Backgrounds for my personal animations/games are taking me way too much time to finish... i'm now trying to speed up the whole process by using more sketchy, loose approach. So that an average background wouldn't take me more than an hour or two max (from pencil work to colored version) and that characters wouldn't need much additional work after scaning (no colored lines).
Let me know how are sketchy background and black inked character look together... Does it work?
(http://users.volja.net/igorsi1/experiment1a.jpg)
One more character... and the girl without shading. What do you think, is it better than shaded version (i kinda prefer that one)?
(http://users.volja.net/igorsi1/characters1a.jpg)
theyre absoloutely amazing Igor, i cant tell you how much i love your style! I think a game in this style would look amazing, keep it up and i cant wait to see more!
:o
I prefer the shaded version, to answer your question.
And now and advice: draw slow. draw fast, draw detailed, draw sketchy - but hell, DRAW - because it would be a real tragedy not to finish this (at least form what can be seen here)!
I am amazed!
About the character:
I definately say go with the shaded version.Ã, Both are excellent, but the shaded version is better IMO.
About the backgrounds:
I must say I would suggest spending more time on coloring and shading because if these are just a couple of hours and you come up with something this good, I'd LOVE to see a game [by you] with a little more time spent on the backgrounds!
I'd be happy with a game that looks like this ... but I'd be overjoyed with a game fully detailed.
Just my thoughts.
Beautyful, Igor!
Shaded character is better cause it gives volume and makes the character more interesting.
The background is an artwork, but very much only a background, if you get what I mean. If you want the characters to be able to interact with things in a background, more detailed coloring would be excellent. As a background setting the mood for a cutscene or something, this is all you need. The detail, as in lots of cute stuff, combined with pink tones easily make us understand that we are in a girls room. But it hardly makes us want to go exploring it looking for that hair pin we so badly need to pick that lock in the basement.
Keep it up! Looking forward to playing your game!
First:Ã, :-* Beautiful!Ã, :-*
Second: I like the BG as it is. It's a style choice and for me. visually, it works a treat. The water cooler looks slightly different so in a game I would guess that was a usable object. Yet it still looks parts of the BG. Excellent stuff. Don't change it!
Third: You must realise we now have HIGH expectations of the animation.Ã, ;D
Don't worry about the animation...
http://users.volja.net/igorsi1/testani.html
Quote from: SteveMcCrea on Tue 14/09/2004 06:12:55
Don't worry about the animation...
http://users.volja.net/igorsi1/testani.html
Hot DANG!
I agree with James on this one.
Yes your drawings are amazing. I would like to see a "nightmare before christmas" game with your style!
Maybe you could mix sketchy and detailed style for the backgrounds. As long as the sketch is good. For example, if you want the shelf to be interactive you could add more colours and details to it. But then it'll be very easy to see where you can/can't interact.
I have an idea for you: if you make everything in the bg sketchy but the interactive objects have a more detailed picture which shows when the mouse is over it.
The shady character is better, though it's hard to see without the background at the flat. Make some animations of both and of some other character and see.
Also.. I'd like some tutorials. :)
Lovely, simply wonderful.
I love the character AND the background, and I do in fact like the simplistic colouring on the background, as it could work well with mouse-hovering tags or something similiar.
I would also like to say that I absolutely love your style, and that it's a huge inspiration for me.
Rock on, Igor!
Edit:
Oh yes. Shaded. Definitely shaded.
Beautiful artwork. Definitely go the shaded character. One thing I noticed was the the hair on top of the girls head is a bit flat, like a cap. Perhaps you can "frillify" it a bit like the pig tails. Other than that, I thought that you might want to know that her belly looks alot like a skinnier Jabba the hut. It goes from very narrow to huge in a very short space.
The BG is also very beautiful. Perhaps you should go with more diverse colours, and then give it a subtle pink tinge or somehing. That would go well with the colouring of the girl as well.
It really works well! It reminds me of some Warner Brothers cartoons where the backgrounds were coloured loosely, but in just the right way to create atmosphere.
I'd be interested to see how interactive objects and items that can be picked up could be made to fit in without standing or blending in out too much.
Hey, thanks everyone for your opinions and great suggestions. Really appreciate it! :)
Glad to hear that characters and backgrounds don't contradict themselfs too much.
Interesting thing about shaded version of a girl. Personally i like flat one better, but i tend to like minimalism in coloring and sometimes push it too far, hehe. I'll keep shaded one then.
Adding "active" objects (which will be drawn in the same style as backgrounds (except with a little bit more color to avoid pixel hunting, as James mentioned)) on scenes isn't a problem, now that AGS supports alpha channel.
About details: the problem is, if you do one, you need to do them all... it becomes so damn time consuming. Adding more color details on one background, might not seem such a big deal, but multiply that with the number of backgrounds in game, cutscenes, characters, very limited time you have to work on game (etc.) and you get an adventure that most probably won't get finished. I think the best thing is to set yourself limitations, or you'll get burned out. Also, must say, that characters are part of the design that really interests me, backgrounds are just an unavoidable evil ;)
Wow, two great characters. The man looks very good, but the girl could use some work. Her hips get to thin to early. It makes her look like a centar. Maybe widen her body just a bit.
Quote from: Evil on Tue 14/09/2004 23:50:38
Wow, two great characters. The man looks very good, but the girl could use some work. Her hips get to thin to early. It makes her look like a centar. Maybe widen her body just a bit.
I disagree.
The body shape is just another idiosyncracy that makes the character interesting.
Quote from: SteveMcCrea on Wed 15/09/2004 01:06:25
Quote from: Evil on Tue 14/09/2004 23:50:38
Wow, two great characters. The man looks very good, but the girl could use some work. Her hips get to thin to early. It makes her look like a centar. Maybe widen her body just a bit.
I disagree.
The body shape is just another idiosyncracy that makes the character interesting.
I agree with Steve, and I would like to add that I find it pretty damn sexy.
As much as it kills me oiut of principle, I agree with Steve too.
It's exactly that kind of exaggerated style which makes it so damn cool.
Remind me a bit of the early Aeon Flux stuff. Was that Peter Chan? Chung? What was his name? kind of sexy but it a weird, distorted kind of way.
The Warner Bros guy was a Maurice...........um...something. Maurice Noble (thanks Google!).
Well worth checking out. And you'll see that detailed characters on such a stylised backdrop can work great!
I hope this game gets done. It'll be awesome!