I've decided I want to improve my background drawing skills. So I have decided to start drawing 16 color backgrounds, trying to also find a style in the meantime.
A cross between sierra's SCI0 games and LucasArts EGA titles would be nice to get down.
(http://i.imgur.com/ayxT4Ek.png)
It took me way too long to do, 4 or 5 hours? I lost track of time. Also I found the lighting quite difficult.
With regards to the large shadowing on the grass, have you tried other dithering patterns (ie, 25%/75% and vice versa)? That could hoof up the shading possibilities (for everything) whilst keeping the same color limit. It currently looks (to me) a bit too harsh a transition from shaded to unshaded, and without a defined artificial light source, it would be unlikely to see such bold shadow shapes at night.
My first impression is that this is a rather pretty scene.
There are some perspective issues which make it hard to understand exactly how the terrain works, but it's not a huge problem.
As Renal said, you should find a more uniform way to apply shadows and highlights. Some plants and rocks are awfully flat, while others have some kind of cell-shading going on, and still others have dithering patterns.
I think you could establish a better depth by painting all the foreground objects black/blue, not only the tree. You should strive to express depth in a picture through colour saturation, and many of your rocks have the exact same hue regardless of z position.
Thanks guys I'll try some of your ideas out. I noticed that Sierra SCI0 uses lots of dithered shading, I might have a go pure copying some of those backgrounds for a bit to see how they do it.
UPDATE:
(http://i.imgur.com/96mv2L2.png)
I tried out some of the dithering and colour changes. I think I might be mixing styles a bit much. I like dither style, but I think I need to practise it quite a bit more.
That's amazingly good looking! You must be a veteran. I've been trying to make a scene using various 8-bit palettes (Doom, Tintin, MI3, FOA) etc., but your delicate use such of a limited palette is astounding. I'm impressed.
It's a definite improvement. You are using a couple different dithering methods, but I think you could vary it a bit more.
I'd take a look at some of the suggested reading in this thread (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=49123.0) to see if that could help you out. Keep at it, this is a really nice piece overall. :)
yes, have a look at dactylopus' suggested article (direct link : http://www.pixeljoint.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=11299 )
Specifically, here are the two errors you've made the most (go to the section with the same name in the article):
- jaggies
- sel-out
more specifically, you have a lot of pixel-clusters.
Hard to place, but you haven't made me believe in the shadow under the edge of the ledge leading to the cave. Is there an overhang there or something?
I really like this picture, though. Especially the pool.