Forest scene. (Considering camp fire ! )

[SinSin]

So I have been practising a Kyrandia art style.
Apart from more trees, what would you say about this image??

[Danvzare]

Beautiful.
Although the randomly placed coloured pixels on the grass, make me think that my monitor has some dead pixels.

Other than that though, it's gorgeous.

[KyriakosCH]

So I have been practising a Kyrandia art style.
Apart from more trees, what would you say about this image??

Nice

Love the early 90s style. Any link to more of your project?

[Kumpel]

Some suggestions apart from the obvious bleakness:

- The left and the middle tree look a bit odd on the base to me. Maybe add some roots that are growing out of the grass so that they look more like strong and venerable plants.
- The bush thingy has the shape of a sleeping dragon (Is it a sleeping dragon? ). It seems a bit small and very lonely compared to the scene you created. Give it a brother (or a sister). Maybe combine that one visually with the rock. Stands out too much imho.
- are these pixels on the ground leaves? maybe you should enhance these on some parts to improve that illusion.

[SinSin]

Thanks for the input.

That's no dragon, that's just poor pixeling.
As for the bush, its now not as lonely. I've also added more rocks and roots and given the sand more texture.


I've not got any other project links atm. I am working on something but I'm going to keep it on the down low until I have a substantial amount done.

Any more suggestions

[Cassiebsg]

Yes, don't forget the squirrel collecting nuts.
Lovely and very peaceful.
I like the new scene better btw. The first felt a bit empty and "nothing happening here".

[SinSin]

Thanks, 

I have to work on my composition.

I tend to draw from my minds eye (Which is generally blank)
its so strange, this started out as just me experimenting with drawing grass.

[silverwolfpet]

Quite nice! Excellent job on the details and I reaaaally love the river animation - simple yet elegant and effective ^^

I just like that there are things to see and you keep discovering new tiny tiny tiny elements as you keep staring at the background.
However, I have to agree here that the "colored pixels" - while looking nice - might make the player think there are things to pickup in those areas. Maybe reduce their number?

Looking forward to see more stuff from you and perhaps even a finished game!

[Danvzare]

That's no dragon, that's just poor pixeling.

Shh, don't tell people that you didn't intend for it to look like a dragon. Make people think you did it on purpose, so you look like a better artist.

By the way, I love the little alterations you did. Especially those little eyes poking out of that tree.

[dactylopus]

Just wanted to say that this is quite beautiful.  I think it captures some of that Kyrandia magic, which is great, because those games were some of the best looking in the genre at the time.

[Monsieur OUXX]

How many colors at most ?

The kyrandia style has two characteristics:
- very tasteful and soft (yet colorful) color scheme
- perfect use of contrast

Your color scheme is very good BUT considering how flat the ground is, maybe you should reduce the contrast of the "horizontal" grassy surfaces, to make it look softer and less busy.

The benefit of doing so is that it will make the ground compete less with the character and other important visual elements, in the eye of the player.

The easy way of reducing the contrast would be to remove the darker green shades (from the foreground only!), and stick to two shades of green there (I counted 4 shades of green)

======
EXAMPLE: Look at this part, and pretend that the shiny central part doesn't exist. Then all the surrounding grassy parts (in the foreground) have a low contrast. the rocks however have a high contrast.

Spoiler

[close]

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Reversely, you made the foreground bush too contrasted in comparison with the rest of the scene. I wouldn't use the black color there, unless you also use it on the trees/rocks.

======
Finally, for your next background, always think of ways to make the ground NOT FLAT. See how they did in Kyrandia. It makes every scene more immersive.

[SinSin]

Thanks for your comments and tips. I'm working today but if I can find some time this weekend I'll update and try your ammendments Ouxx.(46 colours in my whole pallette btw) 

Edit


I may edit the lighting on this somewhat and then re update. Im kinda happy with where I am in terms of my Kyrandia style now (yes its not KYRANDIA Exactly IMA)   but its my own spin.   Honestly I've been working on my art style periodically for 11 years now. and this is possibly my best piece to date, please go easy on me lol..   

For now I am going to continue with my title..    Thanks to all again who commented ! 

[Mouth for war]

Nice work! It's easy on the eyes and looks pleasant. I would like to see a small wooden bridge at the water though. That kind that bends...you know....curved/semi-cylindrical or how the hell to explain it haha Good work !!!

[Cassiebsg]

Nice work! And great fire effect on the trees and surrounding too!
However, my brains keeps telling me that, according to the amount of effect, that I'm looking at a huge fire... but only it's only a little one. Don't think it should give that violent flicker where you put it (due to being so far away), and then the ground/grass has nothing at all, where I would expect to see some.

Otherwise, it looks awesome! Good job!

[Danvzare]

However, my brains keeps telling me that, according to the amount of effect, that I'm looking at a huge fire... but only it's only a little one. Don't think it should give that violent flicker where you put it (due to being so far away), and then the ground/grass has nothing at all, where I would expect to see some.

Agreed, the flicker is too noticeable when compared to the size of the flame, and the fact that it's the daytime.
But it's still a really great picture. And as everyone knows, you can edit a picture indefinitely.

[KyriakosCH]

Very good work, SinSin!
Love the shadow play on the left tree.

[Darth Mandarb]

Great progression! I think this would serve just fine as a background in a game but it could still be improved a bit!

The issue I have is telling what time of day it is. Some indicators would point to night time such as the fade-out in the top/back of the scene and the light play on the trees from the torch. Yet the shading of the water and the foreground shrub seem more day-time to me!

I feel it leans more towards night so I did a quick (down and dirty) paint-over with some lighting suggestions. It's far from perfect but it illustrates the ideas well enough.



I just used quick brushes and wasn't "pixel" perfect (as the image was resized so it wasn't 1 to 1 to work on) so you'd want to redo this with pixel precision (not the super soft blurriness of this paint-over). If you shaded like this (maybe not so dark) and put that flickering light pattern back in I think this would be a near perfect BG!

Good luck and I hope this helps!

[SinSin]

Nice work! It's easy on the eyes and looks pleasant. I would like to see a small wooden bridge at the water though. That kind that bends...you know....curved/semi-cylindrical or how the hell to explain it haha Good work !!!

Very good work, SinSin!
Love the shadow play on the left tree.

Thanks guys.

Nice work! And great fire effect on the trees and surrounding too!
However, my brains keeps telling me that, according to the amount of effect, that I'm looking at a huge fire... but only it's only a little one. Don't think it should give that violent flicker where you put it (due to being so far away), and then the ground/grass has nothing at all, where I would expect to see some.

Otherwise, it looks awesome! Good job!

However, my brains keeps telling me that, according to the amount of effect, that I'm looking at a huge fire... but only it's only a little one. Don't think it should give that violent flicker where you put it (due to being so far away), and then the ground/grass has nothing at all, where I would expect to see some.

Agreed, the flicker is too noticeable when compared to the size of the flame, and the fact that it's the daytime.
But it's still a really great picture. And as everyone knows, you can edit a picture indefinitely.

I've set about increasing the size of the torch, Nice idea regarding the bridge.

Great progression! I think this would serve just fine as a background in a game but it could still be improved a bit!

The issue I have is telling what time of day it is. Some indicators would point to night time such as the fade-out in the top/back of the scene and the light play on the trees from the torch. Yet the shading of the water and the foreground shrub seem more day-time to me!

I feel it leans more towards night so I did a quick (down and dirty) paint-over with some lighting suggestions. It's far from perfect but it illustrates the ideas well enough.

I just used quick brushes and wasn't "pixel" perfect (as the image was resized so it wasn't 1 to 1 to work on) so you'd want to redo this with pixel precision (not the super soft blurriness of this paint-over). If you shaded like this (maybe not so dark) and put that flickering light pattern back in I think this would be a near perfect BG!

Good luck and I hope this helps!

Thanks Darth, I love your paint over it has given it some great atmosphere.
I will give it a go and will report back ASAC 

Thanks again to everyone who has commented so far.


EDIT   Im not totally happy with the torch,  I may tweak it so that it is a camp fire..

[Danvzare]

Ooh, now that looks perfect. At least to me. I'm sure someone could think of something that could be improved upon. But it looks perfect to me.

[Kumpel]

These tiny eyes need blinking maybe after 30 seconds or so

[Cassiebsg]

These tiny eyes need blinking maybe after 30 seconds or so

+1

Was just thinking the same.

Looks great now.

[Darth Mandarb]

Ah! GREAT job!

The only thing left I would suggest is to make the same flickering light pattern on the grass/area around the torch too (maybe make the shadow of the torch poles "dance" a little too)!

Here's a similar example of something I did a few years ago:



Aside from that I think this has been another great example of the CL taking a BG from good to great!

[Frikker]

Great suggestions everyone! , Adding to the flicker topic, I feel that you would get the actual colour of the flame in the areas highlighted by it, like in Darth's example above, you can see the yellow of the flame on the areas affected by it. your scene has got a lot darker now, so it looks as if the primary light source is the torch, but the colour of the overall scene does not match in my opinon. Just needs more yellow/orange, especially in the flicker affected areas. hope this helps

[Mouth for war]

Darth is that from my game? I remember asking for some help with lighting and you provided that help sorry about going OT. Your bg looks really good!!!

[Darth Mandarb]

Darth is that from my game? I remember asking for some help with lighting and you provided that help

Yessir I believe it is/was!

SinSin - any update on the BG? I'd love to see how it turned out!

[SinSin]

Sorry to disappoint you folks but there has been no further updates as of yet.

Thanks for asking though I will update (at some point) so keep an eye out peeps 

[Matsui]

Really very nice. The changes you've made are good.

I'm no artist so i may be talking nonsense but maybe the ground around the flame should be a little more lit and flickering.