Background C&C - worm's apple home (WIP) - 2nd update - in/outside

[Morgan]

I like this background and I want to see the worm in color. I'm not a big fan of the chest either. I'm not to sure how to word this but the window should have more of a ledge on the out side to make the apple look thicker. Try making the inside of the apple more of a light gray or white color. Those are all little things but my biggest problem is the door. I would probably do something like that to but it looks really strange and stands out too much. Maybe make it a lighter color or get rid of the door all together and just put a shadow on the floor.
Oh and I like how you have the apple hanging from a tree. And there are plenty of worms that cling to stuff. (Inch worms)

[Erenan]

Wow! I love the style. I say don't mess with the grassy background. I think it looks great just the way it is.

The door bothers me a little. I like the way it helps to give the apple form, but I think it kind of gets in the way a little. I can't tell what the statue on the bookshelf is. Maybe instead of outlining the door, you could just have a little indentation in the inner outline of the room (where the red of the apple's skin and the yellow of the floor meet). Does that make sense?

Or maybe it's just the color like Morgan said. I think it's the pure black that kind of bothers my eye. Maybe just a very dark shade of something might work better? Same deal with the stem at the top.

[Vespr]

It's adorable... the only thing I want to request is some shading on the apple, to match the three shades you have on the sofa and shelf.. like maybe a shadow where the pip comes out of the apple.

I preferred the no background as well, but if not, having the horizon line as a pixelly line might work better as it will match the style of the rest of the picture. To reduce emphasis on it, you could just reduce the contrast between the sky and the grass.

Another idea would be to just have the apple against a background of large dark green leaves done in pixelly style- that way the background doesn't look quite so empty and the leaves won't distract the viewer as they'd all look pretty much the same and have the same colours.

[TheYak]

I'm trying to stay away from stuff other people have commented upon. 

Location> So, plot-wise, it's definitely got to be on a tree - couldn't be picked up off the ground or anything?  Why not make a leaf or two dominate the background? Then you could end up with a semi-plausible way for the worm to enter his home.  The idea I was thinking of before Vespr mentioned a leafy background was a rope-bridge made of spiderweb.  It'd add to the environment, wouldn't seem too strange to a human eye, and would add some nice detail to the foreground of the backdrop. 

Aesthetics> You've shown via the window sill that there's thickness between the outside and inside.  It'd be nice to see this in the border of the "cut out" portion - not too much, just a couple pixels thick.  Unless the door's meant to be just a cut-out door (like a knife-cut) then it might be better with some thickness to the door jamb.  Some details of the threshold/entryway might help even if it's not a framed door.

Everything seems to use soft outlines or none at all, so the stem and worms in the picture stand out.  I think two shades of green would be fine for the walls.  Either the apple's ripe (white-to-light-green) or not (med-green to light-green), but the medium green and very light green are too much contrast, IMO.

The overall shape's pretty good except the bulge on the right.  Since this is essentially dead space, you could bring that side in a little.  It also looks like we see too much of the bottom of the apple based upon how much we see of the top.

It's a brilliant concept, very original and very well executed.  I'm hoping that it's going to be a public-distribution since the worm concept has me intrigued.

[Khris]

I tried to include all your good ideas, so now there's two versions of the apple, inside and outside.

The spiderweb was a brilliant idea, thanks YakSpit!

A background full of leaves sounds good, but I think I'll keep it as it is. I don't want to put too much effort in a single bg, cause I want to finally complete a game I've started

Inside (2x)


Outside (2x)


As Darth suggested, the pics are going to fade between each other as the worm enters resp. leaves the house.

[aussie]

That is great. Congrats.

One thing, wouldn't you put something on top of the shelf? A little lamp, a vase...

[Ozwalled]

Outstanding. The spiderweb walk is neat-o and the chest, much improved.

I SO want to play this game.

[Russtaccio]

I'm by no means an expert so take this with a grain of salt...that being said...

I'm not a big fan of the background and how the grass/sky line is blurred.  I think it would look better matching the rest of the bg's style.  But maybe it's just a personal thing.

Otherwise...great background.  I really enjoy it.

[Morgan]

I really like the changes especially the door, that is exactly what I had in mind. I still think you should make the window look thicker like you did with the thickness of the "walls" of the apple. It would look more like the window was put in the apple. Do you get what I'm saying?
One more thing, I think the chest would look better if it was just a hair shorter on the left side.

[He-Man]

This looks really great. The idea is really cool!
I don't really like the green landscape or whatever behind the apple. It's too blury and needs more details.
I also find it a little hard to see where the door is on the newest back ground. Maybe you could make it more visible somehow. Maybe like this:

    before             after


Otherwise it's really great!

[ildu]

I don't really like the background, but I think it should be blurred more. But it needs more detail and different colors before getting blurred. That way it would look like a real close-up.

[Oliver]

Maybe you should add some leaves to the background.