I just have a question. Is it better to use a black outlines for backgrounds or just a darker shade of what is being outlined?
Personally, I think it's better to have darker colors than solid black lines. It's solid black lines that make your room seem more like a drawing and less like a room.
:D
it depends on your style, black outlines can often work well.
if you use photoshop, you can adjust the opacity and/or colour of your outlines even after you've finished your work, provided the lines are on a seperate layer.
I like darker shade of a color that outlined.
But if you want you can do black as well i just like darker shade
* Black outlines give more cartoonish feel, usually.
* Shaded outlines give more realistic feel.
* No outlines give vector graphics illusion and freedom to animate cheaply, but make things very unclear.