Bar background

[gameboy]

Hello folks. It's been a while since I last posted something on the CL. Anyways I've been working on some graphics which will hopefully end up in a game.

So here's a bg of a bar interior:



2x:


2x w/ characters:


Now I'm relatively happy with this one, but I'm sure there's room for improvement. Anything that needs instant changing? Anything I should add? Let me know what you think. Any help is welcome.

[GarageGothic]

How about a ladder so the bartender can actually reach the bottles? Also, I can't quite put my finger on it, but there seems to be something weird going on with the perspective of the TV which makes the shelves seem to have no depth.

Other than that I think it's a nice background, and very functional. Love the shadow from the text on the window - a small touch that serves to establish the off-screen part of the room.

[LRH]

Perhaps some writing about drink specials or another drink shelf or something? The back wall just seems a little bare compared to the rest of the room.

Honestly this looks quite good, I really hope it gets made into a game, I'd play it

[tzachs]

It looks really good to me with the exception of the tv: the angle is weird, I think, and also the size: it's the same height as the bottles...

[Ryan Timothy B]

The stools seem to be on an angle.  Since the camera is viewing the bar-top straight on, the stools appear to be on an angle since they are only about a foot below.

[Khris]

The letters on the window and consequently their shadow are flipped.

[Matti]

The letters on the window and consequently their shadow are flipped.

Ha, good point!

[SinSin]

My points would be

@ Give the dartboard some thickness
@ Lower the top shelf and the green pinboard
@ take the bar stools down by a couple of pixels (the charcters knees are gonna be bruising right now lolz) maybe level them out as to what Ryan said
@ Also the main bar length looks too dark maybe lighten it up, Remember the window is behind you  

[Mr Flibble]

We shouldn't be able to see the tops of the stools if we can't see the top of the bar.

[Tuomas]

According to my personal experience, bars are always a bit blurry.

[gameboy]

Heh, thanks for all the replies, it's been very helpful. Back to drawing.

[bearseatbeats]

There seem to be some nice shadows under the first and third stools from the left, but no shadows under the second and fourth stools. I think you should add similar shadows under the second and fourth stools.

Also, the second through fourth stool bases lack a certain roundness. The first one is good, so if you could sort of temper that dark gray on the following bases and make them more like the first, I think that would look better.

Perhaps you could also make one or more of those beer taps on the bar a different shape and size from the others. If you go to most bars, they're almost never all the same size and sometimes have crazy handles like skeleton arms and such, so there's room for variety.

Also, it seems that the shadows behind the bottles at the top don't really line up with the bottles.

Beyond that and the rest of the things already mentioned, it's looking pretty good!

[Chicky]

I think this is a really good bakcground. Dont listen to anyone i think it's brilliant. Maybe reverse the BAR writing because if you think about it it doesn't make any sense.

[Captain Ricco]

actually, i think the reversed "Bar" is right, it would look "unrevesed" from outside the window, so from inside it would look reversed

[Kweepa]

i think the reversed "Bar" is right

You need to think about it some more.
Here's some examples... found by searching flickr for "window logo shadow".
http://www.flickr.com/photos/27209755@N03/3168010850/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dominicspics/212454997/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/researchgirl/3480782397/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/greenchartreuse/216678443/

[Captain Ricco]

oh yeah, you are correct, i mixed it up with the other way around 

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

The texturing seems to be rather random to me and the colors washed out and uninteresting so I made a rather detailed (but incomplete) edit.

1.  Removed all shading and retextured the walls and floor with more visually interesting color gradients suitable for a left as well as overhead light source.

2.  Edited the stools, bringing their angle up one pixel.  I also brought out the depth of the bar to where it should have been based on your vanishing point (as taken from the right wall).  This gives the bar itself a bit of depth, though the extreme VP makes the sides of the bar fall off quite abruptly and may not be ideal.

3.  Reworked the dart board to look a bit more colorful and toplit the wall for a potential light source (lamp, a lit sign, etc).  The problem I ran into here is the extreme VP angle makes it difficult to draw anything running horizontal on the right wall.

4.  Added a sliding ladder (could be a separate item if it is part of a puzzle).

5.  Added a glowing 'Pud Light' sign and cleaned up the other poster to give it more detail.  Also added some things to the chalk board.

6.  Made some shapes in the area behind the door so it does not just open up to blackness.

7.  Left the vanishing point I used based on the right wall.






Some things to work on:

Your colors.  They are very washed out and visually bland for the most part.  Take a look at some photos of bars if you need inspiration.

Details.  More posters, lit signs and some actual lights would be a great way to finish out the bar.  Perhaps you could extrude part of the floor towards the viewer to include a bathroom entrance as well.

Textures.  You do not need to use a lot of colors when creating a texture (gradient), but you do need to make the most of them.  In the original image you had a small spackled light source on one end just loosely defined with a gradient of maybe 4 colors, and when you use too few the result tends to look sloppy.  You also want to avoid overdoing it to the point where you can't actually see a variation in the gradient because it defeats the purpose, so be sure to experiment with something in between like I have in this example.  Between 8 and 16 colors tends to make an acceptable gradient for low res purposes.

You may also want to go back and once you have some definite light sources add some shadows and properly shade the bar stools based on which direction the light is coming from.  One of the things I didn't do was to add shadows because I wasn't clear where all the light sources were.  The direction of the textures (light to dark) will correspond to any light sources in the room, but to keep things simple you can have the strongest light source be the base.

Finally, the VP you chose makes the right wall difficult to add content to because of the extreme angle  near the top.  The main reason is that the right wall cuts off abruptly.

Overall I think the room has a good initial presentation, just work on your colors and give the player some details to look at and you'll be fine!

[gameboy]

Thanks, ProgZmax, the edit points out the flaws pretty good. I'm going to work on the colors and textures.

Once again, back to drawing board. Will post new version soon.