A question on shading

[blunder1983]

Hi guys,

I'm looking to create a game where ur mental condition is constantly changing, I'm hoping for each mood your background will change. I have 6 'moods' and of these 5 are simply able to be represented by altering the light source and intensity in the room. I'm no artist and I am wondering if I have a BG then can it be altered quickly and simply just for shading.

When 'happy' I want the scene to be bright with a high colourful contrast. When 'fearful' I want long shadows.

If it requires extensive remodeling I'll just abandon that concept but on a number of the pieces of art I've seen many other contributers seem to be able to alter it simply.

Thanks

Chris

[Oneway]

If there aren't any changes in physical objects in the bg then at least your first background can server as a template to create your other mood-bg's.

However, i presume that these moods are all different and easy to identify for the player in terms of visuals. Then it would be logical to say that your entire color scheme and shading would change alswell with every mood. This would mean an almost complete paintover of your template bg.

That may be easier than starting from scratch but i think that would still be a fair amount of work. If you were doing it in 3D then your task would have been a LOT easier.

I'll leave to the more talented and experienced one to provide you with possible tricks to save as much time as possible. (Mostly about handy features in graphics programs i suppose).

Your idea sounds pretty original though, so good luck on your efforts!

[kjetting]

my suggestion is that you first make the BGs  with no shading, then add the shading/ color scheme adjustment on a separate layer. working with layers is easy if you have a program like PSP or photoshop. If you use a program without layers you'll just have to save one version of the BG without shading anyway. You should probably post some screens on the forum for more in-depth help.

[Scorpiorus]

As for the AGS technical-related solutions, you can have a basic 'normal' background and a set of masks and import them as room animating backrounds (i.e. background frames).
Then using the RawDrawFrameTransparent(int frame, int transparency) function blend them with a normal background to reflect different moods.
This is not completely generic implementation as you still may need to redraw some part of the background and(or) alter another things (objectss grafix, etc.) but at least enable you to adjust the colours of backgrounds at run-time.