Pirate Fortress

[Mats Berglinn]

I made my second background for the game latest game Caribbean Mysteries. This is the outside/gate of pirate fortress of Captain Pepe Roni's pirate gang which is on the western coast of Scary Island, a place for pirates, theivs, bounty-hunters and all kind of criminal scum.
Like the last background I have drawn the background by hand, then scanned into my PC and fixed, painted and cleaned it in Windows paint (plus Adobe Photoshop for extra colors).



I haven't done any shadow-shading yet. I wait with that until I know how this background can improved. Also there I haven't done any flags or flames for the torches but they will be there because the background will be animated in the game.

What do you think of this? What can be improved? Got any suggestions of extra detail in the background? C & C are welcome.

[Moox]

the water looks weird

[Darth Mandarb]

Didn't have a lot of time to spend ...


- made it look more like theÃ,  castle sits on a cliff (wasn't sure if that's what you're going for)
- added some dimensions to the windows, ramparts, and door.
- added some brick texture to the castle
- changed the water a bit
- added some distance lines (not so good) to the clouds

Some of these should be done better, but I was a tad rushed!Ã, 

Hope it helps!

[pixelcat]

Darth's edit looks pretty close to what i'd suggest.  I think it would look cool having a path from the door to the bottom.  Maybe have some grass/bushes on the sides, unless it should be sand, then a rock border would look pretty good as well.  Are you going to have a flag above the entrance?

[Mats Berglinn]

Here's a newer version of the background. I have made these changes:

* Made some shadow shading on the tree's leaves and under the boulder.
* Added the brick details on the fortress (much inspired by Darth's version)
* Changed the color of the sea water.
* Added some more cloud shading so it would look like a bit like there are a distance (distance lines) on the clouds.

Pixelcat: There's no point of having a path from the fortress to the bottom of the screen. This is a pirate fortress and it's not a place you would like to visit. Besides the pirates doesn't want any visitors, so why would they care for making a road?
About the flag, there will be Jolly Rogers on the flagpoles that are now "empty".

That reminds me an awful lot of a scene in The devils triangle

I never played that game. I just made the background from my imageniation.

About the so-called "darker beachy sandy area" it's a distance shading so you know that the rock is not near you.

[Chicky]

That reminds me an awful lot of a scene in The devils triangle
[/i]

yeh i know what you mean, great game really long with a nice story.

Mat i think in some area's the picture could benifit from widerlines, rather than allways keeping one pixel big. Also try varying the darkness of the lines, it would add more depth to the picture.


my two cents

[Mats Berglinn]

Mat i think in some area's the picture could benifit from widerlines, rather than allways keeping one pixel big

In what areas should there be a thicker line? Also, you forgot the S in my name.

[sergiocornaga]

Looks good, 'specially castle texture and clouds.
You oughtta modify the cliff edge like in DMs one, so it looks more like a cliff edge though.

[Mr Carpulsa]

Hi Mats, this is my attempt at the background:



I think I may have gone a bit overboard (no pun intended) with the shading, but it does seem a more atmospheric environment.

I have:
-shaded the sky, to make it look a little more stormy
-changed the shape, colour and texture of the land in the background (I didn't think it worked so well in blue)
-given the sea a bit of depth and colour, reflecting those of the land in the background and the beach
-slightly reshaped the far beach to give it a greater sense of distance, textured and shaded the sand
-shaded the rocks and fortress, adding a glow from the windows and where the torch flames will go
-added a palm tree to the left of the entrance to give the scene a bit more depth and frame the fortress, to make it look a bit more sinister. This is added purely from an artistic point of view and it might well get in the way of whatever you have planned to happen in this room of the game.

Those are my suggestions, hope they're helpful.

[LordHart]

I don't think that paintover suits the art style. It seems like you tried to have it as a painting or something, and failed miserably.

I think Mats is getting on the right track, as it doesn't need a lot of detail, but it shouldn't be too flat either. I'd suggest giving the castle a more worn look, as the clean cut edges of the bricks looks fake, and the colour should be a bit more dirty.

[Mats Berglinn]

Mr Carpulsa: You done some good work on the background but it seems too much like a painting than my cartoony style. Also, this place are suppoused to be about 50 meters above sea level (somewhere between 150 to 200 feet, I don't know the exact measure for it at the moment) and your attempt looks like that it's on a beach. Those lights at the torches, are those the lights that flicker from the flames? When this background is finished I will add the flames and make multiplied backgrounds so that there will be a background animation will the flames (also the pirate flags).

Os àšltimo Quão Queijo: Thanks for the tips on how to make it better.

About the cliff that you see in the background, it is suppoused that the fortress is builded all over so that the cliff is not vinsible at all and that's because that the pirates don't want their prisioner to escape so easily. If you try to jump out of the window that faces the sea you will have quite a fall. You might get killed from either drowning or smashed by the rocks bellow. You see, Captain Pepe Roni is not stupid, he's more of a clever pirate captain. He's about as clever as he's evil.

[Mr Carpulsa]

Mats, sorry, I suppose I took the background a little out of context as to what you were doing. For what it's worth, I still think a little more shading would make a more successful picture. I misinterpreted the cliff for a beach, but as it is supposed to be a sheer drop I would go with something like Darth's lines to make it clearer it is a cliff. The lights are supposed to be the glow on the fortress wall from the flames (which I expected would be animated separately). Other than these things, I suppose Os àšltimo Quão Queijo is right, the fortress would probably look better with a bit more variation in colour/brick texture.

[LordHart]

Those lights at the torches, are those the lights that flicker from the flames? When this background is finished I will add the flames and make multiplied backgrounds so that there will be a background animation will the flames (also the pirate flags).

Might I suggest using the flame plugin... as it would kept you from wasting time on the flames animation, and allow you to work on other things. Not sure where the plugin is now, but if you do a search for it, I believe you'd be able to find it.

[Mats Berglinn]

Nah, I have seen the flames that the plug-in is used and they don't look so good. Besides, they look to realistic which is not appopritate to this cartoon style game (yes, it is suppoused to be cartoony because it's inspired from Curse of Monkey Island).