This is bit of an exercise, I don't have a game idea for this yet. It's mainly to try stuff and learn a bit.
(http://www.jimmyshelter.nl/images/space.png)
(http://www.jimmyshelter.nl/images/space.png)
This is the backdrop for more, probably a space station or space ship.
My main questions are:
Are the colours right, are there other colours missing?
Can I make this more interesting without drawing away the attention from what is eventually going to be in the foreground?
Well I can't say nothing about the colours as I'm no expert in any type of drawing but just looking at it sure pleases my eye.
Maybe some more warmer stars, ie more reds. Also I think your biggest star is a bit too big. It would look really nice animated, with twinkling stars at different brightness levels and a comet or two. But it looks really nice, I really like the lighter areas in the foreground which is a really nice touch to add depth.
Looks nice. Too much green though :)
IndieBoy, not everything that shines on the sky is a star ;) Besides let's not forget that there are many giants out there.
JimmyShelter, why not try to add some animation like comets, some far view of a galaxy (usually one goes for spiral type, since it has this cool spiral effect ;D).
All I can see when I look at the picture is a great big W. Is that intentional?
Quote from: Hudders on Wed 22/04/2009 09:58:25
All I can see when I look at the picture is a great big W. Is that intentional?
I think you're being a bit too harsh there. ;) It took quite a bit of imagination to get the stardust look like a "W".
Quote from: rbaleksandar on Wed 22/04/2009 09:55:13
Looks nice. Too much green though :)
IndieBoy, not everything that shines on the sky is a star ;) Besides let's not forget that there are many giants out there.
JimmyShelter, why not try to add some animation like comets, some far view of a galaxy (usually one goes for spiral type, since it has this cool spiral effect ;D).
I don't know if you are mocking me or you are just stupid... I know there isn't just stars in space.
Also all I read in your post is a repeat of what I've already said.
To contribute more, here is a quick paint over of some of my suggestions.
(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/starbg_helpcritloudge.png)
I changed it a bit based on your suggestions. Thanks!
(http://www.jimmyshelter.nl/images/space_v2.png)
(http://www.jimmyshelter.nl/images/space_v2.png)
I like the added colours: orange, red & purple. I hope it's not too 'loud' now.
Still to do:
- add 'twinkle' animations
- add other objects: I tried adding a spiral but if I try to keep it small, it looks too much like a swastika.
- adding the foreground.
The first concept of my spaceship:
(http://www.jimmyshelter.nl/images/submarine-spaceship.png)
Heavily based on a submarine drawing I found online. I'm planning to make the details & colours steampunk-themed, combining two genres I love: steampunk and sf.
Any early pointers & suggestions are welcome. I especially trying to think of ways to think of how shadows work in space.
Don't know whay, but the image of a the outer space glowing like a christmass tree, with all kind of saturated colors it's kind of strange for me. So I Did a little modification, making the stars and all the deep-space-shiny-things little more white.
(http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/6564/spacev3.png)
Anyway, If you really wanted to have colourful space background then yours is allright.
G, go on the site of Hubble and look at some photos there. ;)
About the shadows (I'm sure you all know where this comes from ;)):
(http://www.elchiguireliterario.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/07/the_dig.png)
So the point here is - pick up some light source somewhere beyond the screen. A star. And than make the shadows according to this source. If there are no stars near the ship (well, with "near" I mean not a couple of kilometers :=), depending on how your ship's moving (flames from behind or some cool hi-tech engine like those in StarWars or StarTrek), you will choose how much light will come from the engine's direction and make the proper shadowing.
As far as I know, stars are either blue, white or red (doppler shift effect, depending on the movement of the stars (towards the observer or away from him)). Also, we do not look long enough at those stars, so we don't notice the movement. This way the stars appear only white to us.
The same goes for the nebulars -- the hubble pictures used a very long exposure time (sometimes several hours). For the human eye, the colours wouldnt be visible.
ergo: space looks mostly black and white to us... That's at least what I've read about it.
http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~wright/doppler.htm
http://www.vendian.org/mncharity/dir3/starcolor/
QuoteAs far as I know, stars are either blue, white or red (doppler shift effect, depending on the movement of the stars (towards the observer or away from him)). Also, we do not look long enough at those stars, so we don't notice the movement. This way the stars appear only white to us.
Sort of. Stars are blue through to red (hot through to cool - counter intuitively). The observed colour is affected by doppler shift, but it does not
determine their colour or nature. And basically all stars are moving away - they are by no means all red.
The human eyes sees space as black and white, indeed (and it is indeed due to expose). Except for very close objects i.e. planets and huge objects i.e. supernovae and planetary nebula (which are nothing to do with planets, they have an old star core at their centre).
Just go for white stars, with cool swirly clouds of colour in the background. No ones cares about accuracy, really. And realism with regards to space rarely looks as pretty as just following the art...
A note to consider when shading spaceships; if you think they're not close enough to any star to have a noticeable light source, remember how far away planets are from the sun. I don't think it would be technically accurate to have half of the ship completely in darkness though (depending on distance from the sun of course) because of the way soft shadows form, particularly at the boundary between light and dark. (This could be wrong)
Thanks for the pointers.
When I'm further with the spaceship, I'll revisit the space background based on your comments. Their very helpful.
I didn't progress much, just changed the 'fin' to make it more submarinish, and added some very minor, early shadings and highlights.
(http://www.jimmyshelter.nl/images/submarine-spaceship_v2.png)
I removed the windows as they made it look too small. I'm still thinking how I can make it look huge, like a space 'Titanic'.
The colours are not definitive also: I'm pixeling it in greys, and when I have a good colour scheme, I'll update the drawing. But first getting the lines right.
To establish scale, you could consider after it is in the scene, throw together a few smaller crafts and....well I'm not sure what else you have planned for the background - but a small settlement for humans/aliens/what have you, could go towards indicating size.
The fin makes me think "fish" moreso than submarine. But it's still pretty cool.
Yeah it looks kinda like a submarine - remember, if it's not meant to land directly on planets, it doesn't have to be aerodynamic, since there's only vacuum. ;D
For scale use more details like little antenas, guns probes, other smaller ships (as Press suggested), look at Nostromo from movie Alien for example..
For windows see Enterprise from ST - the windows are small tracks of light with a bit of spots here an there that look like rectangles, and it's in space, so lights are much brighter as it's dark outside.
Or if you're going for a more stylized look but still have all of the above, see the ship from the game Starship Titanic or the ship from the movie Wall-E which has everything mentioned (sparse square lights, potruding details, kinda unique design):
(http://www.channel4.com/film/media/images/Channel4/film/W/wall-e_xl_05--film-A.jpg)
Adding detail to spaceships?
Welcome to greebling. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greebling)
"A greeble or nurnie is a small piece of detailing added to break up the surface of an object to add visual interest to a surface or object, particularly in movie special effects. They serve no real purpose other than to add complexity to the object, and cause the flow of the eye over the surface of the object to be interrupted, usually giving the impression of increased size."
OffTopic: Wow, there's a word for that? Well as a non-native english speaker, thank you for expanding my vocabulary. "Something that looks cool but doesn't actually do anything." :)
I think that the only way for JimmyShelter's spaceship to land/take off in a cool way will be if the prow (think that was the word for a "nose" of a ship :D) point to the sky - like a rocket. And yeh, as anian said - no need of a streamline form if the closest position to a planet will be it's orbit. If you keep this and want to make it look bigger, you can add very small portholes - lines or small circles.
btw Here are some tips after you've polished the outer look:
http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/gallery/bridges1.htm
Maybe this can help you to decide what to add/remove from your space ship: http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/index-starships.htm
Of course, there's always the surprisingly rarely implemented usage of more realistic torchship design. If you're planning on doing some really convincing Sci-fi, might I recommend using the references on Atomic Rockets (http://www.projectrho.com/rocket/rocket3e.html)? It's my sci-fi writing bible.