I really like how backgrounds were handled in Metal Slug, in that there was a character standing infront of the bg..

In that game it looked like lots of stuff was drawn out, but they were also really really good at element re-use. So there would be a lot of tileable textures, but they weren't nearly as obvious as say in Megaman or Super Mario Bros.

http://www.vgmaps.com/Atlas/Neo-Geo/MetalSlug3-Mission4.png for example

Thanks for the replies!

My in-laws are visiting for the week from another country, so I might not get a chance to actually adjust anything for a day or two, but I like the feedback

[...]I'd add a few splashes of colour to break up the perceived monotony of the scene. Also, I'd add a colour gradient to the water. I can see you've gradually lightened the sky to make it closer to the faraway city scene, but you didn't do the same to the water (or whatever liquid it's supposed to be)[...]

Right, I'd been thinking the same thing about both colour (admittedly I'm slightly colourblind so colour use has never come easy to me.. I like the slight purplish colour that Cyangmou used below) and the gradient. The gradient was supposed to happen and I guess just totally slipped my notice that I'd forgotten to add it.

Definitely clean up the art on the rocks, it looks very messy and unrefined. The clouds are also nice but their shapes look messy as well and they don't fit in with the sky either. I would suggest you lighten the sky up so the clouds don't stick out as much. Same thing with the mud, dirt stuff it could be lightened up as to look like sand so it seems in the same world with the bright sandy stone.

I wasn't completely sure how clean to make the "rock" as in my head I was imagining it to be somewhere between rock and mud... more like a clay, I guess. And I agree that the large clouds at least need to be tied in a little better. I can work at cleaning their shapes a little as there are definitely some messy spots in the detailing. I agree the sky could probably be brightened a little... I was not completely happy with how neutral everything is looking, however I think I'll need to darken the stone a little as opposed to brightening the mud. It's actually inspired by the Alberta Tar Sands, and I didn't want the liquid to be too dark, but it'supposed to be oil mixed with sand that will be ignitable (not looking forward to animating the fire effects).

[...]While working on all those small things you lost the sense of your big picture and each of the areas with the small forms looks flat and repetitive.[...]

I agree. The way you've built the volumes out is nice

[...]-You use hell a lot of redundant colors everywhere.
 The bg strip with the city has for example 11 colors, it's possible to get away with the same rsult if you'd only use 3 colors (I recolored it).

Sort of... I actually painted the city part with 3 colours, but I'm using Photoshop, and I have the sky overlayed ontop to help with the hazy look... I'm sure that's contributing to the 11 colors that you're seeing. Out of curiosity, are you using photoshop too?)

[...]-The style of the character and the bg doesn't match. While the character looks really cartoonish and stylized (like some american tv shows), the bg uses a realistic comic impression (SNK Metal Slug). If the char should look like this make a more simpler bg, if the bg should look like this make a more realistic char[...]

I'm not sure if I agree on this point. I do like the simplification that you made when building out the volume on the "bridge"... but I also think that I've seen plenty of film with simple characters and detailed backgrounds that I like... I'm going to re-evaluate how the characters look a little as I haven't done anything with them other than an idle animation so far... but I personally think the contrast between a simpler character and a more detailed bg can work.


Thanks again for the feedback! I'll post a revision as soon as I get some time to work on it!