Alley background

[Mats Berglinn]

Ok, I've spreaded out the trash. Anything else?

[TheHidden]

Last complaint 

The bricks you can see through the cracks in the wall are too small.
If you want to see more than one brick through a crack of this size, you have the enlarge the bricks and the cracks. It's not a major issue, but I noticed it and so will the player.

Nevertheless, this is a nice background now. Also you now have many objects the player can click on to explore the enviroment. I really like this bg now.

[Khris]

It's going to look strange when the player just walks over the bottles and cans.

You've spread out the trash, but it doesn't look natural now.
1. Some of the pieces should be partly(?) behind the trashcans or the stump.
2. It's scattered too evenly.
Add shadows. The newspaper looks like it's actually lying there, the rest seems to be floating in mid-air.

The flowers and the pieces of wood are all alike, I'd change that, too.

[Ubel]

The windows and the box under the crocodile poster are still off perspective.

[InCreator]

* Windows don't make much sense: the window frames occupy more space than window itself... who would waste so much wood just to frame a tiny window?
* Angled bottles look extremely flat, like they're just painted onto ground - to imrove this, make their bottoms  visible. Give em' cylindrical shape!
* Open dumpster reveals that these bins are made of atleast 10cm thick steel!
* pile of wood - the cylindrical ones, doesn't look like a pile, but more like a wall of wood... very weird
* flowers could have different angles. And - usually, flowers grow towards the sun, not sideways

[HillBilly]

The bottles look like one of those small ones you get on a airplane. Same with the chicken, newspaper, various trash etc. They're very small, considering the height and size for e.g. the windows or trash cans. Oh, and I would consider "flipping" the right window. Look at the flower box underneath, and you'll see why.

On the left side of the alley, if it's not going to be used for something special, I suggest making a little pyramid of old boxes, with some trash in it. Just a suggestion, you can do whatever you want. I just think it would look nifty. 

[big brother]

I think you may have missed the point of my edit, Mats. I know that you didn't intend for there to be a duck in the open garbage can, and that the alley opens up to nothing, rather than to an actual street. While you're at it, you could probably argue that the blobs I drew for posters look nothing like the ones you meticulously detailed. Even my less frontal angle or lighting isn't that important.

By drawing a quick background for you, I wasn't trying to make something complete, usable in your game, or even to imitate your style. I was trying to give you an idea of a dynamic composition. Something to give the illusion of depth and guide the player's eye to the important areas.

Adding more details won't improve your background. You have to look at the way you have positioned your shapes. Your background looks flat partly because almost none of the shapes overlap each other (with the exception of the flowers in the windowboxes and the edge of one of your logs).  Everything seems placed, which is a bad thing when you're trying to depict a mess. Try to imagine a little more chaos. If you walked into a real alleyway, I doubt you would find all the trash cans lined up exactly. And if you saw a wall with posters on it, I doubt they would be lined up either.

Also, the cans and bottles are a bit disconcerting. They seem to stay the same size regardless of how close they are to the camera. That doesn't jive with the perspective that has been applied to other objects in this background.

Don't worry about me ripping off your background. I think that's the least of your worries.

[Synthetique]

1. painted a few blobs for shading.. it adds a bit of depth to the pic

2. almost fixed the windows to the right perspective

3. the sand looks like floor.. so i added a few dodgy lines and some clicks of a lighter color..

hope this gives you some ideas on what to do next..

[Gregjazz]

I'm not an artist, but here's my edit:



I tried to make the scene look more dynamic by adding greater contrast in lighting. Also note I darkened the trashcans since they're in the foregound.

[fertoff]

it looks nice,,,but i think you should change the pov.

the one you've chosen makes all look too flat and uninteresting, even though is well done and everything

just a thought
bye

[Mats Berglinn]

Synthetique: Nice, thanks for the lightning reference.

Geoffkhan: Man, the picture is so blurry and misty! No offense but this won't do.

Fertoff: Sorry, but I don't want to change the POV because that would require a total redesign of the background and that is way too time consuming (especially when there are almost hundred backgrounds in the full game version). Maybe for another background.

Going to update the background as soon as possible, have been busy a lot lately.

[Mats Berglinn]

The latest edit:



Used Synthetique's lightening and changed the perspective for the box under the right window. I also changed the size of some of the trash and corrected the bricks. I changed the logs because it was easier to pile them up so it looked right. I have also changed the location of the posters so they don't line up like Big Bro said. I will change the trash cans soon.

What do you think? Is there anything more to do on this or can we say it's a lock (the background, not the thread)?

[Ozwalled]

I have nothing to add, save for the fact that I think Coco Nut Cola is HILARIOUS.