AGDInteractive - Sierra Adventure Game Remakes Forum

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Not bad, but the mountains are a bit too straight. Try making them sorta curve into the valley.

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Thats nothing compared to my awesome Super EGA lake.

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That's awful! Take a look at my state-of-the-art prerendered 3D Super-Duper VGA graphical masterpiece:



I know, I know, you are so stunned by my genius that you're not sure what to say. Well, you don't have to say anything! I don't need input from fans to know that my work is some of the best stuff ever. I bet you're jealous, aren't you ROG?

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You haven't done too badly getting the basic colours down. You'll find that the ground won't be quite so straight nearer to the mountains. Try not to seperate colours into different components. Grass isn't all 'green', and the sky isn't always quite so blue Also, don't use desaturated grey. See: (http://www.chiseledrocks.com/articles/g ... ction0.htm)

If you looks at pictures of grass, you'll notice that there are some darker patches, there's some brown etc. To get grass down, I'd suggest using the grass brushes. (if you have photoshop, which I am assuming you do) If you have another program, there should be downloads for brushes somewhere around the internet. Or else, you could use a smaller round brush, approximately 3px for your canvas size, and make small quick strokes, of vary shades of green/green-browns/green-yellows. If you use the grass brushes, size it down to 20 or so pixels.

At the top of the toolbar, after selecting a brush, you'll notice 'opacity'. That is useful for dictating the transparency of the colour that you will be brushing down. The green should work its way up the mountain, before becoming grey (but not neutral gray)

Okay, a quick paintover......




- Change to 320x200. Classic "VGA" styling are in this resolution.

- Add more mountains to give depth, made edges of mountains more jagged. They're not hills; they're mountains.

- Add foreground elements. Look at Sierra art, you'll always see some weird tree or bush, very dark in the front.

- Decide WHAT the background is doing. I added a pathway that goes off bottom left, and continues off right beyond the pond.

- Always add little decorations, like a rock.

- Mix up the grass a bit with shading and alternate colors

- pixelate picture by using mosaic filtre on the lowest setting.

- Reduce colors.


This was a quick paintover; more work would be required, but you can get and idea.

Bt

Wow. Nice work there, Bt.

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Rog wrote:Thanks alot, but I dont like the pixel feel, I'm going for a better effect because the pixelation makes less detail. Thanks all. I'll post my finished one later.

Yes, pixelation makes for less detail, but THAT IS the VGA style. Anything else is just creating a background, which is the same as drawing any picture. I'm just recreating the Sierra 256 VGA style, which is very different from say the LucasArts 256 VGA style.

Bt

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At the moment your mountains look flat. A mountain may be rounded, but usually they have bits sticking out - they aren't perfectly smooth.



First, you have to define the form of the mountain - where you want bits sticking out etc. Those parts that protrude out should cast a shadow on the mountain behind it - it is those areas that need to be darker. Also, don't seperate the mountain from the sky - it should sort of blend into the sky, as the mountains are quite distant, and therefore you would expect it to look hazy. At the top of the mountain you could include snow - snow isn't necessarily pure white - you can add shades of blue and blue grey to it to blend into the sky etc. At the bottom of the mountain you should expect some trees/plants - these should be green to grey, and darker shades than the foreground grass.



When painting, try not to see blue as just blue, or green as just green. Try to see the various shades, how the light falls on them and creates shadows etc.

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In my opinion you're attitude in these forums is a bit too arrogant Rog. You're talking like you have all the experience of the world, something i would certainly not conclude from your artwork shown here,

The guys in this thread have been doing a great job in editing your version to help you. My advice would be to talk less and practice more. No offence

Btw Fizzii, great job on the mountains in the background, they look very good for the 320x240 style. Are you working on any project at the moment?

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Yeah, Fizzi, your mountains rock. I'm very impressed. In fact, I cried for several hours as I threw my mouse against the wall. It was a sad day in Blackthorne's house.

In other news, I've decided I need a tablet now..........

Oh, and Rog, you're welcome - just keep practicing more - it takes time and patience.

Bt

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Personally I think the frass in the pixelly version is good looking but the rest is just the same as the normal. As an idea you could duplicate your mountains layer and use the glass effect and then overlay or or something like that. Just an idea.

The texture of the grass looks much better in my opinion It's a bit bright and oversaturated though.

When I did the mountain I chose a smaller brush. For 320x200 size it would be a 1 pixel. I'd put down single brush strokes of one grey, so at first it looks messy. Then go over the other areas with a lighter/darker shade of gray. You should use several different greys and different shades. Darker shades should tend to be heavier on the darker side of the mountain, but can also be on the lighter side for a textured appearance. After getting down basic dark and light patches, change the opacity to lower on the opacity slider at the top of the tool bar. You can then paint over the greys again, and blend the colours together a bit. A lot of it's experimentation.

I chose grey colours shown below. For the snow, I moved the slider up to blue, and chose a really light blue-grey colour.



As for water... most people would automatically think of water as blue... that's because it reflects the sky. You'd have to look at the colours of the sky, then for the water apply some of the same colour, but darker, and perhaps less saturated, and also apply some white and darker parts to achieve water ripples. It should also be a bit seethrough, that is, you should be able to see some colour of the ground underneath it for instance. There should also be some reflections around the water. If you look at the picture below, you'll notice that it reflects the columns, it is darker because of the fountain holding it, but it also has the reflection of the sky. (Reference photos of lakes may be better to use if that's what you want to paint).

Are you working on any project at the moment?

Yep I am I've joined Radiant's team working on a King's Quest: A Tale of Two Kingdoms.

I cried for several hours as I threw my mouse against the wall. It was a sad day in Blackthorne's house.

Muhahaha

In other news, I've decided I need a tablet now..........

Good idea. It's much easier if you're serious about painting/creating background. It doesn't give your hand RSI either

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