The Sierra VGA Background Remakes Thread

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Uhanimar · #376 Post by **Uhanimar** » Fri Apr 15, 2005 3:07 pm

I don't mean to be a spammer, but this is a understandible question...if your not making a VGA remake, then why the hell are you making the graphics. I could understand that it could just be something fun to do but, all of you already have projects. And besides, it is kinda wierd to tease people about a SQ2 remake when your not actually doing it. All i'm saying is, when you finesh the graphics, why not?

Swift · #377 Post by **Swift** » Fri Apr 15, 2005 3:09 pm

The whole point of this topic was to get people to practise their art skills on these screens, which I think is a good idea.

Alias · #378 Post by **Alias** » Fri Apr 15, 2005 3:31 pm

I guess he was too lazy to read the few pages. :p

Uhanimar · #379 Post by **Uhanimar** » Fri Apr 15, 2005 9:05 pm

I think it would be cool. I tried to remake a couple of these backgrounds but i can't seem to do it. Anyone here take a tutorial to draw like you guys do? I only work with the smudge, i havn't figured out how to use the burn and dodge.

It's just annoying, for so long people have yelled at me for posting off topic a little instead of contributing to the thread and now your telling me that i went through you guys yelling at me just becuase i was trying to learn how to draw was a waste of my time? I'm sorry but i really find this agrevating.

Blackthorne519 · #380 Post by **Blackthorne519** » Fri Apr 15, 2005 9:49 pm

Uhan,

There's a couple of tutorials out there; the ags forums has a great list of them. The best advice I can give you, is use google image search to look at paintings other artists have done. Look at how they draw grass, trees, mountains, rocks, bricks - etc. Study photographs.. then study Sierra Backgrounds - see how they work - then maybe try to copy one, exactly, but drawn your own way. They try making your own. The best thing to do is practice, practice, practice! It takes time, however, so be patient!

Bt

Uhanimar · #381 Post by **Uhanimar** » Sat Apr 16, 2005 1:39 am

Yes i had a feeling thats what i had to do. Thats not too hard, i do know how to make other backgrounds but i can't make any inside. I'll give it a try.

Shabutie · #382 Post by **Shabutie** » Fri Apr 29, 2005 4:45 am

Well I realise that this has already been done twice I think, but whatever it was easy and quick.

Klytos · #383 Post by **Klytos** » Fri Apr 29, 2005 2:35 pm

That looks pretty good. Well done!

Shabutie · #384 Post by **Shabutie** » Fri Apr 29, 2005 5:11 pm

Thanks bro, I wasn't sure if it was too blurry or if I had done enough to define the few areas in the background well. I added light to the tunnel, but I can't remember how much light there was supposed to be since I didn't play the game in like ten years.

What other backgrounds haven't been done yet? Any?

Optimus Crime · #385 Post by **Optimus Crime** » Fri Apr 29, 2005 5:31 pm

Very nice work Shabutie, you can find the backgrounds in loeky's site: http://www.xs4all.nl/~loeky/sq2%20pictures.htm.
I hope talented people will continue here as it is my favourite thread.

moonlit · #386 Post by **moonlit** » Fri Apr 29, 2005 6:34 pm

Looks great shabutie.

Besides working on my own picture. I am working on the chair.

http://moonlit.xs4all.nl/pics/sq2024.png

Yes, it is only the very basic I only work on it when I work too long on my own pictures and get bored .

Besides, is vohaul supposed to be animated (i.e. should I draw the chair with or without him?)

(Hmm, the xs4all site seems to be down, at the moment).

Regards, Ron AF Greve.

Shabutie · #387 Post by **Shabutie** » Sat Apr 30, 2005 2:36 am

moonlit, I must say I really like your style alot. how do you do your backgrounds?

Also, here's another one I worked on just a few hours ago.

moonlit · #388 Post by **moonlit** » Sat Apr 30, 2005 10:02 am

About the last picture; Very good, did you use a 3D program for it?

Thanks, shabutie.

Well it is a bit difficult to say how I do them (for most pictures there are parts I work on for days just to figure out how to draw them :-( ).

Equipment, Wacom A4+ board, linux RH and the gimp,

However there are two tools I use now for about everything. Not surprisingly the first is the normal brush with 100% opacity. The other one is the smudge tool with 50% or sometimes 100% opacity, sometimes with a sharp edge selected and sometimes not. The chair and side panels were done that way. I just painted the colors and smudged (50% opac sharp edge unchecked). Using reality and sierra's pictures as reference.

The reflection on the screens on the back wall are done with a gradient, fg->transparent.

Shabutie · #389 Post by **Shabutie** » Sat Apr 30, 2005 9:40 pm

No I did it by hand actually, I used the starfield tutorial as a guide and then I just improvised and did the two title elements myself. I'm a bit upset because at some point during the late evening I effed things up by merging the layers and saving it that way. However, I saved the beginning starfield and I can easily make another one, so if anyone wants to see my process(which is different than the tutorial I should say) I'll write a tutorial for it. One thing to do is add multiple color lights instead of uniform white lens flares. And lens flares on Photoshop CS are very ugly and require some erasing after you do them. So that can be tricky.

I do smudge, dodge, burn, and sometimes I set the opacity as low as 5% and sit there for an hour fludging with stuff. It's slow and painful, cuz I use a mouse. I plan to buy a tablet when I get a job - but I sorta am stuck without one until my wife gets her shift switched from mid-day(covering all the usual shifts for me) and onto morning. I think she's getting switched this weekend, so after that it's TABLET TIME! My wrist will thank me.

Anyway I finished this today so I'll add it to this post:

deltamatrix · #390 Post by **deltamatrix** » Tue May 03, 2005 2:25 am

Well I like the starfield but the logos do indeed look as though they were hand drawn. I know thats actually wot u did but for the spacey sci-fi look, it doesn't seem to work. The logos don't look metallic enough. Maybe a reflective shine in the corner would look better. If the image really WAS 3D modelled, perhaps that would look better.

Do we really need to trace over the original pic in this case? Surely, we can think of a different and possibly better design. I wouldn't mind seeing an animation of this logo in 3D unfolding and shaping itself on-screen. That could give this game some edge (if it ever becomes a game which i doubt) and some nice 3D spaceships with it.

Shabutie · #391 Post by **Shabutie** » Tue May 03, 2005 3:29 am

Well sure, you can do whatever you want with it. Like a 3d logo? Make one and let's see how it looks. Personally, I enjoy the idea of remaking the original with just better graphics. If you're going to draw a whole new logo, you may as well draw whole new scenes from whole new angles with completely different artwork... right?

Other than that all I can say is that the starfield was an experiment, I didn't know how it would turn out. The logos were done from scratch as well on different layers, and I can easily make them metallic so I think I'll do it and see how it looks. Check back tomorrow for that, I'll do the edit tonight.

MusicallyInspired · #392 Post by **MusicallyInspired** » Tue May 03, 2005 11:27 pm

Do we really need to trace over the original pic in this case? Surely, we can think of a different and possibly better design. I wouldn't mind seeing an animation of this logo in 3D unfolding and shaping itself on-screen. That could give this game some edge (if it ever becomes a game which i doubt) and some nice 3D spaceships with it.

Well sure, you can do whatever you want with it. Like a 3d logo? Make one and let's see how it looks. Personally, I enjoy the idea of remaking the original with just better graphics. If you're going to draw a whole new logo, you may as well draw whole new scenes from whole new angles with completely different artwork... right?

I agree with these statements, but regarding the tracing all the backgrounds in general. It's excellent and all that people are making the original scenes look awesome, but I rather like the way the Sierra remakes did it and completely reimagined the screens rather than tracing the old ones. Tracing old ones can be good sometimes, but everyone seems to be doing it. I'd like to see some fairly original remade screens (I know it sounds contradictory lol).

Shabutie · #393 Post by **Shabutie** » Wed May 04, 2005 12:19 am

Anyway, I did it so here's the new "metal" logo. Yah it's not even a new logo, come on there's not even a game being made here, so I can't see myself sitting down and working on the NEW logo. Doing a brand new starfield was quite enough work on its own. Bah.

moonlit · #394 Post by **moonlit** » Wed May 04, 2005 4:27 pm

Hi MI,

Designing a conplete new background is a lot more work than 'just' tracing the originals.

First of, you have to know the story very well, so everthing that can be done in the scene (at least the important stuff) is still possible. I myself have played SQ2 hmm, I think about 10 years ago or so. I really can't remember much about it anymore.

Secondly (the most obvious), you also need the imagination to think of a very nice looking scene (better than the original), make a good composition etc.

A SQ2 remake I can do in about two weeks. My own scenes take about 6 - 8 (color, composition, sketching, deleting stuff I don't like and redrawing :-( ).

Regards, Ron AF Greve

Da_elf · #395 Post by **Da_elf** » Thu May 05, 2005 12:36 am

ok. i was bored and saw people working on this

Shabutie · #396 Post by **Shabutie** » Thu May 05, 2005 2:09 am

Da_elf: whoa.

That was seriously gnarly. A bit bright, but I don't know if I like it without the rest of the game appearing in 3D too. I get a Lost in Space the movie feel more than a Space Quest feel though, but oh my god look at those blue lines, sweet!

Klytos · #397 Post by **Klytos** » Thu May 05, 2005 2:21 am

Awesome.

moonlit · #398 Post by **moonlit** » Thu May 05, 2005 8:48 am

Well what can I say, sparkling is the word, I guess.

Very good da_elf.

deltamatrix · #399 Post by **deltamatrix** » Sun May 08, 2005 12:15 am

Yes thats the 3D shiny look I was talkin about. The metallic look is no longer necessary.
That would work for a still title screen I believe. I'd personally love to see that in animation for the intro sequence.

MusicallyInspired · #400 Post by **MusicallyInspired** » Sun May 08, 2005 2:40 pm

moonlit wrote:Hi MI,

Designing a conplete new background is a lot more work than 'just' tracing the originals.

First of, you have to know the story very well, so everthing that can be done in the scene (at least the important stuff) is still possible. I myself have played SQ2 hmm, I think about 10 years ago or so. I really can't remember much about it anymore.

Secondly (the most obvious), you also need the imagination to think of a very nice looking scene (better than the original), make a good composition etc.

A SQ2 remake I can do in about two weeks. My own scenes take about 6 - 8 (color, composition, sketching, deleting stuff I don't like and redrawing :-( ).

Regards, Ron AF Greve

I realise that. I'd look at it as a challenge! (if I could draw or do anything with art, that is) I think it would be something that could take everyone's artistic skills to the next level. I'm not saying everyone should do it, I'm just saying it would be cool to see a different perspective on it once in a while

.