CMI Style Background

[James--]

I drew this in 5 hours earlier today for a competition to make a background following the theme 'beach':



With more time I guess I could have added more detail (more objects) and smoothed out some more of the brush work.  But apart from that does anyone have any C+C or ideas on how I could bring it closer to the CMI style?

Thanks

[Ryan Timothy B]

I had to post the actual image, I don't like clicking on thumbnails   

I'm having a hard time seeing any depth.  There are a few people in the forums that can help by telling you what to do.  But one thing I would try, is to overlap the cloud with the tree.

[PixelPerfect]

I really like your style in this one, but as Ryan said it lacks a bit of depth. I photoshopped around with this for a while and this is what I got:



The main differences are pretty obvious (island, close-up bush, the waterline), but I also changed the path, trash can's shading, contrast on the left and the tree a bit and added some distance haze on top of the island and horizon. I also shaded the water up close to a more greenish hue. I just doodled the wave so it's just reference for you if you decide to go that way. Hope this helps a bit.

[Questionable]

Itlooks as if the sand dune and the ocean are two spheres, the sand dune in front and the ocean in back. If it' s beach, where's the shore line?

I'm not sure what the character would do here, but there's not alot of room: If you draw a diagonal line from the top left corner, to the bottom right more than 50% of the BG is unwalkable, at least. Then there's an umbrella in the way, plus a palm tree and a waste basket.

I say, maybe til6 the umbrella backwards so that we can see the rest of the sand. The palm tree is fine where it is. Make a shore line, move the waste basket backwards a little and shrink it.

These are all very subjective and are just suggestions. I love the clouds, the whole "painted" feel of it is welcoming, but it just seems like it would be difficult to use this. It would probably be a place the character would go once, to pick up a radom item. You can add more versatility by adding more playing space.

That's all for me, really love it though. Good luck!

EDIT: See how much a shore line helps? =P It instantly adds more space for the character to walk. Pixel also blurred the bushes near the "camera" to give a sense of depth, which is a really nice touch.

[James--]

Thanks for the advice guys.  By the way, does anyone have any comments on my colour selection?  This is the first time I've used such a range in hues for single objects (e.g. blue shadows on the sand)... how does it look?

I'm having a hard time seeing any depth.  There are a few people in the forums that can help by telling you what to do.  But one thing I would try, is to overlap the cloud with the tree.

Yeah I see what you mean about the depth.  I think the main problem is that I messed up the shore by curving it, trying to turn it into a horizon line aswell.

I really like your style in this one, but as Ryan said it lacks a bit of depth. I photoshopped around with this for a while and this is what I got:



The main differences are pretty obvious (island, close-up bush, the waterline), but I also changed the path, trash can's shading, contrast on the left and the tree a bit and added some distance haze on top of the island and horizon. I also shaded the water up close to a more greenish hue. I just doodled the wave so it's just reference for you if you decide to go that way. Hope this helps a bit.

Wow!  I really like what you did there   Extending the shore out definitely gave it a lot more depth, and the way the island in the distance is faded into blue/grey looks great. To make it look even better though I'd have to redraw the fence/bushes on the left because at the moment they're a lot higher than the horizon line.

The path aswell gives a really good sense of depth - I was having a hard time making the trail of the path look good, but your one works really well.  I like the waves and blurred bush effect too... both of effects (the waves breaking against the sand and an object in the foreground) I wasn't really sure how to achieve.  The only problem though is that for the waves to look realistic they'd have to be animated, and it would be a real challenge animating waves in that style.

I really appreciate the draw-over, it helped a lot

Itlooks as if the sand dune and the ocean are two spheres, the sand dune in front and the ocean in back. If it' s beach, where's the shore line?

I'm not sure what the character would do here, but there's not alot of room: If you draw a diagonal line from the top left corner, to the bottom right more than 50% of the BG is unwalkable, at least. Then there's an umbrella in the way, plus a palm tree and a waste basket.

I say, maybe til6 the umbrella backwards so that we can see the rest of the sand. The palm tree is fine where it is. Make a shore line, move the waste basket backwards a little and shrink it.

These are all very subjective and are just suggestions. I love the clouds, the whole "painted" feel of it is welcoming, but it just seems like it would be difficult to use this. It would probably be a place the character would go once, to pick up a radom item. You can add more versatility by adding more playing space.

That's all for me, really love it though. Good luck!

EDIT: See how much a shore line helps? =P It instantly adds more space for the character to walk. Pixel also blurred the bushes near the "camera" to give a sense of depth, which is a really nice touch.

Yeah, when I drew this I was just doing it for the competition, so I didn't really think about walkable area.  Now that I look at it with that in mind it does look really cramped.  Tilting the umbrella back would probably be a good idea, although how it is at the moment did save me quite a bit of drawing