Background Blitz: Underground (WINNER!)

[jfrisby]

Underground

What's down there? Caves? Labyrinths? Lava? Oceans? Burrows? Barrows? .. Mushrooms? 
Draw something underground!


And for some inspiration:



(Edouard Riou, Journey to the Centre of the Earth)


Deadline: January 14th? (I'm not sure if this is supposed to stick to a month schedule..)
I think I set this up correctly... if not, let me know!

As usual the entries will be judged on:
- Concept: Is it a creative interpretation of the theme that also tells us something about the world in which it takes place.
- Playability: Does it have clear walkable areas, things to interact with, etc?
- Artistic Execution: How well was the chosen style executed? - What's the feeling of the place? - Does the image convey the wanted atmosphere?

To your pencils!

[Misj']

I feel there must be a lot of entries kept hidden from me, because this is a great theme. And I really can't believe I'd be the first one to enter.

Anyway, here's my entry:



It's actually intended to be two separate backgrounds with the split in the middle (so non-scrolling) because I couldn't tell the who story in a single shot.

Spoiler

I wanted to capture the wonders and adventures of 1001 Nights for this one, because I felt that really matched the theme. My apologies for any insensitivities caused by a lack of knowledge and understanding on my part (or simply me being influenced by western culture and old Hollywood movies). I did do some research but it was of course limited in time and scope.

Also I wanted the style to honor (but not really mimic) the Dutch comic-book-artist Hanco Kolk. Because his later and current work is - I feel - quite hard to translate to (dynamic) animation (read: it's absolute art and every line is intentional...but not always predictable; plus it's a lot more risqué) and I simply have a soft spot for my childhood I decided to grab my Gilles de Geus comics from my bookshelf and base the character on that. So I call him Behrad the Beggar (since Geus comes from the French word for beggar but is in Dutch a nickname/badge of honor).

To stick to the theme I adapted Gilles's color-scheme to Behrad...hence the red and yellow; which also worked somewhat with Persian and Babylonian clothing (if you squeeze your eyes and are not really historically accurate; I'm sorry for that).


I then decided that my cyclops should be blue because I did not want him to have earth-tones seeing that I already used those up for the entire cave.

There are three puzzles in the scene. The first is to get the cloth for my makeshift torch (which is why the color of the cloth is the same as the skeleton's shirt), the second is to make the cyclops leave (you can blind him by reflecting the light from your torch in the golden plate (you see in the water) if you target it well) and the third is to climb the right part with all the foliage (I didn't think of a solution for that one)).

[close]

Spoiler

Also...the usual agreement applies. If anyone uses any of my stuff (including but not limited to the work in this post) to train or otherwise be used by or in (their or any) A.I. model(s), they owe me 52% of any and all of their current and future companies or companies they are directly or indirectly part of (that includes any company any of their shareholders or investors also have shares for or investments in). Just so we're clear.

[close]

[jfrisby]

I guess the busy holiday season got the best of us.. but we got one stunning entry at least

Congrats Misj'!  I love the style and the thought that went into the story and puzzles! 

[Creamy]

Congrats Misj', plenty to see in these caves.

I meant to enter, but I couldn't muster the energy to make something worthwhile. Probably a side effect of ferrero rocher abuse. My sketch of an old wine cellar looked pretty boring.

[Misj']

I'm a bit saddened to be the only entry this Blitz...especially because I really liked the theme and felt it deserved it.
But I'm proud of what I created and had lots of fun drawing it. So thank you jfrisby for hosting and choosing this one.

I have an idea for the next Blitz, so I'll start it shortly.