Free Art Advice!

[Gregjazz]

If any of you would like in-depth art advice on sprites or (horrors) even backgrounds, we would be more than happy to help out.
We can help with various styles (like DOTT, or Indy, not so much Sierra).
Go over to our forums at http://herculeaneffort.myikonboard.com
and post in the General Discussion under the sticky topic "Ian's art advice."
Thanks.

[Ginny]

I am speechless! Your art in Apprentice is brilliant, I'm off to try and do a sprite right now, I tend to do backgrounds more but I'll try a sprite for now.

I really appreciate this, as others will I'm sure .
Any chance of you writing a tutorial?

[Gregjazz]

A tutorial, eh? Well, I don't have any plans as of yet, but I will make my "advice" kind of step by step...

That's a good idea, though. Next time I make a 320x200 background, I'll save it as I go and describe the process.
(If it's any good, I'll post it in the tutorial section on the Herculean Effort website.)

[Ginny]

 
You are truly great!

I'm gonna post the sprite soon in the thread.

[big brother]

If you would like to see a tutorial on how to go from this background:



To this one:



Visit the "Ian's Art Advice" section on the Herculean Effort Productions forum.

http://herculeaneffort.myikonboard.com/viewthread.php?threadid=4

[Erwin_Br]

Amazing work! Very helpful too.

--Erwin

[TheMagician]

Very good tutorial!!!!

[Pessi]

Great stuff, Ian! Your help is greatly appreciated!

It's great to see how the images change so much, yet remain faithful to the originals.

I noticed you're using the burn tool. Whereas I can't disagree with the result, I must say that it's usually better to manually pick the shade color. With the burn tool you can't take the sky's blue color into account, for example. Although it doesn't show at all in this image, it might in other images.

It's just something that one might want to take into account as they're getting better (referring to those who read your tutorials). More control is never for bad.

Anyway, I'm really glad to see this new forum born! Hope you manage to get enough time for it. Six hours for the background image is quite admirable!

[Ginny]

That looks great! More comments in the thread..

[big brother]

Glad you liked the tutorial.
The main reason it took me so long to make is because I've never really made a "realistic" background before. (As you may have noticed in the backgrounds in Apprentice)
I also tend to work rather slowly, and I didn't do this background in one sitting.

Pessi: When I use the dodge and burn tools, I always set them to a low opacity so its effects aren't too drastic. But you're probably right. Using a medium opacity darker shade of the color will probably give you better results.

Ian  

[Ginny]

In games I think I prefer for now to make cartoonish backgrounds, but not drastically so, which is why I said I was trying for realistic style.
When you draw background in a cartoon style, do you use a different method?

Presuming that was you posting through Geoffkhan's profile:
"That's a good idea, though. Next time I make a 320x200 background, I'll save it as I go and describe the process.
(If it's any good, I'll post it in the tutorial section on the Herculean Effort website.)"

A great idea, and would definetly be an interesting read!
I was thinking a tutorial in a more general sense though, like different techniques for drawing or general advice, somewhat like you did with the sprites, i.e. not just describing what you did but giving tips such as what you wrote about drawing faces. Along with demostration of the techniques you describe, I think it works better at "tutoring".

[Gregjazz]

Posting through my profile? Oh, my!

[Andail]

Is there a special reason for keeping your tuition on another forum?
I could give you a sticky-thread here if you wanted.

If not, this would be mere advertising, and would rather go under the tutorial-links thread.

[big brother]

Dearest Mod. Andail,

Thank you for the offer of the sticky-thread, but I must decline your generous invitation. The tutorials are kept on the Herculean Effort Productions Forum because they are a service we provide AGS users. Also, it would be time-consuming to "double-post" my advice on both forums.

This being said, it looks like this thread belongs in the tutorial links section.

However, this thread is NOT advertising, as it is neither paid for nor produced by an identifiable sponsor.

Sincerely,

Ian

[loominous]

Better watch what you say Andail or I have a feeling you ll be hearing from their legal department.