with the backlit foliage.  Sox's screen is also nice to look at, but a bit more variation in the values would help organize it more clearly: currently it seems a bit jumbled. Finally, Ykni has a very nice technique, but the composition isn't entirely convincing, with the way the foreground branches are arranged to frame the scene looking rather fake. Grok and JudasFM have the basics down pretty well, and I think it's just a matter of practice to improve further. For TGames, I would recommend trying to get away from "symbolic" drawing, where you draw the idea of a house or of a mountain or a path, and try to really focus on representing how a specific example actually looks in detail. And one great way to work on that is to practice sketching and drawing from life or photo reference, not just from your imagination.

Playability: Most of the backgrounds look fairly playable, though some would require pretty major character scaling to work. I have some doubt about JWalt's (I'm not sure where the exit is, for example), and with Grok's I get the impression that the player would be squeezed up against the bottom of the screen. Sox's screen probably offers the most interactivity, but it's almost too much for me: I feel overwhelmed. In the end it's down to Anke or Daniel Thomas, and I'll give it to Daniel (despite some concerns about the scaling, screen edges and about the walkable areas: can the player walk on water?) because the screen makes more sense to me: my first impression of Anke's screen is that the objects in the scenery (notably the crate and flashlight) are somewhat arbitrary, like they only exist for the sake of some puzzle, not for any good in-game reason.

[Dropped Monocle Games]

Concept: I am going to choose Grok, I love me some floating eye castle action!
Artistic Execution:  Daniel Thomas you art is just so beautiful!
Playability: I don't see why any of the backgrounds couldn't be used in a real game :/ but I have to choose one, so I'm gonna go with Anke I'm not really into pixal art but this looks like it would be the simplest to set up as a background

I'm more then happy to get feedback on my background, I'm trying to improve and I'm still very much learning!
Snarky do you think you could maybe go into more detail with what you meant here, maybe in a PM

  Sox's screen is also nice to look at, but a bit more variation in the values would help organize it more clearly: currently it seems a bit jumbled.

[Gilbert]

Which would be the appropriate sub forum to discuss another workshop? Preferably in an exclusive thread.

I think you may just start a thread here, putting [Discussion] in the subject title. Just tell us to lock it once it's done for.

[JudasFm]

Grok and JudasFM have the basics down pretty well, and I think it's just a matter of practice to improve further.

Thanks for the comment.  If you have time, are there any glaring areas that you think need a lot of work? (If so, PM is fine to avoid hijacking the thread! Either way, don't worry if you're busy) I'm always after constructive criticism, especially since this is my first serious piece and I want to avoid getting into any bad habits, if that makes sense.

[Snarky]

Grok and JudasFM have the basics down pretty well, and I think it's just a matter of practice to improve further.

Thanks for the comment.  If you have time, are there any glaring areas that you think need a lot of work? (If so, PM is fine to avoid hijacking the thread! Either way, don't worry if you're busy) I'm always after constructive criticism, especially since this is my first serious piece and I want to avoid getting into any bad habits, if that makes sense.

I tend to think a little bit of C&C is fine in these threads, since most artists competing appreciate feedback, and it can be interesting for others to read as well. Of course, there are people way more qualified than me, but I guess I should explain my vague criticism.

JudasFM, for a "first serious piece" I think this is great! You'll no doubt improve a lot through practice, but I don't can't see any particular aspects that are glaringly problematic for the level you're at. However, here are a few things you might want to work on:

Let me first say that I'm not sure I understand the piece 100%. You talk about a platypus... are the islands supposed to be the animal, with the bill on the left? I don't really see it; maybe making them more clearly animal-shaped, not just "round things sticking up of the water" would help. I also don't think it's entirely clear that there's a waterfall behind there: the rushing water isn't quite successful, and shouldn't there be some sign of a current before you get right to the edge? It's hard to convey from this perspective, and I would probably experiment with the composition so we're not at risk of mistaking the waterfall for the horizon, maybe add some rocks and stuff to the edge, and maybe let us see a bit more of the riverbank.

The other point is that the sky is gray but the water is very high-saturation blue. In fact, the color of water is mostly reflected sky, so it should more or less match. Even if you're going for a cartoony style, I would try to keep them relatively close in hue and saturation. Apart from that, I like how you've done the water. That same technique doesn't work quite as well for other objects, though, with the soft brushes making them look either blurry or a bit plasticky (even if you've tried to add texture to the house). I think the way you've done the steps looks better in terms of "finish". I'd also recommend varying hues more across objects, and not to keep the saturation cranked up all the way on everything: the way you've done the grass is quite nice in these respects, and you could apply a similar technique to the islands, hut and roof.

Beware of texture brushes (the thatched roof, the wall texture) and 3D-rendered objects (that curved log in the water, right?). They're a shortcut, but they don't blend well with hand-drawn elements, and you're better off doing as best you can on your own.

Finally, it's a small thing, but you want to make sure the painting extends all the way to the edge of the canvas, not leave a fringe of unpainted "paper" along the edge. You can also end up with unintentional effects where some level of the drawing (the highlights or the shadows, for example) are much sparser or look different by the edge, because they're harder to draw there or you had to use vertical strokes instead of horizontal ones, for example. Therefore, I usually make my canvas 10 pixels wider than I'll need on each side, and then crop off the edges again after I'm done.

Hmmm yeah, I think that's all I have. Nice work!

I'm more then happy to get feedback on my background, I'm trying to improve and I'm still very much learning!
Snarky do you think you could maybe go into more detail with what you meant here, maybe in a PM

  Sox's screen is also nice to look at, but a bit more variation in the values would help organize it more clearly: currently it seems a bit jumbled.

Well, there's a lot going on in your background, and like I said, I think it can be a bit overwhelming. So I think it would be nice if you could help viewers break it down, lead their eyes to the most important things, maybe organize it into different "zones" of focus (which would also help establish depth in the image). And one device I believe is helpful to do that is to use values (brightness/contrast). Currently you have no shading, and apart from the house being the brightest thing, everything seems to have more or less the same prominence. Whatever I look at, there's something nearby drawing my attention away, and I get stressed.

Instead, I think you should push some regions towards darkness, and selectively compress the range (effectively reduce the contrast), in order to deemphasize a lot of the background "noise". For example, the white fence around the tree behind the scarecrow. Is it important? It has some of the highest contrast against its surroundings of anything in the whole picture, and is located quite centrally, so it's drawing a lot of attention. It would perhaps be better to make it gray, or even a wood color close to the trees, etc.

I also think a bit of even very simple, flat shading would help the image "read" much better. You might also think a bit about how objects acquire a color cast from their surroundings (Daniel Thomas's piece is a great illustration of that): this would help tie each image region together.

Hope that helps!

[JudasFm]

Let me first say that I'm not sure I understand the piece 100%. You talk about a platypus... are the islands supposed to be the animal, with the bill on the left? I don't really see it; maybe making them more clearly animal-shaped, not just "round things sticking up of the water" would help. I also don't think it's entirely clear that there's a waterfall behind there: the rushing water isn't quite successful, and shouldn't there be some sign of a current before you get right to the edge? It's hard to convey from this perspective, and I would probably experiment with the composition so we're not at risk of mistaking the waterfall for the horizon, maybe add some rocks and stuff to the edge, and maybe let us see a bit more of the riverbank.

Actually, the gray thing is the tail; the house is built on the back of the platypus and the other round island is its head. I tried several times to put the bill in, but it didn't work; the head is so low down in the water that it would just have looked odd.

The other point is that the sky is gray but the water is very high-saturation blue. In fact, the color of water is mostly reflected sky, so it should more or less match. Even if you're going for a cartoony style, I would try to keep them relatively close in hue and saturation. Apart from that, I like how you've done the water. That same technique doesn't work quite as well for other objects, though, with the soft brushes making them look either blurry or a bit plasticky (even if you've tried to add texture to the house). I think the way you've done the steps looks better in terms of "finish". I'd also recommend varying hues more across objects, and not to keep the saturation cranked up all the way on everything: the way you've done the grass is quite nice in these respects, and you could apply a similar technique to the islands, hut and roof.

I'm sorry but I don't understand what you mean by saturation. Although I have a couple of favorite brushes I use - mostly for shading in the ground and sky - my entire artistic technique consists of drafting in single solid blocks of color, and then using Dodge and Burn and occasionally various Blenders to get the shading and light effects that I want (I said I was a beginner ) I see what you mean about the water though; I'll definitely bear that in mind for future pieces

Beware of texture brushes (the thatched roof, the wall texture) and 3D-rendered objects (that curved log in the water, right?). They're a shortcut, but they don't blend well with hand-drawn elements, and you're better off doing as best you can on your own.

Just to clarify here: the thatched roof is a texture brush, but the wall isn't (done with Dodge, Burn and a rough blender). The curved log was also hand-drawn; I feel the same way you do about 3D-rendered objects in a hand-drawn painting, so I never use them (plus, the 3D options in TB kind of suck!) Still, I'll try and make my hand-drawn 2D stuff look a little more 2D in the future

Finally, it's a small thing, but you want to make sure the painting extends all the way to the edge of the canvas, not leave a fringe of unpainted "paper" along the edge. You can also end up with unintentional effects where some level of the drawing (the highlights or the shadows, for example) are much sparser or look different by the edge, because they're harder to draw there or you had to use vertical strokes instead of horizontal ones, for example. Therefore, I usually make my canvas 10 pixels wider than I'll need on each side, and then crop off the edges again after I'm done.

Yes, I can see exactly what you mean. Again, really good advice; I'll be sure to do that next time :-) Thanks so much for taking the time to write such a detailed crit; it's really helped me!

[Eric]

I'm sorry but I don't understand what you mean by saturation.

I find this helps people understand it:

[JudasFm]

Yep, got it now Thanks!

[Ykni]

Just for the record. I do appreciate the feedback on my background, so thanks for that Snarky.
I usually make portrait backgrounds for the puzzle pirates competition, so making actual game backgrounds is rather new for me. In the portrait background competition thread we use that thread to post our work from early sketches to the final work. That way it's a constant process of giving and receiving feedback and advice. I really love to see all these works in the early stages and to get feedback during the making of my backgrounds. Would that be something that we could do here as well?

[[delete}]

Concept: Grundislav - The real magically gifted and ghost-seing people probably hide behind a generic, normal-boring house. A clever idea, Ben Jordan knows this of course.
Artistic Execution: Ykni - The feel of hiding while stalking this magical place appeals to me. The leafs on the left and the needles on the right evoke that intimate voyeur feeling.
Playability: TGames - Driving with my top-down car sprite upwards to the hill mansion could be fun. There are never enough top-down racing games.

Honourable mention for matte-painting master Daniel Thomas - a mail box in a tree stump and the spectacular pink light. At this level, you are in a competition league of your own, sorry.

[Cassiebsg]

Thanks for the feedback Snarky.
I'll see if I can do anything about it (assuming I guess right about what yo talking about) and post it on the critics lounge at a later time, for bashing.

[GreenBeams]

Okaaay, TIME, Ladies and Gentlemen, please! it's been a wonderful and enlightening time this month and i'm glad so many of you turned up to take part or chip in. Please feel free to take some of the curly, meat paste sandwiches home and there's still some of that strange greenish dip no-one has touched. Anyone? No? Ok, well, you weren't that shy when it came to the chocolate cake and breadsticks is all i can say...

The results are as follows!


in joint third place are:

Spoiler

Grundislav! and Ykni!

[close]

Second place goes to:

Spoiler

Anke!

[close]

Aaaaaaand first place goes to:

Spoiler

Daniel Thomas!

[close]

Fantastic show, everyone and well done to the winners! Thanks so much for turning up and, seriously, that dip, someone please take it...

[aikex222]

Congrats to the winners

[Daniel Thomas]

Thanks guys! I'll have another one up and running in the next couple of days.

[JudasFm]

Congrats!

[Ykni]

Woot Thanks to all the people that voted for my entry and a big applause for all the participants and GreenBeams for making this a fun competition.
Congratulations to all the winners!

[Mandle]

* Mandle tries the dip...

**GURGLE**

URGH!!! I don't have a drawing tablet so my time over the next few days or weeks in the little boy's room may prevent me from entering the next contest...

But: Awesome congratz to the winners and awesome kudos to all the participants...

Erm...speaking of pants...I have been at my keyboard a tad too long and...

DAMNED DIP!!!

[Anke]

Congratulations to the winners! And wonderful entries, everyone.


This Blitz was a lot of fun, but - second place?! How on earth did that happen? To say that it's unexpected might be the understatement of the century. Thanks for all the votes! Very encouraging. Probably should pay a visit to Critics' Lounge one day. In the meantime I'll grab the wonderful trophy with boths hands.

[...]my first impression of Anke's screen is that the objects in the scenery (notably the crate and flashlight) are somewhat arbitrary, like they only exist for the sake of some puzzle, not for any good in-game reason.

If only. But you are right, I did it for the wrong reasons. Should have left the damn flashlight out, but I cut out the light source at the right side just before the finish line and needed a new one. (God, this sounds a lot worse then your assumption. Let's stay with the puzzle theory instead. )