A watertower hit by an UFO and a burger joint in the middle of an american desert. What do you think?
(http://img191.imageshack.us/img191/3001/451ik.png)
(http://img191.imageshack.us/img191/3001/451ik.png)
Add some stuff to the background - distant hills, cliffs, landscape, etc. You might want to raise up the horizon a bit as well.
Also, the place looks a little too bare, even to be in the middle of a desert. There should be a something more than just a water tower and restaraunt. What's the water tower for? The restaraunt? Where do the restaraunt employees come from?
The almost straight lines of the shading for the sand look a bit odd. The only advice I can give in this regard is to check out MrCollosal's BGs - I think they match your style very well...I think he uses a sand one in a tutorial, and there are many in the Insta-game pack.
Another thing I just noticed- the black shading dividing the road and sand looks strange, what is it for?
Other than that, (in fact, even with all that), it is a very pretty background.
Add part of a ufo sticking out of the water tower, that would look pretty cool. Also make the desert look bumpy. I dont know what that black line is but maybe you should change the colour to a darker version of the desert's shadows. Maybe you could add just a hint of clouds, even in the desert you'd still see a few clouds (I think).
Also, there is WAY too much metal sticking out of the hole. There wasn't that much there to start with, so where did it come from??? You should take J's advice and turn it into a UFO... Or, if the UFO crashed somewhere else and is a part of the game elsewhere, just reduce the metalage... There really aren't too many clouds in the desert, though. Really, there are hardly ever any, except two times a year when we have our rainy "monsoon" season. The rest of the year, the sky is normally very clear.
Other than that, and the fact that the desert is floating a couple inches off the road (alas! I discovered what the black line is there for!!) This is pretty good. I can't draw cartoony-styles no matter how hard I try. And don't let them fool you: I live in Tombstone, Arizona... The desert is wicked flat, just like you've got it. Only, there are really big mountains (remember the "desert" skybox in Half Life??? That was taken in front of the hotel where I used to work)... And quite a bit more roughage. We really don't have too many barrel cactuses, but there are quite a few other types, especially the prickly pear and the Lord's Candle.... And we don't have yellow sand. It's red, even as far east as Roswell.
I suppose this is supposed to be in Roswell, NM: That's only a couple hours away from where I am, and it looks pretty much the same.
(Yes, I've been to Roswell. No, there were no aliens there. Hardcore believers will tell you they recently moved the facility to Indian Falls, CO)
i really like the way you draw things and this BG is no eception, thought im missing a parking place and a McDrive. Or is that just me?? :P
looks amazing. i wouldn't add anything to the horizon, since it is a desert. it should look bare.
* Reduce saturation on water tower
* color the sky (do I see badly erased sky on burger sign?) :=
* Some debris near tower should add some detail. Like pieces of UFO and/or tower
* The bottom of tower could be even darker, in direct sunlight, shadows tend to be strong
* I'm not too sure about this, but you could experiment by adding some sunlight glow to the metal things (tower, sign) using antialiased 16-pixel brush very carefully... something like this, but with more care
(http://www.increator.pri.ee/i/critshelp/tower.png)
Nice stuff. Your pics make me wanna start up making games again.
I was just about to say his shading style reminded me a lot of yours, Squinky.
About the side of the road and the horizon, this might help:
http://www.jimandchris.com/weblog/20041014%20newberry%20road.jpg
(Or any number of similar shots found by googling "desert road arizona".)
I rather like this. It's such a pleasing style.
I think adding the mountain in the background is a good idea but the rest looks pretty great!
Quote from: SteveMcCrea on Fri 30/09/2005 23:31:17I was just about to say his shading style reminded me a lot of yours, Squinky.
Yes indeed.
Quote from: Squinky on Fri 30/09/2005 23:18:29Nice stuff. Your pics make me wanna start up making games again.
Double, triple, quadruple YES INDEED :)
I also like it.
I would add a litle bit of detail to the sky. Perhaps a cloud or two.
And the horizon line looks a tiny bit too... well, horizontal. In the desert you usually get sand dunes.
Other than that it's really nice. And I agree, it really has a Squinkysh look to it (we want more pirate fry!).
Quote from: Darth Mandarb on Fri 30/09/2005 23:36:49
Quote from: Squinky on Fri 30/09/2005 23:18:29Nice stuff. Your pics make me wanna start up making games again.
Double, triple, quadruple YES INDEED :)
What comes after quadruple? It's really... hell of an inspiring bg.
I made an edit (or further), though you won't most likely go my way, since your simpler and less-colored style. Still, this BG is a gem if polished a bit...
(http://www.increator.pri.ee/i/critshelp/tower2.png)
Edit is quick and therefore a bit unclean :(Now let's wait till loominous gets here and
shows the light... :)
I thought I'd just go ahead and re-iterate what Corey said a bit earlier in the thread, that there seems to be no parking space for the burger joint, and it's otherwise entirely unattached to the road. At the very least you would likely see a darker patch of well-driven dirt or gravel in front of the restaurant, but as it seems to be a somewhat larger chain-type restaurant, it'd likely have an asphalt parking lot. A drive-through may be nice to have as well.
As for the damaged water tower, I noticed a discrepancy or two: The tower is bending away from the road, and the support is buckling, as though it was hit on an angle from above by a heavy object, but the metal is fanning outward like something burst out from within the reservoir instead. If the ship hit it and deposited something within the water that later burst out, that isn't a problem, but if all the damage is caused by the UFO, you'll probably want the hole to crunch inward instead.
InCreator really knows what he's doing with those mountains - and if you want to make them even less obvious, you can make them more "hazy" by fading them out more, but they ought to be there. On a long, flat plane, you still tend to see whatever big's on the other side. I'm not so sure on the glowing sunspots, however - the rest of the background is very sharp and aliased, so having a few blurred spots kind of confuses the eyes.
Mountains, btw, were super easy to do: I just drew them on separate layer, using only cyan, then darkened and lightened them - absolutely randomly, blurred to make random look disappear - and reduced layer's opacity until I got this far-and-hazy look.
I suggest making both the poles and road lighter as it gets closer to horizon.
10x guys u are right about allmost everything. :)
1. Mountains - I know they could be mountains in the distance but I want to give the player a "Middle of nowhere" feel.
2. Parking - I wanted to make a parking between the tower and the restaurant. But it seams I really have no idea how it should look and how its connected with the road. Help, please..
3. Plants and shape of american deserts - I'm gonna watch a few westerns and hopeit helps. :)
4. The restaurant is a bit bigger inside than outside. ;D
5. Other stuff - There are a few other buildings closely (I aint sure what but a gas station, motel and a small store sound good to me. A big Truck somewhere. And maybe a museum or something. I'll figure it later. ) Its all 10 meters left of the tower or on the other side of the road I aint sure yet.
6. The Space ship is actually there at the begining of the game but it aint there later. :)
Here is a newer version I still cant make the parking:
(http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/6798/327zn.png)
What did you do, completely redraw it? It's a hundred times better now.
I think the parking lot could more easily be done in an "out of the way" manner if you were to make the turn going up to it behind the Triple Golden Arches (tm) sign, and have the lot be visible behind it... Something like this:
(http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/9826/327zn8nf.th.png) (http://img156.imageshack.us/my.php?image=327zn8nf.png)
(Sorry, I can't get that any bigger. You'll have to click on it to get the full-sized image...)
AS for desert plants and stuff:
http://members.aol.com/mbji/pic90.htm
(The rounded ones with the buds are prickly pear, and even though there seem to be a lot of barrel cactii in those pics (they are actually Sagauarro, which grow to be very tall, unlike barrells), prickly pears are much more abundant. Note also the red sand and the extreme amount of bracken... Note also, these pics were taken during a monsoon season, which accounts for the clouds)
http://www.ovrp.org/vegetation/our%20lords%20candle.htm
That tall thing in the middle is an Our Lord's Candle cactus, and those are also very abundant along highways.
http://www.downtheroad.org/Photo/2AZ/DSC00069.JPG
This is the town of Tombstone, Arizona, where I live, at a distance. I've been to Roswell, and the highways and roads all look very similar to AZ. Once again, with the bracken: American deserts aren't like the Sahara. We have what's called "High Desert" as opposed to low deserts like the Sahara... I think the only exception is Death valley, which Roswell does not happen to be in. Those crazy little plants grow EVERYWHERE, except where it's really rocky.
Hi, I'm finally back from a long time of absence. My trashy stuff is now infected and pretty nuked up, nothing's working -- I can't play any game and even draw anything. And that's why I have the time for discussion. ;)
Great pic, Krysis. The style reminds me much of the "Wacki: Kosmiczna Rozgrywka" game (the title rather obscure beyond the Middle Europe), if I find some screenshots I'll put them there.
I like the InCreator's version (with the mountains) -- with addition of that cloudy sky they give a great feeling of getting lost. I think you should add it to your work, although it doesn't look bad as it's now. Also the parking on a foreground isn't needful, I would place it behind the drive-in bar or make a bay (with an old rusted car for example). To make the desert a little more developed, spread some particular details around, like some car parts.
i think the problem with the image regarding a car park is the fact that theyre doesnt appear to be ebnough distacle between the tower and the diner. id suggest either miniturisng the diner in the distance or bringing the tower into the foreground and blurring it so that it doesnt take up so much screen space,
Living in a desert, I thought I would do a quick edit. A few things:
Most burger or slop joints in the styx have FRONT parking and very few spaces at that since a) they don't expect much business and b) no one cares if they park on the dirt.
The front door and windows seemed much too large in relation to the road so I shrunk them (the garbage can as well).
I relocated the sign to the top of the building so the front parkway wouldn't be obscured by it, though you could re-add the power lines.
Changed the impact of the alien ship. Take an empty pop can and punch it (or stick it with something sharp). You'll notice that the metal collapses inward, not outward.
Altered the color of the sky with a bit more contrast.
Bear in mind that backgrounds are NOT my area of expertise and that these comments are just my personal observations. I hope they are useful to you.
(http://members.cox.net/veradin/bjex.gif)
(http://members.cox.net/veradin/bj.gif)
Took it a step further. :D I changed the shadow of the water tower color to include a slight blue hint (from the bounced light off the atmosphere), and also brightened up the ground. Also gave the horizon a very slight curve, as I thought a totally flat line seemed a bit out of place.
(http://www.virtual-suicide.net/users/kiddie_grinder/bj2.gif)
(http://www.virtual-suicide.net/users/kiddie_grinder/bj2.gif)
(http://img377.imageshack.us/img377/8013/watertowerfinal5gb.png)
This is the last version and I am pretty happy with it. Better start the next background couse otherwise "Beano&Butch" (My first game I hope) will take forever to make. 10x for the crithics and help. :)
Yesh! This pic has gone from very pleasing to even more pleasing :D Your graphics are the best!