Help me make these images better?

[Squinky]

Hey folks,

I'm working on a new game. I have a good start, but some things bother me about my current art. First, it looks a good bit blurrier in AGS, and second....well it kind of sucks.

My process is to wacom in the lines in photoshop, color on another layer, and add black shade layer that I drop the opacity on. The look is close to what I want, and the work load is bearable. I'm hoping to find some solution that won't add countless hours to my work. The thickness of the black lines is kind of bothering me a bit too.

Here are some samples:





So any advice stylistically or whatever would be appreciated. I don't want to get the game 70% done and hate the art.

Thanks for any help.

[Anian]

I'd make the lines a bit thinner on everything and I think you messed up the perspective on the first two images.
Don't know what's with the blurriness.

[Squinky]

Heres a shot with thinner lines. Still giving me blurriness inside AGS. I think I will totally start over on those other two.



Thanks. Anybody know what the blurriness in AGS might be?

[Spummy]

I'm uncertain of what the thing I've circled in red is. Is that a park bench? If it is I should be able to see the surface of the seat because it seems below the horizon line.

Now, this could be a matter of opinion, but the clear area on the right behind those bushes seems distractingly empty by comparison to the left side. It could do with some trees I think.

[Squinky]

Yes, I agree. I'll make those changes. Thank you.

[Armageddon]

Don't do the sky gradient, the blue was nicer, maybe add some clouds. The first background is passable, the second looks nice overall except for the perspective, so it does need to be redrawn. The character need to be shaded like the environment and he needs sharper lines. The 'blurriness' is just from Flash I believe, it's not too bad but if it bothers you I'm sure there's a way to fix it.

Everything is looking very interesting though, add an extra sidewalk segment on the right side of th bus stop scene because the piece is too long. Maybe change the colour of the mountains too, or maybe make it entirely trees with some rocky steppes.

[Eric]

The thinner lines help, I think. The perspective is a bit off, but not so as to make the game unplayable. I still think those images look pretty good. I like your style.

If you do go with a gradient on the sky, have it go vertical instead of horizontal. Start lightest at the ground, and get more saturated as you go up. You might want to fade the mountains a little too, to simulate atmospheric distortion.

[Darth Mandarb]

It warms the bottom of my [cold, dead and evil] heart to see you working on a game again.  Love the eye patch.

Eric pretty much said, verbatim, what I was going to suggest.

[Squinky]

Thanks guys!

I will try all the advice given. I'm kinda feeling iffy on the gradient anyway. I tried clouds, but well I did them poorly.

Darth
Thanks dude! It's weird right? I'm finally feeling the desire to do it again. I'd love to see you working on some new isometric thing again. That would be like hopping in a time machine.

[Squinky]

Okay, changes made. Still not sure about the sky. I originally had the hills the other color because here in Idaho, hills look like that

Any more advice folks?

[Anian]

I'd change back to non-gradient skies and maybe add in some nice white fluffy clouds instead. Gradient seem kind of out place when everything else is not gradiented (or at least not so obviously) and it kind of clashes with the overall style (not much, but it does.

[tamatic]

(...)

Okay, changes made. Still not sure about the sky. I originally had the hills the other color because here in Idaho, hills look like that

Any more advice folks?

Hi, you might indeed want to use a non-gradient. The old blue seemed fine to me.
Also, the old saturated background hills appeal to me much more, both in colour and consistent style. So unless you are going to use some parallax effect on those I would consider going back to the old.


Hmmm also, the perspective here almost demands the sky not to show at all.

[Darth Mandarb]

I think the problem I have with the style is that the lack of "depth" makes it hard to tell where your focus should be.  The background (sky, hills, trees) feel as important to the composition as the foreground elements which confuses my eyes a bit!  It's already been suggested but I did a [very] quick paint-over to illustrate it better:



- did two layers of "depth" on the hills
- kept a gradiated sky but did it with far less colors to maintain the shading style you're using
- this really separates the fore/back ground areas and draws your eye into the foreground which (I'm assuming) is where the game play is focused anyway!

I didn't have the dev-file here so this was done with the wand tool (in photoshop) thus it's a little sloppy but it's just an example!

On a side note; this style you're using just screams for some parallax scrolling!  I would love to see this moving in parallax!

[Armageddon]

That's a great edit Darth, I think the last problem I see with the background is the bus stop, I can't say that I've ever seen a concrete bench like that with an ad, or a bus stop constructed with two concrete blocks, it's very odd looking.

[Squinky]

The sky seems to be a matter of debate

Tamatic
I've since restarted that image. Thank you.
Darth
Thanks dude! I tried out your stuff, hope I'm on the right track. I don't think I'll play with parallax right now, trying to keep it simple.
armageddon
Dude, those things are everywhere

[dactylopus]

I love the progress here.  The early versions were nice, but you've come a long way already.

I like the style.  Simple, but every scene full of details.

[Honza]

I like it, the style is clean and pleasing, looks professional. It's also the kind of style with which you can pass a certain amount of sloppiness as a gimmick , so I wouldn't mind the perspective too much - but I'm not one to judge perspective, I suck at it myself.

The signs on the last picture don't look right to me. I think the right side of the sign on the left shouldn't be visible, and the top and bottom of the sign on the right should be skewed according to it's sides.

I would also add a lights layer (a yellow fill layer in overlay mode) in the same way you've added shadows, and play with curves/brightness/saturation layers a bit to lighten the image and give it a more coherent feel. A little like this:



(just a quick example of what I mean, I'm sure you can do much better)

[MurrayL]

Yes, there's a lot to be said for lightening the lines. Black tends to cut into foreground elements too much (although I'm being a bit hypocritical by saying that, since Astroloco makes copious use of black outlines).

[Squinky]

Whelp, I'm back on this issue again.

Just finished a Plants versus zombies marathon and it is making me dislike my backgrounds

So, looking at what I've posted, is there any advice on going non black lines, in a timely manner? I've done the whole digital painting thing a bit, and it takes forever....


So I mean, I know how to do the "blend it in for goddamn hours" way, but I would love to see if anyone has some simpler advice. Something to break up all the flat color and get rid of the black lines?

Thanks again for any help. And for all the help so far.

[tamatic]

Whelp, (...)  advice. Something to break up all the flat color and get rid of the black lines?

Hmm, well one handy practice (for finding the right values and having control over them) is: just copy/paste everything as layer a few times. Then play mostly with the color levels, hue, saturation, and lightness settings.  Then use the eraser tool with a few well picked brushes to get the desired effect. Working your way down rather then up. Taking away: rather than adding.
This approach is handy for some fast revisions of colour etc. but also works, for example, when you are working with multiple source material. -Like when merging photographs of different quality.

Another simple idea is adding subtle, less cartoony fog, light-fall, smoke and so on "on top" of your scenery. So it can just kinda hang there fluidly muffling the cartoony contours. However it's easy to overdo that.

And another idea is confronting the hate a bit rather then going around it. Hehehe. What is wrong with a crisp, consistent, down to earth cartoony style? Why not focus on making it better in its own domain? Why go wide, more or less put time in concealing it? Since that will indeed bring the extra hours of work.
Btw, not saying adding more depth and polishing it is a bad idea. But I kinda wondered what you hated about it initially.