Hammerite TRIES at a BG!!

Hammerite · Fri 20/01/2006 22:28:27

Now Im sure you all remember my rather terrible last attempt and Ive taken your advice and designed this in Macromedia Fireworks!
Any crits will be accepted

2x

wot you think??

MarVelo · Fri 20/01/2006 23:27:34

Is the texture of the mountain (is it???) a close up of grass? And what is the red (lava-ish???) stuff?

ManicMatt · Fri 20/01/2006 23:34:37

Matt says:

Ditch the grass texture, it looks flat and loses the impression of any distance.

Not sure if it's this new monitor I just plugged into my PC, but the castle looks too dark.

As Taffytom was perhaps hinting at, the path could do with a change in colour. Maybe a lighter colour at least.

And some detail on the castle itself would look nice. (Is that gate open or closed? No detail - no way of knowing from here!)

Renal Shutdown · Sat 21/01/2006 01:25:27

Hammy, I can't stress this enough. Avoid Filters, textures and other such Photoshop-esque bloat*.

It's time consuming I know, but drawing the stuff by hand will get much better results. At the moment, it looks like you just got a few photos and cut and pasted sections as a collage and then drawn the castle in with a permanent marker.

*(Yes, I know it's Fireworks. It's still bloat).

Darth Mandarb · Sat 21/01/2006 02:20:57

Quote from: Spleen on Sat 21/01/2006 01:25:27Avoid Filters, textures and other such Photoshop-esque bloat*.

I would like to ammend this to:

"Avoid filers and other such Photoshop-esque bloat until you can use them properly."

I use a few different filters and "bloat" in my BGs and it works perfectly! 1000 times better than trying to do it by hand!

The key is knowing when and how to use them. At least, that's my thoughts.

Hammerite - your BG is a good example of using them incorrectly

The reason is two fold:
1) there's no scaling of the textures (aside from the two sections) and
2) the castle doesn't contain the detail of the grass it sits on

The combination of this makes the image feel flat and unfinished. You seem to have a sense of scaling though, as the stuff further away is smaller, you just need to do a little bit more!

Keep at it though! Practice makes perfect and the Critics Lounge is here for you!

Renal Shutdown · Sat 21/01/2006 03:20:00

Darth, I agree. I think the filters and stuff is there to save people time. They should learn how to do it without filters first, tho. Since Hammy is still learning, I was trying to get him/her to practice at the basics first. There's no reason to learn how to run before you walk. I'm sure you could recreate all the filter effects without using them, it's just time consuming. However, you know how to get the unfiltered version looking right before applying them.

Andail · Sat 21/01/2006 14:13:15

Darth is correct, but since 99% of all people fail to use filters correctly, I just advice them to ditch them altogether.

Painting your pictures with only brushes will maybe consume some time, but it's time well spent.

Sektor 13 · Sat 21/01/2006 14:52:36

Yes, filters are very tricky, i use them only for making guis or something very flat, but for parts of background (like floor, or wall) i normaly use brush with low opacity (transparency) as it gives more natural and nicer effect (or lighten/darken tool - in paint shop pro). Even if you use textures, you must apply it at least half transparent so it is not that obvious and combine it with other effects/brush drawings or textures.

Hammerite · Sun 22/01/2006 10:58:48

here be another one made in paint shop pro in 640x480. i personally think that the grass and clouds are nice but the castle and the path could be improved.

Sean · Sun 22/01/2006 12:27:42

That PSP image is better than the first. Like others have said useing textures and plug-ins without a lot of experience usually ruins an image. Everything looks disjointed and the seams of each image part are clearly visible. The PSP image is slightly more seamless and 'flows' quite well. I agree that the Path and Castle could do with some refinment. Perhaps the perspective could be revised as well. Keep at it, you can only get better

seaduck · Sun 22/01/2006 13:31:03

Looks much better!

Some suggestions:

- use lower resolution (320x200 or 320x240) it will save you a lot of time and you have a better chance of getting it right!
- the castle door is too big
- roads almost never go straight up a hil, they wind along the slope
- add more variations around the horizontal axis, i.e. let the hills have peaks at different places
- more details on the castle - roof, windows, etc.

A modified layout for your inspiration (Note: this took me about two minutes to draw...)