My 2nd Tablet Background

[buloght]

Those bgs are awesome mordalles! Can't wait to see the next game you bring out of nowhere, all your games are of such great quality.

*adds mordalles to buloght's jealous-off list*

Loominous  :o If you make a game, bill tiller will be jealous, and blizzard will stop making all of their games for the fact that their graphics won't be revolutionary anymore 

* add loominous to buloght's jealous-off list*

[Mordalles]

thanks everyone. 

the floor and stairs perspective are intentional, but  i know little to none about perspective, so not sure if it works.  it might be too late to change it. since that would mean redrawing the background.
oh, i use photoshop.

[2ma2]

I think the second background, albeit using a more innovative perspective, is a lesser piece than your first. The main issue is that it lacks sharp edges. It's all very blurry and tiresome for the eye. It is ofcourse hard to explain, or even point towards what good balance of sharp and blurry edges mean, but a combination of those gives wondrous results. The other is the lightning. Sure, it's all set to work with moonlight, but I can't help wonder what it would be like with somewarm hues, maybe from candlelight in the actual basement and not only in the top of the stairs. The design is good, but could be better. Also, it seems like a WIP, I don't know what those top left thingies are and that strange light coming from above.

[Nikolas]

The entrance into the basement is a little...tiny.

Other than that after seing the 2nd BG I have decided that you're going through your purple period and it's ok...

[Mordalles]

2ma2: thanks for the crits.  i actually like the rough brushes a bit more than sharp edges. i just like the feel of it. too much detail and sharp edges can be just as tiresome. though, I'm still experimenting with how to get brushes sharper and nice smooth and clean, like mashpatota gets it (this is only my 2nd try  ). , .
of course any design could be better (i can't really draw and i dont have natural talent, so there isn't much i can do about that).
wip, yes, thats why its in here.
i didn't want to add any candles and other "warm hues" in here, since there will be plenty of them in the rest of the house, and therefore i decided to use only moonlight.
strange light from above: thats suppose to be moonrays, though, as you can see, i have no idea what i'm doing. how can I improve the rays to not make it look "strange" anymore?  thanks for the crits! it really helps.

nikolas: hehe, the door is actually much larger, but blocked by the wooden beam. it will be more apparent once you walk there with your character. hehe.
yes, purple period, haha.   

[loominous]

Some lighting ideas:



First off, I think the composition has improved a lot in this one. You got an assymetrical division, a foreground, diagonal lines (the foreground wooden bars), and a nice angle.

The design has already been touched on, and I think it's the biggest thing holding this pic back.

If you paint "just a staircase", or "just an ordinary coffin", then the viewer will skip these objects, since we've all seen these things plenty of times before, and will be done watching your image within a sec.

I suggest you google for some references of these things, to get an idea of how they can look. Skip through the ordinary designs, and save the interesting ones. Open these images in photoshop, and surround your workarea with them.

Using existing designs isn't as fun as creating your own, so I suggest you just look for ideas, and try to come up with something that you think fits the mood and general style of the image.

Our first idea of how something looks is often very generic, and thus boring, so watching these references will allow you to get a new perspective on them, and after a while you get a feeling of the different traditions with their respective trademarks, and can just mix n create something you like.

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Colours

A good thing with both these images is the colour consistency, though lacking a bit in this one (the reds). That said, varying hues is as much part of creating an interesting image as the design.

A tinted lightsource will rarely totally change the hue of an object, so when I've said that, for instance, the colour of the sky should tint the objects, it doesn't mean that they should all take on the same hue, just towards that hue.

Using a colour layer in photoshop is really great in doing this, since you can, if you like, paint the image in the local colours, that is, what they would look like in a white room, with a white lightsource (a red box having pure red sides), and then tint them using other layers, which makes it extremely flexible.



So, first we have the local colours (the first row).

Then I ve added a layer, n set it on 'color' (as marked with green). This means whatever you paint in there will only affect the colours of the layers below, so if you make it totally green, regardless of dark or light, it'll only affect the colours of the underlying layers.

You can fill it with the colour of your choice, and use the opacity setting to adjust how much you think it should affect the layers below, which is similar to the photofilter.

I took the blue from the blue box n just filled the area of the second row with the colour, at about 50% opacity (layer 9 in the pic).

In the last row, I did the same thing, but with yellow, and only on the lighter sides of the cube.

As you see, the colours are quite different from the originals, but there's still a lot of difference, and it's important to preserve these differences, even in images that have a very heavy influence of one or more hues.

About the reds in your image, they look pretty fake, especially the doll, because they're too local, and don't look affected enough.

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Brushes

I use the chalk brush quite a lot, which is just a squarish brush, nothing fancy, with hard corners. You can achieve anything with any brush if you have enough patience, but choosing the right one will make it quicker, so pretty much, hard brushes for anything that has hard edges, smooth ones for large smooth areas.

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Lighting

I made the roof lightsource more blue, partly because it's more of a moon light colour, and more importantly, to create contrast to the warm door light. I also increased the brightness of the light spot, for extra punch, n to create a focal point, and darkned everything that wouldn't recieve much light, and were boring to look at anyway.

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Looking forward to your next piece.

[deadsuperhero]

Loominous, you're killing me with those amazing edits.
Tell me where I can find some tutorials for that.

[Nikolas]

After seeing Loominous 2nd edit I do have some comments, on both Mordalles and Loominous. Though, as I understand it Loomy is still writting his post... Anyway here goes:

Of course, loominous' edits are great. And as art it is amazing, and everything else and glorious! But I have a feeling that he is striving away from Mordalles original concept: purple!

I did say it in a funny way in my previous post, but still it is true that Mordy has choosen to go the purple way. For me the non graphic guy, it is a matter of choice, and not of right or wrong. Loominous posts are lacking the purple colour at all. No matter how great they are they are not what Mordy intended, cause let's face it purple is there for a reason.

The second chance Mordy did for the 1st BG is great and really took on on Loominous' advice, and this is what proves that when loominous enters the C&C, it is for a reason, it is for people who deserve it (and the so many posts here prove it), and it is that he has something to say that will help the person asking for critics.

Still the point of my post is to illumate the danger of Loomious edits, which are further away from what Mordy intended initially (I believe). Mordys' BGs had a fairy tale feeling on them, a magical feeling on them, whereas loominous' ones do not, are more realistic, definately closer to the 'correct' point of view. But the 'correct' point of view shouldn't be an issue, to great artists such as Mordalles, Loominous (and buloght btw, let's not forget him, since his BG in the other thread is a smashing example of pixel art!)

Anyway under no circumstance should my post be considered as hostile to loominous, or mordy or anyone mentioned. Just an observation that the edits are very far apart. Nothing else...

[Mordalles]

WOW!  :o again, loominous, that is amazing. i wish i had a loominous-edit button in photoshop.

again, study time!

nikolas. yes, i see what you mean. i am trying to have a certain theme and atmosphere in the game which leans more to a spooky semi-cartoonlike fairy tale feeling like you say. but i am learning huge amounts with each of loominous edits. showing me the correct lighting, contrast, better colours and some technical aspects really helps huge amounts in improving my own version of it. 

[loominous]

Nikolas:

I understand perfectly where you're coming from. I tend to exhaggerate certain aspects to get the points across more clearly, which has a tendency to make my edits loose the original feel.

In this one it was mostly the variation of hues, which makes the image a lot cooler, and along with the saturation decrease n brighter/darker parts, makes it a lot less friendly.

On the other hand, there's always a problem of objectivity, when looking at shifting images like these. If the original image is very saturated for instance, an edit with ordinary saturation will look desaturated in comparison. So if the original is extreme in some aspect, a "correct" version won't look right either, if flipped back and forth.

Also, you never know when something's intentional or not. There's a definate purple pattern in Mordellas pics, but that doesn't mean it's neccesserily a concious decision that he's happy with. And since what we're doing here is providing ideas, for the creator to dismiss or use, almost any suggestion is of help in some way.

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There's actually a plus to the style breaches when you think about it, since it means that people won't just copy the pointers they like, but will have to incorperate the pointers in the style themselves, which is really the only way you really learn.

[Mordalles]

i had to take in account functionality, since this is still a background that should be usuble in a game, so certain areas do need a bit of light (for the puzzles i have in mind), even though the moonlight don't suggest it. eg, the hourglasses is items you can pick up, and so shouldn't be too dark that no one sees it. also, the moon itself is purple (as seen in 1st screenie) so, therefore moonlight in my world ( ) is not blue. i changed the contrast mostly, and lights.



and my own changing edit. 



thanks for the brilliant advice once again. i realise that i'm always too shy with contrast. and the suggestion about searching for reference images is something i didn't even think of! thanks! i'll definitely look reference more to get more interesting shapes.

[Nikolas]

Marcus:

Of course you're right. And that's why I said that your edits always have high values.
The reason for my above post, is for some to avoid the danger of actually just 'copying' your edits, more or less, which is always a danger when teaching someone and actually showing him the 'correct' way. It's something I learned while being taugh composition, where no matter what my teacher would never tell me what 'he would do at this or that part'. He was right.

Anyway Mordalles, with his edit has proved the value of your posts and your eidts, by taking your advice and puting in at his own BG, accimulating (sp???:S) your edit correctly.

So well done both of you And thanks, loominous, for taking the time to answer me

[azzola]

Very nice backgrounds! Really!

I want to buy a tablet too, and I have a question for you Mordalles:
what tablet do you have (dimesion, brand,...)?

Thanks...