cliff

[viktor]

I did this background for my new project. And I don't like it to much. The grass looks to flat and I don't know how to fix that without making it look bad. I'm going for a stile without to much shading so this turned out dificult. I shure would apreciate some help.

[Gilbert]

I think two of your choices are:
1. Shading
2. Textures

I know you said you don't want shading, however, textures are even more evil, so IMO shading is definitely the way to go, and a little bit of it won't hurt, like this quick edit:


Notice that I didn't do much and I think that amount of "shading" is quite acceptable, considered you had done some small "shading" in the background mountains already, adding some shades to the grass won't hurt.

However, what I saw of your picture is that, it's not the grass that looked flat, the tree and the front rock look like paper cutouts, so I added some small shades to them also (note how the shade of the rock resembles that of the mountains), also, check out what I had editted on the rope on the tree part. That should give you some idea of how to make stuff "less flat".

[viktor]

well i did some minor adjustments. Not all that Gilbot did but I think I'm quite happy with the result. What do you think? Should anything else be corected

[ildu]

Maybe just a bit more. And add some shading to the grass to the left.

EDIT: And also, you should probably remove that one pixel wide line off the top of the tree.

[chapter11studios]

Viktor--

Don't be too hard on yourself. This is a very good-looking screen. What is your game about? If the whole game looks like this, I think you'll have a winner.

[auhsor]

I think maybe a couple of shaded tufts of grass could go well and help it from being too plain.

[viktor]

Chapter 11
Well the game is mostly going to be set in to the city. Only 2 screens are out of it. The rest I got no problems with becouse it's mostly straight lines .But natural soroundings are always a pain form e when it comes to pixel art. I apreciate the compliment thou. Thanx 

BTW. I made some slith changes to the grass. What do you think?

[ildu]

Looks great. I would still add some shading to the top of the grass (meaning the part of the cliff we don't see) and some to the tree. Maybe make the tree just a tad darker, too. It is supposed to be the focal point of the scene, isn't it?

[Babar]

It's a great background. However, I don't think the newest edit looks so good. The shading bits are too well placed and evenly spaced from one another.
You could try the Mandarb method, but I am not sure how it would look with you BG. If you have Photoshop (Sorry, I don't know the equivalent in any other program), you select the brush tool, set it to "dissolve" and  choose the colour for your different shade. Move the opacity up and down till you get the amount you want, and then use it. Afterwards select motion blur and put the direction so as to make it look like grass.

BTW, you could make a few random tufts of grass on the bare rock as well

[ildu]

Photoshop would do no good in this situation. This is a pixel-specific image, so it won't do any good. Plus, viktor stated that he doesn't want the background to look too intricate.

[Darth Mandarb]

Photoshop would do no good in this situation. This is a pixel-specific image, so it won't do any good. Plus, viktor stated that he doesn't want the background to look too intricate.

Why do some many people think Photoshop can't do pixels?

I consider myself to be a pretty decent pixel-artist and I use nothing but Photoshop.  Every image I've ever posted on these forums (except the MSPaint game ones) were done in Photoshop.

What Babar suggests would probably work, though I would forego the the motion blur and just use pixels.  I would use just black, and then adjust the opacity of the layer (that's the Mandarb method )

[ildu]

I said nothing about Photoshop not working for pixel art. I only said the method babar suggested wouldn't work.

[viktor]

actualy the backround WAS done in photoshop  So I might try the method, but not today becouse it's late...

[loominous]

I would use just black, and then adjust the opacity of the layer (that's the Mandarb method Smiley)

It's a good quick method and if you're new to photoshop and similar programs I'd recommend it too.

It does have a serious drawback however, in that the saturation of the affected areas will be reduced, which, depending on the opacity, can be quite devestating.

One way I prefer, which is just as quick although more advanced and probably intimidating, is to use a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer which features a 'lightness' slider. This one will maintain the original saturation better and will also give you control over the it and the hue.

So, in steps:

I) Create a Hue/Saturation adjustmentlayer, and make sure it's above the image layer (adjustment layers affects all layers beneath them).




II) Adjust the lightness level and click OK.




III) The whole image will now have been affected by the changes. This is because the quickmask, the white icon to the right of the adjustment layer icon, is completely white.

The quickmask basically decides what part of a layer will be transparent and what will be opaque. White areas will be opaque while black will be transparent, and greys, depending on the values, will be semi-opaque/transparent. Atm the quickmask is completely white, meaning that the whole layer beneath it will be affected by the adjustment layer.

Since you only want parts of your image being in shadow, you need to modify the quickmask to only affect the desired areas. You can do this in any way really, since the quickmask is simply a black and white image which you can change just like and ordinary image, by drawing, using the fill tool, using the lasso tool, applying level adjustments etc. So select the quickmask by left clicking on the icon and edit it in the manner of your choosing.




One of the handy things with adjustment layers is that you can adjust the settings at any time, in other words, the changes aren't permanent. You do this by doubleclicking on the adjustment layer's icon, the one to the left of the quick mask, and right of the eye.

You can have several adjustment layers, so for instance, you can have one creating shadowy parts, one applying a photo filter to give lit areas a warm tone etc.

Edit: PS9 was used, however any later version should work. Actually, any should work, but I don't think the earlier versions had the adjustment layer icon at the bottom of the  the layerpanel. You can access it through the menus in any case (Layer/New Adjustment Layer/)

[PsychicHeart]

what version of PhotoShop are you using?