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Hippie
42% Rational, 57% Extroverted, 0% Brutal, and 14% Arrogant.

Your exact opposite is the Sociopath.

[VOTE]

Now, however, it's time to VOTE.

Please refer to the voting system described in the first post.

The winner will be announced in 48 hours.
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@Akumayo: If you want to change your vote, do so, if not, don't do anything and it'll be counted as it is.
@Rocketgirl, taffytom, Vict0r: A piece of advice: don't vote for yourself, it's silly, only politicians do that.

[Zooreal]

Zooreal
It's like Mind's Eye, only with a kangaroo! And some other animals escaping the zoo. You could concider it for Best short game, Best Animation or Best Background Art.

It's here:
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/games.php?action=detail&id=490

Many nice entries!

If anyone else wants to take part, there is about 24 hours left before voting begins.

Just a quick tip on your lighting method; instead of adding "whites" (with reduced opacity) to the lit areas (or it could simply be you're using the brightness control), try adding "blacks" to darker ones (If it gets to dark, you could try adjusting gamma beforehand, and set out with brighter colors on later backgrounds).

With whites you lose contrast in lit areas, which is the opposite of how it works in real life. You also get these foggy circles, which IMHO is... not pretty.

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I feel you master the use of colors very well, and are onto a great style. Maybe some of the lines are a bit wawy and could use some perfection (like certain areas of the bar, and check the top red line on the wall to the left). With some finishing touches like that, and a little more exciting lighting this could turn out really great. As of now it looks like a great start with a little rushed finish 

Alright, no gradients.

How about a simple Ignac-type of shading, loosing the gradients but keeping the solid highlights?

http://maniac.adventuredevelopers.com/beforeafter.jpg

While maybe not absolutely perfect, it still is clean and functional. Maybe too clean. I wish you'd put more details and structure into those big empty areas, eg. the wall in the last bg. Also, the placement of your shadows is a bit confusing (esp for the crate).

The almost-absence of lighting effects is a bit boring, but might be the style you're looking for. If not, here's an idea (I admit it's not very good, and hope you'll do better than this if you try to implement some of it. Also sorry about all the noise, and other crappy sideeffects of trying to be real quick in photoshop):

Very effective color scheme! As much as I like the green and purple, I am afraid it could be a bit tiresome in the long run. A little less "purple prominence" could be a good thing, if it could still stay away from the usual black/dark gray shading. Especially on the lines along the dock, those are screaming too much. But otherwise the style is effective and should be adaptable for the BG artists on the game.

(speaking of effective coloring, where is Super Jazz Man at the moment?)

The sprite is good (great colors here), but the expression gives the impression he's a little lost/sad (I haven't read up on the game, so it might be spot on). He's a bit hunched. Usually you want to play a character you like identifying with, and in this case it is one who doesn't scream "hero". He also seems keen on spreading the legs far out, but with a little less hunch I guess he'd be able to blance himself on a smaller spreadout (sorry, silly sentence but I'm tired and it's cold).

I leave to others to criticize the GUI, it seems perfectly alright with me.

Overall a very good job.

EDIT: A quick example of less saturated/darker purples:

Nick Cave: The Lyre of Orpheus/Abbatoir Blues

It's damn good, but I think it was released in 2004.

sleep, eat, fuck, go out sometime, pay the bills, pay the rent, buy food, and shit paper,

I don't have to pay for all this, but I guess it varies.

[Topic:HOSPITAL INTERIORGuidelines:]

Topic:

HOSPITAL INTERIOR

Guidelines:
Should be pretty easy to interpret. Any type of hospital from any age goes. And any type of room you could find in a hospital. Thanks to books and movies (and TV) hospitals have often been romanticized. If you're familiar with eg. Lars Von Trier's TV series "Riget"/"The Kingdom" you know what I mean (I believe there was an american remake of this, with Stephen King involved - might be crap, I haven'tseen it). Other examples would be found in Kill Bill, The Godfather, ER, etc.

Here's something which may inspire you:


There are no size or palette restrictions - as long as it's AGS-compatible.

Voting: (thanks to Loominous for the system)
Voting will take place on the 16th and 17th of January . Please give one vote in each of the following categories:

* Best Idea - The underlying idea to the background. Doesn't neccesserily have to coincide perfectly with the theme of the week, just strike you as interesting/amusing/inspiring; a place you'd really enjoy visiting within a game.

* Best Design - The style of the picture, architectural, landscape design, best mood, most evocative etc.

* Best Functionality - How well it would work when adding sprites, including appropriate walking distances, good angle for character sprites, clever walkway solutions, easily understood exits etc.

* Best Technique - How well the ideas are executed in form of rendering.

It would be nice if you would give a small explanation while voting, to provide the artists with useful feedback (check out previous votings by eg. Ildu, Rel, Darth, Ginny or Andail for good examples).

Thanks again! There'll be a new Blitz already next year!

(Hopper "Nighthawks")
Just to fill in on Ildu's reply, you see you can easily put more color into your black areas. Otherwise I think - since it's a homage to the painting - you could keep it pretty close to the original even if it differs a bit in feeling from your other BG's.

Edit: I now realize you're thinking of the parody painting, by Helnwein;

Jesus Christ! Pay homage to the original instead!

Very cool indeed. Maybe the shading is a tad too subtle, they appear a bit flat as of now.

[Best Idea: Mordalles]

Thanks for all the kind words I only wish more people would have entered, but with the full time X-mas schedule of eating and drinking the absence is understandable. I was lucky enogh to have the laptop hooked up at the dining table.

@Mordalles: I can't seem to get your BG displayed anymore, at least not on this computer. I still have a good memory of it though.

Best Idea: Mordalles. Who wouldn't like to visit the edge of the world, at least in a game? This is really the extreme edition of taking a step too far. Big brother's idea was nice too, a true classic!

Best Design: Mordalles gets the edge here. I love the feel of danger concevied in the fragile design of the bridge/elevator in contrast to the enormous powers of nature.

Best Functionality: Big Brother. Of course, you'd have to script footsteps (but that'd be tons of fun).

Best Tecnique: Big Brother. As Ildu mentions, you really know how to direct attention in your drawings. I also love the color variations used in the snow. I hope someone gave you a Wacom for Christmas... Mordalles deserves one too!

Wacom Sapphire
Photoshop CS2
~15 hours

I was trying a new direction with this image, and it's my first 640x480 background. Not entirely happy about it, but good exercise.

A merry Christmas to everyone

It's better, but still leaves a pretty messy impression.

Simply following the lines of the car reveals some problems:



- The steering wheel should be more to the right
- Driver's seat more to the left

A problem now is that the depth seems to be wrong. The back seat should be pushed further back, which could be easily done by following a new line to the right vanishing point.

One could get a pretty decent perspective this way, but it ignores depth measurement, and forces the camera angle into a little less dramatic one (further from the axis of the subject. Btw my character doesn't lean against the window... that would help).

My best advice on learning perspective properly is reading this chapter by Andrew Loomis: http://www.saveloomis.org/successfuldrawing/29.htm

Hard to put into words though...

I know, I just tried. To keep the angle on the driver, the whole car should be turned. Maybe set up some two-point perspective system to get it right. It is very wrong now.

Judging from the position of his seat, the steering wheel appears to be mounted almost in the middle of the car... you might wanna look into that

Darth is probably sleeping now, which will give you a few hours to find two in-game backgrounds and a plot to post

That AGS thing sure sounds like fun