Background Sketches

[CorzoMx]

Which version of this hut should I use? What should I improve?



It is supposed to be the house of a voodoo lady-like character.

Also, there is going to be a inn-bar in the swamp of Horrore Island (the island where the previous hut is).




Thanks.

[NickyNyce]

I like the bottom one with the tiki torches and skulls, but you might want to raise the perspective a bit, and if the bottom picture contains the bar?  I would go with the middle one.

And if your looking for some crazy ideas....how about some bamboo crosses, some bone jewelery hanging around, maybe a snake lying around or in a tree.

[CorzoMx]

I like the bottom one with the tiki torches and skulls, but you might want to raise the perspective a bit, and if the bottom picture contains the bar?  I would go with the middle one.

And if your looking for some crazy ideas....how about some bamboo crosses, some bone jewelery hanging around, maybe a snake lying around or in a tree.

Hehe thanks for the suggestions. I really like the bamboo crosses idea. The first three pictures are from the hut and the other three are from the bar/inn. Personally, I prefer the skulls from the third picture using the hut of the second... And with the bar/inn the second one.

[Anian]

I would actually go for the middle options on both, but that would look maybe a bit too unimaginative in-game.

But what Nicky said, you're not thinking of the scaling on the 3rd options, if you make the view from straight front, it'll be hard to make the character scale down when it's walking to the buildings.
For the 1st choices, it's a shame to cut off the building, if it's an outdoor background where you enter a building, you should know what kind of a building you're entering, kind of buliding an atmosphere of the place before you're there (and this might ha ve a comic effect as well - like from the outside it looks scary and creepy but inside it's a vegas style casino or a spa etc.). So if you choose the 1st options, I'd zoom out a bit soo the whole building fits.

And yeah, especially when you're showing messy nature backgrounds, think of the details.

[CorzoMx]

You are right... I totally forgot about scaling :S well... These are the 4° version of the hut and the inn/bar (it is both... also there'll be a little conversation with the owner of that place about wheter it is an inn or a bar (there's a sign telling you that it is an inn and there's also this huge sign that points that it is a bar))



I would listen to some more suggestions before starting the colored versions of the backgrounds.
NickyNyce, anian thanks.

[Ryan Timothy B]

You don't mean for the 'camera' to be on that much of an angle did you? It's not so bad with the bridge, but the house is really too much on both images. Or is that just because the sketch hasn't been rotated?

[CorzoMx]

You don't mean for the 'camera' to be on that much of an angle did you? It's not so bad with the bridge, but the house is really too much on both images. Or is that just because the sketch hasn't been rotated?

When I make a sketch I don'r really care about the angle, I can always rotate it in the final version, also I can add more details. But thanks.

[Mad]

Those are very promising sketches indeed. There are a lot of nice details in them, but as the compositions are now, I think they'll be lost. The emphasis of the backgrounds at the moment are on the bridges, which of course is fine if most of the action happens there.

Scaling issues have already been mentioned, and you'll definately run in to them, if you keep the composition as it is.

A workaround would be a scrolling background, with the bridge and the building more or less in the foreground.

I made a sketch of a hut with a bridge/jetty in a swampy setting some time ago:



As you can see, I never really finished this, and looking at it now, I'd probably make the BG even wider to accommodate a longer bridge and I'd put the jetty/bridge more into the middleground.

But I hope you see where I'm coming from, and maybe you can incorporate that idea into your composition.

Edit:
@ProgZmax: Well... yes, fair enough.
I kneel before your supreme ideas.

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

You really should finish that, Mad, it looks great.  I even like the neutral green color scheme as-is!  This is definitely a good approach to fitting in the hut within a surrounding swamp area to establish mood.  One thing I would've done differently would be to have loads of tall, thin trees (willows and dead) some overturned, and have the hut built into a large tree with that foreground path spiraling up and around the tree to the top.  It would be a vertical and horizontal scrolling room that way, but then you can show branches knotting up through the building and creating 'furniture' inside the hut like a chair, shelving for stuff, and so on. 

[CorzoMx]

Woah! That's awesome! :O Thumbs up! Love the bridge! And the hut seems simple but at the same time it is like "woah! I should open that door and see what's inside!" also it guess it would be even more like "woah!I should open that door and see what's inside!" if you put a glowing little window or something. I don't know how to say it... But as ProgZmax said, you should really finish that.


Edit by ProgZ: Please don't quote images, particularly on the same page as your post.