Hey there!
I consider this my breakthrough.Ã, :D After all those years I finally managed to come up with a technique to draw a room that pleases me. So, what do you think? I know, there could be more furniture. But what about the general style? Is it any good? Can I at last dare make my first game?
(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/stein_forumroom01.gif)
What a great day this is. See you around!
It is quite nice , I agree, but the book and the candle stick, well, the don't cast a shadow. i cna think of a FEW other things but that is what grabs me at once.
in my opinion shadows are a waste of time in 2D adventure games with static backgrounds so it doesn't really matter whether or not certain objects cast shadows or not as the player isn't going to be casting one, just the same as his reflection probably won't show up in the mirror.
the only thing i would suggest is to perhaps make the light a bit smaller.
It's great except that you lightened certain areas with what looks like a large soft brush/eraser (above the painting around the mirror and the roof). I cannot figure out how the chair and the table relate to each other (if it's a sofa that extends further away it makes more sense). Make the game.
Quote from: BOYD1981 on Mon 06/03/2006 21:24:26
in my opinion shadows are a waste of time in 2D adventure games with static backgrounds
ooh, im sorry, but i think shadows make a huge difference.
Is anyone else expecting Sophia and Alain Trottier to walk in?
More seriously: I would expect the wood panelling to be straighter.
BOYD1981:
its your opinion and you are entitled to it, but, come ON! the mixture of light and shadow is how we SEE things fer' Bobs sake! other wise ibackround just looks FLAT.
Quote from: BOYD1981 on Mon 06/03/2006 21:24:26
in my opinion shadows are a waste of time in 2D adventure games with static backgrounds so it doesn't really matter whether or not certain objects cast shadows or not as the player isn't going to be casting one, just the same as his reflection probably won't show up in the mirror.
the only thing i would suggest is to perhaps make the light a bit smaller.
Shadows are is are important! They create the atmosphere.
The bg really looks amazing IMO.
Ahoi.
Wow, I felt like phony when I thought: "Let's see if someone answered my post ... after like three seconds." Ã, ;) And here we go. Well, well, well... Thanks a lot!
As for the shadows: If you look at this crummy dark blob beneath the plant, you'll see my stand on shadows and 2D. Ã, ;) I agree that more "shadows" couldn't hurt.
The lighting: Yes... the room itself is a lot brighter. I just put an almost-black layer on top of the whole thing, made it transparent and brightened some areas. Maybe not the best choice.
As for Sophia and Allan: Hehe... the color of the walls is actually derived from that hotel room in FOA.
Strange... nobody said anything about that stupid lamp that I find oddly out of place and way too big. Ã, ;)
Anyways, thanks a dozen for the replies/advice! I'll be working on some changes.
Here's the version without that darkening layer on top:
(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/stein_forumroom02.gif)
Looks cool!
I too think shadows are very important, and I'd like to see an obvious cast shadow from the table top -- the table sits directly under the light, so the area beneath it should be pretty dark. The edge of the shadow would be pretty crisp, too, at that distance.
The one thing that bugs me is the picture (or flat-panel TV) with the car on it. I'm guessing you used a photograph and transformed it using a perspective tool, but it really sticks out to me. I'd recommend re-drawing the car in your own style, or tracing over it.
(Is it a nice TV? I don't understand why someone with such a conservative and tasteful decorating style would put a poster of a car on his/her wall; seems tacky.)
Anyway, it's a great background. Looking forward to more! :)
maybe the mans rich uncle designed the car.
In that case the man would be Q's nephew, for the picture (it's not supposed to be a TV screen) is showing one of those Aston Martins James Bond is driving around in.
Anyway... copying pics into a BG like this sucks. I see that now. :)
"you win again mr bond" ;D
well just to critic, I agree, it kind of stands out in a bad way. still very nice work, hope to see more soon.
well i'm not trying to say that shadows aren't important, i just find it silly when people spend so long trying to get their shadows perfect and then you have a character which doesn't cast one and is totally uneffected by lighting.
i say until some clever chap comes up with a shadows plugin people shouldn't really worry too much about including them in backgrounds unless they're really there for a reason (such as to hide an object or character until a light is turned on).
but you're right, it is just my opinion and people should feel free to do what they want.
Great background. I really like the dithering effect you've got going. What paint program are you using?
...and on shadows. If you're going to add a shadow for one object you've got to do it for all of them. If you're going to give the plant one you'll need one for the table, windows, and even the walls. It can get to be a lot of work. I think the picture looks great but with shadows and a few more details it could be a masterpiece. I guess it just depends on how much effort you want to put into it.
might I suggest fading the hard edges one some of the objects a little more and tightening up the edges on others...
As for fading, most noticable is the curtains:
(http://kafkaskoffee.com/junk/edits/curtains.gif)
(http://kafkaskoffee.com/junk/edits/curtains.gif)
See the edges of the curtain that overlap the window? I just took one of your darkest reds and a slightly lighter red and added them to the edges.
As for tightening edges up, look at the plant on the right side of the screen, it looks like this was drawn at a larger scale and then sized down to fit the screen. I'd recommend losing some colours in there because the green fades into all the colours around it and makes it look ghostly...
Otherwise hooray for you! Congrats on finding confidence to draw!
Eric
Quote from: Redwall on Mon 06/03/2006 21:34:48
Is anyone else expecting Sophia and Alain Trottier to walk in?
Yeah, i thought I recoginzed it from somewhere. :)
you have scaling issues. The character is too small by about 10%, the mirror is too high, the height of the room is approximately 5 meters (or 15 feet) the door too small, the light HUGE, the table a slab of wooden thickness, the chair is ok though!...
and who the hell frames a picture of a sports car?
It's obvious that the artist has been taking a look to design the room (The buildings outside, the wood panel, the shape of the room...) But it's not a paintover. Throwing to his face that the room is a "copy" is, to say it politelly, "discouraging"...
And I think that critics lounge is for encouraging people to improve its art...
And for crits, some of the dithering pixels are too "strong" for me, for example if you look the car painting, it does not look as dithering, but just as dirt spots or something... As someone said, the panel wood should be straight.
And, are you thinking in AAliasing? I know it's a pain in the ass, because you'll gotta make billion of clicks in futher backgrounds as well, but it's something to consider...
Great BG, by the way.
I say your bg is perfectly functional for a game, since I gather that's what you're really after.
Of course, there will always be things you can improve. People have posted some very insightful crits here that you may want to take on board (that's the whole point of the CL).
But I personally think it's better to settle for a style that you can keep consistent with a reasonable amount of effort, even if the details are not perfect. And I think you already have that.
That's my philosophy. Other people prefer their art to be as good as it can be. That's great, really, but I certainlyÃ, know I couldn't live up to that approach if I tried. Spending way too long one background makes me lose heart, particularly if I have a long game in mind... I guess it comes down to knowing what your limitations are, really.
Take these comments or leave them, but I think you certainly have the skill to move on and make a good-looking game.
Congrats.
Yeah, go on and make a game. Your graphics will improve, not that their at all bad anyway, with time, so why not release some games along the way.
Looks great, very adventure-gameish. Keep it up!
Hey there!
Thanks a lot for the comments!
@Ionias: Masterpiece, huh? OK, I'll go for the extra shadows.Ã, Ã, ;) By the way, I'm using Photoshop according to one of those Kafkas-Coffee-tutorials about indexed colors.
@MrColossal: I see... I guess fading the edges will be my next lesson. Thanks for that!
@Helm: Yeah, I know about the scaling. This is what gives me real headaches. At last, somebody recognizes the weirdness of that lamp, though.Ã, ;) Oh, about framing a sports-car: Jerry Seinfeld does it! What a reference.
@Farlander: Yupp... Maybe I should have mentioned that I used that hotel room from FOA as a reference. I learned from it. I didn't copy it. At least I tried. Thanks for the encouragement.
@Aussie: Consistency is the most important thing in my eyes. I'll just see which improvements I can still make without losing control over my "style".
@all: God, I love this community. Talk about being helpful. Thanks!Ã, ;D
You've done an excellent job with this background, aside from the relative sizes of the objects (which has been covered) and the apparent continuation of one gradient into another object. When I look at the walls and then the panelling, it seems as though the same gradient was used to fill them both and then just tinted a different color. This makes the items seem less individual to me, since the effect of light on a wall will look different than light on the wood panels. As for the shadows, I'd say add basic shadows (under the table, candelabra, book, chair) unless you are comfortable with more complicated directional shadows (mirror, the corners of the walls). Also, note your placement of the light source. It's current location would not provide equal lighting to all areas of the room, so the outer walls, door, and plant would be darker as well as part of the floor in front of each wall (based on the light angle). Again, these are more complex lighting issues and I'd only try it if you feel confident or want to make the overall image look more realistic. Great work!
I did a really messy shading edit to give you some ideas. Bear in mind that I eyeballed the lightsource and used only the colors in the original image. The main point you should look at is since it is a dome light, the ceiling and walls above it will diffuse to shadow. Since I used your palette, this didn't carry over as well as it should have.
(http://members.cox.net/progzmax/shade0.gif)
(http://members.cox.net/progzmax/shading.gif)
excellent edit.
Excellent, indeed...
Thanks a lot for that, ProgZmax! I see, what you mean. My mistake was, that I did things in the wrong order. I shaded the walls, the carpet and everything, and only then I added the lamp. Next time shading comes last!
Boy, these were some helpful hints, you all gave me. Can't wait for the weekend, to give it another shot. :)
Glad you found it useful, just realize that, as the light moves from the corners of the ceiling toward the center (where the dome is) it should get darker rather than an equal shadow as in my edit. I use an 8-bit program (Pro Motion) and since your palette was already full I couldn't add more colors to make the shadow effect look right.
Also, this is a very easy effect to accomplish if you follow the general path light should take. I'll explain what I did in case you want to give it a try:
1. Look at the light source(s) in question and try to determine (either by drawing lines from the center or by eyeballing) where the light will fall. Areas that are not directly hit by light will get darker as they fall farther away from the light.
2. I stencilled out the colors for the outer walls and mirror and then applied a black transparent brush to it. You could achieve the same result in Photoshop by applying a black layer with 60-85% transparency. I repeated this method for the far left wall, bearing in mind that part of the wall would be hit by the light, so I used a gradually lighter shade (or a higher transparent layer). I repeated this same effect with the ceiling, just guessing the shape the light from the dome would make on the walls.
3. The floor and ceiling corners needed to be dark as the walls will cast a shadow, too, and the door knob, light switch, painting, candelabra, book, chair, table. The wall cast a shadow over the tree as well.
4. Highlights. I went back and put highlights on the tree, book, and candelabra.
Again, you can achieve 90% of this easier than I did it just by cutting out pieces of the background and pasting them in as layers with different transparency levels.
What Programme is this on? This is amazing
You won't suddenly be able to draw great backgrounds just because you start using a decent graphics program. That assumption is so horribly wrong.
You've got to practice, that's all.
Please don't dig up months old threads just to ask a question like this. You can always PM the thread starter.
And there's this stickie right at the top of the first page:
The Big List Of Paint Programs! (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=5644.0)
Hi there and congratulations on this nice room. I wish i could do that.
One thing that's disturbing me though is that the round table is casting a rectangular shadow.
Cheers Xtiph
That's the pattern on the rug.
This thread is four months old. Whee.
I know. I wish people would stop posting to it already. ;)