Hi, folks!
After some rather disappointing background-drawing I needed a rest from pseudo-realistic drawing, and so I decided to try something in the style of King's Quest IV, because I really like that style. I ripped some KQ4-backgrounds, looked at how certain things were done, and started to make my own picture. Here is the result:
2x
-Version 1- Scroll down to see the second version!
(http://www.gwebspace.de/hassu-irc/andere/HouseEGA.png)
How do you like it? I have trouble with feeling the atmosphere of my own works. So: Has it atmosphere or air? What would you change or add (or take away)?
I'm rather proud of it, but nothing is perfect, especially nothing of what I'm doing. How can I make the background even better?
Happy-New-Year-Cheers
nihilyst
That is a great piece of work. It's certainly clear what style you were going for. That's great work.
To the crits:
- The dark matter in the background, is it forest or something much closer?
- The tree. The dithering seems quite high.
Positive Impressions:
- The Cottage. Those walls are amazing.
- The Flora. I love those flowers.
- The well. It is great looking, but seems out of perspective.
Hmmm that only thing that bothers me is that there isnt really a background or something. It looks like the end of the world. Maybe add some mountains or forest.
Hi!
Thanks for the fast replies.
It certainly isn't the end of the world. This "dark matter" are, in fact, groves or tree groups. They look out of place when done in dark green, so I made them black. Mountains are a good idea. I try to add some.
I'll try to fix the tree's dithering, too.
Yeah, perspective. If once in my lifetime get the chance to meet this Perspective, I think I'll kick his whatsoever.
Happy-New-Year-Cheers
nihilyst
As a serious fan of EGA graphics, I think it's beautiful. I don't see anything wrong with the tree and I can tell the dark spots in the background are distant trees and they don't need to be any denser than that.
The only thing that stands out to me that you could change is the black lines around the tree trunk. It's just too dark for a white tree. Make them maybe the darker shade of cyan or maybe the darker grey? I'd have to experiment to see what would look best, but since it's your picture, I'll let you do the experimenting.
Still, overall very lovely. You definately achieved the KQ4 style. Are you using this in a game? If you do, you'll make a certain Pesty very happy!
Quote from: Pesty on Sat 31/12/2005 23:24:56
Still, overall very lovely. You definately achieved the KQ4 style. Are you using this in a game? If you do, you'll make a certain Pesty very happy!
Thanks for your advice with the tree outlines ... I'll try that.
I'm not planning on a game, since I'm practicing with backgrounds so far. But I'll certainly do some more of them to advance. And then, maybe, I'll be able to make you happy ;D
cheers
nihilyst
It took me awhile to find something to crit. I kept looking around the BG thinking, "Effin' cool." It blends nicely with the EGA style.
Here are the things that the picky bastard in my head pointed out:
-The tree trunk, agree with Pesty's mention of the dark outline, but the mixture of colors also looks a bit birch-tree to me. I don't know my trees, but for that type, it seems there should be higher branches visible. The truck itself is too inorganic, the straight up-and-down is a bit too thick and a more realistic curve and knot outline could look excellent.
-The stones on the house are a little too fish-scale. They're similar in size and curve too neatly together. Assuming the constructor didn't have access to high-end masonry tools, I'd expect rounder stone shapes with smaller stones filling in the gaps and a sort of mortar running throughout.
-I knew right away that the dark patches in the background were groves, but the one closest to the viewer seems out of place. It looks too close to have its details obscured like that. Maybe some vague tree shapes in a dark green w/ black?
-Horizon: For breaking up the edge-of-the-world look, I was going to suggest more hills since it seems that kind of terrain. Something that might work well would be to break up some of the existing hillside so that the groves are on other hilltops (also fixing the distancing of the groves).
-Bench: I love the bench, but the colors give it a look of either being metallic or stone. I'd assume that wood would probably be preferable material-wise when making a bench.
-Quick-fix: The house has black outlines for the roof. It makes it clash a little with the rest of the BG and makes it more 2D-looking.
-The door of the cottage should be inset. Think halfway into the depth of the wall, rather than mounted on it.
-The corners of the house sit flush against the walls. If the house's stones were particularly ungainly, they might protrude beyond the corners, otherwise I'd expect the corners would stick out a touch beyond the walls.
-Perspective (ah, this ungainly beast) - The well's so slightly off that unless it can be fixed with a pixel or two, I'd just leave it. The part of the roof in shadow, though, is off. It wouldn't have stood out if not for the pseudo-Isometric perspective of the rest of it. Check the distance between the top and bottom of the left-most shadowed tile against the middle segments.
-The lantern is quite good and could remain untouched. However, because of sharing similar shades with windows and sky, it tends to look more like a decorative glass ball than a functional lantern. Maybe some shades of gray and cyan/blue instead?
-Windows - a bit too flat and opaque. The side facing the light-source might be opaque but would likely have reflections or glare. The side in shadow could show some interior, or at least be similar to a shiny front, but with darker tones.
-The plant coming around the house is great, but the edge of shadow's too sharp. One pixel either way might stop it from looking like it's painted on the house.
-The tree-dithering. I'd rather see this amount of dithering with some of the thicker sections of color broken up more (like the dark green in shadow) or nearly none. I'm not terribly fond of the white for highlights as it gives it a glassy look, maybe yellow or no bright highlights?
It's tempting to experiment with this and see how things look, but I'd only screw it up. Excellent stuff, at first glance, I thought it might've been your reference picture. Many Sierra EGA backgrounds had many more flaws, but how many people complain about that? Excellent stuff, sir, thank you for sharing.
Hi, YakSpit!
Your ideas were brilliant, and so I come up with a second version:
2x
-Version 2-
(http://www.gwebspace.de/hassu-irc/andere/HouseEGA_V2.png)
I hope the things, I changed, are improvements to the original:
- Altered the tree's dithering, amde it simpler. Better? Worse?
- Made the trunk more natural
- Changed the stone walls
- Remade the door
- Gave the grove some trunks and a bright side of life
- Added a distant hill
- Added a fence
- Adjusted the bench
About the perspective. I changed something, but I guess it's still bullshit. But I prefer to go to bed now. I can beat Perspective tomorrow.
cheers
nihilyst
excellent
Don't worry yourself about perspective that much. It's perfect the way it is. The way you fixed that tree trunk, yowza! You've exceeded anything the people who did the art in KQ4 did.
The vegies (green stuff XD) on the tree were better before.
Yeah, now the tree kinda blends into the ground too much.
It sure does, but I also don't like the white highlights of the first version. And, looking at the backgrounds of King's Quest IV, the bright areas of the trees also blend with the ground. So I decided to keep this version.
If one of you would know a way to do it even better, then don't hesitate and give it a try. Maybe you can teach me a better way to solve the blending problem.
cheers
nihilyst
I just couldn't resist fooling around with this beautiful piece. Changed the sky (dunno if it really fits with the foreground, but I liked how it worked with the background trees and ground) and made an attempt at defining the borders of the tree a bit more. Added some of that dark shading I liked from your first pic. This might not fit with the style, though.
(http://virtual.metapathy.com/~frits/kq4thingy.gif)
Hi, trylle, and thanks for your edit.
I like what you did with the tree and consider taking this as an example to work with.
But the sky, although a nice effect, is very distracting and looks more as if a thunderstorm is coming. Also the cyan outlines of the horizon don't please my eyes. I also considered doing something with the sky, but it always ended up messy, so I intended to let it be. Guess, I'll play around with it a bit more.
Thanks for your help, anyway.
nihilyst
I'm not posting the whole picture, because I only made a few changes.
(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/cottage2.PNG)
-Made the corner look less flat. It's stones afterall.
-Added supporting thingies under the roof.
-Eigen
Looks really, really nice. KQ4 has always been my favorite Adventure Game. Can you tell me what prog you used to make this BG?
Shawn
The image is off to a great EGA start!
I think something should be done with the sky ... to me it also looks to dark! I did a quick paint-over with some other suggestions as well:
(http://www.twin-design.com/ags/help/nihilyst_help02.gif)
- altered the sky a bit (lightened as well)
- added some more shading to the area around the stone path
- altered the roof line (on the left - it felt too steep to me)
- made the stone wall go to the roof line (on the right side)
- altered the bench a little
- altered the window frame on the front
- added shading to the tree (as others did)
- rounded the edge of the buidling and chimney (as Eigen did)
I'm not sure if I over-did it ... but I think it still maintains that EGA feel. Though, perhaps, not necessarily that of KQIV!
Hope it helps either way!
I rather like Mandarb's paintover.
Thanks, Darth, for your edit! Your made some very good improvements, that I like. I'll take them as an example to work with. Unfortunately I've no internet connection the next ten days, so I can't see if you all came up with other cool and useful paintovers. But I will definitly try to improve this bg in my online-absence.
cheers
nihilyst