Advice and c&c on background?

[SpacePaw]

Hey,
I made this background for the MAGS contest but I probably wont have enough time to finish the game on time (school projects and exams) that's why I decided to just post it in here. It's a mysterious meteor which fell on earth.

It's not finished though - I wanted to ask if any of you guys have any suggestions on how to shade the ground?

I know it's quite empty on the left side I intend to put a water pump or a water well there. Also I'll shade the moon later.

I'm mostly asking about the ground shading but if something is wrong or could be much better let me know as well

[Khris]

It's definitely a nice start, I especially like the hole in the clouds.

Some ideas:
- the tree is really tiny compared to the barn.
- the house/mansion/castle? in the background on the other hand is massive. At that distance, a pixel would represent a whole village.
- I'd rearrange things a bit: currently, the moon is in the corner, the tree at the left edge. I can't really tell why, it just looks wrong to me, unnatural.
- the hole in the ground should reflect that the meteor came in at a shallow(?) angle, otherwise it probably wouldn't survive crossing the atmosphere.
- the clouds close to the moon will reflect its light, the ones directly in front of it will appear darker.
- the road is really straight. I'm aware they were built that way, but they usually still go up and down.

About the ground:
It definitely needs detail. A fence, a ditch, a cornfield. Right now it looks like the parking lot of Mega Mall.

Inspiration:
http://www.vistawallpaper.org/vista-wallpapers/stairway-to-heaven.jpg

Edit: here's a quick sketch:

[SpacePaw]

Mmmm...I love honest constructive critique I'll try to repair most of the stuff you mentioned.
Are you sure about the tree and barn sizes? I tried to draw them using road width at their level to compare their sizes... I thought it looked allright

As for the hole - yes I realized it has wrong shape and should probably left some trail in the ground earlier But that was after I posted the image here XD

Anyways thanks once more Khris!

[ThreeOhFour]

I think it looks rad, but also pretty unfinished. Some things you might try:



-Added rough grass to ground - looks kinda messy but with cleaning up could give you the texture you want.
-Added ground shadows and highlights from the moon to tree and barn.
-Tried to break up straight line in the background a bit. Unless it's a body of water, it's pretty unlikely that the stuff in the distance is gonna be perfectly flat like that, and straight lines aren't very interesting.

Nice work, and I hope you get a couple of ideas from this.

[SpacePaw]

Thanks ben that will come in handy!
I love what you did to the moon surface though you didn't mention it

[markbilly]

It's a really nice start! It reminds me of a scene in Superman Returns.

I like what you have done with the clouds but I think they could do with being less jagged-y. Obviously it is important they are unusually shaped but the extremity of this breaks the visual impression that they actually are clouds. Basically, a little confusing to the eye...

Good job, though. Lots of nice atmosphere!

P.S. I also agree on the road, make it less straight.

[Danman]

This looks great I am quite amazed on the detail you added to such a low res.

Has for my criticism I think adding a gradient to the sky would look a lot better. Mainly cause there is a huge full moon in the sky. Which isn't changing the color of the sky at all .

Wow Ben that grass looks really good. Great edit. 

[Andail]

Minor adjustments:
* Composition. Your composition wasn't tight enough - too much space and no unity among the objects. I brought together the composition (it's also smaller now, but I didn't want to add new stuff; just pulled it together to illustrate my point)
* Composition. By bringing the crater to the foreground I'm making it more dramatic. The tree as well is brought forward and magnified.
* The perspective on the house wasn't very appealing. It appeared very long.
* Added "texture" to the ground
* Made all the eerily straight lines less straight and more naturally curved
* Added shadows and highlights to establish some sort of depth

[InCreator]

Quite mediocre background, I'd say, but apparently you DO have talent to make much better one.

* Clouds look bad. First, they contrast horribly in sense of contrast -- I'd make them much more subtle.
* Second, the insane amount of detail on contrast and almost none on everything else makes player look at clouds and looking away is somewhat irritating since clouds are where detail is. I'd cut detail on clouds and transfer it to ground instead. Also, I'm not so sure about the way you did clouds: It's looks more like cotton stuck onto picture of sky. Also, clouds should be alot higher

So, keep the amount of detail balanced, don't overdo it anywhere. That's biggest issue here.
For lesser things:

* The green ooze really doesn't fit. Again, extreme contrast issue here. I know that such suggestions on clear pixel art are met with negativity, but I say it anyway: Try a soft green brush to add more light-like glow around hole. That's what I would do.

* Fill frontal areas (closer to the camera/viewer) with stuff

* Also, what andail did

EDIT: Edit over Andail's edit.
This is direction I'd go--

--maybe not this much though

[Jakerpot]

Maybe the green in the tree is too much bright...
And InCreator, i think this is not the style of the Bg, it is just pixel art 

[mätzyboy]

I actually really like the clouds. You could imagine how the meteor had come crashing through there and the shock waves made the clouds open up in this manner.

I like Andail's smaller more condensed layout, but I think the glow on the tree could benefit from being toned down a little, and the edge of the crater too but not as much. I think it would look really cool if you used some scripting to make the character tint green when close to the crater..

[SpacePaw]

Okay, didnt have time (university - blargh) but I managed to edit cloud shape, crater and the road shape. More work awaits but I would like to hear what you think about edited stuff

EDIT:
Oh and btw. now the perspective has changed a little so I need to redraw the barn - I'm aware of it

[Ryan Timothy B]

Much better impact crater.
The background still has a crazy amount of empty space though.  For some odd reason, I really dislike empty space in backgrounds.  For that reason alone, this background would look so much better at 320x240 with everything the same height and size as this.  I don't mean shrink the image, I literally mean cut the tree, barn, impact crater, etc out of the image and past it in a canvas that is 320x240.

Or just toss in more detail, but I fear this would still look empty.

[Snarky]

Yeah, generally empty space is bad, but isn't that sort of the point of this background? That it's set somewhere in the middle of nowhere, among the vast fields of Kansas or Iowa or somewhere like that?

[SpacePaw]

It is supposed to be empty and I think it still may look good if I add the right amount of detail to the ground...Maybe adding corn field and a water pump as well could help...

Glad you like the crater

*Sighs*

The sad part is I begin to lack the motivation as the background itself will be pointless without the game (MAGS ended)

[Jakerpot]

Keep it for another one!