Background Blitz - Oct12-Oct27 - Under the Earth

[SiggiI]

Here we go:

Idea - Ghost.  I can see some sort of a children's game from this.
Composition -  Coconut Shuttle.  The player standing on that ramp looking around, I like it.
Functionality - Geraduatuza.  A solid background.
Technique - Snarky.  Looks awesome.
Atmosphere - Snarky.  Wonder what that blue light at the end of the tunnel is!

[Snarky]

Idea - Coconut Shuffle
Composition - Geraduatuza (followed by cobra79)
Functionality - Geraduatuza (followed by Coconut Shuffle)
Technique - Geraduatuza
Atmosphere - cobra79 (followed by Geraduatuza)

Nice job, everyone!

Some specific comments:

mwahahaha: Yes, very amusing. 

Coconut Shuffle: Great background, classic Sierra-like look. I think you could improve it by thinking more about the light/shadow, and use it in your composition. I'd also love to get a greater sense of depth to the far side of the cave... I think maybe your perspective is a little off there.

Neutron: Awesome, awesome work! Would have got my vote in most categories if it was competing. I actually first thought I recognized it from some fairy tale picture book, and spent some time looking for the reference I was sure you used. Is there a higher-res version you can share?

Ghost: Cool background in a very functional simple style. The moss in the cave looks particularly good. Not sure about the functionality of the screen, though. It doesn't look like the character would fit through the passages. Also, the roots look a bit too obviously like lines with a thick brush. Had you tapered them more towards the ends they would have been more convincing.

SiggiI: Eww. That platform looks very pointy for something stuck up a colon. ;D But yes, I did steal your tunnel-composition. (In my original sketches the foreground opened up to a small hall, not a tunnel.) Hope you don't mind!

Snarky: Overall, I'm pretty happy with it. It looks more blurry than I would like, though, and the technique isn't consistent throughout the image. Not sure the silhouetted root hanging from the ceiling works, either. This background was supposed to be more interesting, with objects and hotspots and such, but everything I could think of was either stupid or too much work to draw.

cobra79: Wish you had finished this one. I love the warm, saturated yellows, oranges and browns, and the light/shadow use. It might be an even more dynamic composition if the door wasn't right in the center. Are the flat, posterized color fields part of the unfinishedness, a color reduction artifact, or your style?

Geraduatuza: Very nice indeed. I can see what you mean about it being unfinished, there are more sketchy lines than I think would be ideal for this style. But I like how it's very sharp (much more so than mine)-- I take it it's not resampled from a higher resolution. What technique do you use? Good depth of composition. I'm not entirely in love with the colors, though. The use of blue and red primary colors along the wall, and then everything else in a kind of khaki gray? It looks both oversaturated and monochrome at the same time.

Oddysseus: Not bad for a quickie. The pink colors work surprisingly well. Biggest problem I see is that the dark part looks like it sits on top of the rest of the bacground, rather than being further away. This is probably due to all that stuff with "black points" that loominous explained recently.

[Ghost]

Idea: Coconut Shuffle
Composition: Coconut Shuffle
Functionality: Geraduatuza
Technique: Snarky
Atmosphere: cobra79

And I totally love Odysseus' entry. Brings back the old Zork days 

[Geratuza]

Idea - Snarky. Moody. And well realized (see Atmosphere...).
Composition - Coconut Shuttle. The perspective appears a bit boring and artificial to me (straight tunnelview). It could need some point of interest in the end that justifies that view and makes it more interesting. However, other objects (waterfalls, "gems"(?)) are well (arbitrarily) spread and make the picture look more natural.
Functionality - Ghost. That's because I do not like backgrounds in which the characters can (or even have to) walk towards the camera (= down; to the lower border of the screen) to enter another room. It often results in a wrong perspective on the character inside the room or ugly over-scaling of the character.
Technique - Ghost. Because backgrounds can be easily created with those few colours and the sharp borders. And characters fit in there quite well (on the other hand side, the moving-animations (different crawling styles) would be some work to do). Smooth/blurry paintings or down-scaled images don't do well in such a resolution when it comes to implement characters and objects.
Atmosphere - Snarky. Great use of light, very athmospheric. (Reminds me on The Mysterious Cave, color-scheme and composition-wise, btw.)


Additional comments:

Snarky: About the foreground: Does the tunnel open up or end there, or is there a curve? Also, I find the roots a bit repetitive, especially the two similar ones to the left. You may want to add some other objects, that give it a more natural look. A few stones and/or mushrooms perhaps?
BTW - You got it - those inconsequent lines: some rough/sharp lines, some sketchy lines and some blurry, unsharp lines, that's the main problem . Also, the pic suffers from a wrong perspective... With the monochromatic look I wanted to underline the coldness/steal/mechanics/great-hall-athmosphere of the "inside" in the background while the foreground should appear more calm and small. That's at least what I wanted it to look like. But I'm not satisfied with it because of the reason you've stated.
I've mostly worked on a single layer only, adding a few adjustment layers from time to time, but mergeing them again later on. I'm not so used to draw with layers and I'm somehow getting confused with more than 5 of them...

mwahahaha & odysseus#1: nice ideas. made me smile.

TheJBurger: thanks, I've really enjoyed the first one, as well as the first MoH's (WarChest) and I'm still playing them from time to time. Maybe that's the influence.

[Snarky]

Hey, I want to share this with you, since it's what I first thought of when I heard the theme of the BG Blitz, and the initial inspiration for my entry.

It's the brilliant opening credits to Lars von Trier's The Kingdom (Riget), specifically the bit where the camera drops under the earth (0:50-1:28 in the linked video). Unfortunately, I wasn't able to recreate the damp; the thick, black earth; or the overall spooky atmosphere, so what I ended up with doesn't look anything like it.

[Neutron]

Thanks snarky, it is not in a book though, because I made it just for this contest.  It's made by doing a transparent wash on top of an ink drawing, then, after I scanned it, I rolled the RGB channels a bit.  The original scan, of course, it quite large.  I'm not sure how many pixels, but it's 6 inches x 8 inches.

[Matti]

Idea               - Ghost

Atmosphere   - Snarky

Composition   - Geraduatuza

Technique      - Geraduatuza

Functionality - Coconut Shuffle

[Questionable]

Idea Ghost

Atmosphere Cobra 79

Composition Geraduatuza

Technique Geraduatuza

Functionality Coconut Shuffle

[cobra79]

Idea               - Geraduatuza

Atmosphere   - Snarky

Composition   - Geraduatuza

Technique      - Geraduatuza

Functionality  - Geraduatuza

I am really impressed by the underground tank facility. The Lighting is great as is the composition. Imho this would make a great game background. Second for me is Snarky's tunnel. You have captured a nice mystic mood.

Thank you Snarky and the posterized color fields and the overall unfinishedness are due to time contraints.

[Andail]

Snarky, I totally adore von Trier's Riget It's a masterpiece in every single aspect!

Oh, and Neutron; wrap this up, please, it's getting over due!

[Snarky]

"Grunden under Rigshospitalet er gammel mose." ... Gives me shivers! 

And yeah, I think we know who the winner is, so let's move on to the next round!

@Neutron: Yeah, after looking for a little while I figured out that your piece was in fact completely original. Man that's good!
@cobra79: OK, I see. Interesting technique you're using for sketching it out. Very cool.

[Neutron]

And the winner is: Geraduatuza!
Congratulations, Geraduatuza, please start the next Blitz!
Sorry I'm a bit late, I was caught up in the election.