[WIP][C+C] Mockup of 2D platformer

[drunkenoodle]

Hey all,
Happy to finally pluck up the courage to ask for some C&C on this little project I'm working on, this is my first time here, so I'm brickin' it a little bit... :|



The idea generally is a 2D platformer, but I'm quite new to the way of the pixel, and as you may notice can't seem to make the characters 'pop' out of the scene. Which as you'd expect is ideally what you'd want when playing a game.

Just a final mention to go out to http://quale-art.blogspot.co.uk/ for offering much inspiration when coming to constructing them there dwarves. Their proportions I found work pretty well with the surroundings.

Any help/comments would be massively appreciated anyway.

Many thanks!
-D

[Joe]

Hey there, welcome to Pixelation.
What's to be scared of? People help people here. You might get strong crits but it's a good place. 

Sprite/background separation is usually done with outlines, contrast and saturation.
Your style will probably not include outlines, so instead you can shift the background to a higher key/lower contrast and desaturate it, while doing the opposite for your sprites.
That's pretty much all it comes down to, trading realism for readability.

[Gil]

What also works for separation is animation. Animate the characters and they'll instantly pop out.

[drunkenoodle]

Hey there!
Yeah you're right, I think it was just some pre-signup jitters that I had. Anyway! Thanks very much for the replies, you've been a great help. I'll go back to it and have another tinker with those points in mind, see if it'll do the trick.

I've also noticed that the img url seems to have broken for some reason (on my pc at least), must fix that too... >.>

Thanks again chaps!
-D

[Glak]

This looks really good, but since you are using a jpg no one will be able to help you much.  We are seeing your image through scum.  Use a loss-less format such as png.

[RedSuinit]

This looks really good, but since you are using a jpg no one will be able to help you much.  We are seeing your image through scum.  Use a loss-less format such as png.

Agreed. Yesterday when you first posted it seemed to be a png, because I remember seeing a crystal clear image. Now it's muddy and hard to make anything out.

[heyguy]

Yes, please post a png of the image. It looks like a really cool mockup but the jpg compression makes it impossible to see clearly.

[Decroded]

Looks like ur using adobe cloud which thinks its real smart.
I think when I first viewed this it was normal but now I look its all compressed.

--> www.imgur.com

[drunkenoodle]

Yeah you're totally right on the Adobe cloud part. It's a massive douche! I'm just in the middle of sorting a little sneaky web site to host these images so I'll pop up an updated version shortly.

[drunkenoodle]

Howdo chaps, I did it a little more work on it last night. Namely the goal was to make more of the surrounding area, yet attempt at bringing the characters out a little more. Unfortunately I don't think it really made a difference, if anything, I've probably just moved things around rather than make it better.



I believe part of the problem is both to do with the characters colours being a bit washed out, and it's also quite a cold colour at the very front, so you eye is less interested in it...