Guide to making collage backgrounds

[alex]

It's a technique which can be used, though it will cop flak from pixel artists, it is a tool you can use to make some nice backgrounds.

http://www.soundportfolio.com/game-backgrounds.pdf

[InCreator]

Not bad really. HTML version would be friendlier though.

[eternal_renegade]

pretty cool, the only thing I see here is that a little more work can be done, but then again it is a tutorial. But finding sprites that work can be difficult however. But it is a good tutorial.

[rbaleksandar]

Very nice and detailed Thanks!

[alex]

Cheers for the feedback.

A HTML version will be forthcoming, I've just had a lot on my plate lately.  Indeed I hammered out the tutorial as a kind of stress relief, so if it's a bit wonky that is probably why - first draft syndrome.

Maybe I should extend the tutorial to cover the process of converting this into an AGS room, because it has a place for walk behinds, exits, walkable areas etc...  Anyway as long as it is useful to someone, somewhere, then I am happy.

[Jakerpot]

really cool!  Thanks!

[Joe]

Hey it's really good!! Thanks for this!!

Hope you post more things like this!!!

[alex]

I probably will Joe.

When I am doing something new, reading tutorials has helped me tons in the past.  Now, whenever I try something a bit different or work something out for myself (sometimes with help from more in-depth / complex tutorials) I find it helps me to understand what I have just learned better if I write it out in a tutorial format...  So why not share what I discover / learn?

[GarageGothic]

Nice tutorial! The end result is quite impressive.

Try googling the phrase "digital matte painting", which seems to be the technical term for this kind of collages. It's really an artform of its own, and there's tons of websites and forums dedicated to compositing and manipulating photos for backgrounds  (mainly for use in films and as concept art for games). There's also some excellent tutorials out there, for instance this site and this one. Jonathan Boakes also used it extensively in The Lost Crown. His site used to have a very nice development diary where he showed how he composited photos for one of the beach backgrounds, but unfortunately it seems to be gone after the game's release.

I was actually thinking of using this technique for my next game after Goldmund showed me how he used it in his game-in-production Donna: Avenger of Blood.

Edit: I managed to find an archived version of the original Lost Crown website, here's the part I was talking about. The second page of the article uses more collage that the beach background.

Edit 2: Just discover this really awesome collection of tutorials, including some of the above stuff.

[alex]

Digital Matte Painting?  Thanks for the heads up maybe I can find some pointers in there.

It  never ceases to amaze me, even though I have been doing graphic design in one way or another for about 15 years or so, mainly as a hobby of course and in recent years as part of my web design business,  I  keep learning new stuff.  It keeps me on my toes so it has to be a good thing .

(sounds like I am getting old hey - 28 feels old these days...)

Anyway thanks for the tips.  When I get home I  will start to look into this a bit more and maybe post a revised tutorial.

[rbaleksandar]

The awesome thing here is that you need only a very basic image editor (well, a little bit more advanced than Paint&Co. ).
I've been playing with this and omho it not only cool thing to fill some of your free time, but it's also easy to make and looks quite impressive. Thanks again.