16 Color Background Crit Request (Pond, Cave & Waterfall)

[JoshuaSmyth]

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.



It took me way too long to do, 4 or 5 hours? I lost track of time. Also I found the lighting quite difficult.

[Renal Shutdown]

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.

[Andail]

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.

[JoshuaSmyth]

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:


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.

[Denture Alley Lurker]

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.

[dactylopus]

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 to see if that could help you out.  Keep at it, this is a really nice piece overall. 

[Monsieur OUXX]

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.

[Charity]

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.