Background c&c

[Seb]

Hi, I was hoping for some feedback on a background I've been working on for my new game. Suggestions on how to improve it would be greatly appreciated


Thanks

[Nikolas]

I like it a lot actually. I'm not a graphics guy, but either way, an opinion is an opinion!

I like that there are very clean lines and that these seem hand drawn. That there are tiny details, with the black lines, at different thickness, which makes the whole thing look more detailed.

So much that I don't mind that it seems that the perspective is off!

As for some feedback I'd say that you are not having any shadows, whatsoever, which is a pity, but difficult to put in the game as well. :-/ The table looks extremely off perspective, which does need fixing, but the bed not so much, afak...

Best of luck, good try and keep up the good work!

[Trent R]

Honestly, I'd agree with every single point that Nikolas just made. Quite literally every word.

~Trent
PS-As useless as this post may be, there's nothing else I think I could add. Except for the fact that the poster made me laugh.

[Edit]: Above...

[Buckethead]

the proportions are off. The clothes on magazine are really small compared to the rest.

[stajp]

the proportions are off. The clothes on magazine are really small compared to the rest.

Maybe the main character is somebody short, like Dexter?

[Darth Mandarb]

There are some major perspective issues at work here ...


I'd strongly suggest (unless you're going for that off-kilter look) tightening it up a bit perspective wise.

Also ... there is almost no shading.  The shirts on the bed appear as part of the pattern of the bedspread rather than as if they're setting on top of it.  There is an inconsistency of line-weight as well (though that only slightly bugs me)

It's a good start but the lack of perspective and shading detracts from the image over-all.

[Snarky]

Ummm, Darth? Things only have a common vanishing point if they are parallel. Given that the bed, chair, desk and monitor are all askew, there's no reason why the lines you drew should match up. There's some minor wonkiness with the chair, but nothing particularly serious.

[Darth Mandarb]

Perhaps ... just feels inconsistent to me (each object doesn't need to share a vanishing point, but each object should have it's own vanishing point)

I dunno ... just looked off to me.  A lack of 'depth'.

[Seb]

Thanks for all your suggestions, I will do some work on it tomorrow and try to sort out the perspective and add some shading in.

[Ionias]

Overall it’s a nice piece of artwork. Since you asked on ways to improve it I’ll make some suggestions:

•   The depth and detail of say the chair and computer monitor are not matched by the door and bed head-board. You need to add some depth to them so they don’t just appear as line art but appear more 3D in nature.

•   The sizes of the objects are not matching up. Example the shirts on the bed are much smaller than the bed and the chair seems to large in comparison to the bed.

Throw in a few more items to make the room less empty and some shading and it will be well on it’s way.

[Apocalyptic]

First of all you have serious talent

Areas in need of improvement:

Perspective:

• The perspective of your horizon and the perspective of the objects in your room do not correlate.
  
• Bring in a wall to one side or a roof to help even it off and enforce a greater sense of a 3D environment.
  
• Your horizon is too flat
  
• The golden ratio = 1.61803399 set this for how far the horizon should be from the bottom
  
  
  
  Depth:
  
• Google for a tutorial on Shading a room

[Seb]

I did a bit of editing tonight and tried to do most of the things people had commented on, heres the updated version.



I hope I've done what you asked correctly, sorry if the perspective is still off, I've never been too good at getting that right 

Thanks for your suggestions too Apocalyptic, I will try to add those in tomorrow.

[Ryan Timothy B]

The one thing I've noticed and am bothered by is the low bed.  It's missing the legs under the mattress.  You can see that the base of the bed runs directly on the same level as the wall trim.  You need to raise up the bed and slap some legs under there.

The moonlamp should be bigger considering the size of everything else in the room.  Look at the door knob versus the moonlamp for example. (i quickly increased the size of it in my edit)

Also look at the leg support on the right side of the desk.  There is about a foot of leg room for a person to sit.  But look at the left side, there is only a slight overhang of the desktop meaning there is like 3 inches of leg room on the left side and a foot on the right.  Very skewed.  Blue line being where the leg should be.


Also that drawer is pretty hard to spot.  If it's going to be opened in the game, you should probably drag it over a bit... unless you're going for the 'I never would have seen that without a walk through', or just looking around really carefully, type of game.

Also avoid saving in jpg if you can.  It's better for us to see without the jpg artifacts.

[Darth Mandarb]

Ionias and Apocalyptic better expressed exactly what I meant!

The newest version is an improvement!

There's still a feeling of 'off' perspective to me (but as you fill in more details it becomes less noticable).

The varying line thicknesses on some objects is odd (the shirts on the bed have super thick outlines (making them bigger helped!))

I like the new depth on the bed's headboard.

[Phemar]

The perspective (while not technically correct) actually looks alright to me. I just got the feeling that everything was at a slight angle.

[densming]

I like the "me and Patrick" pic over the bed.  With Einstein and Star Trek, I'm guessing the main character is pretty geeky. 

[Trent R]

The floormat is now bothering me, it's 3x the thickness of the keyboard. And the pillow could use some depth, but I also like the lack of depth on the scattered clothes.

But good improvements!


~Trent

[Dualnames]

Womdering is this computer screen taking from MS ClipArt?

[Seb]

Yeah the main character is a nerdy scientist sort of guy I drew the computer screen myself rather than taking it from clip art, its based on a BBC Micro. I've taken all further suggestions for improvements into account and will continue to improve the background accordingly. Thanks for all your suggestions, they have been really helpful and should also be useful to keep in mind when drawing my other backgrounds

[Apocalyptic]

You're on the right track the increased amount of objects has helped to break the original bleakness the room had.

Heres a reference picture i made before your latest addition that might help you improve your perspective, but my internet provider was down up until now so i couldn't upload until now.

(Reserved for image Server still buggy)

hope it still helps

BTW if you ever need help with perspective in the future try getting blender it is a friggen awesome 3D app and a little stuffing around with it will help develop your sense of perception. I like your current atempt