First Background- Update! With Character

[eternal_renegade]

Well this is my first actual background. I have been pretty pleased with it and may have found another skill I have besides music. I am looking for C&C basically any advice you can give me in anyway.

But I  am not the best when it comes to lighting, I am able to deal with shadows but I'll just show you what I mean.
I attached two images:

Lighting:
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b74/eternal_renegade/DevonRoom01-2.png

No Lighting
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b74/eternal_renegade/DevonRoom01-2NoLights.png

Also just doing this for practice, but now I am inspired to possibly make a short little game based off of this room.

EDIT:

Fixed Lighting and Touch-ups:



EDIT 2:
Now with wall textures and added blood!


**Update: Added a character for test, although I am thinking that I like this character's look.**
Looking for possible critiques on character  style, lighting may or may not completely match this backgrounds lighting but I am trying to create a character that would match different levels of lighting, so I chose a level of intensity that was between light and dark.
Just as well, having a colorful character both in looks and in personality in dismal situations is my motivation.

[James--]

Well in my opinion the glow from the light should be nowhere near that big.  I'd say at most it should be half way between the first and second circles of lights you made (out of three)....  I would also use make it smooth, so that it fades out towards the edge.

For shading, your shadows at the moment are ok, but you should make the walls get slightly darker the further from the light they are (again with a gradient) to avoid your walls looking plain because they're the same shade all over.

[InCreator]

I like this background. Pipes and hole remind alot of ManHunt.

Indeed, your shadows are okay. I made a 3D version to check, and you seemed to handle the thing pretty well.
Using single-color light attenuation doesn't sound like a good idea to me.
Not at the level background is detailed.

I know, it's simple and drawing simple gets your game made quicker, but it... it just ruins the whole background for me.

Okay, here's what I found out:

First image:


Your shadows are quite realistic, and light is set about as bright as yours was. Even though it looks nice, the room lacks atmosphere and creepiness.

Second image:


I colored everything as it was on your image, and used alot darker light. Well, it looks better now. Maybe too dark.

Third image:


I used Final Gather to simulate how light rays bounce off things. Result is somewhat lighter and maybe more realistic. This is how I would shade your room.

Now, things to notice:

* Your pipe ends and lamp-hanger-thing don't have round edges, which is veeery strange, considering that otherwise, everything looks good. Definitely fix this.
* The pipe shading is brighter near light
* Right ontop of your light is little cap thing. This MUST cast a shadow onto ceiling.
* Door handle casts a shadow onto door.
* Floor of the tunnel(hole thing) gets some light and is brighter

Now, I suggest you to use lighting system I use, simply because I'm not too familiar with other ways.

* Look here
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=20848.msg254860#msg254860
* Get a paint program that supports layers (I mean, anything but MSPaint)
* And give it a try. As you can see, you can still draw simple with this technique, but my weird "overshading" gives you quick way to have more colored look.

(personal note: Lately, for nearly every problem in Critics Lounge, I can find a link to similar problem where I tried to help. Conclusion - I've been spending time on AGS Forums and CL too much)

[eternal_renegade]

Wow that is extremely helpful! Really good reference material for myself! thanks alot.

Now time to finish making some adjustments.

Alright made some changes (the gradients of light ended up not being me doing it, one of my good friends actually using photoshop elements)

[InCreator]

Well... I tried to texture this too, but decided to not show it at first, since I'm not very good at realistic rendering/shadows
Anyway, here it is:



Maybe it'll give you some ideas about wall texturing.

[Layabout]

eternal_renegade, I really like what you have done on the latest image. The lighting is almost perfect.

A few slight issues i have.

Pure black. I used to use it. We've all used it i'm sure. It's generally not good practice, as no surface is absolute pure black. Well so they say. There is always some kind of light bouncing off or whatever. a minute amount.

For the pipes, I'd use a dark shade of grey. For highlights, tweak the hue slightly towards the yellow side of things, as your lightbulb seems to be on the yellow side. Personally, i'd make the lightbulb yellowy white in the centre, and go towards an orangy-yellow (very light still though) on the edges.

For your outlines, i'd probably make them a dark version of the objects colours. For the hole, just make it darker, not black.

The box the cable goes into isnt very well defined. I had trouble figuring out what it was.

And the box on the left hand side of the image, the texturing looks very out of place, and there is too much contrast between the colours. Dithering is all good, but if you have a few more colours to play with, then why not make it look good.

There is a white line below the door. Ditch that. Unless there was a nuclear bomb going off in the next room, that much light would not seep through the bottom of the door. Make it either very dark, or a smidgen lighter than the floor depending on if the room next door is darkish or lit. If it has the same lighting as this room, then make it dark (but not black!!)

Lighting is one of the hardest things to get your head around when developing backgrounds.

I could go into composition as well if you like. Why not!

Ok. I think the room is very functional, but rather boring to look at. 1 point perspective is fine to use in adventure game backgrounds. But i hate 1 point perspective which has the point in the centre of the image.

For some reason, when I look at this image, my eyes are drawn to the lightbulb. then to the hole, then the locker, then the door. The blood didnt even register.

I'd draw attention to the locker. Make it stand out. Make it green or blue or pink or something. You need to make it shine! It is the centrepiece of this image, and it needs to stand out, to draw your attention to it immediately! Has the blood come from someone who has been dragged into the locker, or was he killed in this room?!? Draw blood splatters on the point of killing, and around. the pipe or whatever. Draw drag marks of blood. That would make it so much more interesting. And for a spooky effect, flickering light.

Thats all I can think of right now.

[eternal_renegade]

Thank you again! I will definitely take these into account and make some more adjustments!

[eternal_renegade]

I don't mean to double post but I am bumping the topic due to update.

[Afflict]

@ increator : Kudos man the 3d looks awesome I need to start 3ding stuff up soon

@ Renegade, the new ones are much better, though I don't like the textures :/ I prefer the one without texture. I think you need to play with the texture some more, or leave it out remember that you will have to replicate the style through out the whole games back grounds too keep consistency.

Good job so far!

[paolo]

Layabout has covered just about everything, but I'm not sure about the shading in the shadow on the ceiling. If there is only one light source, then this area would be in complete shadow (except for ambient light). There would not be a bright patch of light in the middle - compare the 3D rendered images.

However, you might get something like this if the fitting just above the bulb were translucent or transparent. Is this what you are going for? If so, the fitting needs to be made lighter and brighter to show that light is passing through it. At the moment, it is very dark and so looks opaque.

[Zufub]

this graphic rock! Wow! Which 3D programme are you using? I always playing with paint (for characters), Irfan View and Gimp I never interesting in 3D graphic but last screenshot changed my minds! I wish they're some freeware 3D graphic programmes... they are?

[InCreator]

Nice edit! But there's still some mistakes:

* What's that strange glow around the tunnel hole? Fix it. I provided 3D reference to get your tunnel lighting right, use it!
* Your texturing is crazy! It kind of attacks one's eyes. Use less contrast and more smoothing. Locker doors are especially sick. Try to gradient those sharp colors out by blending more similar colors near the edges or something.
* If you didn't do so yet, GET A PROGRAM, that supports brighter/darken processor on brush and anti-aliasing. GIMP is freeware and quite simple, for example. (huh, this rhymed)
* Cracks are bad. I made a quick tutorial to show how I do cracks.





1. I used line tool with anti-aliasing turned on, processing darken by 15%. On some walls, that's enough and no further steps are needed!
2. I used line tool with anti-aliasing turned on, processing brighten by about 5-10% and shaded crack edges to make them more 3d-like. Try to imagine how crack edges reacts to light, so you'd draw bright edges to the right side.



As you can see, lighter red means places where you should add brighter edges.

3. This is optional, but I used bigger brush with low brighten/darken and randomly brightened/darkened around crack area by 5%. This was done more by the "feeling" and isn't really neccessary.

Now, if you look at my 3D textured image, back wall and lower left corner, here, the cracks are generated by bumpmap. And they look very similar to this tutorial! Dark crack, bright edge, facing light source. So I guess, that's how the cracks should look: Computers do no lie.

this graphic rock! Wow! Which 3D programme are you using?

Are you referring to my edit? This does not rock. I can find about 100 things wrong with my quick modelling. But I really hope to get better one day. Especially at shadows and light.

I'm using 3ds Max 8, which costs hell and a bit more. But, arr.
There is load of freeware programs, like Blender, Anim8or, Wings3D and so on. None of them is as powerful though (not sure about Blender).

[Zufub]

Thanks but I don't need super-realistic graphic in my game, but 3D graphic looking better ^^ And last time I'd like to trying new things with graphic ;P

[space boy]

There is load of freeware programs, like Blender, Anim8or, Wings3D and so on. None of them is as powerful though (not sure about Blender).

Blender is pretty powerful. It can easily compete with commercial 3d software.

[Zufub]

I will try it ^^ Thanks a lot. I'd never interesting in 3D graphic making cause i'd never see (in past time - see. I forgot how it was and I had lost my dictonary ;() effects of making this sort of graphic ;P Maybe I will use it in some games? xD

[InCreator]

Zufub, don't conquer the topic. We're still trying to improve eternal_renegade's background, not teach you 3D.

[Zufub]

I just want to collect basic info about 3D freeware programmes and I'd reached it with help from other peoples on this forum. I'm teaching alone with articles about 3D making And lets end making off-topic.

[miwi]

I love the way you improved so much from the first picture to the last one!

It looks great! I wish I had that kind of skill, really

[eternal_renegade]

I love the way you improved so much from the first picture to the last one!

It looks great! I wish I had that kind of skill, really

Well so far from what I have been experience thus far is that all you really need is the patience to do it. I have never worked on a room before and I am fairly new to pixel art. But I am trying to get the patience to do it oh and thanks for the comment!

Now thank you everyone else especially InCreator, all of the advice I have been getting is really really helpful, I appreciate it!

Well I have a new version, I haven't really got around to the locker yet but I am working on it!

[Afflict]

Thats brilliant Increator well done.

It looks amazing, yeah the crack tut I definitely learned something too