Most of the music sounded pretty good, as long as it matches the foreground mood, of course. I think the country theme bent some chords a little more than I liked. Background music shouldn't be too distracting.
Agreed. Those tracks are entire tracks and in game only segments will loop. Which loop/part of the track will be responsive to what area of the map you're on.
Slight update. Our resident artist was having problems with her tablet, which was about 10 years old. We just upgraded her to a Wacom Intuos4 that should be arriving this week. Until then, continuing work on revamped backgrounds.
So the story with the delays is such: When my artist came onto the project some details needed to be worked out. Once I'd gotten some demo art from her a few complications arose. Besides the fact that her computer was stolen, her new one wasn't playing nice with her tablet. So I invested into an Intuos4 for her. So she's been going at a piece today and it's still rough, but it's moving along. There's a lot of work left to be done, but I'm posting her progress from start to finish.
Her first pass
Her second pass
Lots of detailing left and I'll be updating as it goes.
Well I've left them blank slates, basically line art so she can do her work in terms of shading, tones, etc. If you're talking about the colorized ones, no worries, these are being posted 'in progress'
Looks nice. Looking forward to seeing the finished product. I don't remember if it was mentioned earlier in the thread, but what kind of game engine will you be using?
I like the direction but the tree is too 'golden'.
It depends on how important this tree is. Making it a little golden makes it seem more special than just some tree that's either dead or has lost its leaves for the winter. On the other hand, if it were colored "rotten," it would give the scene an entirely different mood. I hope you're conveying to the artist what the player should be perceiving.
I've given her specific notes on all the details the tree is too golden because this is supposed to be the dead north, winter. The scene should convey cold, but also the tree just feels a little too unnatural for me.
She went to work on the mountains. This is where we're going to face difficulty. The mountains don't look distant. They have to be faded and the way they're shaded, they appear more like rocks just behind the house. Lots of work to be done there, although I'm liking how the foreground is coming along.
Also I think right now we're at 70 backgrounds. I hope that's enough adventure game for everyone.
This is the furthest she's gone and I'm seeing some of the fault is definitely mine. I gave her no guidance with the ground textures, so while I think she's done as well as could be expected, I need to relay the groundwork with guidance lines to illustrate the direction of the floor. Otherwise the ground seems too soft. Also, again, I messed up with the grass against the house, something I'll have to correct. I generally like what I'm seeing but a lot further work needs to get done.
Your painting is making me realize I've got to be more detailed with my ground texturing when penning this. It blends well but is too soft without any sort of guidance through penned lines, so that's on me. Otherwise I think you've got the right direction there. Grass, same situation. I want the areas around where I pen to be darker in tone compared to the surrounding coloring, and for there to be a slightly more solid coloring and gradual transitions between lights and darks, but I take an F on emphasizing that in the penning as well. So you're helping me see where I've got to make changes in my penning an to convey that direction to you. Also, I take another F for not penning grass against the house wall. It looks like a house just landed on the grash and smushed it down. So, I'll have to repen that to emphasize grass along the wall and let you do some magic there. This is probably the longest critique I've had, but I think a lot more of it is on my lack of solid direction for the ground textures, so I'll have to be more purposeful in my sketching for the future.
I'm certainly no expert, but in that picture, I personally think the tree is a little off, (its kind of shiny still), the sky looks like it has much to do on it still, (I assume its still WIP right?). Maybe adding a little bit of cloud wisp to the mountain might make it look more distant (like small streaks of wisp to make it look more distant). (Maybe some shading of dark to light). Heck, maybe put a few small paths leading up there might make it look more distant.
Still its way beyond my physical capabilities, and I'm just a regular guy, so what do I know about artistic design?
I'm certainly no expert, but in that picture, I personally think the tree is a little off, (its kind of shiny still), the sky looks like it has much to do on it still, (I assume its still WIP right?). Maybe adding a little bit of cloud wisp to the mountain might make it look more distant (like small streaks of wisp to make it look more distant). (Maybe some shading of dark to light). Heck, maybe put a few small paths leading up there might make it look more distant.
Still its way beyond my physical capabilities, and I'm just a regular guy, so what do I know about artistic design?
Oh yeah. This has all been relayed. The tree info has been relayed, the clouds and mountains need to be faded. I take responsibility for the mountain and clouds. I did not detail them enough so they look boring, but the issues of improving their fade so they look more distant has already been conveyed. The tree is still something I'm unsatisfied with and that she will correct, but I put the far background issues on myself. I'm actually redetailing the original sketch to give her more information to go on in terms of busying up the far background.
DAISHI, I only mention this because you were talking about it before, but the house on the last picture has no grass coming up against the wall. I know you fixed that in the flipped version but I didn't know if this is something that is already fixed or whatever.
Yeah turns out it wasn't too big of a problem. She was able to redo the exterior on the house so that grass and mud looked as if it pushed up against the walls instead of the house sitting flat, so thankfully it wasn't too much of an issue.
Oh, so that's what happened. For some reason I thought that you'd reinked it or something and that you were now posting the old version. I dunno.
The version above is a modified version of the old version. I reinked the ground textures, mountains and clouds. I just left the wall untouched because she did such a good job on her own raising the grass.
Haha. So, Alcoremortis irked my perfectionist bone and I went back to redetail a lot of the drawings I'd done. See if you can spot the differences :P Also, I put in one new background!
Currently researching audio options for voice over work. Not sure if it's more cost effective to set up a home recording setup or use a recording studio.
That's what I thought at first, but then I decided that sounded way too ambitious for a one-man game project. How are you going to go about casting voice actors?
Those of you who have followed the game know that the backgrounds have grown more sophisticated. To match that, I've had to update the characters. Especially because too many were facing toward the camera, making it impossible for them to have conversations with the protagonist. Here's a slight preview of character updates, with the updates first and then originals.
Temple Interior
Temple Exterior TGA_Scene01_10
Temple Ruins TGA_Scene01_11
Forest Path
Forest Crossroads TGA_Scene01_06
Forest Mountain Gate TGA_Scene01_09
Village Square
Vilalge Fountain TGA_Scene01_07
Village Bar
Home Front TGA_Scene01_08
Home Interior
Home Basement
Wagon
Water Fountain
Village Barracks
Village Carpenter's Shop
Village Gravedigger's Home
Graveyard Exterior
Graveyard Grave Bottom
Graveyard Sepulchre
20 scenes inked, 7 colored, as of this week. A minimum 40 more to be completed entirely (detailing work) by June.
Comments
The abandoned house.
The deserted temple.
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Wacom+-+Intuos4+Medium+USB+Tablet+with+Pen+and+Mouse/9235188.p?id=1218064393475&skuId=9235188
I consider it an investment. She assures me my backgrounds will end up looking like gold. Results soon.
Her first pass
Her second pass
Lots of detailing left and I'll be updating as it goes.
Incremental but underway. I just barely noticed new details in this as I was posting it. Hah.
I like the direction but the tree is too 'golden'.
It depends on how important this tree is. Making it a little golden makes it seem more special than just some tree that's either dead or has lost its leaves for the winter. On the other hand, if it were colored "rotten," it would give the scene an entirely different mood. I hope you're conveying to the artist what the player should be perceiving.
Moving away from the oversaturated look that was a bit too vibrant.
She went to work on the mountains. This is where we're going to face difficulty. The mountains don't look distant. They have to be faded and the way they're shaded, they appear more like rocks just behind the house. Lots of work to be done there, although I'm liking how the foreground is coming along.
Also I think right now we're at 70 backgrounds. I hope that's enough adventure game for everyone.
Ground and post work.
This is the furthest she's gone and I'm seeing some of the fault is definitely mine. I gave her no guidance with the ground textures, so while I think she's done as well as could be expected, I need to relay the groundwork with guidance lines to illustrate the direction of the floor. Otherwise the ground seems too soft. Also, again, I messed up with the grass against the house, something I'll have to correct. I generally like what I'm seeing but a lot further work needs to get done.
Your painting is making me realize I've got to be more detailed with my ground texturing when penning this. It blends well but is too soft without any sort of guidance through penned lines, so that's on me. Otherwise I think you've got the right direction there. Grass, same situation. I want the areas around where I pen to be darker in tone compared to the surrounding coloring, and for there to be a slightly more solid coloring and gradual transitions between lights and darks, but I take an F on emphasizing that in the penning as well. So you're helping me see where I've got to make changes in my penning an to convey that direction to you. Also, I take another F for not penning grass against the house wall. It looks like a house just landed on the grash and smushed it down. So, I'll have to repen that to emphasize grass along the wall and let you do some magic there. This is probably the longest critique I've had, but I think a lot more of it is on my lack of solid direction for the ground textures, so I'll have to be more purposeful in my sketching for the future.
This was what she sent me at 4
And then at 6
I'm still dissatisfied with the mountains and clouds but the picture is taking a good turn.
Still its way beyond my physical capabilities, and I'm just a regular guy, so what do I know about artistic design?
Oh yeah. This has all been relayed. The tree info has been relayed, the clouds and mountains need to be faded. I take responsibility for the mountain and clouds. I did not detail them enough so they look boring, but the issues of improving their fade so they look more distant has already been conveyed. The tree is still something I'm unsatisfied with and that she will correct, but I put the far background issues on myself. I'm actually redetailing the original sketch to give her more information to go on in terms of busying up the far background.
Additionally I foresee that all forthcoming linework will be finished product, pre-painted. And I'll update the painted as she completes it.
The version above is a modified version of the old version. I reinked the ground textures, mountains and clouds. I just left the wall untouched because she did such a good job on her own raising the grass.
Voice over as in a narrator or commentary mode?
That's what I thought at first, but then I decided that sounded way too ambitious for a one-man game project. How are you going to go about casting voice actors?
Temple Exterior TGA_Scene01_10
Temple Ruins TGA_Scene01_11
Forest Path
Forest Crossroads TGA_Scene01_06
Forest Mountain Gate TGA_Scene01_09
Village Square
Vilalge Fountain TGA_Scene01_07
Village Bar
Home Front TGA_Scene01_08
Home Interior
Home Basement
Wagon
Water Fountain
Village Barracks
Village Carpenter's Shop
Village Gravedigger's Home
Graveyard Exterior
Graveyard Grave Bottom
Graveyard Sepulchre
20 scenes inked, 7 colored, as of this week. A minimum 40 more to be completed entirely (detailing work) by June.