Need coloring suggestions...

[Snake]

I'm having a conflict with myself with how I want to color my BGs.

The following BG is how I intended the style to be in the very beginning, which I still love:


How I did it was I made a quick scetch, really not detailed at all. I scanned it, resized it (to 320x200) and opened it in paint. Changed it to a monochrome image (to turn every line black and to get rid of the "fuzzies") then changed it back to a 24bit image.
From there I changed the lines to a light grey and then I colored and edited it as I went.

I've got some new BGs I (example below), but drew them with detail. The bummer is, I LOVE how they turned out in 320x200. I would like to keep the detail the way I drew it (instead of doing it over again in Paint), but I don't know how to color it.



What do you guys suggest? Should I scan again and color it in it's original state and then resize? I guess that seems like the logical way to go... but I don't know.

I guess my conflict is, I love all the detail in my new BGs, but also love the original BGs' style.

Thanks for any suggestions,


--Snake

[GarageGothic]

I'd say rescan them and color them at a higher resolution before resizing. If you want to preserve the pencil linework, keep it as a separate "multiply" layer on top of everything else. Then you can always play around with its transparency setting or try removing it altogether after filling in the colors.

I really like your drawing, your work on the tree, trashcan and garden path in particular.

[Questionable]

Can you post a full sized image? or better, a link to one?

[Dualnames]

As far as I'm concerned the old one looks way cool, one of my favorite bg's here in the AGS forums.

[Snake]

GarageGothic:
Multi-layers is something I really want to avoid. Mainly because I'm not that good in doing it and I don't have the tools anymore to do it. Is Photoshop any good? I've only used PSP7.

Dualnames:
Heh, thanks a lot, man. I like it a lot too, that's why I'm torn between the two styles because I really love how the detail in the other shot looks.

To Questionable and Everybody else:
Okay, here's the original scan resized to 640x400:


Is 640x400 a good size to color the scan at or should I do it larger?

PS
For the few of you that recognize this, the newer sketch you see here is not a replacement of the original, it's only a different angle. I need to edit the original to match the new BG, for example, the path to the front door/hedges/etc... I don't know, ultimately I think I might have to remake it anyway, especially depending on what I decide to do with the style of the BGs.

Thanks for helping, by the way.

[Questionable]

I prefer to color as large as I can and then shrink it down to 2x the final size. Re-color and edit (Touch-ups, really.) Then I'll either o smaller than intended and blow it back up or just go to final size and put on polish. I'll have a color done tonight hopefully. I REALLY dig this image so I'm psyched to have a go. Maybe i'll give you some ideas of what's good, maybe i'll give you some ideas of what doesn't work. We'll see.

[Snarky]

Multi-layers is something I really want to avoid. Mainly because I'm not that good in doing it and I don't have the tools anymore to do it. Is Photoshop any good? I've only used PSP7.

Man, I can't even imagine trying to color that sketch without using layers. I mean, it's possible, just like it's possible to drive in a nail with a screwdriver instead of a hammer, but you're not using the best tool available for the job.

You don't need to be fancy with it. Putting each object on a separate layer, with colors on one, details on another, shadows on a third and highlights on a fourth can come in handy (it makes touch-ups and revisions easier), but can get disorienting. Such an approach is strictly optional. However, the ability to keep your sketch separate from your actual coloring, even if you do all of it in a single layer, is invaluable.

And yes, Photoshop is good (there's a reason pretty much all professionals use it), but if you're not planning on utilizing the more advanced features, there are plenty of other paint programs that support layers, including many free ones. (See stickied thread.)

[Questionable]

I've used GIMP and I use Photoshop currently. They're both very good programs. The major difference between them is $400.

I wouldn't imagine doing this digitally without layers. It's more like traditional painting if you don't but that's not necessarily a good thing. Why paint over everything just to get it to look right when you can just repaint what you need, isolated from the rest of the image...

ANYWHO. Figured I'd throw up what I have so far. Now, keep in mind there's no way that I would use this in a game as is. You need to really straighten it out and tighten it up. I played around with some colors and these are the ones that felt the best. I've got to put some value into the image because right now there's no direction to the scene. What do you think so far?

[Moresco]

I also made a quick coloring attempt at this, it's rather weird to me because I don't usually color over sketches, I typically repaint because the lines end up looking bleh whenever I do it. =]  But I tried.



You can see what I mean with the tree...of course I purposely was using one of the layer styles to try and preserve the line work (being lazy and saving time...), but had I copy/pasted the tree itself either before or after coloring it, and then worked on it alone, I could have done a better job.  Oh well.

[Snake]

Wow, you guys are amazing...

Questionable: How big do you like the picture to be colored at first? I love what you did with the cobble stones!

RedPress: I know it's unfinished, but you've almost hit the colors spot-on! You've even colored the stars like in the original...

Man, I can't even imagine trying to color that sketch without using layers. I mean, it's possible, just like it's possible to drive in a nail with a screwdriver instead of a hammer, but you're not using the best tool available for the job.

Heh, right. I'm going to have a look at the free paint programs with multi-layers and give that a wack.

I think what I'm going to do, which will be very tedious and time consuming, is make two versions. One in the style of the original and the second with layers.

--EDIT--
RedPress, what program did you use?

[Andail]

Dude(s), you have to use layers and build up your background and not just throw paint on top it.

It looks very flat and crayon-ish right now...I think there's long way to go from here

[Snake]

Andail, can you show an example please? I don't know how to do this myself what-so-ever. I thought they did a good job for just fooling around with it.

Right now I'm working on redrawing the BG with color in Paint, like the original.

--EDIT--
Andail, I've just been thinking about it for a minute and I think I've got an idea of what you're talking about. I'm going to try it out again...

[Questionable]

Dude(s), you have to use layers and build up your background and not just throw paint on top it.

It looks very flat and crayon-ish right now...I think there's long way to go from here

Agreed and Admitted.

[Moresco]

RedPress: I know it's unfinished, but you've almost hit the colors spot-on! You've even colored the stars like in the original...

RedPress, what program did you use?

I'm currently using Photoshop CS3.  What I did was pretty basic, it works a little but it's not what I usually would do.  I just lassoed each object and copied each one to their own layer.  Then I took some of the colors from your other background and laid them out on a new layer, along with some of my own colors so that I could easily jump over and color-pick them out (that's how I matched the star colors).  From there I painted over each one and set most of them to linear burn.  Some of it was experimentation using multiple layers for the same object, like the tree.

Like Andail said, this is only the very beginning, but I thought we were just showing you ways to get started with color?  It was never my intention to present a finished background.  :/

If it were my background and I had a lot of time to spend on it, I'd probably merge each object with the color and line work and then go in and detail each one to look better.  After that I'd make a layer for shadows and maybe another for more value.  But yes right now it looks flat because for instance the grass is one solid color. 

[Snake]

Alright, guys, after many failed attempts to pretend I knew something about layering, I decided to go with the original idea. Well, it's either that or have somebody paint them for me... but... bah.

Here's The finished touch-up before I start coloring:


//--EDIT--//

It was never my intention to present a finished background.  :/

No way, man, not mine either I was just thrilled to see it in color!
I only said, "I know it's not finished" because you had said that you didn't finish it to what you would normally do.

[Privateer Puddin']

I'd really try and persevere with the layers, it can be daunting at first but it's a great help.

I started colouring this before the other two were posted, but as you can see I didn't get very far at all, it's a bit of a different take on it, I had http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=12950.0 on mind when I started it.



(Finish a damn game already, they've all looked great )

[Moresco]

I did a little bit more to make it seem like night and maybe give it some more depth, I wasn't satisfied with my little color-over.  I dunno what else to do at this point, and I'm honestly just flying blind at this, so I will just call it good and let you explore further from here.  Hopefully all these examples will give you plenty of ideas and you'll zone in on a technique.  As everyone has said, layers can be your friend, I hated them too when I first was introduced to them.  They get easier to work with the more you do it, and if you do decide to go with photoshop I highly recommend reading some kind of tutorial on the layer styles, blending options, and the use of adjustment layers.  Good luck!

Here's what I did.
1. I refined all the layers and reconfigured them by copy-merging them all to new ones so as to remove the linear-burn layers.  That way I could work on them, without them blending into each other and still preserving the basic color and line work from before.

2. I added some further shading to the house, the tree, the trash can, and the porch rail.

3. I added shadows for some of the objects, like the tree, trash can, and mailbox.

4. I added more light, then erased the light to make the shadow for the porch rail. (inspired by privateer's edit! ^^ )

5. I used a curve adjustment layer to pull out some of the darker lines from the background but left the mailbox, trash can, and tree somewhat alone.

6. Finally, I slapped on a color balance adjustment layer to give the scene a bluer tint.

[Ryan Timothy B]

Also here's another suggestion.  The mailbox is a foreground object, so in reality it shouldn't be in the same focus as everything else.

Here's a quick one:


Also, I notice the garbage can seems flat.  I think you need to show slightly more of the top of it.

[Dualnames]

I suggest you keep the new image as cover and keep the old one in-game!!!

[Questionable]

Questionable: How big do you like the picture to be colored at first? I love what you did with the cobble stones!

I resized your image to 960 x 600

I like starting with 1280 x 800 or 960 x 600 depending on the final size.