Poor Forest Rabbits - Background help?

[Moresco]

Ok so I've got this little background.Ã,  The source was a photo, because it's a snazzy locale and I just can't go there in my mind.Ã,  Anyway, here it is from a trace, and I do not think I did a splendid job.Ã,  Can this be salvaged? Should I just start over?Ã,  The resolution of the pic is not so good I think.Ã,  I'm at a loss here....I should learn to draw better....



Alright and here is what it sort of should look like (minus the obvious ickyness of the distortion):


Thanks for any help you might pass my way!

[Bombadil]

I think it looks great.

You should try to remove the black lines and try to add more depth by using more colors. Try puting fruits or something so it doesn't look too green+yellow.

[Babar]

The original photo's colours were mainly blue-dark green, but you changed them to green-yellow. Nothing wrong with that, but it does not have the same atmosphere as the photo. Also, the black outlines (in the water atleast) look a bit odd. Another weird thing is how the colours and borders get mushy and mixed up towards the back.
Is the player going to be in a boat in this background?

[Moresco]

Hm yes I see the confusion with the two pics...oops.Ã,  Well the original was also green, I did a hue adjustment on the blue version.Ã,  Ã, Basically, I want to draw this scene in a nice summer setting as well as in a frosty winter setting, so that should explain the two different colors.

I see what you're saying about adding more colors, because yah it looks REALLY bland this way(referring to the green-yellow pic).Ã,  I don't get the bland feeling from the nicer image with the different colors in the water and stuff like that.Ã,  It's overall more smooth, and I wish I could recreate that minus the specky remnants of changing resolutions.

Let me try and get the original green-yellow pic here....
Check it out, I added some lines here to try and show some things:


Ok the blue outline shows the walkable area.
The red above that is impassable forest background.
The yellow regions are the exits...whatever, not necessary to see but I circled them so yeah.

The image is so hard to see in parts, so I have to ask if anyone knows what this probably is, I can't tell(inside the blue circled part):


Is it a rock? Part of the branch...which one? Where are these trees going anyway? Behind the green they disappear and reappear so I get confused easy.   Maybe it's just dirt or shadow from underneath the mass of branches....maybe I'll just make it be a rock and nobody will know the difference...well, now they will, shoot.

[Damien]

Here are some things you could do with the first picture:
-fix the lineart (double pixels & jaggy(sp?) lines)
-color the bg, and use darker shade of colors for outlines
-create shadows and highlights
-dither

I assume this is either a practice or a cutscene background since there isn't much space for a character to walk on.
If you want a frosty winter setting, forget this reference pic. Your edited blue version looks colder, but the trees should be leafless and there should be some snow covering it.

Just practice and be patient about it. You'll soon get the hang of pixelling.

[Moresco]

Well I decided to begin anew.Ã,  This is a good thing because I really don't like the first attempt much.Ã,  So I'm going in this direction now:



Well, the circumstances of the change in weather is rather well, goofy.Ã,  Imagine summertime and then a blizzard hits or something like that...but not quite.Ã,  Ã, I guess I'm not even sure, but whatever it will all come together nicely at some point.Ã, 

The tree above? Does it seem like a tree?Ã,  Maybe it seems like a toaster oven more than a tree? I'm all for figuring this stuff out, boy art is tough stuff.Ã,  I put it against a black background for now....maybe that's not a good idea for viewing, lemme know and I'll edit the post with a different background.Ã,  Peace ^^

[Flippy_D]

Blur tool? Always pays off more than you think it will, for a horrifically cheap tactic.

[Moresco]

Which one are you referring to, for the blur tool?  I didn't blur the full color image, it was like that already.  The last image, black with tree, has blur, smudge, burn, dodge, sharpen and all the other tools you can make use of.  I'm sure I used all of them at least a little.

[Flippy_D]

Eeh... I was talking about the first one. And I only have one blur tool

/Irfandraw user revels in his primitive tools.

[Moresco]

Oh the very first one? Heh well that one doesn't have any blur in it, just smudge maybe...if I even did that hey I can't remember already...my mind is flawed.Ã,  Ã, Mostly I drew lines, lots of lines and then filled in colors.Ã,  Yay!

Here is another look at that tree, I know it's still the same thing mostly...sorry.
If you can look hard enough, you can see that I changed the texture for the body of the tree.  I used some examples of other trees that were easier to see detail on to try and get a better idea of how it should look.  I hope now that I'm happy with this tree, I can start on something else.  My biggest problem will end up being the bright green from the background trees and the lighting. 





Damien: What do you mean by dither?  I'm not familiar with the term actually...

[Damien]

Here's a quick (shi*ty) example:



It's used when working with small amount of colors. Seeing your new bg, you can forget about that.

[Andail]

Shabutie, you're mixing a lot of styles, which isn't recommended...
In that branch, you have one flat area with outlining...now, the style of the original picture isn't bad at all. Flat areas with outlining can be nice and clean to look at - just make the lines a bit cleaner and the picture will end up like Tintin.

The problem is that all of a sudden, there are blurred areas...some of the moss is smeared out, whereas some of it is sharp and pixelated...not good.

Stick to one style, one technique

[Moresco]

Thanks Andail Really I should have cleared up the flat branch and the flat tree in the foreground that overlaps the one I did work on.  Those are just other layers that I left in to cover some of the messy overlapping I did, so as to make it cleaner looking.  Oops.  Next time I will make sure I point that out beforehand.

I'm aiming for a more pixelated and less blurry/smudgy style, but I guess I just haven't got it all figured out yet.  Still learning....  thanks for the suggestions I will do my best to straighten it out

Update:
Here's a more pixelated style of yet again the same tree.  Well, I don't want to finish the scene until I know where I'm going with it heh.  Lots of reworking is a headache.



I can already see a vast difference from the smudged one and this one.   That's just crazy.   I hope it's not TOO pixelated.