Dragon Knight BG's and GUI's **New BG 6/03/08**

[Gold Dragon]

Well its time to get some C&C input on some of my art work. Let me know what you guys think



Drop Down Icon Bar      (I'll Fix the Walking Icon on the Left When I finish my walking Sprite)



Inventory window



Inside...Black Smith Starter room



Out Door Scenes Drawn by my Uncle





I know the two Styles are different for inside rooms and the outdoor ones.. but could it work? If they were consistent?

Let me know what you think guys

[Alarconte]

I find that they can be consistent, but too i think that the outdoors have more quality than the indoor room. I love really that woods... But the blacks is a bit disgusting v_v

About the GUI... The gold-ish look is necesary? Is the resolution comparative from the GUIS to the rooms? Or the're zoomed?

[Alarconte]

Sorry, The day I wrote that reply i have to wrote it quickly.

At first, as a comment of the blacksmith, there's a great problem with Illumination. Doesn't seems a interior. Maybe is a need of make some ligth sources, and his respective shadows on the objects. The color-ilumination is too plain. (I don't know if you understand plain in this context, I'm not english speaker).

May be could be the same problem from the ilumination, but I found some weird in the angle of the roof, the walls can be interiors or exteriors (in a L shape building).

Other little problem is the horizon line that appears in the window; is a bit low, or is a Great-heigh view?

Sorry, sometimes I can't do a great art critic cause I don't know the technic language in english to do it... But I'm proving to solve it ^^

[Jack Sheehan]

I agree with the above poster, the outdoor scenes look great but the indoor one needs a major overhaul.

[Gold Dragon]

ok I changed the lighting and gave everything shadows.. there are no flames on the torch as of yet because it will be animated in game.. but is this any better? Or is just the art work crap and I should restart from scracth?

[JuuJuu]

I think the shadows look pretty good. but I just dont like the walls. =( they seem very messy.

[flbbd2fl]

maybe you should reduce the size of the black lines in the wall texture


quick attempt at that, might have overdone it, but you see the idea.

Or just drop the texture and only keep a few stones. Same for the wooden areas, try to reduce the width of black and/or replace it with a dark brown.

I like your outside backgrounds.

[Alarconte]

Don't be hard with yourself. I will make the shadows more dark, and yes, make the black lines in the wall a bit more thiner, if you make this possibly the BG could gain a lot. And, as I said before, correct the horizon line in the window, is to bit low. (and far). Is the blacksmith in a mountain? Is not, from the window, normally, the character eye could view the grass, woods, a grain pillow, wooden... Not the far horizon. (I think)

[Gold Dragon]

Thank you... I'll get to work on that.... flbbd2fl could you tell me how you did make the lines less bold? So I could get a head start on that?

[flbbd2fl]

Basically it s Filters/generic/dilate in Gimp. If you dont have gimp, it's a convolution matrix tool.

I also plyaed a bit with the color curb, but I'm not sure it matters.

[Gold Dragon]

Ok I'm afraid to ask but Hey I want to see what your guy's opinion is what do you think of my room that will be inside the Library?



The word "Scroll is there momentarily for an Item later. But what do you guys think?

[DoorKnobHandle]

3 things that would improve your art:

1. don't use ready-made effects/filters, they are easily recognized and, rather than helping make an image look good, make it look rushed and unprofessional (in your post above, I mean the emboss-effect on the bottom-tiles mostly - also most textures, wood and the book, seem to be created artificially?)

2. Use correct perspective (if you don't know how perspective works, ask google or something to get help, your tables and your stairs are especially out of perspective in the shot above)

3. Use correct lighting/shading (you have these torches on the wall, yet they don't seem to cast any light whatsoever, the room looks like it's illuminated by a white, global light - it really should be lit in a yellow/red fashion from the torches and possibly additional white lighting from the ceiling or something - don't forget shadows, they're a great tool not only to add realism but also atmosphere to your scene)

Not really worth a fourth point, but make sure to also pay great attention to your linework (in your newest room, the back-wall with the stairs doesn't line up with the tiles on the ground creating a double line which distracts and reduces the impression of quality).

[InCreator]

Quick edit: remember that

* Lights are meant to LIGHT rooms
* Lights cast SHADOWS
* Area where is no light, will be DARK
* Everything dkh said
etc etc

Since the edit was quick, I suggest you to remake whole bg similar to edit, also remove some torches and make shadows right.

Your drawing isn't bad, but lack of any shading whatsoever and those copy-pasted torches on back wall suck as hell.

[Alarconte]

After all they said to you, I have another thing to say; Look at the Stairway, and how fits with the wall.... Is so weird the brick position with the way to stairs, If you don't wanna put bricks in the inner of the stairway, make a Arch in the door to close the union between room and stairway.

But, Good Work, It's a great show of effort comparate with your first blacksmith. Ah, post your latest blacksmith, the people would see how you managed to the end

PD: You don't know to draw a "Scroll"? xDD or get tired? xD I nearby don't noticed xD

[Gold Dragon]

1. don't use ready-made effects/filters, they are easily recognized and, rather than helping make an image look good, make it look rushed and unprofessional (in your post above, I mean the emboss-effect on the bottom-tiles mostly - also most textures, wood and the book, seem to be created artificially

Well for the flames I can try, Brick. I can try and hand tecture it. Floor? Sorry not going to really touch that. Maybe one day down the road when I really want to beautify my art I will. Books and Wood? Books I hand did. Took me hours to do so. Wood? That is a pre made tecture.

2. Use correct perspective (if you don't know how perspective works, ask google or something to get help, your tables and your stairs are especially out of perspective in the shot above)

Stairs. I agree. I did ask a friend what they thought and they said it looked more real the way it was so I'll fix the stairs. The table infront of the stairs.. I'll give a go at it and try and draw it head on. Other wise on the rest its mostly a trial and error kind of thing.

3. Use correct lighting/shading (you have these torches on the wall, yet they don't seem to cast any light whatsoever, the room looks like it's illuminated by a white, global light - it really should be lit in a yellow/red fashion from the torches and possibly additional white lighting from the ceiling or something - don't forget shadows, they're a great tool not only to add realism but also atmosphere to your scene)

ok Now this I should have mentioned that I was planing to do and haven't done yet. the way Paint Shop Pro 8 works is that all the layers have to be flattened in order for the light effect to work. And I wasn't ready to do that yet. But I did an early test run here before I finished the rest of the stuff.



A while back to see how I would do it.

InCreator you did a much better job then I could do. What art program do you use?

After all they said to you, I have another thing to say; Look at the Stairway, and how fits with the wall.... Is so weird the brick position with the way to stairs, If you don't wanna put bricks in the inner of the stairway, make a Arch in the door to close the union between room and stairway.

Ok I'll give it a shot

But, Good Work, It's a great show of effort comparate with your first blacksmith. Ah, post your latest blacksmith, the people would see how you managed to the end

THANK YOU!!! Finally a positve comment. I spent many many hours working on this and being the fact that the candles, book shelves and books aren't mentioned at all in the critsism I guess means I did a good job at that. Its one thing I never could quite get. In the computer animation industry the greatest complement they get is when you don't notice or say anything and it all, because it all looks natural to the audience. I just haven't gotten that concept yet. I'm a kind of guy that when I do a good job I like to here it! Kinda encourages me to do more and better you know?

oh well I'll get to work  *cracks knuckles and starts hacking away at the art work*

[Ryan Timothy B]

Your perspectives are an eye sore.  And the tiles give me this sick wavy ground sensation do to the fact that none of the tiles are up to scale.

The tiles should be bigger at the front and smaller at the back.  But you have them going from big, to small, to big, to small, over and over.

The perspectives are killer on the stairs and the 2 front tables.  It totally doesn't make sense.  I don't understand how you couldn't use the lines on the floor to guide you with perspective.  Looking at the front table and the lines of the tiles, you should notice Right away that the table is skewed against any hopes of being a rectangle desk.

Out of this whole background, the only thing I like are your books and the back wall bricks.
Mostly just because you're using an untamed method of filters and effects that just isn't working for you.
You should probably consider working at smaller resolutions like 320x240 or 640x480.  And apply much much less filtering and effects.

But yes, your new background is much of an improvement versus your old blurry lines of a background (the black smith house)

[Gold Dragon]

wow not its really back to the drawing board now. Well like one of the sayings of my favorite book series is.... "nothing is ever easy"