Outdoor/House BG, looking for suggestions

[Anarcho]

Hi there,

I'd like a little feedback on this background.  I've been struggling lately with drawing outside scenes.  I'm not really satisfied with this, and it's mainly the background trees.  They don't look defined enough to me...they're just too mushy.  But I don't know how else to go about it.  Any suggestions or drawovers would be really appreciated. 

Thanks

Logan

[Indie Boy]

I like it The only thing that bothers me is the trees at the back. The snow over laps the trees exactly the same on each tree. Im just saying I would like them to look different just to give it more of a distance feel. And the trees/bushes shouldn't they have snow on them a bit? Although I love your style its very atmospheric

[deadsuperhero]

Man, you definately have defined your own style.
If looks fine to me, even the trees look good.
What game is this one for?

[Anarcho]

Here's another version, I moved a tree over in the foreground and turned up the blues a bit.  I think it makes it feel a little colder.




Rix, the trees should probably have some snow on them...unless it's recently melted.  I've tried putting snow on them but it's sorta difficult and looks too busy.  Snow is kinda a pain in the ass.  In fact, drawing outdoor backgrounds really sucks.  I hate it, and it's totally slowing up production of this game.

Alliance, the game is called Square John Boy.  It's somewhere in the production thread. 

Thanks for the comments.   Any more would be appreciated.

[Pling!]

I like it, too:)

Concernig the trees I think it's confusing that the farther ones have more shading than the nearer ones. I'd suggest more detail to the naked ones.

And between the row of tans (or whatever) and the trees upon the hill there is a broad bald ground. Maybe some undergrowth and bushes would make it look more harmonic. Furthermore you could at least indicate some snow in the background.

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

I did an edit that might give you some ideas.  I didn't spend a lot of time on it because I'm not sure if you will like the changes or not.

1.  Made the snow a subtle gradient so I could shade sections of it better.
2.  Extended the coverage of the snow on the porch roof.  With so much snow on the ground I would imagine total coverage of all horizontal and near-horizontal surfaces.
Also added icicles.
3.  Added snow to the crevices in trees where it seemed logical.
4.  Made the trees more defined and unique by adding holes, more roots, and three additional colors for highlights.
5.  Added a bit of detail to the snow (hills, footprints) though there probably needs to be more.
6.  Left out shadows as I wasn't sure which direction the light source was coming from.




Hopefully this will help.

[Neutron]

the interior light has a green tinge to it which doesn't seem right.  also, the colors are a bit on the subdued side, maybe a shaft of light hitting the house would look nice?  the snow is much better now with the blue tint.  anyway, i didn't see any problem with the trees, but when things look flat, it's usually not enough shadow or not enough highlights.

[Phemar]

I think it looks nice with the blues. The only thing that bothers me is the wood color. It should be brown, not ... uhh ... greeny vomit color (no offense!).

Hope that helps!

[Ali]

I must disagree with Zor. Not only are most of the winter tree-trunks I see green rather than brown, the vomit green hue is more inkeeping with the bilious atmosphere.

I don't think the blue snow works very well, but ProgZMax's paintover is very effective. I like the foreground tree, but it isn't essential. The bleakly empty background is quite effective.

This is another striking and atmospheric backdrop, I'm looking forward to the game!

Edit: I misunderstood what Zor meant by 'wood'. Sorry Zor, never mind!

[Flashback]

I really like the dark feel to it all, eveything seems quite dark, as if there's a thick canopy overhead, it really adds to the atmosphere.
Keep it up!

[Erenan]

I say turn the blues back down, Anarcho. Although they do make it feel colder, they make it feel more serene and peaceful, and I doubt that's what you're aiming for with this game. The original colors felt creepier and more tense, in my opinion.

I also say go with ProgZ's details on the trees and snow and his additional snow and icicles on the porch roof and steps. They add a lot. Concerning the main body of snow all over the ground, however, I personally prefer the original over all the dithering in ProgZ's edit, but that's just me. I just think it looks a little out of place. Feel free to disagree, of course.

Also, I personally think it looks better without the tree in the foreground.

Very good work!

[Phemar]

Ali that's not what I meant! I was talking about the color of the cabin!

[Andail]

Snow is traditionally painted blue, but in reality it would only turn bluish if the sky is blue. If you overlook a landscape under an overcast sky, you'll see the snow is purely in greyscale.
Progzmax effectively showed how to quickly make the background more interesting and add realistic details.

Something that caught my eye and made my spider sense react is the perspective/composition. This is hard to explain, and has nothing to do with the technical perspective system, which is drawn correct as far as I can see. There is still something unnerving with the picture, something unbalanced. I would try placing the viewpoint much higher, to make the perspective lines converge less drastically and stay more parallel. The scene is seen quite from above (lots of ground is seen), and the house appears to extend very deep into the picture with current perspective.
I've tried an alternative solution by simply cutting some of the cottage, to balance the picture a bit.

Also brightened the sky to make it at least brighter than the ground, which is only logical.

[biothlebop]

I got the idea of rendering snow texture though a difference clouds filter and stretching the result with Edit, Transform, Perspective (PS). After that, I tweaked Hue/Saturation with the Colorize box
checked.
This might still lack some subtlety achived through brightness & contrast adjustement, depending on if this is to be 256 or hi-colour.
Don't know if it's better in any way, though.