Any tips for drawing characters at a size relative to the BGs?

[Snake]

I was wondering if any one has any tips on how they go about drawing their characters (it probably doesn't matter, but preferably 320res) and backgrounds so they match every time?

I seem to have a problem with this. The perspective in one BG might not exactly match another, so the character might have to be slightly scaled, or the background remade.

Any tips out there?

PS
Sorry if this sounds confusing, I'm having a hell of a time trying to write what I mean...

[TheJBurger]

Try copying the character sprite into each background's foreground (the lower 120 pixels?) so that all the heights of the objects (doorways, posts, desks, etc) match the character's height.

That's how I do it, anyway.

[Darth Mandarb]

I was, just recently, dealing with this exact issue.  What I eventually settled on was creating template(s) for my backgrounds.  Each background fits into one of the template layouts and each template fits the characters (which were created first).

The up-side; It makes each background fit into a cohesive style giving the game a unity of style.
The down-side; It sort of feels like the game was made in a mold as all screens fit the same template (but I make up for this with TONS of details)

This is just how I do it and is, by no means, the way

[Snake]

I suppose my issue originates from drawing my backgrounds on paper, scanning them in and then fixing/coloring them from there.

How many of you make backgrounds this way and how many do it solely from within paint programs?

[Ponch]

I draw all of my characters and backgrounds on small yellow legal pads. The only things that I create solely in a paint program are the sprites I use for the top-down arcade games like The Ejection Rejection and Cyclone Alley.

The choice to draw your backgrounds with a pencil or a mouse is a personal one. I just like the look of hand drawn animation. (Plus, it gives me something to do on my lunch break).

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

The safest approach for me, and one that works every time, is to always always design your primary characters before you even think of a background design.  Once you know the dimensions of the tallest, fattest character in your game you can begin to design rooms around an 'average' character.  To be safe, the protagonist in my games is always representative of average height and size to make it easier on myself, and then I stick a copy of the sprite somewhere on the canvas as I make each room and occasionally reference it.

[Crimson Wizard]

I stick a copy of the sprite somewhere on the canvas as I make each room and occasionally reference it.

I don't have much of game making experience as some people above, but that's exactly what I did when creating my games (usually used extra layer to put character sprite and toggle it visibility when needed to reference size).

[Ryan Timothy B]

That's exactly what I do, crimson.  Even my basic of basic sketches will be drawn with the character on screen (about a 1/3 of the size of what it's supposed to be, since a sketch doesn't need to be full size).

[Layabout]

A good guide to follow would be to make your characters 1/3 the screen height for widescreen, or 1/4 for 4:3. I think this is generally a good guideline to follow. That way, you can construct your backgrounds to fit.

[Charity]

For hand drawing, you could try making a little paper cut-out at whatever dimensions you want your characters to be, maybe sketch/print a character on it, or just leave it a blank rectangle tab, whatever makes more sense.  Then you can just put it on your paper while you draw, and it will have the same effect as pasting a sprite on in your paint program.

Edit: Though probably make sure you can duplicate it at the same size, in case it gets lost or wrinkled/ripped beyond usability.

[RickJ]

My thoughts on this are a bit different than those of most folks... Anyway, here is my 10 cents worth...

1.  Scaled up characters look worse than scaled down characters (i.e using walkable area scaling).

2. Start with the smallest room your game would typically have.  Usually this would be something like a 12ft x 12ft bedroom.   

3.  Pick a plane  that is about 10-20% into the depth of the background image.   

4.  Measure the pixel distance from floor to ceiling at that point.   For example in a 320x240 image
the pixel distance at our reference plane may be 192 pixels.

5.  Now estimate the actual distance in feet from floor to ceiling  that is being depicted.  For example bedrooms in most houses  these days have 8ft ceilings.  So if this is the case then we could calculate a pixel scaling by calculating 192px/8ft which comes out to a scaling of 24px/ft  or 2px/in.

6.  Using this scaling you can now determine how large to make your character sprites.  A six ft tall character would be 144px tall and a5ft tall character would be 120px tall.

7.  In larger rooms you can then scale the characters down using walkable area scaling.  Sprites of course loose detail when they are scaled down but it doesn't much matter if AGS scales them down or if they are just drawn smaller - smaller size means less detail. 

8.. You can of course choose any reference plane you desire.  For example if many or most of the rooms in your game are of similar size then it may be better to choose the most common sized room rather than the smallest room to determine pixel scaling of characters.

9.  You could also use the same pixel scaling to make object sprites.  Allow them to be scaled along with the character and they will be sized appropriately.
create your characters

it's possible calculate the pixel scaling

  start out by deciding on a scaling factor for the characters.