New Style for background

[esper]

I'm looking at trying to make a new style for my backgrounds in my upcoming horror/mystery game. Some of you might remember ESPER: Town on the Edge of Darkness, which I released about two months ago. I liked it, and it seems a few other people did, too, but I was really not pleased with the graphics. Thus, I have come up with a new style to do my backgrounds in. I was wondering what you guys thought.

First, a 3D render using Caligari Truespace 3.2:



Next, I put a Sharpen filter on it and add black outlines and other details, such as the light (I know the light might not look too good, but I wanted to make that where you find a body)



This is the thread where I posted the character I'm going to be using for these backgrounds.
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=22877.0

[Krysis]

It looks really good to me. Reminds me of The Hellboy comics. The problem is that is way too dark.Ã, 

[DanClarke]

I love the idea of drawing over 3D renders, my only small gripe is that the shadowing looks a little too rough for the sharp lines of the room, i'd recommend using a line took and create sharper shadows. Good work though!

[AlbinoPanther]

We can not see it

[Traveler]

Esper,

Your manual paint-over is quite good, but here are a few things that I think would improve your background:

1. Use more structure inside the building. Buildings of this size usually have supports at set intervals to hold the roof; there are usually some kind of cross beams, too (not necessarily visible in other structures, but here they should be because we see the roof itself. Such a big wooden roof coudn't support itself.)

2. Windows usually have frames and depth. Your walls are just surfaces; I think it would help to add some depth. The same goes for the door. Also, windows are seldom such big panes of glass; usually they are divided into smaller parts by the frame.

3. You should place lights outside the building, so that light falls through the windows. This would give you more accented shadows/light spots, so it would be easier to paint over those.

4. Use less ambient light - judging by your image, your ambient setting must be around 75%-80%. Ambients tend to wash out the image and make shadows and contrast disappear. Using better direct lights and less ambients would create a much better atmoshpere to begin with which would be easier to modify. (If you don't have any ambients, use more intense lights.)

That's all, I think. The hand-drawn image is quite good.

[esper]

Thanks for the comments, all. I think I'm going to just add in what you (traveler) mentioned by hand, rather than re-rendering.

LJUBI: We don't know why.

[Exorph]

Except for what has already been mentioned abvout giving the windows depht and adding support for the roof, the only thing I find slightly weird is the red light.
I'm no expert or anything, so I might be way off, but I'd make it so the outer lines of the light you see shining through the window doesn't run outside the edge of the bright spor on the floor.

Other than that, it looks awesome and I love it.

[IM NOT TEH SPAM]

That looks like a very stylized type of room... something you wouldn't be able to pull off unless you made an entire game like that.  It's very interesting...