Speedpainting - enough for a background?

[Andail]

I really want to start production for an AGS-game, but I realize I'll have severe problems finding the time, with both work and studies and girlfriend. So in order to increase the chances of actually getting anything done, I need to keep a really quick pace, and not get stuck in details.
If I can paint a background under an hour, I could always whip 'em up during coffee breaks and before bedtime.
Example:


So what'ya think? Too sketchy? Too few details to rest your eyes upon? C&C please.

[Sean]

It's great.

I don't really see anything wrong with it, it's nice and clear.. colourful. Well styled, and atmospheric. It serves it's purpose, and looks pretty nice too. Sure, there's the potential for it to look a lot better (given the talent you clearly have) but for an AGS game it more than meets the 'minimum' requirements when it comes to background art. I like the style, a lot.

Also, if you just whip up your graphics to this standard now and find they're not what you want at a later date, you can always go back and polish them up once everything is 'finished'. If you get the ball rolling, it'll be easier to commit later! Hell, you could ask somebody else to get involved and polish them up for you, if need be

The foreground slope seems oddly shaped, and If it's an interactive background with walkable area's I'm not entirely convinced it'd work that well (the player would probably be restricted to that tiny bit of ground in the corner) For a cut-scene,menu, etc it's great

Get stuck in, I hope to see some more from you soon !

[Jon]

I like it, the style could be unique for your game - rushed  

[zabnat]

Well, it depends what kind of character art you will be using and if this is the resolution the game will be in

Right now I think it would be sufficient if you would use extra maybe 5 minutes to make some detail on the foreground. Maybe use some differently shaped brushes to make some texture for grass and the path and the maybe add some leaves to the trees. Right now the foreground is a bit too sketchy. Stuff further away is good as it is.

[space boy]

That looks great. I have nothing to crit really. The "lack of details" is no problem for me. Like Jon said, this sketchy look would make a very nice graphical style.

[Andail]

Thanks for the feedback so far!

Also, if you just whip up your graphics to this standard now and find they're not what you want at a later date, you can always go back and polish them up once everything is 'finished'. If you get the ball rolling, it'll be easier to commit later! Hell, you could ask somebody else to get involved and polish them up for you, if need be

Good idea, I might employ an assistant artist later on, when I've made some progress.

[Buckethead]

I'm pretty sure that there are alot of people out there who wish they could do backgrounds like this one. I think it could defintly work, just need a bit more functionality. 

[Sylvr]

I like the sketchy style, and I couldn't think of anything wrong with it (not that I was trying to, mind you. I wish I had any amount of artistic talent), but that point about the upper slope and walkable areas was a good one.
Good show.

[Evil]

It's definitely your style. Not really a functional "room" but the style and speed would work well. It's a little hazey, so I did what would have been a 5 minute photoshop if I could get this damn tablet working.

Anyhoo, I layered on a high pass and erased out some spots around the house and stuff, to give it not only some sharper lines, but some distance. Then I added a vignette and erased out some bright spots on the tree and hill and the background. I left some on the mountains to give the sky some more depth. Then I dropped the saturation a bit. It's still bright, but I liked the grayish quality the sky had and thought it should follow through. Mine's not great, but hopefully you get the idea.



I mean, like Sean said, it could always be fixed later. There's plenty of room for improvement, but it's great the way it is.

Also, what's the deal with you and an "Oz"-esque castles in the background? Seriously, they're in every one of your backgrounds.

[Uhfgood]

Wow this is awesome, I wish i could speedpaint like that.  my first background took hours, and it's not nearly as finished as yours.

What kind of techniques do you use to do this?

[InCreator]

I like the picture, alot, but I'm not so fond of colors you used.
They're a bit too aggressive and somewhat "taste" a bit like rotten swamp to me. That's where I'd use colors like this, not on nice plains-and-mountains scene. Make sky brighter and grass/leaves greener and see how it turns out.

Such pretty scenery with distant mountains and stuff deserves alot lighter and less contrasty/saturated palette I think. Briefly - the picture is pretty, the colors are not.

[scotch]

Nice going. If you're going for speed I wouldn't dwell on things too much, this is great if it only takes an hour per BG.
If you want some quick tweak ideas, I'd say get out the 100% brush and give the main edges some more definition, and sharpen up the focal points like the sign, the houses, the castle, etc. I like the colours personally. The foreground is a good frame, but it's quite flat and the forest merges with it a bit. I think some directional light would help. Strong colours to contrast with the blue fogging at the back. The river reflection seems a bit bright considering the sky but that's no big deal.

I went the opposite way to evil just to be different, less saturation and closer hues if you want it dreary, obviously.

http://caverider.com/temp/tower3.jpg

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

I don't often help with backgrounds because I don't like drawing them, but I think scotch's edit is where you want to go with this setting.  It makes the foreground more vibrant and interesting.  If you'd like to take it a bit farther I'd make the mountain area and valley a bit less empty by adding a tree line or some forest that hints at what is in the foreground.  I quite like it!

[MrColossal]

I would recommend partitioning your time up.

If you want to only spend an hour on it then when it gets close to when you want to stop make a new layer and say "This is my touch up layer" or something. Use this layer to add highlights and spot lights and darks and pick out edges of things like scotch said.

Other than that, I've never tried speed painting because I lack the confidence but hooray for you!

[InCreator]

I would totally go for scotch's edit!
It has less of this "ancient scanner & oil painting" or "really bad weather"-look later Sierra games had, has less unimportant outlines and overall feeling is friendlier to the eyes. Also, crucial things that attract eye, like river and plains have some color now.

Nature is beautiful, why show it with depressing colors? Reddish/bluish-gray palette with dark, artifacted outlines on original feel a bit of depressive... to me, at least. I haven't studied any color theory, but this sounds like a bad mix anyway.

But drawing itsself is very nice either way.

[Andail]

Thanks everyone. I think I'll have to upload more pictures into this thread just to make it worthwile...looking back, the initial picture almost seems undeserving of an entire thread...

Anyhow, good points. Evil, well spotted, this bg shares several elements with backgrounds I've already made. This is because I have some visions in my head I need to put in a real game before I can leave them behind...

Scotch, very nice edit, it certainly makes the bg more dynamic, and adds a feeling of summer and nice weather to it. Also like what you did to that tree.

Ah well, back to the drawing board.

[Stupot]

I've got no gripes with the colouring or anything like that.  I'd happily play a game with BGs like this.  It's beautiful.  The only thing I wanted to point out is that the path in the foreground seems to go off the edge of the cliff rather than roll nicely down a hill, which I think is what you intended.