Bigger castle
(http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s288/JpGames/bigcastle.jpg)
It makes my eyes hurt. Seriously, do you have to use that alternating-light-color-dark-color-pixel-drawing-style? Also, adding stuff may be a good idea. It seems way too empty right now.
/EDIT: Typo fixed.
Hahahahahha....I like it! Alot. Of course, as you say, you need to fill it in. Trees would be a good idea. Maybe a moat. And some farming land?
Is there going to be a huge army advancing on the castle? Roger seems a little large for it.
It has much potential.
One week? Have you done the dithering pixel by pixel? (Dithering, I mean, the green, black,green, black pixel grid) Seriously, there are some tricks to do that so much faster.
So, I am assuming that you made this pixel by pixel, with a "basic painting program" like MS-paint... If any of the two statements are false, forget what I am going to say:
My advises, better that criticising the background per se, are to get a better paint program (PSP, PROMOTION 4.5 or PS) and learn to use the tricks to improve your speed. I don't mean working like a PS guru, like Helm (who knows all the shortcuts, and seeing him painting is like seeing a good on-line player playing an arcade) but just some of the basic "tecniques".
Cheers.
Yah I'm thinking you just need to get something other than paint...but whatever I did this out of boredom and to give you some ideas.
(http://www.novellice.com/art/AGS%20Projects/Paintovers/screenOne%20_paintover.png)
Trees, bushes, bridge, river, mountains, sky...whatever. Anything to keep it from being boring. Obviously this won't really work as anything with the sizes of your guy/castle etc, but fix those up and pick a viewpoint and you're set!
The dithering still hurts my eyes.
The castle looks rather small for the picture. I mean if it's the only functioning part of the background then it could be more dominant. Make it larger and perhaps more complex in design.
Quote from: Akatosh on Sat 14/04/2007 10:15:58
The dithering still hurts my eyes.
Do you have one of those monitors that flickers when they encounter dithering. I mean I didn't even notice the dithering on the green without zooming in :) Maybe I just have a blurry monitor. Free antialias ;)
Quote from: zabnat on Sat 14/04/2007 10:29:10
Do you have one of those monitors that flickers when they encounter dithering. I mean I didn't even notice the dithering on the green without zooming in :) Maybe I just have a blurry monitor. Free antialias ;)
I second that.
I updated the first post drawing a bigger castle.
Quote from: JpGames on Sat 14/04/2007 20:59:13
I updated the first post drawing a bigger castle.
Windows? Arrow slits? Flags?
All these additions would improve it greatly.
I dunno, the castle is bigger sure...but hmm. Maybe that could just be a leg of the castle, like a barracks or castle house or something. Nice moat and bridge. :p Just keep at it, you'll get it figured out.
After 5 hours working on it
(http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s288/JpGames/mapa-1-arboles.jpg)
I like the castle, but im not happy with how looks the ground. I dont have ideas to make it looks better, not just how it looks now.
I outlined the first two trees. Im not sure if it looks fine, but i like it. Any idea about it?
Thanks
JpGames
It took 5 hours to draw those trees? I could draw that kind of tree in less than 20 minutes. If you're going to leave the trees the way they are (though I think you shouldn't, as they are very crude looking), outline and shade them.
Not only the trees, if you look carefully i added a lot of other things.
I dont like the trees neither, but i dont have best ideas to make them look better.
JpGames
Okay, you've got to get something other then mspaint to work on your backgrounds, because adding some blobs for trees and a couple identical flags and a few windows should not take you five hours. You're working very inefficiently.
As for the ideas for the ground, if you are stuck on what to do, then look up some references images on Google Image Search or something for ideas. I do that all the time. I'm not sure what you're after, only you know in your mind how you want this background to look since it is your game, however, I'm sure there has never been a flat, bright green field before.
I have corel photo paint select edition, but maybe im silly, or i cant dran a single line with it. I tried everything and i just can draw bold lines (3 pixels width). I saw the tutorial, but it dont said nothing abuot single lines. How i can draw a BGs without single lines?
Anyway, MSpaint is ok to begin; im just learning.
ABout the ground, yes, it look not much real. I saw the KQ1 Bgs to take some ideas and i will try now.
Thanks
JpGames
Well, backgrounds are actually drawn with more than one size brush. Other tools are useful as well, like the fill (paintbucket) tool, eraser, burn tool, dodge tool, etc. Even smudge is ok once in a while lolz.
The paintover I did took me 12 minutes. I'm curious, are you clicking a pixel at a time? In most programs, and honestly I don't use MSPaint so I don't know...but you can usually just hold down the button and move the mouse around to draw many pixels at a time.
Another thing to speed things up is to get a program with layers. Because then you could make a base tree, copy it over many times, and edit them individually later on if you desired on their own layers. This way you won't have to keep drawing those trees for five hours :p
I know nothing of Corel Photo Paint Select Edition? Maybe someone else will help you out with that. Usually though, you can just click the brush menu of sorts and change the slider or size of brush from 3 to 1. Good luck.
The trees need to get smaller the nearer the top of the screen, they get. To be consistent with the perspective of the castle. I'm surprised no one has pointed this out yet...
Quote from: markbilly on Sun 15/04/2007 16:24:31
The trees need to get smaller the nearer the top of the screen, they get. To be consistent with the perspective of the castle. I'm surprised no one has pointed this out yet...
He originally mentioned something about making an RPG, if I'm not mistaken. Most classically styled overhead RPGs don't seem to account for that.
And the dithering still hurts my eyes. Do I need to continue pointing that out or shall I just plain say "FOR HEAVENS SAKE, REMOVE IT!"?
Quote from: Akatosh on Sun 15/04/2007 16:38:54
shall I just plain say "FOR HEAVENS SAKE, REMOVE IT!"?
Perhaps if you offered an alternative?
The biggest problem I have with this BG is that the Castle is drawn in three dimensions, whereas the trees river and ground are in two, flat, dimensions. This makes the BG look incongruent and nasty.
Wow, the castle looks like 3D :D But try to apply the same perspective on all the things. So, add a horizon that actually matches with castles perspective.
Quote from: Akatosh on Sun 15/04/2007 16:38:54
And the dithering still hurts my eyes. Do I need to continue pointing that out or shall I just plain say "FOR HEAVENS SAKE, REMOVE IT!"?
Yes, an alternative is more than welcome. I dont like neither the ground, but is the best choice i found until now. Im searching the web to try to find something better. At this moment, i just feel happy with the castle.
JpGames
Why did you even use dithering (the switching between 2 colours)? If you wanted a colour in between those two greens, you do know that you can pick any colour you want in mspaint, buy clicking on it in the pallette, right? Also, is the ground what took you so long? Did you click every individual pixel? I really hope not.
Also, please stop posting images in jpeg format.
Here is a quick idea for a ground that (I think) is a little easier on the eyes.
(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/cast_3849ty.png)
Quote from: theRedPress on Sun 15/04/2007 16:35:48
Quote from: markbilly on Sun 15/04/2007 16:24:31
The trees need to get smaller the nearer the top of the screen, they get. To be consistent with the perspective of the castle. I'm surprised no one has pointed this out yet...
He originally mentioned something about making an RPG, if I'm not mistaken. Most classically styled overhead RPGs don't seem to account for that.
Yeah, but because of the size, it really stands out. Plus, I'm not sure this is the ideal perspective, you need to use something like what Medical Waste has posted...
Quote from: Medical Waste on Sun 15/04/2007 19:34:37
Why did you even use dithering (the switching between 2 colours)? If you wanted a colour in between those two greens, you do know that you can pick any colour you want in mspaint, buy clicking on it in the pallette, right? Also, is the ground what took you so long? Did you click every individual pixel? I really hope not.
Also, please stop posting images in jpeg format.
I uploaded the image in BMP format, but for some reason photobucket is storing it in jpg format ???
I really like the medical waste's paintover. It give me a lot of ideas. Thanks.
JpGames
No problem man, just keep trying stuff. Each time you will get learn something and get better. Don't be afraid to look at other things for inspiration (other game backgrounds, or real life photos).
BMP is not really used on the internet (big files), so I'm guessing that's why photobucket changes it. Try uploading them as a PNG.
Photobucket modifies images if the filesize limit set is exceeded. That's probably why the change is occuring. You should try a free program, like Gimp or something - and get yourself in better shape. Really don't spend another minute in paint, I beg you. ^^
I've used The GIMP for years and it's really very nearly on par with Adobe's offerings. It can seem intimidating, but just ignore all the complicated features at first. You can basically just use it like MSPaint until you get the hang of things like layers and filters. You can grab a copy here, it's a relatively small download:
gimp.org (http://gimp.org)
P.S.- Hurrah to theRedPress for promoting The GIMP.
Quote from: Sparky on Sun 15/04/2007 23:38:18
I've used The GIMP for years and it's really very nearly on par with Adobe's offerings. It can seem intimidating, but just ignore all the complicated features at first. You can basically just use it like MSPaint until you get the hang of things like layers and filters. You can grab a copy here, it's a relatively small download:
gimp.org (http://gimp.org)
P.S.- Hurrah to theRedPress for promoting The GIMP.
But of course, I use it very often.
I just downloaded gimp and great, it is in full in spanish. I will try today with it.
Thanks for all
JpGames