Background Blitz - 061015-26

[loominous]

If you guys happen to have any early versions/layers/sketches saved, I'm sure many would be interested in seeing them, to see how you go about painting.

And to anyone still working on their contribution, why not take some screenshots/save some progress versions.

Keep up the good work!

[TheJBurger]

Here is my entry (I hope the irregular size isn't a problem):

[Sylvr]

Ooh another mountain gondola! Nice work, everyone!

[raddicks]

I must say this month has been a showcase of the highest calibre!  :o
If only we can say that everyone is a winner
well I certainly would say for this month. Good luck people!

[loominous]

24 hours to go, if anyone wants a smaller extension, please PM me.

[ninepug]

Made an attempt at a pixel background.

Would work a bit like the monkey island island overviews with different locations to travel to :3.
The orange thingie is a train track fyi, and it's originally in 320x200, also just fyi ;3

Love the backgrounds so far, alot of great ideas and atmospheric pictures :D.

[loominous]

Deadline extended an additional day, by request.

[Mikko]

Come on ildu, post it already!

Tremendous background Penguin!

[ildu]

I asked for a day's extension from loominous, so hopefully he accepts . My bg is almost done, and I'm probably gonna work on it from now 'til the early hours of the morning. But I'm pretty sure even then it won't be ready . So I'd love it, if the deadline was extended. I only need a day (just half a day really).

Deadline extended an additional day, by request.

Oh, I didn't notice that post. So, I guess the deadline is tomorrow then? Just wondering, since the thread title nor the first post was edited. So I'm just making sure .

[Nacho]

Supperb entries. Idlu' s will rock, I am sure. Congrats for the quality of the activity.

[aussie]

Penguin, that just rocks!

[loominous]

An hour to go. If anyone wants a short extension, please PM me.

[ildu]

"I had arrived. The place was something alright. I had heard that it was built in the 1920's with stolen money left over from the Great War. The architect, an Austrian named Otto von Glüsenheimer, headed the construction of what was supposed to be the ultimate luxury retreat for the nouvelle riche, named MAXIPOLIS. A madman at best, von Glüsenheimer ran the project into the ground and soon funding fell through. The task was ultimately abandoned and what remained was a half-finished wreck of an empire."



This was my first serious try at detailed realistic digital painting. It turned out ok in my opinion, but I can already see a lot of stuff I'd want to redo/develop . I wanted to make it a lot more art decoish, but time restrictions forced me to compromise, which also shows in the poor light composition, unrealistic light and some imbalance in the image. Nonetheless, I'm already so sick of this image, I'm just gonna tuck it away somewhere and never open the PSD again . It was painted at a very high res, and it had way more than 50 layers, equalling a 46mb file. So, you can imagine what kind of torture it was to work on it for the last bits. Scratch disk filling, PS occasionally crashing, and zooming in and out becoming extremely slow. Yeah, I'm never gonna open this PSD again .

And yes, I know. Another gondola . I honestly thought no one else would happen to come up with one. Joke's on me, I guess .

[Kweepa]

I'm looking forward to Bioshock too.

[ninepug]

Totally wicked awsome Ildu, !
Looks brill, love the dusty? texture it has.
and yes, Bioshock is looking good as well :3

[loominous]

Ok then, let's get the voting started.

So I thought we'd try some different categories than the usual this time, namely:

Idea - Self explanatory
Atmosphere/Mood/Emotion - As well
Storytelling/Authenticity - While not all enviroments may tell us clear stories, most provide us with traces of the past, and of their inhabitants, which make them come alive, and feel believeable.

Design - The design of landscapes/objects/architecture
Composition - How well the different elements of the background are composed.
Colours - Anything from nice colour choices for objects, to colourschemes/tones.
Lighting - Doesn't have to be any fancy lighting, just one that works well for the style/scene.

Camera Placement/Angle - Should fit/emphasize the mood of the scene, while still work technically with 2D sprites.
Walkareas - Cleverly restricting the movement, to give the illusion of freedom, while not confusing the player.
Exits - How clear the exit areas/paths are, and the lack of areas that look like exits, but aren't.

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It would be great if all participants provided their votes. The voting is of course open to anyone, and if you feel uncomfortable placing a vote in any category, just skip it, or ask for a more thorough explanation.

Voting will end tomorrow at 00:00 GMT.

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Here's the code for the categories, so you can simply copy n paste, n fill in your picks.

Code: ags

[b]Idea[/b] -
[b]Atmosphere/Mood/Emotion[/b] -
[b]Storytelling/Authenticity[/b] - 

[b]Design[/b] - 
[b]Composition[/b] - 
[b]Colours[/b] - 
[b]Lighting[/b] - 

[b]Camera Placement/Angle[/b] - 
[b]Walkareas[/b] - 
[b]Exits[/b] - 

-

Hope you give your vote, the entries deserve it!

[LimpingFish]

All are so nice, but...

Idea - u1bd2005
Atmosphere/Mood/Emotion - Ildu
Storytelling/Authenticity - Zyndikate

Design - Penguin
Composition - Zyndikate
Colours - Ildu
Lighting - Ildu

Camera Placement/Angle - TheJburger
Walkareas - Ildu
Exits - Penguin

[ninepug]

Not sure why we even have to vote, SCUMMbuddys entry will win for sure.. 
Eeh.. sorry

Idea - Zyndikate  having the waterfall power the station is excellent integration of the enviroment, and besides, I like zeppelins.
Atmosphere/Mood/Emotion - TheJBurger  plenty of atmosphere, goes well with my fear of heights.
Storytelling/Authenticity - Ildu

Design - Ildu 
Composition - Ildu
Colours - Ildu  Muted muddy to neon green, what's not to love? :3
Lighting - LimpingFish

Camera Placement/Angle - TheJBurger  again, awsome sense of height.
Walkareas - MashPotato
Exits - Ildu

[Elric]

Idea - MashPotato. The most intuitive and original compo. And hey, it could happen
Atmosphere/Mood/Emotion - Ildu. I really felt isolated after looking at the background for a while. Fantastic Job.
Storytelling/Authenticity - Ildu. This was an interesting build up, with the story and the image itself

Design - Ildu. Really well balanced shapes, with a touch of abstractness but not too much.
Composition - Ildu. I can't believe this is a single perspective-point composition. Tremendous depth and variability and that's no easy feat.Ã,  A close competition with ScummBuddy*** but in his background, the rock formation blocking the exit point to the right, leans inwards, creating an arrow and thus bouncing the eye with force back to the image. I'm all for smooth circulation when it comes to leading the eye.
Colours - Ildu. Briliant, the image conveys just what Ildu planned for it to do with fantastic chroma and values. Not too saturated, but not grey-ish enough to make it "dead".
Lighting - Ildu. You just killed me with the bench reflections.

Camera Placement/Angle - Ildu. ( For the reason stated in 'composition' )
Walkareas -Ã,  Ildu. Well most participants didn't actually add much walkable areas, so Ildu wins by default
Exits - Ildu. Same as above.


So all in all, Ildu is the hero of the day, with one of the 3 best backgrounds I've seen in this forum. ( The other two, belonging to loominous )
I would have loved to participate but my new tablet didn't arrive this week and I would never post my first image created for these forums with a mouse. Great Job Everyone, this has trully been a divine month for background art.Ã, 

*** zyndicate I  messed up with the names reading a previous post :p

[Daniel Thomas]

Idea - LimpingFish
Atmosphere/Mood/Emotion - TheJBurger
Storytelling/Authenticity - ildu

Design - ildu
Composition - ildu
Colours - ildu
Lighting - ildu

Camera Placement/Angle - TheJBurger
Walkareas - MashPotato
Exits - Mad (I think its hard to judge this category, how can we know what the intentions of the creator had, maybe it is a exit or maybe its not)

Ildu's picture is awesome, and I dont think anyone would say anything else, but I got a little comment: I think it lacks the 'WaterFall Valley'-part.