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Wow, thanks SOO much for everyone's help.

I made a bunch of changes.  Added another Lucasarts easter egg logo to the book on the desk, along with a new phone, name plaque, in/out box, changed the file cabinet to metal, changed the windows, the left cabinet to try to make it the right perspective, added real typed fonts to the papers on the wall as opposed to scribble, changed.. well. a LOT of stuff.   Basically everything that everyone suggested, because it made it much better.

Thanks again to everyone, and any more tips or critiques will as always, be appreciated.

As I wait for feedback, I am working on my 3rd background now





Thanks,

Bill

Ok, I made some changes..

Desaturated it, brightened and added contrast, changed the pic of the woman on the wall (made her blonde so as not to look like another character in the game accidentally), added bushes/sky to the windows, added shading to a few things, and changed the colors of the blinds.



Thoughts?

Thanks,

Bill

Glad you like the pictures on the wall, hehe.

I am putting a lot of those types of 'easter eggs' in Murran Chronicles 3, just wait and see

The bushes are actually supposed to be grass, thus the messed up perspective.  But I think I will do that, make it look more hedgey and put in some sky blue.

Thanks!

Bill

Buckethead's pic reminds me of Return to Zork.

Example:


VERY nicely done image.

-Bill

So as some of you might remember from the thread taking place over the past few days, I am changing the graphics in my new game from modified photorealistic to straight pixel based. 

I just finished my first screen solo (Markbilly got me started on the one in the last thread, which helped a lot), and wanted to get some C&C on it.

I believe the perspective for the room is right on (it's not a player-walkable room, just a scene with a dude at a desk), but I know there are a few errors..

I am learning a lot, but I still don't quite feel like I have the shadows thing down.  I tried as best as I could for the lighting and shadows (especially on the carpet), but I am sure there is room for improvement.

Also, the scene of the parking-lot seen through the windows..  I know the perspective is screwed up there, but tried about 4 times to fix it and couldn't get it right.  This is about as close as I was able to get.

Any help, tips, comments, anything at all will be greatly appreciated. 

And after the last thread, this forum is simply amazing for improving art skills.



**EDIT** Oh, and its a Police Chief's office, thus the badge pictures. 

**EDIT** Also, the chair does not have to be finished, since something will be placed over that immediate area (an object in-game), and the player will never see the chair.


Thanks!

Bill

Good point.  Then again, what of the song Blue Moon?  Heheh

-Bill

WOOHOO!

I removed that line one edit ago, so we're good to go

I will be giving you more tablet exercise in the near future, don't you worry.

-Bill

Kastchey : I don't mind at all, thats a great improvement.  Thanks for those edits.  What exactly did you do to soften the colors?  Was it a desaturation?

Hudders : I am not sure I know which line you're talking about.  Do you mean down by the base of the lamp?   Or the diagonal one down at the feet-end of the nearest bed?

rbaleksandar : I have a lot to learn, I know.  But I am learning, and thats the important part.  As for the size of the room, it is supposed to be large, but I see what you mean about being too tall.

Thanks,

Bill

Yes, very nice background.  Enormous turbines and bansai trees

-Bill

I for one, would rather kill myself than run around in Kyrandia, Monkey Island, Daventry or somewhere like Spielburg and hear idiots shouting "OMFG I pwned that n00b!" in a chat channel.

If it could be tastefully done, I would be all for it.

-Bill

I am definitely going to do it.  I think it is going to make such a difference.

Here, I took a screenshot of the characters with that screen loaded into the AGS engine:



I am sooo excited!  Thanks to everyone whose helped me with this.


**Edit**  I just noticed the shadow on Ken (the main character) is way too dark, and doesn't look right.  Does anyone have any suggestions on how I can make this look more shadowy?  Maybe lighten it up some?  Does AGS support alpha channels for shadowing, so it just kinda darkens the portion of the ground being stood upon?

Thanks,

-Bill

Ok, here goes.  I think I have done all I can find to do with this with the exception of the television.  Finished shading, adjusted the lights and the brightness of the wall..

For the television, I can do two things..  One is shade it as if a light were above the television out of view (thus the light pattern on the carpet in front of the television).  The other is have some animated stuff on it in-game so it looks like the television is on.

Any more suggestions will be appreciated.  I really like the way this sucker came out.



Thanks,

Bill

I am going to do the hotel room and my character in both of those styles and post them for C&C to get a feel for it, and see what others think.. 

I have to admit, now that I am knee-deep in it, this whole thing isn't as impossibly tough as I thought it would be.  Perfecting it, now that is another story

Thanks again to everyone.

-Bill

Details could always get added to the picture later, or just copy-pasted from the first, more detailed version. But true, a set of hand drawn backgrounds will work a lot better than a set of lame (and I mean it) quickies like those two I posted, so if only Bill's not scared of redrawing all the backgrounds then I'd say he should go for it.

And the pixelated version of the hotel room is turning out nice so far =) I know it's in progress and you're working all the shadowing and details out yourself, but I thought I'd point out that you still need to outline the wall corner in the furthest part of the room, in the area where the sofa is. And the wall light over the sofa looks a bit more like a torch than a lamp.

Yeah, I hadn't gotten to that part of the room yet   I was planning on working on that later this morning.  I will re-do the 'torch' in the corner too.  I noticed it did look a little bit torchey too haha.

I really like the way the room looks in this format, so I think I will be redoing my backgrounds in pixel format.  It will take a while, but I should be able to get all 50 rooms redone in 2-3 weeks probably..

One more question about shading and stuff..  One of my favorite shows of yesteryear was Futurama, and I noticed the art style there doesn't use shadows or shading..  Its all solid colors and looks really good. 



I wonder how this style would go with my game..  Its a little more cartoony than standard pixel type art, but has a simple and clean look, which I like..

Thanks,

Bill

One thing I DID think of, which maybe will actually mean I am contributing something instead of asking for advice

There is a moon and streetlight, which means technically 2 sources of light in the frame.  There will be one brighter shadowset from the brighter (I am guessing the light), and one dimmer shadowset from the dimmer of the 2 (moon), which will also be at a slightly different angle.

Thanks,

Bill

I am still very much a novice, and learning daily, but I like the shadow of that tree there.  Very nice effect of spookyness.

-Bill

Very nice

I was going to initially go for something like that look, but then decided it would make the game to hazy, or not have enough detail in it.

I am hard at work detailing the pixel-based version of the pic.  This is what I have so far on the one room:

I have tinkered with Blender, so I could use that to render out some characters...

I don't know..

I tried converting the hotel background to pixel based art by tracing/drawing, but I have no clue how to go about shading the thing..

I don't know what I am going to do..

ORIGINAL:



PIXEL BASED:


I tried doing shading based off light sources, but it was all just a bunch of lighter and darker overlapping circles from the brush tool..  I dunno..



-Bill

I'm making some simple sprite for an unofficial mini Wall-E game. Here is the inspiration and the sprite. I'm having trouble making it clear whilst still keeping colours down and contrast up...

And critique welcome.

x2

Wall EEEeeeeeee....

I think it looks really good.  Maybe adjust the shading in the front box a bit, but really nice.

-Bill

What did you mean by "collage with photos and put a pixel character"?  Also, by "don't make it so washed up", what do you mean?  The decolorization? 

Here's a very good tutorial: http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=36985.0
Yes, pixelizing the background would be nice (IF you're not going to use photos and stuff for backgrounds).

Your last edit is much better Could work on the right hand a little bit 'cause it seems it has more elbow-joints than usual

Hahaha, the elbow joint comment made me literally laugh out loud   I will work on that.  I am also checking out the tutorial.  Thanks much!

-Bill