Improving my circus

[PsylentKnight]

This is just a small part of the circus (the hub world of my game), but I want to get any palette issues etc worked out before I move on.
The rocks and the bricks on the path are a WIP.

Any suggestions as to how I can improve this?



Here's the .gal file (with all the layers and such) in case anyone wants to do an edit: https://www.dropbox.com/s/pmhrgdc7dzopb70/circusBgOverview.gal?dl=0

Thanks in advance.

[Joe]

The character blends in with the background on first glance, really hard to make out. Visually I think the stand garners too much attention, unless you wanted that. I'd remove the dithering and reduce it into tones with a few details. Then, the coaster track in the foreground is a nice touch of depth, but contradicts the platformer perspective. It makes an unpleasant clash of two different realities; I'd resolve that somehow.

Finally, the sun in the background is the light source. It can't be darker than the sky. As it is now, I only guess it's the sun by it's location. Maybe you were thinking of this kind of idea? It usually occurs in the early morning.

Hope that helps.

[PsylentKnight]

Hm, you mean the sun needs to be brighter in terms of saturation, or value?

I tried to make it a bit brighter in this edit. Also, I did a very minor edit that I think really helped the perspective of the coaster in the foreground... I can totally see that the perspective is off, but I don't really see how it clashes with the platformer perspective. Like, its supposed to look like the coaster is continuing to spiral towards and past the player?
 


The stand generally has the amount of detail I want to have for all the foreground elements, while the background will remain in silhouette form. So I think that it won't stand out as much when I finish fleshing out the foreground (which is what I'm trying to do with the path bricks, coaster in the foreground, etc). I agree on the dithering- I don't like dithering.

I really don't know how to make the player stand out more. :/ If I make him more saturated or add outlines, I'd have to change all his animations too. I could decrease the saturation of the background, but I really like how it looks now. I'll probably end up doing that. However, the player does stand out way more in action.

EDIT: A darker background does make the sun look better and is generally easier on the eyes. I'm experimenting with some colors now.

EDIT 2:
I needed a video for my weekly dev blog post, and I couldn't wait to see it in action so I went ahead and implemented it.  I'm pretty pleased with the results. I can always just replace the images later now.

[Facet]

Used more technically, brightness is value, as in HSB. or where was the sky’s light coming from before?

I think Joe’s talking about the orthographic sidescoller projection (no vanishing points, in pure profile) versus ’proper’ perspective which, realistically, would change as your viewpoint changed (moving around the level) and the inconsistencies between the two can sometimes sit uncomfortably. The usual alternative is to just to keep discrete layers of depth without obvious vanishing points.

In a similar vein, and while I’m warming up to talk too much: the large size of the sun is working against the sense of scale a bit; if you think about the appearance to the human eye it’s really rather small, coin-sized or so, and those massive dramatic sun/moon scenes you see in photography are achieved by zooming in from a distance to a tiny crop around the sun/moon so your sense of perspective disappears and figures etc. can look dwarfed. I actually don’t think that’s terribly apparent/important to adhere to but if you’re worried about scale/perspective it might be having some impact unbeknownst.
 
Since almost everything in-scene is was pretty bright you could pop out the (ace looking) purple dude by putting a nice dark layer behind him. I kinda like the stand as is, I assume you can interact with it though (save point or something?).

Red sky looks cool; slightly ominous/strange, probably that's desirable here.

[PsylentKnight]

Ah yes, I get what y'all are saying about perspective now. I am trying to bring the layers together with the roller coaster, when each layer should be independent from each other. I kind of hate throwing away the work I've done on it, and I really like how the coaster gives the piece more depth, but y'all are definitely right about the perspective being off. I think that might just be a sacrifice I'm willing to make here though.

I agree on the size of the sun. I was going for an ominous and foreign look. Perhaps it would be more clear to the viewer that this is not our sun if I made two suns (and thus the scale reference doesn't apply here). Or maybe I'll just make it smaller.

As for the popping the character out... duh, I don't know why I didn't think of that. I think my original intent for the black layer of plants (on the same plane as the ticket stand) was to do just that. I just need to make them taller and less sparse, in that case.

[PsylentKnight]

Hey guys, sorry its been so long. I haven't been able to work on my project for the past week because of tests. Should be good to go for the next month or so.

Here I made the sun smaller and tried to bring the character out more. The character was mainly blending in when standing in front of the roller coaster in the top layer of the background, so I just popped in a dark backdrop there.



Suggestions for the path/rocks in the foreground? Is the sky too empty? General complaints?

EDIT: Don't know if I mentioned it, but the game is viewed at 3x zoom.

[astraldata]

You could use a large grassy bush in the black background area or something of the like to take up some horizontal space. I would suggest it being somewhere near the size of the rock to keep the pattern consistency, letting only the foreground/middleground areas break that pattern up.

Also, just FYI, the old Beetlejuice cartoons seem to have a lot of the style that you appear to be going for. I would definitely consider referencing them as well as the Mario Bros cartoons from the early 90's for interesting background concepts. Here's an example of some abstract-looking clouds you might think about dotting in the sky there:

Spoiler

[Decroded]

i dont like the scene tbh, especially the spiral rollercoaster.
i think u could have alot more fun building layers of lights, tents and show-rides, ferris wheels, etc.
dont think so much about distant mountains and such since there would be too much light in the carnival to see that far in the distance.

and throughout all that you could continue the theme of the rollercoaster weaving in and out of the chaos if u wished to make a point of it.
then u could even animate it, have it shaking periodically as the carriage comes past...

[PsylentKnight]

@astraldata: I'm planning to add more stuff to the black layer further to the right. I'm mainly just focusing on the area between the stand and the coaster in the foreground right now. In my next edit I'll make a sky gradient and add some wispy clouds as in that Beetlejuice pic.

@Decroded: Its very empty and very much a wip at this point. I know it doesn't even really look like a circus right now. XD
I'll definitely add more lights and tents and such. Personally I like the spiral rollercoaster... what is it you don't like about it? Is it the clash in perspective the other two guys mentioned?

I think you're right about the mountains... I made the sky darker just because its easier on the eyes, but now that you mention it its really weird that the mountains are lighter than the sky, and still so blue despite the sky being red. Landscapes are really not my thing lol

The roller coaster will weave in and out and such, that's part my plan. As for animating it, I've definitely considered that too because it would really bring the scene together. But lets be realistic here, working in 2D it would be nearly impossible to do right.

[HezaKey]

Kind of messed around with values some.  Made the coaster darker.  The fading into the distance just wasn't reading much at all, so I redrew that.  I love that spiral, so I don't really want to see it go away.

Something about having a purple character on a purple background is still not working too great, but I couldn't decide on a good solution that wouldn't be a drastic recoloring of everything.  And then it wouldn't really be a reflection of the vision that your trying to make.  But it's already got complimentary (Purple vs yellow) and all that red, so I think you can get away with adding another color to your palette as well.  Maybe green.  A lot of ways to do it, but I think keeping to a defined color scheme will help keep you organized.  Especially when adding in new pieces to it.