Photo treatment techniques - suggestions needed

[nfcribeiro]

Hi all,

Keeping in mind that I am not much of a pixelartist, I'd like some suggestions on filters / techniques to apply to the photographs that I am using for my first AGS project. The samples below are a glimpse of the photos I've selected so far (I'm about 10% done selecting them, eh), and they are either taken by myself or shameless rip-offs from the web, films, etc.

In order to lend the game a sense of identity regarding the visuals (and in addition to retouches, color corrections, etc), I am trying (unsuccessfully so far) to come up with a technique (using Photoshop and some third party filters) that can be applied to the photographs in order for them to look hand drawn-ish, painted or at least distinct from you run-of-the-mill photograph.

I don't want to get into much detail on what the game itself is about, but here are some pointers:

GUI Type: First person-ish (Heart of China, Fascination)
When: 2014, near future.
Atmosphere: dark and brooding, melancholic.
Where: Locations range from decaying suburbs to metropolitan cityscapes, indoors and outdoors.
Influences: Dreamweb, B.A.T., B.A.T.2, BASS.







Thank you all in advance for your suggestions,

n

[Abulafia]

I just tried the Film Grain (Filter -> Artistic -> Film Grain) look on the first photograph and it created a nice future noir-ish feel.

[Andail]

I think your photographies look really good so far!

c&c on the first one:
The colours are great, and they convey a nice tex murphy atmosphere.
Since your game won't have walkable areas, the position of the bathtub won't be a problem (in an ordinary game it would be pretty awkward)

The second one is probably just a transportation-room, but is still a tad uninteresting. Also, I would recommend that all of the room is within focus (in contrast to just art-photography). After all, a game represents the view of a person, and not a cameralens.

The third one is great in terms of colours and composition, but still sligthly boring for a game. I would like more stuff to look at and interact with, simply.

Generally, I think you should keep your hands off of filters, basically because the colours already fit the style you're pursuing.

The key effects to keep in mind would be the decreasing of saturation, while keeping a good contrast to preserve the black.

PS: Remember that this genre has been pretty heavily exploited, and it might be hard to produce something original. There are thousands of 1:st-person-perspective-games where you wander around photo-backgrounds of deserted, mystical mansions solving some murder case.
Just a warning

[AlphaMole]

I agree with keeping fillters to a minimum, and most of my "photo to drawn" work has met with limited sucess, I have found that the "find edges" filter on a multiply layer can provide some style distintion. be prepared to adjust color, brightness and contrast on the find edges layer though.

[nfcribeiro]

Thank you all for your feedback so far.

Abulafia: Indeed I have experimented a bit with the Film Grain filter, but I haven't so far achieved satisfying results. But I'll fiddle with it some more and maybe post the results here... 

Andail: Yup, you do have a point pretty much on everything you say, even though:
1. This 3 photo selection was done because of the general feel and athmosphere of the game and it does not represent the "typical" locations to be found. Backgrounds will vary greatly, both in and outdoors and the player will get around via a Submay map thingy.  8)
2. The game will NOT focus on the stereotypes you mention, instead it will contain features that I hope will make it feel rather distinct:
- Basic RPG elements
- Above average sense of freedom (for an adventure game)
- A clear distinction between characters and locations, ie. a character will never appear blended into the location background but instead be visible via a "talking-head" icon, that can be present on any location, throughout time (more on that later). This together with some hopefully clever scripting will lend the game a more dynamic and non-linear feel.
- Ordinary guy on the street NPCs that will not play a decisive role on the game but will probably help you out. (B.A.T. style)
But thanks for the warning, I hope I've convinced you that I'll try hard for this not to become a poor man's Myst inside some dude's house!

AlphaMole: I'm absolutely crap with the find edges filter.  Or maybe with Photoshop in general
The stuff I've done with find edges looks pretty awful so far.

Again, thank you all, if any of you give it a go changing one of the photos, please feel free to share it with me.