Finding a backround style

[ThreeOhFour]

Hey everyone,

As some of you may have seen, I've been working on getting some sprites crankin (if you haven't, they can be seen here for  comparison. ) but my backrounding skills still suck. So I want to improve them.

Please help me out - the progress I've made with my sprites have given me confidence that you guys have the best suggestions out there, so here is what I've been doing style wise:



Rough draft



More contrast



Project Sphinxey

I'm not actually sure what the backrounds should look like. I want the characters to fit in well with them, but I don't know if any of these will do that. Any tips you have that could point me in the right direction would be greatly appreciated.

Please note I don't have Photoshop or Paintshop Pro or anything fancy, so I can't use filters or anything.

But I have patience  .

Thanks guys.

[rockeh]

Given the style of the characters, I think the background looks a tad cartoony. And before you ask "Have you seen the characters?", let me clarify what I mean by cartoony:

You're probably familiar, to some degree at least, with both the Roadrunner and Spider-man cartoons. While both are animations, they have different premises and background concepts.

As such, your characters strike me as Spider-man-ish: you've got hot chicks who look like they can punch their way out of trouble, big bad aliens, tough guys who might kick your ass if you comment on their leotards.

The background, on the other hand, looks like Marvin the Martian's country house.

Now don't get me wrong -- both are awesome, it's just they don't work well together. You don't expect Wile E. Coyote to get killed by a plan going wrong, and you don't expect an explosion to just blacken Spider-man's face.

Notice I didn't actually give any constructive advice

[cobra79]

I'm not actually sure what the backrounds should look like.

I think that is the problem here. Generally speaking you want something of interest pretty much in the middle of your background or in any other way drawing attention to it. Looking at your drafts, it could be the ship or the city in the background, which is confusing. In the second picture the way leads to neither of both. Also look at scaling issues. Your characters were over 100pixel high if I remember correctly, and you would have to scale them in AGS to fit and all your attention to detail would be lost. Try to keep the walkable area in the foreground, without too much perspective. By the way your ship looks too small for your sprites. Foreground objects are also a pretty good idea.
Concerning the atmosphere: the yellow sky bugs me. It looks threatening. That the grass in #3 looks like toxic waste emphasis that mood. Your characters don't wear breathing masks, so the sky should be  blue, maybe with a tint. The architecture in #2 and #3 fits your space/alien theme better imho.

[ThreeOhFour]

Cobra - you posted while I was doing my edit man! See what you think, though this was a really quick lunchbreak one.

Rockeh - I've done a shamefully quick edit - is this a better style?



Obviously needs more work than my lunch break allows....

[EDIT]: Just a quick update to show you guys how the things are coming along. Have shaded the centre trees:



This time I've tried to keep to 4 shades per colour (on the trees, anyway) so that it matches the characters a bit better. Will be working on this fella, and will keep you updated.

All crits appreciated.

[MadReizka]

The trees are looking really nice. Keep it up.

[ThreeOhFour]

MadReizka - Thanks for your kind words man. It's interesting to experiment with changing shape with light and shade.

I've done a bit more work - touched up the middle trees, done the lone tree and the rock;



...is it just me, or does the rock look like pre-chewed grape chewing gum?

[EDIT]: - Here's a bit more stuff I've done. I couldn't figure out a good texture to use, so I went a bit silly with lines. Any suggestions would be cool.

[Akatosh]

I'd say going silly with lines seems to work.

[cobra79]

The trees are very nice. They have this natural feel to it. The stone in your latest edits reminds me of a giant pile of poo-poo  . The first stone was better by far. The way you added depth to the ground is simple and effective, but the light source switched from the right to the left side.
Once you do the moon/planet tilt its ring a bit again and go a bit more yellow, because we see it through the sky.

[ThreeOhFour]

Another quick lunchbreak edit to experiment with some ideas.

Cleaned up the planet.

Altered rock. Not sure whether I like it better.

Tried to 'refine' the lines on one of the mounds of dirt. Not sure I like this better, either.



Let me know your thoughts.

[cobra79]

I think a rock should look a bit more edged and the planet a bit more blurry.



I also found a really helpful tutorial for the planet:
http://spriteart.com/tutorials/01_AA.html

[gASK]

A few quick opinions:

I love the trees. When I saw the shapes first, I would not believe they would come out so nice after being shaded. They did and proved me wrong:)

I like the second rock - looks "rockier" than the first, which looks more like a mud hill. I do not like the cobra79 edit, though the rock does lack some "roughness".

He is also right with the blurry planet - it is too contrast as it is. I believe you will redo it when texturing and shading the sky, so leave it as it is for now.

The second version of ground shading looks more real. I suppose the shading on the bottom of the picture is just unfinished:)

Oh, and a little experiment...

[ThreeOhFour]

Cobra - Thanks for doing an edit! I'll have a shot at making the rock a bit more jaggedy. The planet I'll also give a touch up when I do the sky. No sense in mucking around with it too much until I get that sky right.

gASK - Glad you like the trees. I actually managed to draw what I was seeing in my mind for once, and I'm pretty happy with it. Looking at your experiment, yeah I might have to change the sky colour... don't want the character getting lost because he matches the sky. In saying that, however, I guess his lighting might help. Will cross that bridge once the rest of it is done.

Until then, a little bit more progress. Yeah, not much, but had band practise tonight.



Dithering isn't something I have too much experience with, so I hope its not looking too shabby.

As usual, your comments are most appreciated.

Thanks dudes!

[cobra79]

hehe gask is right my rock is ugly. Weirdly enough 7hr ago I thought it was good  : , but you get the idea.
Oh and now I finally understand that your light comes from the right front, so forget what I said earlier.

[MadReizka]

Maybe add some bushes to the front, before the road?
That is starting to look really really nice!
Just remember to keep the light source to be same since this is outdoors.
Cant wait to see what you will come up with the sky!

[ThreeOhFour]

I've done a little bit more on it - any thoughts about these foreground objects?



MadReizka - I think you're right about the foreground objects. Hence I've added a few. I plan on keeping that light source the same - the characters are shaded that way, so it makes sense to.

Cobra - I get that - draw something and come back and it sucks heaps. Dunno why.

[gASK]

Looks better with every edit.

As for the foreground objects - they are a nice touch. Some suggestions
-+- when there are big rocks, there should also be small around. Rocks are almost never alone (unless brought there by someone or something like that).
-+- The fallen tree should have some hole or something near roots...or was it brought here by human(oid)s as well:)?

[markbilly]

Maybe bring the felled tree forward a bit and darken it? This will create a more defined fore-ground.

I like this a lot, the shading is very impressive!

[CodeJunkie]

This is a fantastic background, I like the tree shading and the foreground rock especially.  The ground shading is nice but the lightest colour sticks out quite a lot at the bottom.  The earlier shading on the ground was messy but it looked smoother, perhaps you could smoothen out these lines a little?  Unless of course you just hadn't finished that part

[Evil]

The limbs from the fallen tree should be longer. It's not just a proportions issue, but the branches sitting right at the "top" of the path makes it stand out more, in a bad way.

[markbilly]

You know the little bush thing in the bottom left?

I think more of these around the place, especially around the far right tree. This would look good.

And also what I said before ^^