Hi guys, here are two backgrounds for locations in my game. I did not create these as I'm not very good at designing backgrounds etc. But I'd appreciate some feedback on them as would my friend that made them
(http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/4307/jakerkid1.jpg)
(http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/4928/jakerkid2.jpg)
Any constructive criticism would be appreciated :)
Erm.. The style seems great.. I like it... Both screens are consistent, you can tell they are from the same game... other than that... I cant offer any more crit. I think your friend should carry on making more... :)
Thanks Revan, appreciate the feedback. Yeah I should have some more coming soon, he's made them I just haven't put them onto my computer yet I will upload some when I have though.
The thing we're struggling with is character sprites and animation for cutscenes etc as neither of us have any experience in this lol. But I'm sure AGS forum will help when the time comes :D
LoL Great stuff :) But could you please tell me if the game has anything to do with WarCr*ft? ;D
LOL no nothing to do with warcraft. It's based in a fantasy world though, a satirical comedic type though (think Simon the sorcerer) nothing to serious.
;D Well, Warcr*ft ain't serious too :D But enough chit-chat. Nevermind, I love the backgrounds (expecially the second one).
Somethingies to ask:
Why are there so many light spots? It's night (can see the stars on the dark sky). The house and everything around it is on meadow in a forest. So the moon comes from somewhere above. I can't actually figure that out. Even if the most of the light comes from the lamp above the door it still doesn't make sense to me. ??? They look like stripes of very light green grass. The trees have light spots too. Even on places where they are overshadowed during the day.
The light in the second image is much more realistic since you see - there's a big meteor falling form the sky that lights the trees (love how they look).
Those meteors will look strange if static, should be animated in a loop of falling down :)
Yes, but it's very complicated omho since the author will have to change the shading of all objects in the image in each and every frame. :o :P
Animate the smoke too! :P
Yes we really want to animate it and will, but we have no idea how lol?
Quote from: rbaleksandar on Fri 20/03/2009 12:38:31
;D Well, Warcr*ft ain't serious too :D But enough chit-chat. Nevermind, I love the backgrounds (expecially the second one).
Somethingies to ask:
Why are there so many light spots? It's night (can see the stars on the dark sky). The house and everything around it is on meadow in a forest. So the moon comes from somewhere above. I can't actually figure that out. Even if the most of the light comes from the lamp above the door it still doesn't make sense to me. ??? They look like stripes of very light green grass. The trees have light spots too. Even on places where they are overshadowed during the day.
The light in the second image is much more realistic since you see - there's a big meteor falling form the sky that lights the trees (love how they look).
There's a very low moon :P
Edit by ProgZ: Please don't double post.
Quote from: J-MAN on Fri 20/03/2009 15:27:37
There's a very low moon :P
lol Where? Somewhere in the bushes? ;D Nah, seriously. Need to fix that. Shadowing is totally wrong in the first image. Even if the moon was very very low, the hut is in the middle of a thick forest. It's impossible to have so much light AND in such strange pattern (that is - the light green stripes). Look at the shadow that the small flag (or whatever you call it :P) and the part of the root of the tree on the left that's above the earth - it's towards the viewer so one gets the impression the light comes from the opposite direction -> the very very thick forest ;D . And even if it was possible for the moon to "produce" so much light, the hut should throw shadow which it doesn't. ;)
It throw's shadow to the bottom right. Thanks for the advice though I see what you mean kinda, I'll ask the designer to sort it out. Really appreciate the feedback rbaleksandar :)
;D Glad to help.
anyone else :D?
Quote from: J-MAN on Sun 22/03/2009 02:30:40
anyone else :D?
Yes me! In the first background I would desaturate the leafs a bit. They seem too green to me. maybe something more dark-greenish like in the second background?
Maybe if you add more green/blue or lighter blue or even dark blue (don't have certain) tones to the bg, you could achieve a more night looking impression.
Quote from: SpacePaw on Sun 22/03/2009 02:43:26
Quote from: J-MAN on Sun 22/03/2009 02:30:40
anyone else :D?
Yes me! In the first background I would desaturate the leafs a bit. They seem too green to me. maybe something more dark-greenish like in the second background?
Not only the leaves. Grass, tree-trunks etc.
Oh, you definitely need to focus the lighting a bit here. You've got highlights and shades and far too many contrasts spread all over the screens.
Especially the second bg is hard to read because of the jumbled impression.
The further you get from the "central" point of the image, the point which should catch the eye, you need to gradually decrease saturation and contrast.
Ah right okay guys thanks for the advice. Any paint overs are welcome :D lol
(http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/3552/obrazek1.jpg)
I think something more like this :) it's just to show my point - done in few minutes :P
Ah I see what you mean, it looks darker and more like night time. Thanks spacepaw
The only problem by darkening the whole image is that the light from the lamp is darker too. So you have to leave it and make the rest darker and than adjust the light spots around the lamp (wall of the hut, reflection in the glass on the door, the plank-floor under the lamp etc.).
Quote from: rbaleksandar on Sun 22/03/2009 17:57:06
The only problem by darkening the whole image is that the light from the lamp is darker too. So you have to leave it and make the rest darker and than adjust the light spots around the lamp (wall of the hut, reflection in the glass on the door, the plank-floor under the lamp etc.).
It's easy to make. You just make the darkening and bluish tone on separate layers and then erase them in the places where light from the lamp is visible :)
(http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/476/obrazek1z.jpg)
Here, another few minutes and you have some basic light from the lamp :P more accurate but not perfect (I didnt want to spend more time on it :P) I'm not happy with the ground lighting, It went too far in few places. But anyways - that's my point :P
Much better I say. :D The only thing that bothers me is that the light goes too far. Look at the spot between the edge of the wooden veranda, the flag and the tree. There's too much yellow there :)
Quote from: rbaleksandar on Sun 22/03/2009 19:44:52
Much better I say. :D The only thing that bothers me is that the light goes too far. Look at the spot between the edge of the wooden veranda, the flag and the tree. There's too much yellow there :)
yeah I know :) it shouldnt - I just did it really fast X3. Besides it should have sharp edges to go well with the cell shading style instead of soft transition :3
(http://img244.imageshack.us/img244/3552/obrazek1.jpg)
How about this then? stronger edges and smaller radius. Personally I like it. Spent some more time on it :3 but still not a lot :P
wow that looks really good actually spacepaw thanks :D
Quote from: J-MAN on Sun 22/03/2009 20:53:46
wow that looks really good actually spacepaw thanks :D
Always glad to help ;) If I had the orginal I could do the same there :) this one is compressed a bit too much :P
Thanks, what's your email I'll send it tomorrow
Quote from: J-MAN on Sun 22/03/2009 22:35:45
Thanks, what's your email I'll send it tomorrow
same as MSN account - spacepaw@hotmail.com
One last thing :) The shadows that are thrown by the small wooden wall (the one with the columns around the house) is wrong I think. It's adjoining to the hut's wall (at least it looks like that), so since the lamp is sticking out of that wall, it lights all but the gaps between the small wooden columns.
Hold your horses, amigos, this is far from done.
Edit:
Since I don't think written advice will come across properly here, I'll just make an edit later today to show you my points.
;D *thumbs up*
Ok thanks andail look forward to seeing it.
Ok made this extremely crude drawing just to prove some points. I hadn't even got my tablet so I just sketched roughly with the mouse.
(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/witchhouse.png)
Basically my main idea was to show a way to keep a focused lighting, and get some coherency in your drawing.
Obviously, I changed the style a lot but you can improve lighting while still keeping your style.
To start with, get rid of all those cast shadows since they first of all don't make sense, and second they give an extremely jumbled impression.
Then I think if you're having a light source, like the one you've got outside the door, use it. Make it an eye-catcher, something the eye can rest on.
Just some ideas.
Ok thanks andail. I don't like the new style (well it's nice but not for my game) but I appreciate what you mean I will let the designer know hopefully he can come up with something.
P.S. The light and the hut actually look great.
Here's space paws edited of the picture, what do you think?
(http://i40.tinypic.com/douv0o.jpg)
Quote from: J-MAN on Fri 27/03/2009 12:11:35
Here's space paws edited of the picture, what do you think?
Anyone :D?
Sorry for the bump just interested on peoples opinions of this one to the original.
The shadows still haven't been fixed, and make even less sense now. Mostly it just looks like everything has been darkened, apart from the highlight. In my opinion it looks worse.
Finally someone else to say this ;D Thank you, Snarky. :)
Hmm ok thanks.
I shouldn't be posting this, as it's horrendous and I only bothered out of sheer boredom. It's not meant to be a solution to your problem in any way, but I liked the scene and wanted to mess around. Had it not been a jpeg image (you shouldn't use jpeg), and wasn't full of garbage nonsense, I might have actually spent some time on it and made it look nice. But with the way it is, that would require redrawing almost the entire image. Meh.
I started by going over the grass and getting rid of the shadows, and maybe I don't understand your scene but to me I couldn't find a light source at night to explain the brightness of it all. Anyway, prepare yourself for an extreme edit! =p Obviously it doesn't have to be quite so dark, but it sure brings the hut into focus. And another thing, I wouldn't do the lighting like that so much...I don't see why I should have to keep explaining myself though. *grin*
(http://www.novellice.com/art/douv0o_edit.png)
Ah ok thanks. I was new to the forum when I uploaded it I can show you the PNG if you like.
The thing that botheres me the most are the wooden beams coming out of the roof. The don't really fit the rest of the hut. Also I think the shading of the tree on the left looks rather strange, it's not a major issue though..
(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/style.jpg)
Thanks matti I'll take that into account. Maybe the beams could be made shorter.