photomashing background style.

[DragonRose]

I have come to accept the fact that if I do original drawings for all the backgrounds in my game, Candace Grace will be released in time for my grandchildren to play it.  So I've started experimenting with a new style- which is basically mashing a bunch of photographs together and painting over them.

This is my first attempt.  It's made from four seperate images.  And yes, I know that the picture in the foreground doesn't match.

Does it look okay? Anything to improve on? Scrap the idea? Your thoughts and opinions!

[Meowster]

When I say I like this, I mean... this is cool.

It's stylized and neat. Very good. Dude! Like 0mg0mg0mg! I totally love it! The ONLY thing I would say, and I only thought of it after close scrutiny, is that the ceiling seems a bit blank or unshaded or something.

Nice idea.

[Kweepa]

That looks really good!
Did you have to warp the pictures to get them to fit?
How did you get the lighting to match up so well?

One thing I'd do, but I guess it'll really slow you down, is to fix up the edges around the picture frame and the window frame where you can see dots of black and white.

[Flippy_D]

Highly nifty.

[Miez]

Nice method, and the result is very good. Only little niggle is that some edges are nice & smooth, some are too blurry (the piano) and some are too sharp (windowframe).
If you have a digital camera you can put together lifelike BG's in (relatively) no time!  

[Quintaros]

I use this same technique (more or less) and it still takes me hours.  If this is your first attempt at it, the backgrounds are really going to look great when you start to become comfortable with it.    Its already looking better than many of my recent efforts.

[Igor]

Looks cool! Maybe a bit blury on some parts, but other than that- great!

[Migs]

I really like this style.  Photomashing rocks!  What I would do is simply try to blend them all into the background a little better, particularly where sharp edges are concerned.  Just select the narrow area where the edges of the objects meet with the other stuff, and apply some feather or blur effect.  That usually gives me good results.  I would also add a little bit of texture to the walls and ceiling.

[PureGhostGR]

I've tried a small paintover, but I was soon absorbed by the image and got a little carried away..



In the first part, you can see that I've tried to sharpen the edges between the walls & the ceiling. You can usually do this by using a tool with allows you to draw clean lines (i.e. line tool).

When you start working in a room, a good idea is first to begin with the walls and the way that they form the room. By changing the walls you are actually changing the rooms mood.

I think that a good trick is to play with the angles in the room while trying to compliment eachother. (shapewise)



Here is an idea on a style you could adapt to your painting.
Again by using the line tool, I tried to re-define the floor and the walls so as to give a hint of distortion.

There has been also a small addition of shades, in an attempt to unify the background.

There are many styles you can simulate, simply by changing a few lines here and there and by experimenting.


Keep up the good work..

[DragonRose]

Wow.  You just made what I did look all no-how.  And pianoless.  But there are more fish, so it's all good  

How did you do the wood effect on the floor, PureGhostGR?  That was the only thing I didn't paint over in mine- I just blurred it.  How did you do it?

[PureGhostGR]

The floor is the same one you've painted. I only applied a motion blur and added the lines (using the line tool) on top.

edit: You can see that I've used 2 different line sizes on the boards to fake a hint of depth.. you could go about adding more sizes and even subtle reflections.

simple as that.

[DragonRose]

The thread rises from the dead!!!! Ooooo...

More background style experimentation.  Since I'm experimenting on the same room, I thought it best to just reuse this old thread.


The experiment in this version is an attempt at more cinematic backgrounds, using different angles rather than the straight on, full body shots that pervade AGs.  

For this to work, I'm actually drawing the characters as static images as part of the background.  They don't move. There might be some slight animations, such as blinking eyes or tapping feet,  but there is no walking around the room.

Would you be able to play a game like this?  Would the stillness drive you nuts, or would you not notice?  Also, comments on the actual art would as always be appreciated.

Changes from last time-
-closer to the piano, cutting down the big blank ceiling
-improved string quartet photo
-people
-evened out colours on the wall

[Ali]

The stillness certaily woldn't bother me, as long as the story and puzzles were strong - what made Blue Ice particularly playable in spite of its stillness was good use of sound and music.

The only thing I'd suggest for the image itself is that you try to sharpen it somewhat. It's a little soft for my taste. You could follow GhostGR's tips, reduce the image to 320x200 or try upping the contrast for an interesting look.

Either way, I think the idea of cinematic angles could work out really well.

[DragonRose]

Even sharper? Okaaaaay...

Here you go!

I put that in a link because the page is just going to get incredibly unweildy if I don't. I increased the contrast, got rid of the dithering on the walls and took out a lot of the anti-aliasing on the characters and the piano

Edit: freakin' typos

[Ben]

Looks good. I really like the idea of using a more cinematic style..

Have you thought about combining the close-up style with moving characters? It mgiht be interesting to have large character sprites that you don't always see from head to toe, but can still move around the room. For example, you could have your player character in that scene get up from her leaning position at the piano, and walk toward the "camera" when she leaves the room.. The characters might look pixelated at times, but it might not be noticealbe with all the dramatic camera angles and stuff  

[DragonRose]

Ben- That's a pretty cool idea. The problem with that is I'd end up having to do animation sequences for every room, because you aren't always seeing the characters from the same angle.  There are some bg's I've done that are very high angle or very low angle.  I'd have to do different sprites for all the different angles, and that would drive me more insane than I already am.

I might try that for my next game, though. Viva experimentation!

[LGM]

Do you see all the random white pixels around the window and other little odd pixel colors? That's from anti-aliasing/bad blur side-effect. You need to smooth thos out.

I like your style, though. Very unique.