Painted this in about 10 minutes. It's for a game I'm planning. Figured I'd start simple 8)
(http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc46/dntlookdown/starrshouse.png)
(http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc46/dntlookdown/starrshouse.png)
EDIT: I added a house to it. Paintovers welcome.
The house added much to your background, and I quite like it, though the perspective (the street especially) is weird.
Things I'd add to the house:
- an eaves gutter
- some kind of handrail for the stairs; it looks quite unsecure now
- The window doesn't look as if it could be opened; try to add a middle bar or something
- a flower box
- maybe a cellar window
- a letterbox
- a doorbell
- a bush
cheers
nihilyst
I like it. How about adding a tree or two on the distant hill?
Also, your colour choice interests me.
I love the colours in this piece. It gives a good sense of how undesirable this place would be to live. Put some dead trees in the background if you put trees in.
The house IMO is a bit large. I would have made it smaller, unless your sprites are huge. Did you use a sprite for scale reference? If not, I suggest you do.
I like the style, but perhaps the perspective on the house it a bit too realistic (though extreme, I'm getting an almost fish-eye impression).
The problem with the street is that the right edge of the part that is beyond the hill lines up perfectly with the edge of the foreground sidewalk. Try moving the distant part a bit to the left or right.
The perspective on the house is too stiff in comparison to the rest of the background. The distant buildings also seem to lack any sort of depth, try to add a pixel or two of depth.
Try swapping the two shades of the street, so that the darkest shade is in the foreground and the less saturated gray shade is in the back. Colours tend to fade with the distance, and it will match the dark, fresh green (fg) / pea-green (bg) fade you already did.
Apart from that, nice one!
Added a few things mentioned. I really hate the bush, for some reason I had a total brain fart on that part. ???
(http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc46/dntlookdown/bgcitydistance1.png)
the factory/buildings in the background just muddle this up ... even with the depth. I think the problem is because they are far away and yet have a lot of details on them. Adding the depth was a good idea, but they look like a cardboard stand on the top of the hill. That or those trees are HUGE!! The level of details for something that's supposed to be far away is a problem because the rest of the image (forground) isn't full of details so it clashes (at least to me). I would try to make the buildings seem more distant and obscure.
I did a quick paint over to show an idea:
(http://www.twin-design.com/ags/help/thesuitor_help01.gif)
- upped the contrast a bit to separate things a little more
- added a second hill in there to separate the tree's hill, with the factory in the distance
- simplified the buildings in the distance
Just a thought.
Hope you find it helpful!
Thanks for all the advice.
Darth, that looks killer!
Unfortunately this bg is too good for the sprites I made for the game. They lack detail and are small resized to be big. I dunno maybe I can pull it off. I'll post a screenshot when I get home.
EDIT: Dont shoot me if the sprites clash with the bg :P
(http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc46/dntlookdown/ss2.png)
and a dialog example
(http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc46/dntlookdown/ss1.png)
Don't pay attention to the default gui, i'm just starting this one out.
The character resolution does not fit the background. However, I like the talking view portrait. I suggest to make the whole character that way, ditch the portrait and make a talking animation for the whole character.
I'm liking this background.
One problem I had with it, though, was the perspective of pavement in front of the house..
I've drawn a rough idea to show you what I mean, by widening the pavement as it comes close to the foreground.
(http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f349/Captain_Stu/AGS/pavement.jpg)
I also added a rough example of how a kerb (curb?) might also be a good idea.
Hope this helps :)
Yes, the talking portrait looks great. If your entire character looked like that it would be perfect.
Also, the characters you have right now seem rather large. I haven't checked, but from looking at the pics the characters look like they would come right up to the top of the doorway. You might want to shrink them a little so that there's some headroom when they enter the door.
THe characters are cool, could use a bit more detail.
Aurinond is right, if you made the portrait as a base for the sprite, look much better. The sprites would be quite big, due to the scale of the house.
Anyway. Nice work.
the sprites would be okay, and wouldn't clash, if you improved the talking portrait by making it bigger and more detailed. I'd think that the point of talking portraits is to see detail that would otherwise not be visible in the sprite, but since the portrait head is the same size as the sprite's head, it doesn't come off so well.
I'd make the distance more lighter in the horizon.
Started working on the more detailed versions of the characters this is what I have so far...
(http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc46/dntlookdown/star.png)(http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc46/dntlookdown/star.png)
(the second frame isn't a standing frame. Don't know how it got in there lol)
I'll take the advice and detail them. But right now, I'm going to work more on story and backgrounds and keep the characters pixelated because of my short attention span. :-X And I'll detail them before I release the game. I Want to finish a game this time, instead loosing interest.
Speaking of that, any tips on how to keep making a game w/o flaking out? :D