New backgrounds

Dr Fred Rubacant Edison · Sat 25/11/2006 20:33:14

What do you think of this one

Here is a start

CMK2901 · Sat 25/11/2006 21:16:18

Looks great. I don't know much about background art, so I wouldn't want to give you any bad suggestions. The only thing I can really think of is that the back and right walls do not have shadows as they get closer to the floor, while the left wall does. Maybe that is intentional, but otherwise, I like the style.

MadReizka · Sat 25/11/2006 22:51:04

The back wall is quite plain, needs some texture or atleast some details. Perspective seems to be bit off with some of the objects. Things that hang in the wall does not cast any shadows to the wall.
That blood looks bit weird in the table. It is just so... unrealistic

Dr Fred Rubacant Edison · Sun 26/11/2006 00:18:02

What items do you think need Perspective fix

How do i make shadows

Dr Fred Rubacant Edison · Mon 27/11/2006 04:17:34

Look at this

Khris · Mon 27/11/2006 05:36:47

You should really upload the pics as PNGs, not as JPGs. (I hope you don't save them as JPGs while editing!)
The blood on the side of the table looks unrealistic because wet blood runs down straigt, not all over the place.

About perspective: with MM, it isn't necessary that the perspective is 100% correct.
As long as stuff at the left looks like /__/ and like \__\ on the right (/__\ in the center), it's fine.

Dr Fred Rubacant Edison · Mon 27/11/2006 05:45:28

thats really weird when i save them and use them in game there bmp

What do you think of the back hall now

Ghost · Mon 27/11/2006 11:49:49

Khris meant that you should save them as JPEG while working in your paint prog, and saving them as PNG for uploading. The format is smaller and doesn't have artifacts, so if someone decides to make a paintover, he won't run into trouble. Also, BMP is a pain to load because it's one of the biggest file formats.

The back hall's looking good, only the picture to the right looks a bit out of place. That happens when you add own stuff to an existing image. You should really overdo the whole image to make it all your style.

Also, why did you start a new thread for the same pictures?

Ashen · Mon 27/11/2006 13:10:31

Quote
Khris meant that you should save them as JPEG while working in your paint prog,

I think he meant NOT to save as jpeg while working on them - if you did the artifacting would be saved into the original so uploading as png would do no good. Bmp is fine for saving on your drive, but as Ghost said is a bit too big for uploading (they won't even display on the forums because of that) - png is recommended.

The paneling on the left wall looks a bit wrong, particularly at the bottom (the boards are uneven shapes and sizes) - unless it's meant to be a bit wonky and poorly built? The right wall has a little of the same, but it's not as noticable. And I argee with Ghost that the picture looks out of place, not only does it look like a photograph, it seems to overlap the frame top and bottom. Perhaps you could simplify it to blocks of colour, to make it fit more?

Perspective - I'm not an artist so this could be totally off, but I think a certain amount of leeway can be given in scrolling rooms like this. Drawing a scene that's twice the width of the screen with a single perspective point would probably result in some extreem angles at the edges of the room. I think KhrisMUCs /__/, /__\ and \__\ system should be OK.

Da_Elf · Mon 27/11/2006 14:35:58

normally i keep all of my backgrounds as psd files and only convert to png when ready to take it into AGS. As for perspective its definately messed up when thinking about a side scrolling game since there should be a perspective shift somewhere but since its a 2d game only you cant get that. (although i have managed to fake it in my game...something ive been hiding in my game for now but you guys wil get to see it when i finish stage2 of my game)

Darth Mandarb · Mon 27/11/2006 18:44:13

I think the biggest problem is that some parts of the background look like you tried ... and other parts look very rushed.

I spent 10 minutes and did a very quick paint-over:

- doesn't have the random boards pattern (I didn't have that much time)
- cleaner lines
- 1 vanishing point
- cleaner gradients

I don't know if it's better (it's different) but it just seems to me if you'd spend a little more time on the small details you'd be better off. Are you doing paint-overs of existing backgrounds?

Ghost · Mon 27/11/2006 19:20:41

Yes, not saving JPEG. I was wrong there. Save in any format that allows you to keep layers and everything. That's what happens when you post before having your first cup of coffee.

The paintover by Darth looks good IMO. You could, depending on the paint prog you're using, select the area of the picture and just run a mosiac or pixelate filter on it.

ManicMatt · Mon 27/11/2006 19:26:30

Quote from: Ghost on Mon 27/11/2006 19:20:41
Yes, not saving JPEG. I was wrong there. Save in any format that allows you to keep layers and everything.

The point with JPEG is that you lose a lot of quality, and if they used paint to make these backgrounds it saves in a lower quality JPEG than Photoshop by default and causes those smudges to appear. (I only ever save in JPEG if it's a snapshot of my desktop to show someone something, pretty much)

Da_Elf · Tue 28/11/2006 02:33:32

actually if saving a jpeg from photoshop with quality up to 12 you would be hard pressed to find pixelation. i know some print shots who used to require a tiff or tga for print. then this other place said screw that just bring a 12quality jpeg. the file size is so much smaller and it would be difficult to find the quality difference. from there on in i only took jpegs to printers and when they say they want a tiff or tga i remind them (out loud especially if others are in the shop) who the paying customer is and that if they cant handle a jpeg then obviously i chose the wrong place. (sorry. i can be evil sometimes hehehe)

Khris · Tue 28/11/2006 05:12:08

*clap*..............*clap*.............*clap*

With photos, that's probably true, but we're talking about pixelart here, so the obvious choice is a lossless format. PNGs are also pretty small in terms of file size, plus they keep the exact colors intact and even support alpha channels.

To humour you, I took a background from MM Mania which is available in the starter pack as BMP:

Saved as JPG with PSP7, lowest compression / best quality: 19.529 bytes

Saved as PNG, standard settings: 4.499 bytes

Saved as PNG, optimized: 2.528 bytes

Even the second PNG doesn't show any artifacts, contrary to the JPG.

Dr Fred Rubacant Edison · Sat 02/12/2006 20:39:23

Look at Back hall picture now. Still saveing has Jpeg

Dr Fred Rubacant Edison · Fri 08/12/2006 01:49:53

What can i do to make this back ground better

thewalrus · Fri 08/12/2006 02:09:45

The T.V. is way to big! Look how small the paintings and cabinet look in comparison to the T.V......

Dr Fred Rubacant Edison · Fri 08/12/2006 02:34:34

Its like a 80 inch projection tv

Coolio · Fri 08/12/2006 03:47:24

Quote from: thewalrus on Fri 08/12/2006 02:09:45
The T.V. is way to big! Look how small the paintings and cabinet look in comparison to the T.V......

That's also the first thing I noticed. I understand if the tv is really supposed to be a big tv but the other objects are still out of proportion IMO.
Here's a quick paintover to give you some ideas:

As well as changing the size of the tv and closet I also changed a few other things:
- fixed perspective on the table/tv
- made top-left corner of carpet match corner of wall
- removed black line along right hand side of carpet
- removed white lines on the tv (I don't know what they were, but they just didn't look right IMO)
I didn't reduce the size of the tv too much after reading your last post, but I think it still looks better now (even if it might still be a little bit out of proportion).
Hopefully I've at least given you some ideas.