Film Noir Style BG

[homestar440]

Howdy guys.  I've been away for so long, I had to come up with a new user name and stuff!!  Anyway, I decided to jump back into AGS, and pixel art.  After playing a bunch of games and reading a bunch of tutorials, I think I've got a pretty good handle on things, but nonetheless, I wouldn't mind some constructive criticism.  So here goes!



And 3X:

[LRH]

It's pretty good, but it's VERY empty. There's a ton of negative space that my eyes are just drawn toward.

On a more technical side, I believe I'm spotting a perspective issue...



You do have everything meeting at the vanishing point, which is good, but this point is also your horizon. If I'm not mistaken, this means we should see the ground up to that point in the window, which suggests the office is very low to the ground, or that we're just looking down on the scene from an extreme angle. (Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.)

[Calin Leafshade]

The door looks tiny.

Consider the size of the other things in the room and the size of the room itself.

Doors are usually around 6'6" which means that clock would be about 3' in diameter and the ceiling is about 11' high which would be pretty high for an office.

[ddq]

Is the only light source the outside streetlight? That really doesn't make a lot of sense. At night, if you've got all the lights off, even if there's a streetlight next to your window, the room will never be that bright. Also, I'm not seeing much "noir" so much as "middle manager." The overall pallet is nice though, if a bit too bright and saturated for film noir.

[Jakerpot]

It should be darker. And in more grey colours. I think.

[markbilly]

(Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.)

Domithan that is only true if the floor of the office is the same height as the ground?

[Snarky]

No, because the horizon is so far away that a few floors up doesn't make a difference. So the horizon would indeed be at the level of the vanishing point, but that doesn't mean that the office is low to the ground like Domithan says.

[Ryan Timothy B]

Domithan that is only true if the floor of the office is the same height as the ground?

Only if the outside building and sky is actually a fake back drop that is closer than the horizon.  But it isn't, so yes the horizon should be outside that window where Domithan has shown.

Oh, snarky beat me.


Edit: What snarky means by the horizon being so far away that a few floors doesn't really make a difference is true to a degree.  So to explain what he means by that is, since the world is round the horizon is technically not exactly true.  If you were on a completely flat surface that extended to infinity, it wouldn't make any difference how high the building was because the horizon would always be visible and follow the rooms perspective.

But since the earth is round, if this room was a rocket ship and stayed level with the ground, the horizon would start to lower until not seen anymore from that camera angle.

The more you know!

Although I could be mistaken.. It's hard to wrap your mind around an infinite surface. 
Edit: And now the more I think about it, the more it doesn't sound right about the infinite ground's horizon always being at the same spot no matter what vertical height you are to the ground. Argh. Brain trip.
But I do know that a vanishing point in a skyrise room will still line up with the horizon (I checked a googled image).

[LRH]

No, because the horizon is so far away that a few floors up doesn't make a difference. So the horizon would indeed be at the level of the vanishing point, but that doesn't mean that the office is low to the ground like Domithan says.

Quite true. I hadn't really thought it through. The big point I was trying to make (the horizon issue) is all I see wrong then.

[Snarky]

Edit: And now the more I think about it, the more it doesn't sound right about the infinite ground's horizon always being at the same spot no matter what vertical height you are to the ground. Argh. Brain trip.

Yes, it's true. Consider that on a featureless infinite surface, scale is completely arbitrary (because as you scale the plane and the point that represents yourself, they still remain exactly the same). You could be 5 cm off the ground or 5 km, and there'd be no way to tell the difference.

Quite true. I hadn't really thought it through. The big point I was trying to make (the horizon issue) is all I see wrong then.

Which point is that? That you ought to be able to see the horizon through the window? Well, maybe. You certainly shouldn't see any stars below it.

I think stuff like the tiny door, huge wall clock and street lights almost taller than the buildings are more serious issues for now.

[Questionable]

Before I go into the things that I illustrated let me through out some suggestions.

Details! What is the point of having an office if you're not going to do anything in it? He needs a lamp, a laptop, some folders on his desk, a pen and some paper, photos of a cheating wife spread out. A cell? He's probably spending more time here than he is at his shitty apartment (if he's got one) so give him a coffee machine, maybe a water cooler or a mini fridge. This is where he lives. This is his hovel. He's sweaty over tired starving and trying to crack a case, maybe he needs a couch to nap on for a bit. Does he smoke?

Think about the details.

Okay, so what I did in the photo: The first thing I did was darken it up a bit. I would recommend darkening it up even more but I didn't want to go over board. Next, the placement of the door and the window bugged me, so I quickly shopped them into positions that visually made sense to me. You might disagree i'm just trying to get you to think about options. Next, I added in a chair. Anytime someone says "Noir" and "Office" its a detectives office, really, isn't it? So, his clients are going to need someplace to sit. He gives them the comfy chair and he slides up his shitty IKEA office chair, hands them a cup of coffee while a dame dabs her eyes with a hankercheif. I can see it now...

The door looked a bit lonely so I referenced some pics from classic noir of the 40s-50s. Shadows were a HUGE part of black and white filming and even more so in film Noir. I added some silhouette panes for dramatic effect and to take up some space.

The next thing I did was erase parts of my "dark filter" to give some semblance of light existing. Lastly I darkened certain parts further: The air duct above (now with more ceiling shadow! Yay!,) the back of the filing cabinet and its shadow and also the back of the desk and trash bin. I also added a shadow on the desk from the chair just for gigs.

[LRH]

Which point is that? That you ought to be able to see the horizon through the window? Well, maybe. You certainly shouldn't see any stars below it.

I think stuff like the tiny door, huge wall clock and street lights almost taller than the buildings are more serious issues for now.

Fair enough. But yes, that was what I was trying to point out. "...Is all I see wrong then." was referring to the issues with what could be seen out the window and where the office was located speaking of height.

I do, of course, recognize the size issues as well.

[homestar440]

Thanks for all the advice, guys!  Quick question while I try to redesign....does a BG have to be in a standard size, like 320X200, or 640X480?

[Calin Leafshade]

depends on your game.

AGS supports 320x200, 320x240, 640x400,640x480.

I recommend 320x240 for your art style.

If your background is bigger than your resolution setting (on the general setting pane) then the room will just scroll as your character moves around it.