Here is my attempt to create a sewer, I would appreciate your c & c to this background. I would like to keep it simple but a little more detail would make it more attractive to the viewer / player I guess... still I don't know where to start with the extra shading and pixel-textures.
(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/background_sewer.gif)
I see some problems with the perspective of the red stuff in the pipe. It should be a little bit curved to follow the shape of the tube. Also, the links in the tube should be flipped! :D
Anyway...I see you are quite good getting a nice looking with a little amount of work... That's a treasure, because in that way you'll be able to finish games. Don't put so much effort in this, it's quite good,and IMO, it works.
Anyway I have some problems with the light source, and I think that the water wouldit look better if you add a reflex there in a way I can't really explain with words. (I am at work, wait for my paintover in some hours...)
If you want to give more depth to the tiles add an extra line above and under the two black lines (lighter up and darked down).
To end, I'll adjust the bright (more dark) and the contrast.
It looks great as it is, but if you really want to add more detail then I guess you could try adding some cracks on the bricks. They look too clean to be in a sewer right now.
The lower black part is a lot bigger than the upper one. It's really bugging...
heheh....I believe that is the space left empty for the game GUI.
G'job, mate!
Lightsource: the only problem in my oppinion. Try something a little bit more like this (foggy and concentrated lights):
(http://www.stefano.mega.nom.br/background_sewer.gif)
Cheers,
Stefano
That 'type' of light source would look better, but not in that style :) The rest of the image is very pixel-y and then you throw in that complex gradient it just sort of clashes (in my opinion).
I was thinking more along these lines when I first saw this pic: (quick paintover)
(http://www.twin-design.com/ags/help/poe_help01.gif)
- darken'd the whole thing (it was WAY to bright for a sewer, even with an open hole in the roof)
- Corrected lighting on the walkway (it was reversed)
- shadowed the walkway onto the water a bit more
- added some more slime (seemed too clean to me, just personal preference)
- added some shading to the pipe (to make it appear to be coming out of the wall)
Anyway ... the lightsource I added was done rather quickly just to demonstrate.
I hope it helps.
thank you so much, guys! :)
in the meantime I did a paintover myself and fixed the following things:
- added additional light
- created depth in the bricks (wall)
- added an additional spider web (right side)
- added some cracks on the bricks
(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/background_sewer2.gif)
what do you think?
just 2 more things:
1. the little red thing on the pipe is just a towel or something, it's not a part of the pipe and therefore it does not have to point into the same direction. it will be an object to be taken later in the game.
2. the sewer is lightened from above, there may be some lamps on the ceiling you are unable to see in that perspective, so that daylight is not the only light source... otherwise it would be to dark for the character to move down there. a flash light would only lighten up a small part of the image and you cannot draw that in a physically correct way in order to be displayed later in the game (as you know it from 3d action games). a light switch in the sewer would make no sense, so it has to be at least artificially lightened. I'm thinking about moving part of the lamps in the foreground...
In your picture, the lamp not light up web , huh?
So, web should be dark.
Not if light were to reflect off the "water" back up towards the web. I like it that way.
in fact the spider web was painted in dark colors but it didn't look so good... some particles of the light from above reflect on the web, therefore it's upper left side is a little bit brighter. you have to imagine that spider webs are originally white (in daylight), so being painted in dark grey tones, the web is as dark as the rest. if it was i.e. completely black it could a) only be a shadow of the web or b) the room would be completely dark, then you wouldn't be able to see anything.
as I already mentioned there are certain light sources on the ceiling of the sewer, connected with cables like you maybe know them from coal mines. I'll try to paint some of them as objects of the foreground and then I decide if they disturb game play or not...
//edit (before posting): good remark, veryweirdguy! As I said particles of the light are reflected on the web and that is IMO caused by the surface of the water.
Those round... things in the lightning don't look very good. See what I mean:
(http://img4.echo.cx/img4/7212/paintover2ft.png)
Looks better without don't you think?
And I think the light may reflect in the water (such a small effect - ray may wavy)
that (pablos comment) is definitely correct, I chose this "round thing" for presenting a more realistic entrance of the light though it's kind of filtered or rounded through the entrance to the sewer (normally stairs in sewers look different but anyway...). now it doesn't seem to fit anymore, so I'll take it out for avoiding conflicts with the new light.
here is another paintover.
fixed:
- changed lighting on the walk way
- added some slime
(thanks to darth mandard!)
- removed the old light source
(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/background_sewer3.gif)
now I'm going to follow darth mandarb's hint concerning reflections of the walk way on the surface of the water and shading of the pipe in order to give more depth to it.
in my opinion the light lines are un nessesary i think you should fade in to the colour of bricks but i could be wrong
Those lines are not natural. I've never seen a light that makes the surroundings darker :=
well, I fixed the lighting and made another paintover.
fixed / new:
- darkened and shortened the incoming daylight from above
- cut off the outer (dark) ray of light
- added cables hanging into the room from the ceiling
- added shading to the walk way
- added shading to the pipe (similar to darth mandarb's paintover)
- added reflections of the walk way in the water
- changed color of slime on the walk way
what do you think?
(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/background_sewer4.gif)
It's better now! Some things still bugged me, and after writing page-long post, I finally decided that I can't explain myself without an edit.
So, I made some adjustments...
(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/inc_sewer4.gif)
What I didn't fix - and what you should - is the shadow of the ladder on the wall.
- it must not be shaded in any way!
- it must be darker where dark lines of the bricks are (the holes between bricks)
...or it will look like another real ladder placed behind first one - as it looks now.
While ive got all the "pros" here i might as well ask: is this pic made in PSP 'coz if it is i need some help with making the whole vintage look
Quote from: InCreator on Tue 03/05/2005 22:01:12
It's better now! Some things still bugged me, and after writing page-long post, I finally decided that I can't explain myself without an edit.
So, I made some adjustments...
What I didn't fix - and what you should - is the shadow of the ladder on the wall.
- it must not be shaded in any way!
- it must be darker where dark lines of the bricks are (the holes between bricks)
...or it will look like another real ladder placed behind first one - as it looks now.
thank you for your overpaint! :)
your version looks quite good, it gives more detail to the picture. I already thought about putting a little distortion onto the bricks of the wall and the walk way. You're right concerning the ladder and its shadow, maybe some transparency will fix that problem. Although the slime on the wall looks nice with this new fading colors, I think a little less detail would fit more into the classic style, same thing with the pipe. If it's shaded too perfectly or too realistic, the rest of the background has to look similar. I try to to create simple backgrounds for my little project, nothing too complicated.
@TheBrat499:
this picture is made using Photoshop, not PSP but I am sure you can do all these little things as well in PSP. The "vintage look" is a combination of distortion (effect in PS) and simple crack / hole paintings (shading is important).
i think there's too much definition in the bricks. i would break up those lines a bit.