First BG, a dark cavern (WIP)

[beldin]

Hello!
This is my first "real" background. I used my new wacom graphire3 tablet to draw it.
It's not really finished.
I could use some help.

[voodoolake]

Great background!

For me it looks a bit like an oil painting. Somehow it reminds me of the nordic cave in Fate of Atlantis...

I think it will look even more professional with some objects inside. Try to give it some cave plants or crates (if this would fit into your story) or whatever.

Just one thing. Maybe you should outline some rock shapes, to give the whole thing a higher degree of sharpness.

But, anyway, I love it!

[BlackMan890]

I dont like the short beach space, try making it a little bit bigger and make it come horizontal, to see what i mean, you can see a pic of how i see this

[UP]

Hmm... I'd also curve the horizon a bit, and maybe a bit (just a bit) blurrier, it's too straight and sharp now... Or maybe the other one just, eh, dramatizes the other...

[SpacePirateCaine]

It looks great, NuttySquirrel. My only thoughts on how to improve this background would be primarily dependant upon the type of sprite you're using. Unless your sprite is very 'smooth', it may be a good idea to sharpen the background up a bit. At the moment, as Voodoolake mentioned, it does have a very 'painting' feel to it, which is by no means a bad thing: the backgrounds for Monkey Island 2 were done originally as paintings. However, they were sharp, and ultimately pixelated with fine edges in such a way that the Guybrush sprite, as well as all the rest of the sprites, looked 'right'. Anti-aliasing and smoothness are positives in my book, but it's important that your sprites don't feel 'out of place' on your backgrounds. By keeping the level of sharpness consistent with the cave mouth, and land beyond it, I think it would look awesome.

I was under the impression that the land outside the cave mouth was a small cliffy rock outcropping, as opposed to a strip of beach, which in a sense works back to what Goél pointed out. If it's intended as a beach, I think the illusion of cliff-hood may be caused by a few things.

It seems a tad 'raised' beyond the plane of the ground inside your cave. Bringing down the far edge of the beach, may help to rectify this, though I could very well be wrong on this point. The second is the edge of the beach itself. There is a dark line, followed by a light line, creating the illusion of a rim, which works well if it's rock, but doesn't convey a sense of 'beach'. If you are making it as a beach, I'd suggest almost making the sand seem a bit smoother, and give it a dark 'wet' area towards the water. Oceans, also, are rarely calm, so a bit of brine at water's edge would do well. If it's a cliff edge, I don't really see the need to change anything about it.

Your sky and horizon line seem perfect to me - a beautiful slightly cloudy day, so aside from the few details I outlined above, it's overall a great background, and I'd be interested in seeing the final product.

[InCreator]

*Let more light in! So far, It's quite pretty background.
*But if you're leaving it so dark, it'll be a waste.
*Also, brighten sea a tiny bit as it gets closer to the horizon.
*Avoid totally white light. It's never entirely white. Add yellow, blue or red tone.

[Opo Terser]

Man I hate photoshop, but I just gave in to do a quick suggestion:



Maybe just bring the light into the room a little, for visibility and such, maybe some puddles or small details.

[hedgefield]

That looks awesome! I wish I was that good with a tablet...