Background-Blitz Jan 21st - Feb 4th

[Simonsez128]

Ok, here's the theme for the next background blitz starting today:

Theme
Draw a background that would be suited for a fan-game based on your favorite book. Should be some place where the story takes a crucial turn or where important things happen.

Requirements
The background should be no larger than 640x480 and I'd appreciate it if it included 256 colors only. However, should that not be enough to complete your idea, I'll accept more colors.


Voting
The voting starts at 00:00 GMT Sunday the 4th. It ends 24h later.

(Cut and paste from previous posts here)
Voting categories

Idea - The underlying idea to the background. Doesn't
necessarily have to coincide perfectly with the theme of the
week, just strike you as interesting/amusing/inspiring; a place
you'd really enjoy visiting within a game.

Atmosphere - How well the image manages to evoke a certain
feeling or mood.

Design - How well the elements in the image are designed,
such as landscapes, buildings, decorations, clouds, doorknobs,
etc.

Composition - How well the elements in the image work
together/are positioned in relation to each other.

Functionality - How well it would work when adding sprites, i
ncluding appropriate walking distances, a good angle for
character sprites, clever walkway solutions, easily understood
exits, etc.

Technique - How well the ideas are executed in form of
rendering.

Anyone is welcome to vote, and it would be great if all
participants could provide their own. You don't have to vote
in all categories, and if provide multiple names in a category,
then please be clear about which one is your pick.

(end of c&p)

Well then, happy painting guys!

[joelphilippage]

This is from the book On All Hallows Eve. it's 256 colors 640 by 480

This is the deepest darkest part of the wood where Queen Samarna makes her sacrifice every halloween.

[Simonsez128]

Cool, a first entry already!
Nice work!
I hope it's not too much to ask, but could you guys give maybe a line of information about the background, i.e. how it is important for the book? It would certainly help to assess how well the required atmossphere was created. Thanks!

[Mr Flibble]

This is a great topic, I want to enter this one. Just reserving this space, and letting you know people are interested in your topic.

Time permitting, I'll have something done within the week.

[gypsysnail]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v131/rebelsnail/hallwayptgbkground1.png

Here is my entry - it comes from a dream I had of a book called The Wildflowers - Into the Garden by V.C. Andrews and it is about a group of girls who are bonded by traumatic life experiences and they meet at a group therapy session and become close. In this story, one of the girls invites them all to her parents mansion. After I read this book, I had this dream where I saw the hallway of the mansion and it was very odd, I knew there was a ghost there but I could not see it, hence the dark shaped spot near the door at the end of the hallway. The door is a glass door, hence the very brigh light glow from it. The black hands are the meotorphoric prints left there by the person scared of the ghost, she was on her bottom, backing away down the hallway. I love V.C. Andrew's books, they're inspiring and I often find myself being lost in her books and visualising the scenes through the stories. This background was painted in late 2005 as a painting on a canvas but I want to be using it in one of my games down the track.

[ShadeJackrabbit]

Based on the book, "The Crystal Shard" by R. A. Salvator. When used in game, you would stand on the cliff top nearby for the climatic battle between Drizzt and the wizard guy. Or, you would be standing here as the crystal tower attacks ten-towns. Note: The green stuff is orcs and goblins.

[raddicks]

should we give it a day or two or start the voting now?

[Simonsez128]

Good question.

Does anybody need more time on this? We got three nice entries but I'm willing to give one or two days extension since I know how tough it can be to give a background its final touch.

If no one replies to this until 6 a.m. GMT (should give everyone a fair chance) I say we start voting.

[Postmodern_Boy]

if there is an extension, I will do one 

[Simonsez128]

Alright, how much extension do you need? Two days sound ok?

[Postmodern_Boy]

did a real quick speed paint tonight, 200 colors. the flooded monastery from the book neverwhere by neil gaiman.

[esper]

A scene from "Suicide Circle," a great novel by Japanese author Sion Sono. This is the opening scene, wherein 54 schoolgirls jump simultaneously into the path of an oncoming train. Add some sprites of shocked people standing around slathered in gore and you've got one of the hardest-hitting opening scenes in a novel ever.



I went for an old-school style, as opposed to most of my hi-res hand-drawn art. I'm not too good at lo-res, (read between the lines: I suck large amounts of buttock), and thus I lost my nerve when it came time to draw the blood and just went with some PS grunge brushes bent into proportion and overlayed with the Darken blending mode.

[Simonsez128]

OK, time to start voting then

Idea - gypsysnail

Atmosphere - Postmodern_Boy

Design -  gypsysnail

Composition -  esper

Functionality -  esper

Technique - Postmodern_Boy

[esper]

Idea - pm_boy

Atmosphere - gypsy

Design -  gypsy

Composition -  joel

Functionality -  joel

Technique - gypsy

[gypsysnail]

Idea - esper

Atmosphere - Postmodern boy

Design -  joel

Composition -  zapper

Functionality -  esper

Technique -  esper

[Twirlly]

Idea - gypsysnail
Atmosphere - joelphilippage
Design - gypsysnail
Composition - zapper
Funtionality - esper
Technique - Postmodern_Boy

[Neil Dnuma]

Idea - esper. Brutal.
Atmosphere - gypsysnail
Design - gypsysnail
Composition - Postmodern_Boy
Functionality - esper
Technique - gypsysnail. I really like that painting - superb atmosphere. Would like to see a slightly better scan/photo of it - darker with less grain. I suppose it'd work best with a 1st person type of adventure?

[ildu]

Idea - gypsysnail. Simple and effective, and it translates well into the image.
Atmosphere - Postmodern_Boy. The dramatic lighting and colors create a great atmosphere.
Design - esper. A clear and simplistic style.
Composition - gypsysnail. I need not explain this.
Funtionality - esper. A clear choice, pretty much the only one easily acceptable as a background.
Technique - Postmodern_Boy. I was gonna go with gypsysnail for the painted technique, but Postmodern_Boy stole the trophy with the fluorescent lighting.

[nulluser]

Idea - esper
Atmosphere - joelphilippage
Design - gypsysnail
Composition - zapper
Funtionality - esper
Technique - esper

[Snarky]

Idea - gypsysnail
Atmosphere - gypsysnail
Design - gypsysnail
Composition - esper
Functionality - joelphilippage
Technique - gypsysnail

joelphilippage: nice, but could have used a bit more work. This is really nothing more than a colored sketch. I don't like the halloween moon, and the sky shouldn't start right behind two rows of trees. (In fact, given your perspective we probably shouldn't see the sky at all.) But this is a serviceable background screen.
gypsysnail: A painting made back in 2005 may not technically be an eligible entry, but whatever. Easily the standout entry. The perspective (or it's perhaps the composition) seems a little off to me.
ZAPPER: I have to admit, I don't get it. I can't really make out what this image shows. The green blob is orcs? I'm not sure a vista of this sort is the best choice for a Background-Blitz. Next time you might consider something closer, a more restricted space.
Postmodern_Boy: Good book, and a distinctive style... which I can't quite get myself to like. The colors are certainly very... vivid.
The technique is quite nice. I especially like the brick wall, though I would go easy on the PS texture effects. This might look better if reproduced in a lower resolution, giving it that "low-res scanned painting" look.
esper: A nice, simple design, but the execution is uneven. Techniques used for lines and surfaces are inconsistent, there are double pixels and stray pixels all over the place, and the blood (although funky looking) does not work well with the rest of the image. Still, if you don't look too closely it's very nice, so I think a few easy fixes are all that's needed.