Dear Critics Lounge,
I've just finished another background and fortunately recorded its creation.
Abstaubers background tutorial (http://blog.sonores.de/2008/09/10/drawing-oldschool-backgrounds-for-adventure-games/)
I'd still like to have some critics about my creation ;)
(http://blog.sonores.de/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/motel_tutx2.png)
Hope you like the tutorial and thanks for c&c!
It's not bad, but due to the location of the viewpoints, it looks like something from a 3D shooter. Perspective and composition could be much more harmonic, in my opinion.
In terms of lighting and shading, it looks undefined. If the lamp in the corner is the only lightsource, you need to start your lighting there and create some contrasts. The light from a lamp like that does not come in a wide cone; it hits the floor and the walls nearby in large circular shapes.
The colouring and the drawing technique, apart from those issues, are well performed and have a nice retro feeling to them.
The perspective is messed up badly in some places.
Mostly because the two vanishing points are way to close together.
Just look at the lines on the floor; the TV's front ought to be parallel to them.
With two point perspective, at least one of the vanishing points has to be way outside the field of view to create a realistic, eye-like image.
Ever noticed the really distorted boxes near the screen's edge when playing your favorite shooter? That's because, while technically being drawn correctly, they are outside the actual field of view of a human eye.
Quote from: KhrisMUC on Wed 10/09/2008 23:49:08The perspective is messed up badly in some places.
Mostly because the two vanishing points are way to close together.
Just look at the lines on the floor; the TV's front ought to be parallel to them.
Well, it could be a fish-eye lens, which done correctly should result in at least some radial distortion, though. That said, it's not incorrect, just very unlikely. I agree about the TV, too. We should be seeing a side profile of the TV - presently the screen is facing the door. Another issue is scaling. With the extreme perspective, the bed should be larger as well as the table, depending on how tall it is (and how wide in comparison to convention).
The composition is also a bit lacking. The lower right corner is left open and the room overall is quite bare. In addition, the whole bottom side of the image feels uncomfortable to the eye, because it's so stretched due to the FOV. It's as if the whole bottom part of the image is dissolving into oblivion :D.
All in all, it looks nice and the colors are well-chosen. However, you should go for a more orthodox perspective and work more on the compo, especially if it's for a tutorial.
Yeah, there's something about the dual-perspective that throws me off. Put one of the walls (preferably the right one) at the background (looking straight at it). That might look more realistic. Otherwise, it does kinda look like an odd 3D render, like one of those old-style 1990s DOS raytracing programs.
Yeah, you can't have the vanishing points so close to each other (especially if one is inside your image), or you'll have distortion near the edges. I made the same mistake in a sketch I did (and abandoned when I noticed the problem):
(http://home.comcast.net/~snarkibartfast/images2/background-int-1-f.jpg)
The room (which is correctly constructed--with a couple of cheats) looked OK to my eyes until I started adding objects, and noticed that in the lower left corner, the two walls that were supposed to meet at a right angle were nearly parallel. Drawing the rugs (yeah, those are rugs) at that perspective looked ridiculous. Now the world will never know the monochrome brilliance of Inca Quest!
Honestly, I think playing around with 3D modeling programs actually helps a lot in terms of understanding perspective, angles, and whatnot.
To be more exact, surest bet is to make your room in 3D first.
Not fully mega-detailed/textured, but even with simple boxes and all necessary lights you have saved yourself from about 10 paintovers and vanishing point aligning. I'm amazed that people so rarely use this method. It's like "make my background: lights, shadows and perspective" starter-kit.
Anyway. I like your style, but it's far too blurry for my taste and floorboards & wacky perspective makes me trippy. A bit cleaner, brighter, less saturated colors would improve alot. Also, armchair seems to be missing a cushion: I wouldn't want to sit on it.
Thanks for critics - my tears are slowly drying ;D
So you should have two vanishing point in the viewing range ;) - but that's actually a great hint, I hope I can avoid it in the future.
As for the 3D App: I followed the ginger bread tutorial for blender, but doing a whole room would take far too long for me.
The longer I watch my background, the more I think you're right with the 3d shooter comparision. But the light and the lamp I don't think I'm that wrong since the lampshade is semi-transparent and lightens the whole room. I even tried it at home and watched the light - the whole rooms was somehow lighten. Do you have any reference material for it?
I really appreciate all your comments - I hope my next screens get better. Thanks a lot!
Just make 4 walls, a floor, a ceiling, and some random cubes, and just explore how it shows the room, the camera angles, the lens settings, etc. Nothing too big. I didn't mean make your room in 3D, just make *A* room in 3D and explore the perspective.
I just played around with SketchUp - which makes 3D modelling quite easy for a guy without the ability to think 3D (like: That tree? Oh thats just a cylinder with a sphere on top with a semi transparent texture to it. :P )
Unfortunately SketchUp isn't good at lighting (only with plugins which are quite pricey)... so is there something even more quick and dirty than sketchup?
@snarky
Thanks for the advice (I should have added this in the reply above). But seriously, your room would have totally worked for me in a game ;)
thank you for the tutorial, i've learn alot about classic background drawing techniques from this...
Although I hear it is very hard in use, Blender might be a good choice. It doesn't cost money so you will only have to pay with spare time
Quote from: Buckethead on Fri 19/09/2008 22:52:04
Although I hear it is very hard in use, Blender might be a good choice. It doesn't cost money so you will only have to pay with spare time
Although that is not true. Blender is very easy to comprehend and use.