A mock-up is growing. WIP. [-> A boy is running! WIP.]

[Jad]

I'm with Gil.  More contrast with those trees would mess with the readability.  Maybe a bit more coloring on the midrange trees.  The grass has become a bit messy, but it's probably just too much contrast.

With the light in that direction, wouldn't the left side of the pool be darker and the right the light one?

More coloring on the midrange trees, I was thinking of that. If the different parrallax layers somehow blen with each other I think that's going to be allright. The bg is a lush forest and as such, every tree doesn't have to stand out on its own, so if they happen to blend together that'd be alright. The forest is an entity after all.

With the light in that direction, you're one hundred percent right and more dynamic lighting inside of the lake pool will be coming in the next update 0:!

Yeah vellan, I'm both with you and am not. I want the character to blend in nicely with the environment also. Immersion is also a part of gameplay and I'm not sure if the greatest immersion is achieved by making everything easy for the player (e.g. to spot the character) or by enhancing the atmoshpere (not detracing from the background in favor of readability but making the character a natural part of the environment)

I think he has some of the contrast he needs by 1: being the only thing in the environment who has red details and 2: of course being the only player-controlled part of the environment.

Now regarding separation between foreground and background, I'm kind of working agains my own purposes since I'm blending colors between parallax layers in hope of achieving an uniform feel. I'll try and see how it looks with parallax = w=

[Helm]

If you intend to finish this game - PLEASE DO! - move on to other level elements.

[Gil]

I really can't stop looking at this. This the kind of feeling (we can safely dub it the Kenneth feel) that makes you want to play the game so much. I can just imagine the simple paralaxing, the mood, the story line. DON'T DISSAPOINT US 

[ndchristie]

only crit - light rays are typically strongest nearest objects, especially the ground it strikes, because more light rereflects into them (really they are brighter when they are in the open sky, but the whole damned sky is so bright you dont notice them...).  were i you, i might go that road or putting the bounce light in at the bottom.

I too <3 the trees as is, it's very fresh and not jarring enough to sacrifice originality for the tried and true.

your redorange character looks great in a bluegreen forest, but when he gets out of there into a mountain road or a bright hayfield, he is going to wish he brought some darker shades

[Kazuya Mochu]

I broke my silence to say that this is absolutelly amazing. very impressive.

Respekt

[Jad]

If you intend to finish this game - PLEASE DO! - move on to other level elements.

If 'other elements' as such are enough, here, have a WIP run!



õ _ õ .. Having him on a background almost the same color as his short(edit: Shirt, dangit)  is really killing him. Note that this is but a 'block-out-colors-against-black-bg-to-get-the-movement-right'-kind of WIP, and as such isn't tweaked to work against many backgrounds.

And if you wonder why half of his head is a red blob, that's where the hats/hair'll go, depending on what he'll be wearing. I figured fully visible armor changes would kill me, seeing as I want to crank a lot of animation into this fellow, but the head, well, that, I can live with. Since a lot of animations probably will use the same head angles, a bit of copy pasta will save me from a lot of work (EUGH, PUTTING IN EFFORTS AND STUFFS, WHO DO YOU THINK I AM, ADARIAS?) so I'll go with that. Since most of the hats will be placed on the red spot on his head, I decided to leave it like that.

That enough info for you? .. Maybe you need to see it against a black BG? Does the animation speed work in IE and Firefox?

CC (Crushing Criticism) greatly appreciaded! (or you could just pop in and boost my ego ; 3;)

[AdamAtomic]

"Ego Boost" GET!

This rocks dude, great run, stylish and effective and clear.  His close hand may move backward just SLIGHTLY too fast, when you stare at it for a while it starts to look a bit odd, but then maybe I stared at it for too long?

[Jad]

Have no idea about the hand myself. Maybe I could smoothen it up.

Or add more frames, but that'd be overkill for this size, I reckon.

Heh, I'll get done with this, then I'll maybe attempt a walk cycle. Problem with that is, I kind of need to know how fast he's going to walk, how many pixels per frame and so, so that I can avoid moonwalking.

This run is a completely different story, his feet only touches the ground one frame each, making moonwalking an impossibility, assuming that the animation will have the right pace.

(his toes kind of flap around as he goes, but it's very hard to avoid. Plus, he's gonna be moving around with background elements obscuring his feet and so, so I guess that won't be any problems.)

Anyhow, thanks, Adam. I'm off to bed now, it's 02:19 here in suecia and I need to sleep if I'm gonna get up in time for shopping tomorrow (hehu, no school )

So post kritiix while I'm asleep so I have something nice to wake up to

[Arne]

That's like totally sweet. The only thing I can think of is that the light on the roots of the trees come a bit too much from the left, making them feel flat. Higher up on the trunks the forms feel more round.

[saimo]

*VERY* beautiful!
The only thing that personally does not feel right is the way light kind of "expands" at the bottom of the well. I'd prefer seeing those hues and reflections (and the sun beams) mostly on the upper part, with the bottom growing darker.

saimo