Alley Photo

[BlankLGPsm1081]

OOOOHHHH. HA HA HA! I think that I finally figured it out, after looking at the picture. The whole thing is at an angle and it needs to be level with the viewers eyes, which it's not.

[ScottDoom]

BlankLGPsm1081, just a question... Have you ever taken an art class?

And anyways, for your cartoony style you don't need correct perspective. I've found that sometimes when people don't know what else to say on here they just blab about perspective, even with unrealistic and cartoony settings where it doesn't really matter.

[ildu]

Perspective always matters, unless your background is totally crazy or irrational, or it's a specific standard, like isometric. Even wacky backgrounds use perspective. The shapes are just exaggurated. It doesn't need to be spot-on and if you can do it by eye, then thats great. Using perspective will usually make the image more easily understandable and real. People blab about it because so many backgrounds here lack it, and it's a fundamental part of drawing. It's also the quickest way to make an irrational background look better.

[TheYak]

It's true enough that it can improve any picture, but so many older adventures had pseudo-iso or guesstimated perspective (as well as some lines drawn out of persp, just to look less jagged or class with dithering patterns) that it's hard to make perspective a prerequisite. 

If a creator can kick out 15 BGs in this style and actually make a game, I don't think it should be condemned due to a lack of artistic integrity.  Then, after getting an idea of how backgrounds should be laid out, what's going to be functional, and how the game-making process goes, the next game can make some artistic and graphical improvements.  Just my 2 Rubles.

[Khris]

The whole thing is at an angle and it needs to be level with the viewers eyes, which it's not.

No. The angle you are using is fine, but the perspective of the box is screwed up.
And you should avoid lines that are too close to each other (the top of the box is right where wall meets ground). Make the shapes overlap each other.

Like this:


To the right, you can see the horizon and vanishing point your image is based on.

[BlankLGPsm1081]

Well, thanks for the help guys. That really helps me out. I want to make a background that looks cool and funny, but it needs to also be as real to life as possible. Thanks for the help.