A forest background.

[Reptile]

Well here is one of the backgrounds for a yet to be announced project. I would love all c&c you guys can give me, I want to improve my skills a bit more.



[~EDIT~]

Final Version?:

1x:


2x:

[fovmester]

Really nice! It's got it's own special style. Like a painting. I especially like the treetrunks.

[Reptile]

Really nice! It's got it's own special style. Like a painting. I especially like the treetrunks.

Thanks, I dont knoow what to call my style these days, I usually go with ''VGA-like''. Thanks again for you're kind words. Im currently working on a portrait, man they are so hard. Give me a background anyday. 

[BlackMan890]

i find the horizontal a little bit wrong (or weird) (i mean that the sky goes (i think) a little bit too low on the horizontal)

[Reptile]

It's like a hill, the player will walk down it.

[Haddas]

I'm a big contrast fan, so I added more contrast to some parts of the bg, also I tried to fix what I think was wrong with the water. I didn't do very well myself, but if you get what I'm trying to say, then I'm happy.

[Renal Shutdown]

I think what Hardass is trying to explain with the water edit, is the fact that in your original pick, it looked like it was just a slope with a flood.  It seems that the grass goes down past the water line.  In Hardass' pic, he's showing the earthy parts around the rim of the pond/river/lake, where nothing really grows.

I think he's contrast boost has improved it, too.  The original seemed a little dream-like with the fadedness to it, like they have in films.

Awesomely pretty pic, tho.

[big brother]

One idea might be to keep the original contrast, but make sure your sprites have high contrast. That would really make the characters stand out while enhancing the ethereal quality of your scene.

[Reptile]

Honestly that contrast makes it look rather crappy. But I will make it slightly darker and add some mud. Thanks guys, I hardly get any comments on my work, and do aprichiate (sp) them.

[InCreator]

I only have one word to comment:

Details.

It's very nice bg with much detail in it. Why not the tree leaves?
If I had some more time, I'd draw every tree some leaves, instead of these green clouds with fruit. It would be soo-o much better.

[Reptile]

Well the leaves are there just very small, How long would it take to draw EVERY individual leaf. I'll give it ago though.

[InCreator]

Ever heard of mass drawing technologies?
Well, it took about 4 minutes.



But if I'd spend at least 14 minutes, it would be perfect.

[Krazy]

Ever heard of mass drawing technologies?
Well, it took about 4 minutes.



But if I'd spend at least 14 minutes, it would be perfect.

Looks worse in my opinion.

[BlackMan890]

well like one user said:
if you are going to quote a pic, then PLEASE don't write one line comment

about the pic:
like he said, if he had been 14 minutes workin on it, it would be perfect, so maybe that explains why it won't look so good (for you atleast)

i like the edit, but a little more work would do the trick (and maybe another way)

and like i said befour:

Spoiler

there should be at least a little more ground on the horizontal, looking at it, and i looks like the hill is right next to the ocean (cause the sky get's so low)

[close]

anyway nice pic, but i would say, slightly useless (cause there is nothing in it :p except you are suposed to do something with the water ot the tree trunk)

[Peter Thomas]

Goél raises an interesting point - does this scene serve a practical purpose, or is it just a 'filler' bg the character has to cross in order to get somewhere else?

It would certainly look lovely as a filler bg - sierra used them in the kings quest series nicely, but for such a beautiful scene (which it is!) I'd love to see it be taken full advantage of.

I do prefer the original contrast of your picture, as do I like the simplicity of the 'green clouds with fruit' It's very atmospheric. But I do agree with the others about the water. I imagine this scene is taking place at the BOTTOM of a hill, where the ground has levelled out, there's a pond, and the hill rises off beside you. But at the moment, the ground doesn't seem to have a level. It just seems to keep sloping down, in which case there would be no water there. It would all have run down to the bottom.

[Reptile]

Goél raises an interesting point - does this scene serve a practical purpose, or is it just a 'filler' bg the character has to cross in order to get somewhere else?

It would certainly look lovely as a filler bg - sierra used them in the kings quest series nicely, but for such a beautiful scene (which it is!) I'd love to see it be taken full advantage of.

I do prefer the original contrast of your picture, as do I like the simplicity of the 'green clouds with fruit' It's very atmospheric. But I do agree with the others about the water. I imagine this scene is taking place at the BOTTOM of a hill, where the ground has levelled out, there's a pond, and the hill rises off beside you. But at the moment, the ground doesn't seem to have a level. It just seems to keep sloping down, in which case there would be no water there. It would all have run down to the bottom

I also like the cloud like trees, it adds to the mythycal atmosphere. I removed the sky and added the mod and some additional shading:



I dont believe in filler scenes anymore, and you're all wrong, there is much you can do in this background:

A) Pick Berries. (fetch spell or DIY)

B) Pick Tangerine. (fetch spell)

C) Drink water.

D) Put water in flask.

E) Searching under/in log.

F) Take vine. (levitate spell) (fetch spell not stronge enough)

G) Talk to magical creature living in trees. (not shown here because she is hidden, the player will get hints of *something* being there.

H) Pick Flower. (fetch spell or DIY)

(8 in total)

Well most backgrounds dont even have half as much interaction as my backgrounds do. All my backgrounds have the most extreme interaction.

[Chicky]

Bleh, i dont like it without the sky. And sorry, i really didnt like InC's edit.


...now how's that for constructive criticism?

[Peter Thomas]

Well I like it :p

It actually took me a minute to realise what the difference was. At first I thought you'd just reversed the image, and then it hit me. I have no idea how I missed it in the first place...

It looks like the forest keeps going deeper and deeper now, which I like. It makes it look more mysterious and haunting. Unless, of course, this is set on the edge of a beach or something.

Oh, and you're totally right about all the interactions. But it seems to be getting towards the trend of "if there's not a big box sitting in the middle of the floor, there's no need for interactions...". Well, at least from what I've noticed, and I'm talking much broader than just the AGS community... Lovely to see you're taking advantage of the 'natural' opportunities...

[Babar]

I like the new one. The blurry grass still seems distracting somehow. You should make ALL the grass well defined, not just parts of it. If you don't want to spend too much time, you could use the clone stamp (or whatever it is called in whatever you are using). The tree bark looks nice, but the shading on the centre tree is different, as it has darker shades appearing again on the right, while the other trees have the brightest shade on the right. Also, I would suggest using a more gradual change of shading in the leaves. Right now they look like they have light green outlines

[Reptile]

The background now has more tree texture.



I dont think grass is such a major issue, I cant spend all my time doing the grass pixel by pixel. 

Thank you all for the comments and keep them coming.