My first space background...

Akumayo · Fri 03/02/2006 23:14:54

Hello all, this is my first space background.Ã,Â Due to my extreme lack of awesome skills, I went for a very basic palette, and a calm color mix, not a clashing array of anti-aliased blends of radience... So yeah, I went for a cleaner, but cheaper look...
Due to my lack of patience, I built an AGS program to make starfields for me, after that, the background is made through MS-Paint.Ã,Â I need something to make:
a) The star look more like a star, and less like another moon.
b) Something more in the background, or a way to slightly bring out the noticability of the blue cosmic dust in the background without actually changing the color of the dust itself...
c) The ring around the primary planet to look more like a ring, and less like randomly scattered dust.

Now the image...

And an alternative:

1. Added rings around central planet
2. Changed pink moon to yellow

Thank you for any critic or advise you can give.

-Regards, Glacies Akumayo

MarVelo · Fri 03/02/2006 23:28:26

The pink planet(yes?) looks like a testicle. I like how you did the stars. The big green planet seems a little to simple and I dont know if the shadow on half of it would project like that.

Akumayo · Sat 04/02/2006 02:52:06

I know that the shadow looks awkward, I'm not going to worry with it until I have the star looking like a star.

Now some information on the bodies pictured:
---
The central planet (green one) is supposed to be simple. It's atmosphere is 90% chlorine gas, so the surface features and lower clouds are impossible to see through the haze. The upper-right moon is rich in oxygen, ozone, and water, and is therefore more inhabitable. The object behind the upper-right moon is supposed to be orbiting the upper-right moon directly, and the upper-right moon orbits the green planet. The lower-left moon is supposed to have a deadly hot atmosphere similar to that of Venus's, the atmosphere is primarily carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and sulferic gases (smelly no?).
---
The stars I made with a program in AGS, because I suck at transparency levels in MS-Paint. Even with the updated picture (rings around main planet, yellow moon), the original three problems in the first post remain.

-Regards, Glacies Akumayo

Neil Dnuma · Sat 04/02/2006 03:52:40

If you step back, it looks like a duck trying to squeeze an egg out.

The main problem is that there's no sense of distance between the planets/moons, they seem tacked onto each other. Try spreading things more out. Check out this image, for ideas on shading (or google some). Remember, The dark side of the moon (great album), is the nightside. And night is pretty much black.

In the end it's your choice wether it's supposed to look realistic or stylized/cartoonish, but realism is the best starting point. Oh, and Paint is not the way to go!

Sean · Sat 04/02/2006 11:52:22

I don't see why this needs any improvement. If your going for a nice, clean cartoony feel then you've achieved your goal

Akumayo · Sat 04/02/2006 23:15:09

Hrm... I see the duck... not exactly what I'm going for. I'll try to change the shading to something much darker... I hadn't really thought of how it would -really- look, just how I -wanted- it to look...

Quote from: Neil Dnuma on Sat 04/02/2006 03:52:40
Oh, and Paint is not the way to go!

I don't have any other option

vict0r · Sat 04/02/2006 23:24:36

Why isnt paint the way to go? It's a matter of preference. I use paint for everything, and it works fine for me

Akumayo · Sat 04/02/2006 23:50:51

The only reason I really dislike using Paint is that you can't pick up a color from the canvas and edit it directly, you can't paste it into your palette, in other words, so you don't have access to darkening/lightening/tinting it anymore... which makes things very difficult.

Damien · Sat 04/02/2006 23:54:42

Well, it's too crowded for a space background. Try making one planet and a sun far back. then practice your pixelling skills by adding texture to the planet, glow and so on.

You could make some stars with 1px size and make some of them a bit darker. Then add 4 or 5 of them in 2x2 px and in the the end draw a couple of largest ones (like the ones you have now).

As for the blue lines in the background, I suggest making them more purple but also more visible and i suggest drawing them in a solid color instead of using the spraycan. In fact, don't ever use the spraycan tool.

Draw your palette by the side of the image that you won't use and try to limit the colorcount.

Oh, and BTW paint is almost a perfect tool for pixelart, I guess most of you didn't even know that it has a color replacer tool and 10x zoom. Also, using layers can be simulated too if you seperate your image into a few pieces and use selection tool properly.

Oh and Akumayo, you can do that. Just select a color you want to edit, and click colors>edit colors and then click on "Define custom colors"

Akumayo · Sun 05/02/2006 00:01:57

Quote from: Damien on Sat 04/02/2006 23:54:42
Oh and Akumayo, you can do that. Just select a color you want to edit, and click colors>edit colors and then click on "Define custom colors"

WOW!!! I love paint perfectly now!!! That's excatly the feature I always wanted!
I'll try your suggestions, and post a revised image later...

(I did know about x10 zoom and color replacement tools)

Haddas · Sun 05/02/2006 00:50:26

Ok..

So I MAY have gotten a bit carried away here...

fred · Sun 05/02/2006 00:51:40

I also made a program that could draw stars in AGS a while back. Here's how far I got. I wanted the light from the different stars to overlap and enhance itself, which was a bit of a problem considering the amount of color values that would have to be stored and remembered.

MSPaint is very slow and unhandy for painting stars (although it can be done beautifully if you have the discipline/patience). If you can get your hand on 3d Studio Max somewhere, there's a great tutorial on making stars, nebulae and planets included (at least in version 6). This is the title-screen for the AGS-game I'm working on. It was made using that tutorial.

Also, to give AGS the final word, here's a shot from within the game. It has multiple "rooms" like this with huge scrollable backgrounds that are dynamically painted on entrance. Basically, AGS paints them by painting stars and nebula-sprites on top of each other on the whole area, each with a random transparency setting. The picture is a bit dark, I know, but it's no problemÃ,Â in full-screen mode. If you wonder about the vertical green bars in the scene, they are animated during gameplay, as to scan space from the player spaceship's position. They scan the scene and trail the green radar "bleeps" that can also be seen.

Note: You just posted your last update while I was typing this - it's freaky, but you're getting there ;-)

Edit: Just noted that Haddas was behind the last update - should have guessed.

Akumayo · Sun 05/02/2006 00:55:52

Haddas: How the f*ck did you do that!? Amazing!!!

fred: My AGS program will hopefully eventually create nubulae, galaxies, and better stars, much like the one you describe. I'm not too fond of using 3D programs though... I tried blender for a while, and quit... too much time for such poor results (mostly becuase of my poor ability)

Haddas · Sun 05/02/2006 01:00:06

Photoshop. I got bored, so it gradually got worse. nebula first, stars later, then sun etc.... and finally the cheeseball. and then i couldn't be bothered to make the last planet.

Photoshop 7 + Google Image search for Nebula + Google search for Tutorials for nebulas and starfields. For the planets a laaaaaarge controlled comination of filters.

Akumayo · Sun 05/02/2006 01:03:17

I don't have photoshop... :'(

fred · Sun 05/02/2006 01:07:09

"The GIMP" ia a free Photshop-clone with many of the same features.

http://gimp-win.sourceforge.net/

Akumayo · Sun 05/02/2006 01:13:57

Hrm... I've looked at GIMP several times, but always chose not to download becuase I can't find its licensing information.

fred · Sun 05/02/2006 01:20:05

Ok, well. I don't think there are any constraints on how you can use it. You can even download the source and make your own build. I've had it for some time, and there haven't been any "Upgrade Now" or "Become a registered user" pop-ups so far, if that's what you worry about.

Akumayo · Sun 05/02/2006 01:23:18

I was more worried about it being free for commercial use, not that I'd use it commercially, I just feel more comfortable with free for commercial use programs.

fred · Sun 05/02/2006 01:26:31

Guess it won some award for being 100% free and stable

http://www.softpedia.com/progClean/The-Gimp-Clean-5446.html