Hey all! I'm learning to use Illustrator CS2, and to practice I tried making a cityscape in the style of a Powerpuff Girls "City of Townsville!" background. :) I'm curious what you all think of the style, colors and composition...I'm not really good at laying out backgrounds on my own, so any advice is welcome. Thanks!
(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/CityScape.png)
If anyone wants to mess with the original AI file:
http://files.filefront.com/CityScapeai/;11968889;/fileinfo.html (http://files.filefront.com/CityScapeai/;11968889;/fileinfo.html)
I like the style, kind of like old road runner / bugs bunny stuff. I don't know if orthographic perspective is a good idea for a city though, since everything is so vertical.
Heh...I had to look that word up. :)
I was basically copying the style of the show backgrounds, learning how they drew the different buildings and stuff. It's amazing, once you really pull your eyes away from the action and look at the surroundings, just how plain and weird the art sometimes looks in that show.
This was the original I was drawing from:
(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/PP7.png)
Although I definitely don't think my layout looked near as good as theirs...I was just trying different buildings and sticking them anywhere. :)
Your image is far to bright I think. Stick to the colors of the original image or use other colors with some contrast, but just don't use pure white for the buildings.
Also, let us see the tops of some of the buildings like the inspiration. If you're going for the same perspective (high in sky), then obviously the white buildings aren't the tallest, so let us see the tops or maybe some edges.
~Trent R
~Sirus Squire
I love this style. It is actually one of my favorite styles. this is partially what I was trying to achieve with my backgrounds in flowergirl (http://dancingmatch.net/temp/flowergirl/ss002.jpg). one of the great things about powerpuff girls is it brought back the simple hand drawn style of the 50 and 60's BG art.I love the look in the clouds. if I was you I would carry some of the look from the clouds(the chalkiness) and experiment with the buildings. for some reason it just looks too crisp to me. some of the greatest things about all those cartoons from the 50's and 60's is their muted colors and chalk and paint speckles. OH OH one more thing I would make the window lines in the shadows darker. if you ever want to do a game in this style and want some help with the art let me know.
Thanks for the comments, everyone!
Matti: Yeah, I seem to have a terrible habit of always picking too-bright colors for my art, I'm not sure why. It was a big problem in the initial version of Chicken VS Road, my first game, when some people couldn't see the pale grey GUI controls against the white background. It isn't until I see other people's art against mine that I realize just how bad my colors usually are. :)
Trent R: I think I left them out at the time just because I didn't like how the weird triangular tops looked, but you're right, it would make it look better, perspective-wise.
Toonaholic: I've been trying like hell to figure out how to put textures into my work, with limited success. I really want to match the old 50's style of the art, like you said. Making the lines darker would be a bit tricky...they're all straight lines just going across the building, so I'd have to go back and change the stroke color to a half/half gradient, lined up perfectly with the edge of the shadow. :) I tried playing with the chalky effects more in a new bg I whipped up this weekend, based on a Dexter's Lab screenshot:
(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/HouseRetro.png)
What do you think?
I misinterpreted it as a treehouse at my first look,maybe you should move the green further away from the house or make the of the way way less like bark.
Maybe, even if it's just for inspiration, you could have a look at this video (http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=k6uXO5_tb5Y). It shows very roughly how the backgrounds of Dirty Split, a game created with That Other Crappy Adventure Game Engine(TM) were made. Schnuffel's artwork, in turn, was heavily inspired by that of shag, http://www.shag.com/
Heh...yep, I got in touch with Uwe after I played Dirty Split, and then started intensely studying Shag's work too. I just have a problem with getting layouts as simple as Shag's to translate well into a game background, because like I said, I suck at coming up with original layouts on my own. :) I have almost no concept of proper perspective when left to my own devices. I've also been watching the Mr. Men cartoon on Cartoon Network, because it has a similarly simple style, just colored, textured flat backgrounds with the "props" of the room hanging in space, basically.
Simple isn't easy, that's for sure ;)
Those bushes are spot on, but I'd definitely make the sky a different colour from the ground.
Also, there's something weird about the pavement, but I can't really tell what. Maybe because it's straight, while the house is on a small hill.
I love the new pic. the bushes are great and you have a good hang of the clouds. do you use photoshop or gimp at all? or are you working all in vector? I find combining both approaches works best for me. vector programs are great you get that nice easy crisp look and you can scale to any size you want but they in my opinon don't have the best ability to get the hand made look. with flower girl I drew my basic shapes mostly in vector in real distinct bold colors then I exported png's then I would select the area I.E. the grass then I would choose an over sized brush and color pick a shade slightly off then go to townI would repeat this process with varying degrees of transparency and different brushes to achieve a sort of chalky or painted look.
This looks really nice! The compositions strikes me as slightly unbalanced, as the left is empty and open, and I think longer curves (rather than the short strokes) would work a bit better in the clouds, but otherwise this is looking good :) It indeed captures the look you were going for.
Quote from: TwinMoon on Sun 12/10/2008 21:20:08
Also, there's something weird about the pavement, but I can't really tell what. Maybe because it's straight, while the house is on a small hill.
I think it's also the coloring, because most driveways are made of concrete, not asphalt. (at least mine is)
~Trent
Well, I think you got the style.. So that's one point out of 400..anyways's I really like it the grass seems to blend with the sky too much(they're almost same colored) so try and just change that.
I made a really quick edit to give you some ideas.
1. Made sky darker and added some stars.
2. Altered driveway so it bends to the left and widens to create a sense of depth.
(http://i485.photobucket.com/albums/rr218/ProgZmax/HouseRetrocl.gif)
I think that with the driveway on the left you could add a car on the right side of the empty sidewalk to effectively balance the image out.
Hey, ProgZMax, that looks great! The sky looks like we'll be seeing Samantha from Bewitched (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bewitched) flying past at any minute... ;D
Woo! I like the balance too. :) And the sky and cloud edits. Thanks to you and everyone for your advice!