background practice

[Buckethead]

In my ever on going quest of finding a background style I like and can maintain I decided to "remake"  this background from King's Quest 3 vga:



In the end I decided not to completely follow it, so here's the result:



An in game screenshot:



And finally, a version with some smoke:




What do you think of the style? Is it too pixely? Would you rather see a higher resolution? Or do you think it's all fine like this?

Also any critics and comments are welcome.

[R4L]

I love it to be honest. I'm just a fan of pixely-looking backgrounds though.

[Matti]

in my opinion it is a bit too pixely and could be smoother. also, the smoke is no loop so it looks a bit odd.

but then again its a nice background altogether.



sorry for my writing style, i once again - the second time within two month - dumped a cup of coffe on my keyboard and now some keys like shift dont work.

[arj0n]

Hey matti,

I solved that keyboard problem by buying a silicone keyboard.
for example: http://www.techkey.nl/sites/fr_silicone_keys_i.htm

No more key's stuck, works great...

(Offtopic, I know...)

[TwinMoon]

Hm, I'd rather see it smoother. It looks too grainy IMHO.
Good job on the smoke, it's looks really great with the shadows being cast on the roof / grass. If it were looping it would be pefect.

A small comment composition-wise:
in the original, the tree goes straight up, which gives it an edge on the right side.
You decided to show only part of the treetrunk, but it would probably look better if you either removed the trunk completely, or changed it so that it runs parallel to the side of the picture.

Also, it seems illogical that the stone slabs in front of the shed don't go anywhere. You'd expect people to put in some more to make a path from the front door to the shed.

And, to end with a positive note   the leaves in the topright are an improvement over the original.

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

I think higher resolution rather than a general aliasing filter would help this background look more crisp and clear.  I think you did a great job copying the 2d version, though.

[Ryan Timothy B]

I also agree that it's way too pixelly.  Needs a higher resolution, or some photoshop tweaking after each image is produced.  Like removing the dark pixels around the boards on the house.

[Moresco]

I dunno about higher resolution, but the one picture looks blurred a bit while the in-game looks a lot more pixelated.  Even still with the blurred out image, you can still see pixelated effects like on the dashed black lines on the barn.   Typically, things in the far background are more blurred than things in the foreground as well.

Wait...sorry, my fault - firefox blurs the images when they're resized.  Whoops.  Anyhow, when I saw the blurred image I kind of thought you attempted to correct it already.

I agree with TwinMoon about the tree and the stone path.  But about the blurring/pixelation...lemme just quickly show you an edit so you see what I'm saying:



I left a bit of pixelated areas for the close grass and the tree leaves and things like that, but I smoothed out the stones a bit even though they were close in.  I guess it's a matter of taste for some things, they just look less cluttery I suppose.  ^^  Cool background though!

[Khris]

That's really good work, although I'm usually not a big fan of rendered stuff.
You could try to render it to 640x480, then scale it down to 320x240 using an interpolation filter. That should make it look smooth and pixellated.

[Buckethead]

Here's a new version:



- Made it look less pixely (more in the style of the original)

- Change the right tree around to form more of a border.

- Added extra stone plates

- cleaned up the planks on the house.


One thing I still would like to do is get the smoke to be looping. But I just can't get it right. Any tips to make it loop smoother?

[SSH]

Here's a couple fo examples:

[Trent R]

Since I suck at real paintovers, I will instead point areas that could be small fixing.
Working on it right now, I'll edit this post soon.

[Edit]: Alright, here's a gif that switches back and forth between the old and new versions. I'll try to state clearly as possible about each of the numbered areas. (Red is criticism, Blue is compliments)


1) RED: In the new version, this seems like an empty corner. I preferred the leaves in this area as opposed to having them along the side of the pic. However, the horizon behind it does look good.
BLUE: Absolutely LOVE the leaves in the old pic, that's one reason I want them moved back. (just update the pixelation the same as the rest of the picture)

2) In both pictures, but the new especially a horizontal line is visible on the roof.

3) In the new version, these boards (and the rest on the front) blend in with the rest of the face of the house too much. The older version had more contrast. (Though I think the 'inspiration' one has too much contrast)

4) The new version is too dark. Wait--Just noticed that the tree's shadow is causing that. However, based on the rest of the shadows in the picture, the tree's shouldn't fall that direction.

5) On new version, where the door ends and the frame starts is too blurry. Just define where that line is.

6) Shadow so dark and so dithered that it's too stark and is distracting.

7) This goes along with TwinMoon's comment about the tree. Make it run parrallel to the frame, because right now it looks like the trunk is literally twisted. Make the bark run up and down too.
Also, I like that the new version shows more of the tree, but the bottom roots are choppy. Just rework them a bit (or cover with a bush, etc).

8 ) The two new slabs look great, but they run along the same plane, whereas all the rest are crooked from eachother.

9) Not necessary, but perhaps another slab could be added here. If this was your own, original background something like this would probably be thought out.

10) Again, with a properly planned background, this area would be defined and purposeful. (applies to the rest of the field too.

11) In the old version this was a hard line--good job on softening it!

12) Absolutely love how every part of this tree looks. Excellent job.


Overall, I love this picture, which is why I was really nitpicking. I'm also curious as to your process, I'd almost say that it looks like you start from 3D (or maybe I'm just crazy).




~Trent

[Buckethead]

Thanks everyone for their critics (I forgot earlier  ) and thanks Trent for pointing out so many things I've missed. I'm going to see if I can fix it all. Then I'm ging to try to get the smoke right...

and then I think I'll be done with this background.

[Inkoddi]

I suggest you don't have the smoke as part of the background at all, but just animate the bit above the chimney and maybe the shadow below and have objects there instead.
That way you can have as many frames as you like!