Alright, This took me about a hour to do. But now It's ready for CC. I'm so proud of my little bg. :P
(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/NethrosBg.PNG)
Looks kinda... empty ::)
You should realy add some details
The sidewalk is WAAY too wide. The street generally looks quite huge compared to the buildings. Try adding some reflection to the windows too. The spacing on the sidewalk blocks is irregular too.
Otherwis it's great for a first try.
First of all: yes! It is a great first bakground! ;)
But like Kristjan said, is kinda empty. Here are some objects you could add: street lights, garbage cans, plants, dead cat (??? ;D), a parked car, some dirt stains, maybe a sewer by the sidewalk.
You could also add some cracks and other imperfections to the walls, so they won't look so flat...
But these are just ideas to modify what you have achieved.
You really should be proud of your "little bg".
1. Make the sidewalk smaller.
2. Make the sidewalk height smaller.
3. Make the street spacing thinner.
4. Add detail; parking meters, garbage cans, cracks to the concrete, footers to the buildings, brick and other texture visible on some places, etc.
Very nice.
Unlike a lot of the "first try" threads this image shows promise. The perspective seems right, and the composition is nice.
I think the doors need to be bigger (depends on the height of your characters) and of course, more detail makes a more interesting background.
This image does not have a perspective point. The lines that are parallel in your scene should not appear parallel in your drawing because of perspective.
Since when does every image need to have a vanishing point?
I have never in my life drawn perspective lines or even considered a vanishing point...I don't really think that's necessary. It's also not necessary to draw realistically; there are lots of games that use the "zelda" view (it has a name but I don't know it) in which there is purposely no realistic perspective. That's fine. But unless you are intentionally going for an unrealistic look, you should be careful to have the angles be somewhat realistic by eyeballing them at least...and it simply looked to me like he was trying to do a realistic perspective but had erred.
Quote from: Kristjan on Wed 13/04/2005 16:41:17
Looks kinda... empty ::)
You should realy add some details
You're doing it again.. Let's just pretend the " ::)" smiley doesn't exist ok?
Quote from: stuh505 on Thu 14/04/2005 00:56:27
But unless you are intentionally going for an unrealistic look, you should be careful to have the angles be somewhat realistic by eyeballing them at least...and it simply looked to me like he was trying to do a realistic perspective but had erred.
There's nothing unrealistic about the perspective. It's how things would look if you were viewing it with a strong telescope from an immense distance. Parallel lines appear parallel in the picture, it doesn't need a vanishing point. (Or, if you look at it another way, the vanishing point is the point at infinity.)
QuoteThere's nothing unrealistic about the perspective. It's how things would look if you were viewing it with a strong telescope from an immense distance. Parallel lines appear parallel in the picture, it doesn't need a vanishing point. (Or, if you look at it another way, the vanishing point is the point at infinity.)
I highly doubt that Nethros was thinking of a high magnification telescope when he drew this image
My point is that it's a completely valid, even realistic, form of perspective. It's used in many games. I seem to remember reading a post-mortem on Sanitarium which discussed the reasons why they chose to use this kind of perspective for the game.
Quote from: stuh505 on Thu 14/04/2005 00:56:27
there are lots of games that use the "zelda" view (it has a name but I don't know it)
It's called a 'topographical view'.
Quote from: Krazy on Thu 14/04/2005 03:22:07
Quote from: Kristjan on Wed 13/04/2005 16:41:17
Looks kinda... empty ::)
You should realy add some details
You're doing it again.. Let's just pretend the " ::)" smiley doesn't exist ok?
Ok it was the last time i used that
The perspective - or lack thereof - doesn't bother me that much. There are, as someone pointed out, several systems which lack vanishing points, the isometric being one.
However, one should be very aware of this issue, and make sure all backgrounds are drawn consistently, or they will look amateurish.
One thing to keep in mind when doing isometric-related backgrounds, is to make all lines, angles and shapes very similar and exact in relation to eachother. For instance, the tiles in the sidewalk would need to be exactly similar in size, or it will make a sloppy impression.
The stiffness and artificial look in parallell perspective systems are often remedied by adding a lot of details and interesting, complicated shapes and objects. I think your background is still far too empty.
Just some pointers:) Good luck!
I agree that there is a lack of details but what I LOVE about this background is the blocky look, the houses look like cubes, everything is edgy...could be a nice style!
I love the style of the background, Nethros. It looks DOS-ish. What's the theme of the game? I'll go with the others and suggest you shorten the sidewalk's width to less than half its current width, as well as make it less thick (height-wise). Also, the white lines in the road bother me only a little. Perhaps make them thinner? Otherwise, I love the colors you've chosen.
Another problem I see are the door frames. They look semi-3D, like pixel art and clash a little bit with the rest of the room's style. Maybe just a flat gray would match the rest?
And yeah, some shininess to the windows (lighter blue streaks/waves, perhaps?) would help here. :)
It's great for a first background and shows a lot of promise.