2D rooms critique

[Construed]

My other post was gathering far too many images and I'm on a slow connection which was hard to load, So this is a new post where I will put all the current rooms in the main post and update them as they improve instead of putting them in replies.

I've been working hard and have made many new rooms, but its easy to lose track of the details per room and I'm looking for new ways to improve them and match my friend Toendra's style.

Thanks in advance for reading and commenting!

Here they are:

[Snarky]

I think this is starting to look quite good! The last one in particular is very easy on the eyes (mainly because it's got a more unified colorscheme).

A couple of points where I think you could still improve:

As people have told you before, the camera angle varies quite a lot, and somewhat inconsistently between the screens. This tends to make it look like the screens don't belong together, and can cause problems with the character sprites. It would be useful to draw the horizon on each image to get a sense of how you're viewing each scene. Generally, I think a more natural view (eye-level, looking straight ahead) is better, so in the house exterior (first image) and T-junction (second to last), I would recommend putting the camera lower and not looking down on the scene, but ahead at it.

Secondly, you currently have very flat lighting, where every surface is basically lit equally. Try to keep in mind where the light is coming from, and make things darker or brighter depending on which way they're facing. Also, when you add shadows, consider how much "ambient light" there is (light from the sky, or reflected off other surfaces). You only get pitch black shadows (like the one cast by your road sign) if you have a single light source and everything else is dark. It makes it look like a photo taken in a dark cave, only illuminated by the camera flash. (Are all the screens supposed to be inside a cave? It's hard to tell but it looks a bit like it, because of the lighting and because the viewing angle means we can't see any sky. But then again, you probably wouldn't have grass inside a cave.)

Some tutorials that might be helpful:
http://www.hardydev.com/2010/12/11/backdrop-pitfalls-and-how-to-avoid-them/
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=37391.msg491998#msg491998

[Construed]

Thanks snarky!
Going to check those out now, I was hoping for some advice that I could apply to all the images, Especially since they are similar and you have provided it!

I also need to change the grass in quite a few of them to match the hero's hut "The one without the cross on top" and the 2 far away views have a few other shades of green in it.

I hid the sky in most of them on purpose, I cant really remember why anymore, but perhaps I can figure out a way to make a horizon.

All these images are hand painted now, almost literally pixel by pixel except a little pasting of the grass which was still hand edited afterward to avoid tiling, so I no longer have the option of adjusting the camera angle without completely redrawing them, but I can probably change those 2 without a whole heap of work because I already have the mountains and grass painted and could copy/paste them into the new image and just erase the edges as necessary which I will look into for sure!

I think I could add a horizon without too too much trouble just by painting over a small area at the top of the mountains.

I'm going to study those tutorials and try to learn a bit more about shading which I'm lacking in horribly.

I'll gladly accept any other good tutorials you or anyone else knows of and I'm looking for little tips to touch them up and improve the detail and shading, Also i would love if someone knows where there are nice tutorials on neat pixel art, like little flowers, statues rocks, trees, etc... just basic scenery type stuff but it has to be pixel art specific, like no anti-aliasing, low color type stuff. I'm trying to go for sierra style, but most pixel art is similar, so I'm not too picky!

I have updated the images above and as you can see I've been hard at work!

I thank you greatly and anyone else who has checked them out and commented, I know its a pain in the butt with so many images.

God bless!

-Jared

[Eric]

it's got a more unified colorscheme).

FYI, something that occasionally works for me if I have trouble getting my colors to really mesh well together is to start a new PS layer, and overlay a solid, not very saturated color (which varies depending on the mood / environment / lighting situation) and set it to Overlay at a very small percentage of opacity (usually between 5-15).

[Snarky]

All these images are hand painted now, almost literally pixel by pixel except a little pasting of the grass which was still hand edited afterward to avoid tiling, so I no longer have the option of adjusting the camera angle without completely redrawing them, but I can probably change those 2 without a whole heap of work because I already have the mountains and grass painted and could copy/paste them into the new image and just erase the edges as necessary which I will look into for sure!

I think I could add a horizon without too too much trouble just by painting over a small area at the top of the mountains.

The extra work it takes to modify a 2D pixel painting is one reason to try to get the camera angle, perspective and overall composition right before you add too much detail.

However, when I said you should draw the horizon, I primarily just meant that you should work out where you think the horizon would be on each image (even if it's outside of what you can actually see), and draw it as a straight line across each background. Having an awareness of the horizon, even if it's hidden behind other objects in the actual picture, is important for everything from scaling and perspective to maintaining overall consistency.

Your pixel-by-pixel technique is, I'd say, perfectly decent at this point, so what's going to make the big difference in overall quality isn't little details like how to draw a 3x3 pixel flower, but the big stuff: light/shading, color theory, perspective, composition.

[Construed]

Thank you Eric, I shall surely try that!

Yes sir Snarky, I most certainly agree!
I think it would look great if the mountains were reduced about an inch in some images varying by the rolling of the mountains with some nice sky color to offset the brownish colors which seem to kind of dominate the images, I will try to do that for sure!"Hope I'm understanding you right on that point".

I'm definitely going to change the perspective on the T-path but the only problem on the hut is that my good friend Toendra Nulta painted over it with advanced techniques I have not mastered yet and I would hate to insult him by changing it with my low to mid level art .

He made me a great rock creation tutorial with insight on lighting so between that and the tutorials you gave me hopefully I can straighten them out a bit

I can't thank you guys enough for the help as I know C&Cing this amount of images in itself is some work!
So I thank you with all my heart and god bless!!

I'm open to any comments and suggestions and will not be offended by any comments!

[Construed]

Hey snarky, They mentioned that it was possible "but hard" to cheat on the perspective in that tutorial, You think I can do that with the hut only?



PS.

How's this for the angle on the T path?

[Construed]

Images updated with new perspective, 86'ed the T path.