SEASHORE
(http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/ii203/Kastchey/blitz-seashore_zpsc1137466.png)
The task is extremely simple: draw a seashore. Any interpretation that comes to your mind is fine, as long as it is a seashore of some kind: a sunny beach, a stormy jagged cliff, an edge of a lush jungle, a crowded resort, an industrial port.. anything! Even a more metaphorical interpretation will work (sea of garbage? sea of flowers? sea of people?) as long as it evokes the impression.
Have fun :)
Trophies!
(http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/ii203/Kastchey/trophy-seashore_gold_zpsf07910e7.png)(http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/ii203/Kastchey/trophy-seashore_silver_zpsfd0e1d12.png)(http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/ii203/Kastchey/trophy-seashore_bronze_zps87d1505d.png)
Working on something, hopefully I have it done in time.
are there any limits to canvas size and usability? Might paint something up...
AGS compatible, which is not really a limit :) Go ahead!
[imgzoom]http://selmiak.bplaced.net/stuff/beachscene.png[/imgzoom]
okay, pixeled something up and you can even have some characters move in the foreground with a tint of 100% black in this scene. Should do this in a game one day...
and I also experimented with a spectacular and very underused Photoshop effect:
Spoiler
[imgzoom]http://selmiak.bplaced.net/stuff/beachscenelf.png[/imgzoom]
Love it, brilliant choice of colors! Pretty nice pixel work, either.
Quotespectacular
Quotevery underused
:grin:
I gave it a try :
(http://creamy.unblog.fr/files/2012/04/bad-moon-on-the-rise2.bmp)
It may not be easy to use in-game, though.
My first entry! Finally done:
(http://i.imgur.com/MQupdeJ.jpg?1)
Entirely hand drawn and shaded.
Edit: sorry that is is so big, if necessary I can scale it down.
Got something in the works, I'll try to finish tomorrow.
Creamy, this looks incredibly atmospheric and spooky at the same time. Can't see why it wouldn't make a perfectly functional in-game background, too!
Sane Co., grats on your first entry :) I like the way you shaded the bench, very delicate, but far from sketchy,
Anian, hope you can make it! If you need an extension, let me know.
[IMGZOOM]http://i.imgur.com/3bTlkyb.png[/IMGZOOM]
Updated: a few little fixes, also added some intriguing pillars (a ruined bridge?) to make it a bit more interesting as a game BG. Old version here (http://i.imgur.com/Nb7pcY2.png).
nice, I really like the contrast between the water color and the rock color.
Thanks. This image was inspired by a dream I had, where the ocean came alive and moved like some strange creature. I gave up on trying to render that, though. It just looked goofy. Waves are enough of a pain to draw as it is.
Love that background Snarky, it's got a real feeling of depth to it. Sort of reminds me of a similar backgrounds in Torin's Passage in terms of style.
Selmiak - brilliant colour palette in yours!
Creamy - real atmosphere in your pic.
Sane Co. - obviously a very different style to the rest, but nicely done. Is there something in front of the sun? I've tried scanning pencil sketches in before and to be honest they've never looked much like the original whatever I tried to do!
OK, I think it's finished. Wished I had to willpower to animate it, but this took too much time as is.
[imgzoom]http://i.imgur.com/rYOBLua.png[/imgzoom]
@CaptainD
I darkened the photo during scanning because the sun wasn't showing up. The sun used to be the moon until I changed my mind and erased the craters. The scanner darkened the almost erased crater lines also. So just imagine the sun as a bright moon. Also it turned out really close to the original, minus a bit of darkening and the crater lines, but that's because we recently got a new scanner.
@ Selmiak : Nice warm colours. The shape of the clouds is a bit strange in front of the sun but the backlighting works very well.
@ Sane Co : the craters are visible so it's STILL a moon, no matter what you say :tongue:
@ Snarky : I like the sky and the reflections. Impressive depth. It reminds me of The Dig
Spoiler
(http://teksyndicate.com/sites/teksyndicate.com/files/The-Dig-1-V82PHLH052-1024x768.jpg)
QuoteWished I had to willpower to animate it
@Anian : I can feel the rough sea and the cold wind. It could be Scotland or Britany.
We had a similar competition on the french forum, a few years ago. The theme was "the beach". The topic is
here (http://adventuregamestudio.fr-bb.com/t981-theme-background-mois-de-juillet).
Hey everybody! Long time stalker of the forums, second time posting. This challenge seemed cool so I thought I'd do a picture too!
[imgzoom]http://i.imgur.com/tmafeey.png[/imgzoom]
I guess it's either a beach on an alien world or a beach in a dream.
Three more entries, that's awesome! Thanks guys :)
Snarky, very inspiring image. I have spent good ten minutes staring at the details. And oh, that's one beautifully painted sky!
Anian, love the clean, yet detailed style of this one. Makes me think of Sam & Max style, just a bit more pastel and not at all cheerful. Nice job!
waheela, I'm absolutely stunned with how you rendered the waves - brilliant. And glad to hear you enjoyed the theme :)
Is anyone else still working on an entry? If not, I will close the competition in a few hours to start the voting phase.
Okay, voting time!
Idea: Was it an original/creative interpretation of the theme?
Atmosphere: Was an interesting world created? - Did the scene evoke a feeling?
Design: How well the individual elements are designed, from clouds to doorknobs.
Composition: How well the elements are combined to create a pleasing whole, and lead the viewer to the points of interest.
Functionality: How well it would work as a game background, with clearly defined entries and walkable areas, as well as a good viewing angle (this also includes introductionary shots of an area as long as a player character can be present in the scene).
Technique: How well it's rendered (within the chosen style!), in no way meaning the more elaborate the better.
Wow... I was going to vote, but there are such good entries here that I genuinely can't decide between them at the moment.
Idea: Selmiak
Atmosphere: Wheela
Design: Anian
Composition: Anian
Functionality: Anian
Technique: Anian
Generally speaking:
- I really like oil rigs and other oversea platforms as an idea for a game environment, so I liked Selmiak's work
- Anian's BG drew my attention with its "clean" look and how the details stood out thanks to the flat colours
- Snarky's work reminds me of a 3D render turned pixel-art, which is an accomplishment to itself, but didn't float my boat this time
- I had a hard time figuring out Sane Co.'s piece. I think it's mostly because of the way it's the least traditional entry when considering game backgrounds.
- Creamy's piece made me feel the perpective was off somehow, I'm no master myself, but it just felt to me the entire scene was somehow bent or twisted
- Wheela, last but certainly not least. This piece was ALMOST my vote for all categories, but Anian and Selmiak's works just barely topped you this time due to the reasons listed above. Shame, I really think this background was beautiful, so it pains me to not give it more votes. :(
Quote from: CaptainD on Wed 27/02/2013 08:41:26
Wow... I was going to vote, but there are such good entries here that I genuinely can't decide between them at the moment.
Darn! Same thing here, CaptainD. Just realized I caught myself staring at each scene for about 10 min, while trying to weight the pros and cons
for each respective category. There're just so many 'pros' and so little 'cons'! ;)
Strong competition this time around and seriously beautiful scenes, guys!
Idea: Snarky
Atmosphere: selmiak
Design: Anian
Composition: Anian
Functionality: waheela
Technique: Anian
Uhh...seriously, that wasn't easy at all...
edit: After Snarky's elaborate comment I feel the need to explain my descisions a little:
Idea Snarky's rendition is the most original in my eyes. Not a 'traditional' sea shore per se, but a beautiful off shore view of a rather surreal landscape. For me, the most unusual approach out of all entries and therefore best idea. The addition of those seemingly derelict posts in the water enhances that already eerie atmosphere even more.
Atmosphere Selmiak nailed the atmosphere category in my opinion. I looked at every entry for for the same amount of time and selmiak's scene sucked me in the most. Pure gut feeling and very personal, I admit.
Design Had an incredibly hard time voting for either Snarky or Anian here. Went with Anian's version in the end, because literally every element in his scene appears crisp, clear and rendered to perfection.
Composition Again Anian, since his scene elements seem to form the most harmonic entity and all focal points are very distinct.
Functionality Saw wheela and Anian head to head. Anian's image is lacking clear entry points and because of the bumpy beach, it'd be more difficult to put a proper walkable area in. Chose wheela because I simply
loved that viewing angle, high up and open, but clear entries/exits at the same time.
Technique Once more Anian, since his scene seems to be the best rendition in the respective chosen style, with Snarky as close 2nd, as those rock formations seemed at tad too blurry in my opinion.
@Creamy Until WHAM mentioned it, I never assumed Creamy's pic was supposed to be in perspective at all. It simply seems to me to be a more painterly, art-like approach. Would work perfectly with a kind of Dadaistic game setting. Maybe Creamy would be so kind as to enlighten us?
@Sane Co. Love the shadow of that bench. Keep it coming.
Nice turnout, nice entries, nice nice nice
Idea: selmiak
Atmosphere: wahela
Design: selmiak
Composition: Snarky
Functionality: Creamy
Technique: wahela
Snarky, is that a 3d render paintover? That sea really has an unusual texture.
Wheela, nice entry to hide your voyeuristic past. :grin:
Some gorgeous entries all round. Pats on backs.
Idea: Snarky
Atmosphere: Selmiak
Design: Snarky
Composition: Waheela
Functionality: Creamy
Technique: Waheela
Hope no-one minds, just thought it would be helpful to be able to see all of the entries together (this is for me as much as anyone else!).
Selmiak:
[imgzoom]http://selmiak.bplaced.net/stuff/beachscene.png[/imgzoom]
Creamy:
[imgzoom]http://creamy.unblog.fr/files/2012/04/bad-moon-on-the-rise2.bmp[/imgzoom]
Sane Co.
[imgzoom]http://i.imgur.com/MQupdeJ.jpg?1[/imgzoom]
Snarky:
[imgzoom]http://i.imgur.com/3bTlkyb.png[/imgzoom]
Anaian:
[imgzoom]http://i.imgur.com/rYOBLua.png[/imgzoom]
Waheela:
[imgzoom]http://i.imgur.com/tmafeey.png[/imgzoom]
So, my votes...
Idea: Creamy
Atmosphere: Waheela
Design: Selmiak
Composition: Snarky
Functionality: Anian
Technique: Waheela
Seriously, every category took a lot of thought to reach a winner in my mind. Breathtakingly good entries, I really hope we see them in games this year or next!
Some great entries here, not easy to make these picks.
Idea: Snarky
Atmosphere: Sane Co.
Design: Anian
Composition: Waheela
Functionality: Anian
Technique: Snarky
Criminal that I have no votes for Selmiak and Creamy. Creamy just lost out to Snarky in the technique category and Selmiak was in the running for pretty much all of them. I really like Sane Co's entry, be interesting to see it in a game of a similar style and with a bit of animation.
Quote from: WHAM on Wed 27/02/2013 09:32:06
- Snarky's work reminds me of a 3D render turned pixel-art, which is an accomplishment to itself, but didn't float my boat this time
Quote from: Anian on Wed 27/02/2013 10:22:29
Snarky, is that a 3d render paintover? That sea really has an unusual texture.
No, it's all hand-drawn from imagination (and yes, it was a pain). I paint everything in black and white initially (except the sky in this case), usually with a light, dark and medium shade, and use gradient maps for the color. To give the sea a reflective effect I inverted part of the gradient (cf. the "materials" section in this tutorial (http://gas13.ru/v3/tutorials/art_tutorial.php); though of course a proper artist wouldn't need to rely on a Photoshop trick for the effect; if you compare the earlier version (http://i.imgur.com/Nb7pcY2.png) you can see how it looks without it). The reflections are just loose wavy scribbles with some strategic erasures, overlaid at 50% transparency. Shadows are done similarly, but before the gradient mapping. Scaling it down hides a lot of sins and turns them into "texture."
(http://i.imgur.com/CHpAZcM.png) (http://i.imgur.com/P8BlLEc.png) (http://i.imgur.com/fdacOzz.png) (http://i.imgur.com/NuJbcUP.png)
OK, my votes:
Idea: Selmiak
Atmosphere: Selmiak
Design: Waheela
Composition: Anian (this was a hard one to pick!)
Functionality: Anian
Technique: Waheela
Lovely entries all round. I wish I could make the kind of crisp pixel art Selmiak, Anian and Waheela submitted, but I have to feel my way around the objects with the brush, sort of sculpt them out of light and shadow in order to find the right shapes and shades.
I don't mean these individual comments to be presumptuous, just know that I would personally like to get feedback:
Selmiak: Lovely romantic scene, great color choices. Like WHAM, I like the tropical offshore rig as a concept for a setting. To improve it further, I'd try redoing the clouds (particularly the big plume on the right, which I'm not even sure is a cloud), clean up the glimmer on the waves (avoiding crooked lines), and probably try a more conventional dark-at-the-top, light-at-the-bottom design for the sky.
Creamy: The purple color scheme gives the scene a great mood. A couple of things to think of are perspective (horizontal lines should point towards the horizon, but your roof points away from it), and realistic lighting (e.g. where are the house and the foreground plants lit from?). One thing most people don't realize is that at night, in the absence of artificial lighting, the sky is almost always lighter than any other part of the scenery. You wouldn't have a mostly black sky and a blue ocean.
Sane Co.: Congrats on your first entry! I think pencil drawing is a great way to practice, and a viable medium for game backgrounds in itself. But it's maybe not best suited (unless you're an extremely skilled artist) to rendering texture. I have a bit of a hard time understanding the black part that I guess is the ocean, and the white "holes" around the reflection of the stars. Maybe it would be better to just focus on getting the outlines down, and doing any shading in a softer, simpler style?
Anian: I really like this sort of washed-out, blue and green-tinged color scheme. While almost all the other entries feel warm, this one has much more of a cold feel. I think it suggests an overcast, possibly rainy day, though, so maybe make the sky cloudier? Love all the stuff in the scene; more than any of the other entries this feels very obviously playable. Only "complaint" is I'd have liked to have a better sense of the exit(s).
Waheela: Well that's just gorgeous. I'm very jealous of your waves. Compositionally, I'm not quite sure what part of the scene is meant to be the focus (I find the spotlight-bright moons (?) in the sky distract a bit if you try to keep looking at the people), but this would be affected by animation and stuff, so it might not be a problem in the right in-game scene.
Kind of funny, because my background actually was 3d in my original sketch http://i.imgur.com/Cg9ZtOs.png :grin:
Basically everything was done over in the painting, but still.
Anian you clever bastard! I do the same thing! ;)
Fantastic entries! I'm stunned.
Idea: Waheela
This was a hard one, but Waheela's piece was very classical while keeping a mysterious look. Very nice indeed.
Atmosphere: Waheela
Creamy was a close second, I love the atmosphere of nighttime scenes.
Design: Snarky
Another close one. But those colors compliment eachother very well, and the entire landscape was esthetically pleasing and interesting.
Composition: Anian
Originally I was gonna go for Waheela or Snarky here, but Anian had a very simple piece that worked very well and got my vote in the end.
Functionality: Anian
This was the only clear winner for me. Out of all the entries, this one is the easiest to implement in a game.
Technique: Selmiak
I had no idea who to vote for here, but it would be awful if I gave no votes to Selmiak's beautiful sunset.
Many great pictures, I don't feel like voting.
--check--
Lots of great entries this time round - difficult to choose from, but lovely to look at. :)
Selmiak - excellent stylish palette and lovely quirky design. And I love the idea of having silhouetted characters on this background.
Creamy - the composition is on the simple side, but it's well balanced, and there are some really lovely colour combinations here. I like how the lone column immediately suggests Mediterranean, giving the background a much more particular focus.
Sane Co: Although not too impressive technically, it definitely has something going for it. There's a very nice melancholic feel to it, and I think it would work surprisingly well as a background, despite being a black and white pencil drawing (it's what makes it interesting, really).
Snarky: I really like the surreal feel of this waterscape. The water is rendered especially interestingly, with a nice impressionistic brushwork and a peculiar organic emerald colour. I think the cliffs could've used a stronger pass of reflected light to make this background really shine, but it's a very solid and interesting effort nonetheless. Also, I feel that the example picture of water reflection at 100% opacity looks like a Derain or Van Gogh painting and could've brought out the surreal quality of the piece even more, although I understand that it might confuse things quite a bit.
Anian: I wanted to compliment the excellent construction of the shape of the boat at such a tricky angle, and although the fact that it's based on a 3d model makes it slightly less impressive, it doesn't change the fact that it looks pretty darn great. A fine example of admirable use of various tools we have at our disposal in this day and age. :) The composition and colour choices are equally impressive.
Waheela: Very pretty, very romantic and very retro! :) A truly excellent and very pleasant background all round.
My votes:
Idea: Snarky
Atmosphere: Waheela
Design: Selmiak
Composition: Anian
Functionality: Anian
Technique: Waheela
What a fine Blitz this turned out to be, great job, everyone!
Idea: Selmiak
Atmosphere: Waheela
Design: Snarky
loved the water, it looks great.
Composition: Selmiak
Functionality: Anian
Technique: Waheela
I liked all of the entries this month. I almost picked creamy for Functionality, but Anian's closely trumps his. They would both do well for use.
This is really hard to decide, there are just so many great entries...
Idea: Anian
with Snarky beeing a close second
Atmosphere: Snarky
with Waheela a close second
Design: Waheela
everything is just pixelperfect, especially the waves, with Anian coming in close as a second, that little starfish is really cool, but at the masts of the ships are some odd pixels...
Composition: Snarky
Functionality: Creamy
Technique: Snarky
with Waheela beeing a close second, but snarkys background does it more for me.
Wow, this Blitz turned out great! Excellent topic by the way.
Idea: Selmiak
Atmosphere: waheela
Design: waheela
Composition:Anian
Functionality: Anian
Technique: Snarky
I really dig Waheela's entry. It's tiny but it manages to achieve a style similar to what I've been trying to pursue all the time... but with far less colours!
Everyone else did great too!
Quote from: Tramponline on Wed 27/02/2013 09:35:27
edit: After Snarky's elaborate comment I feel the need to explain my descisions a little:
Idea Snarky's rendition is the most original in my eyes. Not a 'traditional' sea shore per se, but a beautiful off shore view of a rather surreal landscape. For me, the most unusual approach out of all entries and therefore best idea. The addition of those seemingly derelict posts in the water enhances that already eerie atmosphere even more.
Atmosphere Selmiak nailed the atmosphere category in my opinion. I looked at every entry for for the same amount of time and selmiak's scene sucked me in the most. Pure gut feeling and very personal, I admit.
Design Had an incredibly hard time voting for either Snarky or Anian here. Went with Anian's version in the end, because literally every element in his scene appears crisp, clear and rendered to perfection.
Technique Once more Anian, since his scene seems to be the best rendition in the respective chosen style, with Snarky as close 2nd, as those rock formations seemed at tad too blurry in my opinion.
Thanks for the kind feedback, which I didn't notice until now. I agree totally that the my scene was too blurry; it's the one thing about how it came out that I was very unhappy with. But now I tried playing with some other scaling options, and find that blending bicubic and nearest-neighbor modes gives a much better result:
Spoiler
Original entry:
[imgzoom]http://i.imgur.com/3bTlkyb.png[/imgzoom]
Sharper version:
[IMGzoom]http://i.imgur.com/EuedPWl.png[/IMGzoom]
Oh well. At least I know what to do in the future.
I don't think there will be any more votes coming, time to do the honors... incredible amount of votes, by the way!
selmiak: 13 votes
waheela: 20 votes
Anian: 20 votes
Snarky: 14 votes
Creamy: 4 votes
Sane Co.: 1 vote
And since we have a tie, I'll cast my votes too:
Idea: Snarky
Atmosphere: waheela (with Creamy coming as close second)
Design: Snarky
Composition: selmiak
Functionality: Anian
Technique: waheela
..which brings us to:
(http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/ii203/Kastchey/trophy-seashore_bronze_zps87d1505d.png) Bronze trophy going to Snarky!
(http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/ii203/Kastchey/trophy-seashore_silver_zpsfd0e1d12.png) Silver trophy going to Anian!
And finally, (http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/ii203/Kastchey/trophy-seashore_gold_zpsf07910e7.png) gold trophy and the honor of hosting the next competition going to waheela!
Congratulations, and many, MANY thanks to everyone who participated and voted, you keep the competitions going :)
Such treachery, I shall have my revenge Kastchey, mark my words!
Just kidding, congrats to waheela.
Wiiiiiiiiii silvery. :smiley:
Hoped that the sparkling silver would be enough of a bribe to prevent horrible revenge attempts from you :)
But if it wasn't, I can add this nice t-shirt to the pot!
(http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/ii203/Kastchey/tshirt_zps09b2e63f.png)
Congratulations, waheela. Well done!
Good job, everyone. Special congrats, and welcome, to waheela!
Quote from: Kastchey on Mon 04/03/2013 02:31:16But if it wasn't, I can add this nice t-shirt to the pot!
(http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/ii203/Kastchey/tshirt_zps09b2e63f.png)
FINE! I'll let you off this time! You better be careful in the future or one morning you might wake up with a broken blue cup in your bed, capisce?
Wow, great entries everyone 8-0
QuoteFINE! I'll let you off this time! You better be careful in the future or one morning you might wake up with a broken blue cup in your bed, capisce?
Yes, sir, thank you, sir!
Wow, thank you guys so much, and thanks for all the great comments!!! I really didn't think I'd win because all the other entries were so good! I'll think of something cool for the next competition in the next day or two.
This was great. Congratulations to waheela and all other participants!