Cottage background WIP

[munchiez]

I was hoping some of you guys might be able to help me improve this background for a game I've (finally!) started working on.

Generally I'm pretty happy with the background, but there are a few things bugging me about it.

I'm not sure my outlines are too great. Should I anti-alias them? I had a go but it just seemed to make it look blurry in full screen mode.
Is there enough contrast between the colours (especially on the trees)?
Something about the pathway looks odd, but I can't quite figure out what!
I'm at a bit of a loss as to how to shade/texture the grass.

[Khris]

That's a really good start, some suggestions, though:

-Make the lighting consistent. The dark patch around the house suggests the sun being directly above it while the shading on the walls and trees puts it to the left.

-Add depth to the beam above the door

-Put some desaturated hills behind the "horizon".

-The sky looks weird, being darker above the cloud.

-Move the weather-thingie to the roof.

-The path in front of the house is to steep. It looks odd because it's drawn from above rather than the actual viewpoint.

-Hint at the grass by drawing small patches of blades here and there and where the house sits on the ground.

-Spice up the foreground, it's too regular (=boring), IMO.

I'd whip up a paint-over myself, but I'm too lazy right now

Btw, painting the background in 640x480 using a bit more of a vector-like drawing style, then resizing it to 320x240 using bilinear or bicubic puts great-looking anti-aliasing all over the place automatically.

[Steel Drummer]

I love the style and I think that it's a great background! I'll try to make a paintover with some grass textures.

You should change the contrast between the outline of the trees and the shading in the hills. The contrast between the color of mailbox and the color of the side of the house should be greater as well. 

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

This is a really quick edit to give you an idea of how I would approach grass with this style.  Spending more than five minutes will definitely yield better results.

1.  Added a subtle gradient to the sky

2.  Removed the bushes.  The shading wasn't consistent with the trees and the colors clashed too much.

3.  Added mountains in a light color that doesn't draw attention away from the cottage

4.  Added some grass texture to the left side and adjusted the front walk a bit.



Nice work.  The only other thing I would suggest is to round the foreground bushes up on both sides to fit with the rounded shape of the area behind the cottage.

[munchiez]

Thanks for the help.

I've changed a few things around and added a footpath, hills etc:



I'd really like to keep the second row of trees (and probably add some more) as most of the game is set in a forest. I admit they do look a bit out of place though. I'll work on all of the trees next, along with the foreground.

The path to the door was altered a little bit but I'm not keen on the style of it so I think I'll redraw it completely.

[cobra79]

It is a great background. I think the second row of trees looks weird, because they lean to the right while the foreground trees lean to the left.

[ThreeOhFour]

It is a fantastic background. I agree that the path should be redone - quick edit below



Not sure if it is any better, but this is a bit less contrasty.

Good work anyway man!

[markbilly]

This is fantastic, and your second edit was a real improvement, with all the suggestions took on board.

I think the second row of trees are important to the style. I don't really have anything against them.

[Andail]

Good background.
My only gripe is that most of the backdrop has smooth, curved lines, whereas the house has straight, crooked lines. If you could make the shapes of the house consistent with the shapes of the landscape, it'd look more harmonic.

[munchiez]

I've been taking a little break from this to get some coding done.

I worked on the foreground adding a bit more detail, and changed the colour of the stone path. I also added a fence, some shadows and moved the trees around a little bit.

Andail: I'm not sure exactly how I'd make the house less straight/crooked - I've smoothed off the angles on a few of the beams to start. Perhaps rounding off the sharp angle at top front of the roof would help as well?

[Khris]

Really good edit, two nitpicks though:



-Sloppy paint-over of the path to make it fit the perspective
-corrected right wall boards showing beneath plaster