Background - WIP

[JimmyShelter]

I started on a background for the game for the characters I've been working on (see http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=32866.0 ).



It's very much a work in progress, as I haven't started filling in the details.

I'm looking for feedback on the layout of the scene, and the basic colours. Also I'm curious if people see what it's meant to be. 

[Dualnames]

Why don't you finish it and I'll tell you..

[Arboris]

I'm guessing we're on a mountain range, a house to the left, a light house in the distance and an airship.

My only observation is that the middle and the right are quite empty. Maybe add some crates? Giving it the illusion it's cargo for the airship

[ildu]

No need to get high and mighty, dualnames.

Ech, now you've made me speak, so I guess I have to give crits:

I like the color scheme - it fits very well with the characters. As for the composition, since I haven't seen any other bgs from this project, I would suggest starting over with a much lower viewpoint. There's way too much ground visible, and ground usually being the least detailed surface, you're gonna have trouble filling it all up. The composition also suffers from the high viewpoint in that most of the airship (which is probably supposed to be the focal point) is not seen. An additional gripe of the viewpoint is that you usually just end up seeing faces of walls (and not the roofs and other shapes mixing with the background), which is extremely annoying especially when trying to draw something that isn't supposed to look modern. Furthermore, you get a lack of depth, because you can't overlap objects as well, such as in the case of the foreground.

Design-wise you need to pay more attention to 3D representation, but there's not enough done to elaborate on that.

Otherwise, nice effort .

[Sparky]

Ildu's point about the camera is good.

You might also want to consider playing with geometry more. A few interesting shaped buildings, arches, hand rails, etc. would go a long way. With a flat-shaded style, you won't be able to use lighting to spice things up and build atmosphere, so some neat base shapes and scenery will fill that void nicely.

I have a tendency to make boxy buildings myself. I swear, 90% of the rooms I draw are rectangular solids with holes drilled in them for doors and windows.

[Stupot]

Looks to me like some kind of pirate ship in the sky ala 'Skies of Arcadia' (ach, amazing game).

I think you could do with filling up some of that empty space, and add some details too.  Perhaps some rope barrier on the edge of the dock, maybe some white stripes on the lighthouse.  And some textures too... nothing too elaborate, just some cracks in the floor, some unevenness to the cliff.

Your choice of colours is great.
Keep us posted.

[bicilotti]

First the banal remark




Perspective is not 100% correct, but only androids and boring persons care about perspective while sketching a background.

I really like the colours (expecially the lighthouse) and the shape of the airship.

Another quick consideration: maybe the floor takes a bigger part of the bg than it deserves. Since the composition is armonious I suggest you to lower the viewer's eye level. That may leave less unused ground space and give the player a more enjoyable sight.

Hope that helps!

[Khris]

Well, from a vanishing point at 320;-20, only the lower balcony line is noticeably off.
It's way too picky to extend the short windowsill lines like that, even if you managed to use their exact angle.
And putting the top of the door there is way off, too. Look at the points where the arc starts on both sides; connecting them will produce a pretty accurate vanishing line, too.

That's enough criticism of criticism for now, so I'll shut up now

Only one thing to add left: the airship is in serious need of a back.

[JimmyShelter]

I tried to use your comments but still keep as much of my work as I could. (ok, I'm lazy  ).


Does this seem like an improvement, or are there still major issues?
I know it's too flat at the comment considering the shadows and textures, but i'm keeping that mostly for when it's finished.

I tried to change the perspective on the house, but somehow I couldn't get it right at other angles.
What I mostly did now is trying to move/change things a little just to make the picture more interesting to look at, and more clear as to what is depicted.



If it seems I ignored your comments, please be assured, I read all comments, and I definitely learn something from all of them!

[EldKatt]

Intuitively... I'd like to see more of the house. In the sense that it should extend further towards the middle of the picture. Just a composition thing, and I can't even give a good motivation of it, because I know next to nothing about composition theory. But it feels unbalanced somehow and that's my hunch about why. I might not have realized it were it in a game, though.

I have no idea what I'm talking about.

[monkey0506]

Aw Jimmy, I was just about to comment on your cardboard cut-out of a ship that was clearly intended to trick unwary tourists into committing lemmingcide when I saw your new version. You just had to go and ruin it for us all. Thanks.

[Dualnames]

Nvm my first post...Ok, I'll be more honest. The first image didn't match the character style that much so I didn't want to say that it didn't match , because then you would say that calm down Dualnames it's not finished yet.. Well, I guess so , but I you offered the image so that the community can critic on it.. Anyway, I'm sorry I got misunderstood..

Now on topic..
How to match your character style..(my way)
I carefully see how I've drawn my characters then try to do the same with the background..
ex.. instead of black you're putting a color (in the sailor's occasion it's purple) so you have to do the same on your background(not put purple but put some color instead of black outlines)

I'm gonna start writing a tutorial because this hardly makes some sense...

[JimmyShelter]

Now on topic..
How to match your character style..(my way)
I carefully see how I've drawn my characters then try to do the same with the background..
ex.. instead of black you're putting a color (in the sailor's occasion it's purple) so you have to do the same on your background(not put purple but put some color instead of black outlines)

The background isn't shaded yet, because I wanted to get the layout/design right first. That's why the background doesn't match the characters completely.

I didn't use any black outlines btw, allthough I can see it looks that way on the building.

[ManicMatt]

How about some water near the lighthouse as shown, and the structure type thing I've poorly drawn on the boat?

oops, whiteness... I was in a hurry.

[GarageGothic]

It's a skyship (like in Stardust), not a boat - hence no water.

[JimmyShelter]

The structure-thing is a good idea.

I'm currently working on detailing the house a bit more. Adding a lamp, and depth to the door, etc.

I basically have these questions:

- How can I make the ground look more interesting, without loosing the simplicity of the drawing style?

- How can I make the balloon look rounder?

- How can I make sure Matt sees it's an airship? 

- How can I make the walls of the  house look more real? They're plastered walls, so drawing stones doesn;t make sense.

[GarageGothic]

- How can I make sure Matt sees it's an airship? 

How about also putting clouds below the ship? And also change the cloud behind the railing to not cover the entire width from the boat to the lighthouse, and to be less flat at the bottom (which currently gives the impression of a horizon line).

- How can I make the walls of the  house look more real? They're plastered walls, so drawing stones doesn;t make sense.

Put some cracks in, maybe even a part where the bricks are throwing through the cracked plaster.

[JimmyShelter]

Nice suggestions GarageGothic, thanks.

I'm currently finishing the line-art.

How do I give the door and window frames depth? Somehow my approach seems to 'fat'.



How can I make the door look more like wood?

[bicilotti]

Sometimes we forgot the wall is thick. I think adding an inner arc can add some depth to the window (the widht of the window in my picture is far too wide, the perspective is somewhat forced and the colour choiche for the inner part is debatable, but I think that way is easier to see what my words are not able to explain).

For the door: i don't see anything bad with it, the only thing is the colour are too similar to the ones of the building (beacuse the building is made from some kind of stone or concrete or other similar material, right?). Try a darken, slightly less saturated nuance.

Hope that helped, good luck with your game   

[Khris]

Some suggestions:



-used helplines for the window's bow
-reworked the lighthouse a bit
-tried to give volume and elasticity to the balloon
-moved the back side up and added fixtures
-reworked the walkway a bit
-removed the blue pixels in the clouds

I really like the simplistic style and tried to stick to it.