Make this pic. more gruesome

[Invalid]

Hi, I'm looking for some advise on how to make this pic. more "scary". This picture is set in a hospital administation.

As you can tell, it's from a zombie game...
I mainly use g.i.m.p. or ms paint. Any help would be appreciated.

[Lufia]

My advice will have nothing to do with making things scary.

Stick to a drawing style. Everything but the blood is neatly pixel-arted with clear outlines and no variation in colour. On the other hand, it seems like you drew the blood by spreading a red stain with the "finger" tool, it's all blurry. The two don't blend.

Blood isn't bright red in large quantites, it's actually closer to black. Nick an artery for reference. Also, blurry outlines in a vaguely round shape does not make a puddle. Think about how gravity works and where the blood should flow. Spill some syrup to see how that works. In the same order of idea, intestines aren't bright pink, even less so when they're dead tissue. Go to your local library and get your hands on a medical textbook, with pictures. You'll get a better idea of what we look like from the inside.

[Ryan Timothy B]

The biggest issue with this background, would be the color choice and the method for drawing blood.  The blood looks more like mist or maybe a blood soaked cloth.  It doesn't look like a pool of blood on a hard surface; being the ground.

I hate to show one of Yahtzee's images, but I couldn't find anything closely comparable to your art style with blood.



Notice how his choice of colors aren't the exact pallet from MSPaint.
Your choice of skin color is rather cartoony and unrealistic.  Very Yellow.  
His jeans look bright blue, as if they glow in the dark, or they're reflective.
Also your color choice for the walls, floor, window, and door are very monotone.  Why not mix it up a little.  

Make the floor: tiles, carpet, ceramic or something other than concrete.  Put some wallpaper on the walls, with perhaps a burgundy, purple or whatever color paint (but go realistic on the colors).  Have some of it torn up and falling off, as though there was a battle in here.
Add some trim to the door, window, and base of the floor.

Most importantly, go simple.  If your art style for your backgrounds will look very basic like this, don't start using the paint brush in gimp, use only the pencil if the majority of your style will look this basic.  
The two different styles clash with each other.
Draw your blood similar to how Trilby has his drawn, very basic, yet it resembles blood (it's also not bright red--blood is more of a darker red).

[Anian]

Yeah the style is a bit strange for a zombie game, at least I really can't tell from this one pic. But still zombies are horror genere -> horror is fear -> greatest fear is of unknown -> there's less things you know when you don't see them -> dark...

Ergo, put for example a flourescent (the long ones) above the door, make it be the only light source and make it flicker (not just on and off but at different intervals) in some unnatural white/blue light (it makes human skin and other stuff look strange and freaky), add splashes/squirts of blood on the walls (remember arteries squirt blood like water guns).
As other said, make the blood darker almost black. Makes some dents in the metal part of the wall and crack the glass on the door. Make one chair turned over and broken in the other corner of the room (left, closer to the viewer).

And one more detail, if that guy was killed by zombies...I don't think in any version zombies use tools (like hatchets). Also, zombies wouldn't just eat the middle part (is that how you eat poultry or beef?) and leave the legs and upper part of torso and hands alone, make some bones stick out and stuff, tear that persons shirt a bit, cut of his limbs a bit.

Hope that helps.

[Invalid]

After a couple google searches and a cut artery (just kidding) here is a little combanation of all of your advise. I made it much darker, 'thined out' the blood around the body and the writing in blood, tiled the floor and added color to the walls.
I'm sure that the flashlight plugin has a flicker effect also.. I'll check it out later.

Any other ways to improve?

EDIT: Also he is not alone in my game, he has another zombie in there, but that's during the game, this is just the BG image

[AngelicCharon]

I'll do my best to be concise, get to the point, be blunt, and hopefully not too harsh.

First off.  Multiple perspectives.  The tiles dont seem to fit based upon the configuration of the room.

The 'coloured' wallpaper of the background seems a tad off putting, and doesn't seem to fit.

Based upon the lighting, the blood/puddles/writing now appear to be black...and based on the lighting, it's hard to see what that is on the floor now.

These are just initial impressions.

What you may want to do is take a look at a few references of similar rooms to the one you're trying to construct, merely to see how they'd look from a perspective sense. 

A background basically tells the story of the room, without words.  Treat it as you would a character.  What does this background say?   Is it providing the message you want to express?  Is it providing the appropriate environment for you to tell your story, for your characters to interact?

[Ghost]

A background basically tells the story of the room, without words.  Treat it as you would a character.  What does this background say?   Is it providing the message you want to express?  Is it providing the appropriate environment for you to tell your story, for your characters to interact?

That's a very true and useful thing you say there. And Sasuke's last edit goes into that direction, I think. Everything else that has been said- using a coherent style/perspective, and getting rid of the "Paint Palette" are more or less technical issues, but especially in a horror game I like to see well-crafted backgrounds.

Tell yourself the story of the game, and apply it to the room. A human body has been cut into two halves, with an axe. That makes me think: Fight. But the room is clean, there are even neatly stacked chairs. Who cut that man? Did the poor guy try to defend himself, maybe by grabbing a chair and smashing it around? And what's outside the room? Glass windows always are a great way to hint at the outside world, by showing shapes in the corridors visible from that room. Also, a walkbehind could obscure the scene a little but add to the depth.

Basically the second colour sheme is much better (IMO), but could benefit from some lightning (again, there's that neat glass window...). Shadows are a great tool to just HINT at something. More often than not the player's imagination can draw a picture no pixel artist could conjure.

[Mr Flibble]

I'd go as far to say that the perspective/palette are the only reasons it isn't frightening. They make it seem insincere and difficult to take seriously. If you don't think something is real, it won't disturb you. Also, look for blood splatter references as opposed to just drawing a huge pool of blood, smear it around a little, blend it in with the scenery.

[Gord10]

About second image;

Merely decreasing the brightness ("making it darker", in other words) doesn't make an image scarier. I believe contrast is our key, a successful usage of both dark and light areas can lead us to a scary image. This doesn't mean you should increase the contrast at a point that disturbs the player, though.


My this test scene wouldn't look that good in a bad lighting and contrast (that lacks of many things to be an actual scene, though).

Another thing that lacks in this image is lighting. You can notice a brightness change on floors and walls of Yahtzee's backgrounds, it changes according on the place of the "light source". This makes them realistic despite lacking an overall texture. Little details (like grey parts on walls and black pixels on the floor) help it a lot, as well.

[Invalid]

Thanks for all the advise guys.... I'm still building up my art skills, so the advise really helps. Here is another version, where the perspective is much better,the body is more of a 'carcass', the neatness is toned down, and there is a blueish tint. In my game, it flickers brighter and darker, which makes it look pretty cool (if you ask me). Any reccomendations is helpful, don't be afraid to get harsh, it will help me learn.

As for contrast, what is an effective technique to do so? What free programs can you recommend that are easy (enough) to use?
About the handaxe, there is not just zombies on that level, let's just say the axe has to do with a boss...

[Lufia]

Where does the blue-ish tint come from ? If it's from the neon above the door, you'll notice that it's not lit.
See : A neon.
The neon is the brightest part and the light radiates around it. The blue tint doesn't randomly come from the top-left corner of the photograph. And the projected light is not as blinding as what you have on your picture. Light effects can be a big plus... if they're done well.

As for contrast, GIMP handles layers, right? Use a layer but change its opacity and its blending mode (to incrustation, I think? I don't know Photoshop all that well and GIMP even less) and use a large brush to define large zones of shadow and light on your picture. For smaller shadowy areas, I select my colours by hand.

EDIT: I just wanted to add that the last version is an improvement from the first. Upon re-reading my message, it sounds a tad harsh.

[bicilotti]

Hello xXSasukexXXxUchihaXx.

First of all let me say that the second background is definitely an improvement.

You seem to like yahtzeesque atmospheres a lot, so let me link a post from his site:

http://www.fullyramblomatic.com/archive/20060722-1005.htm (scroll until you find "7/9/06: Background Check")

As Ryan said:

Most importantly, go simple.

If you look at that "tutorial" you'll see that it's "room building" technique is not that complicated.

Try the tricks and let us know the results!

[Invalid]

Thanks, I'll take a look at it. Scheduals are hectic for me these days, hard to find time off....  I'll get back to ya. 

[KamikazeHighland]

I'd start by looking up pictures of hospitals, and working from there.  Typically white with overhead lights.  Don't forget small things like clocks on the walls, sprinklers, fire extinguishers, maybe a glass axe container (in case of zombie emergency... 8) ), and of course hospital equipment, which you can look up individually to get a better view of.