[WIP] Grafics for a platformer-rpg

[Snippa]

I'm absolutely loving this... glad you resurrected the thread.
Not much I can think of to crit the background, but just wanted to say how awesome it looks overall.

[sami/pso]

I like the first background better. But yes, i think for a platformer the second would be better so you don't have the feeling the platform is floating in the sky.

[Ryumaru]

i cant tell what the latest bg is supposed to be at all.

[philipptr]

i cant tell what the latest bg is supposed to be at all.

hm :/ that's bad. It's supposed to be the silhouettes of plants/ a tree, with a moon shining betwen them at the top.
So I guess that's quite a big problem if people can't even tell what it's supposed to be.. Should I again do a new bg from scratch? I actually liked this try best yet :/

Is it just the areas that are only sketched yet that aren't readable? Because that's not the way it's supposed to be. The left side is almost finished, while the right one is very sketchy..

[Xion]

Hmm....I can tell what it is. I really like the look of the moon peeking through from between those cliffs, but the other large valleyish area to the right looks pretty odd...but...I don't know why. I think you should just work on that area a bit more.

[Ryumaru]

it just doesnt seem to make sense to me, i mean i can tell that theres leaves and such, and i guess a form of a tree.
i like the second to latest attempt much better, what dont you like about it?

[philipptr]

Hmm....I can tell what it is. I really like the look of the moon peeking through from between those cliffs, but the other large valleyish area to the right looks pretty odd...but...I don't know why. I think you should just work on that area a bit more.

yes I see what you mean. I tried to make it look a bit more natural in the edit. Im not yet there but I think It looks better than in the last version

it just doesnt seem to make sense to me, i mean i can tell that theres leaves and such, and i guess a form of a tree.
i like the second to latest attempt much better, what dont you like about it?

I think the other atempt was taking to much focus in contrast to the foreground, and wasnt fitting the dark night like theme i had in mind.

heres the current edit (didnt have much time, so only smaller edits):

is it better?

[yosh64]

hey

Firstly, great work ^_^.

I really like both backgrounds, and they make complete sense to me .

I really like the first one with the tree tops appearing through the mist, but I seem to think the second one better suits the foreground.

Ohh, I actually prefer the previous version of the second background . The tree trunks look to go at odd angles or something, which makes less sense to me. I do prefer them strait as in the previous version. I'm not sure about the added lightest shade in the latest version also, I think it loses some mood, and I don't think it should be so light down there. I mean, I look at the first background of the tops of the trees, and the lighter shade in it looks fine up there, but using that same lighter shade lower down in the environment looks odd to me. I hope this makes sense . Ohh, I think the moon looks a little odd also, I think it should be bigger, particularly when it's down low. Have you seen the moon when it is low? well over here in Australia it looks quite large, compared to when it is far higher in the sky. Hmm, I actually think you should think about dumping the moon, and maybe adding it to the first background? but I'm not sure about this. But yea, I really like the mood it has and everything, I think the sillouettes work really well.

But yea, the second background is clearly the base of the trees, sorrounded by the grassy environment and such. Hmm, look at the first background, and then look at the second background, and it seems very clear to me .

Anyhows, I hope this helps.

edit
I just had another look at it, and looking at the first background, and seeing how the trees are curvy and such, I see the latest lower background makes sense . But I think maybe the trunks/bases could be a litle thicker. Maybe you could say the scale of the tree trunks/bases don't look large enough.

I was also thinking that the lighter shade of the latest lower background looks to go well with the moon. I still think the moon looks to small, but I do wonder what it would be like without the moon, and without the lighter shade.

Overall, I think I would most prefer the previous lower background without the moon. But I do think in the latest version, the composition between the moon and the background is better. Hmm, maybe the moon would go better with the previous version if you took it down a shade, as well as made it larger, but again I'm not sure about this.

another edit
Actually I change my mind... I don't think the composition is better in the latest. Maybe this would be so if it was a sun, as it just looks odd to me that the moon lights the background so much.

I was just thinking... the background looks brighter than the foreground in the latest version, which seems very odd to me :\.

cyas

[philipptr]

thanks yosh for the long comment. as you seem to change your opinion from time to time I will answer to the last critique said in your comment

[...]

Overall, I think I would most prefer the previous lower background without the moon. But I do think in the latest version, the composition between the moon and the background is better. Hmm, maybe the moon would go better with the previous version if you took it down a shade, as well as made it larger, but again I'm not sure about this.

another edit
Actually I change my mind... I don't think the composition is better in the latest. Maybe this would be so if it was a sun, as it just looks odd to me that the moon lights the background so much.

I was just thinking... the background looks brighter than the foreground in the latest version, which seems very odd to me :\.

cyas

So first of all I've discovered there are quite some problems when you want to make the an intresting background for a platformer. One on side it's supposed to be realisitic but on the other side it has to be beautiful and readable. You're completly right that the foreground is too bright, although I already darkened it one shade in the latest edit. If I make the stones and grass even darker, they will get less readable, and it will be much harder to shade them properly.
About using a shade more in the latest edit which makes the whole background brighter: I added one shade to make it more readable on a monitor in bad light situations. When I saw the image on a crt at a normal day I sometimes could hardly tell the difference between the darkest shade and black, so yeah, another thing I'm sacrificing for readability.
I will try making the moon bigger.
Were you talking about the one trunk in the middle and the tree in the right side of the background, when you said they should be bigger?

Actually slowly I'm beginning to think that this new background isn't as good as I thought at all. But oh well I still have so much to do for this game. I guess I never gonna finish it 

[philipptr]

Finally I continue on this project. I decided that I need a less generic sprite for the hero. So I went for a generic cowboy instead of a completly generic guy. Well actually I edited the old sprite since I'm not very good at making sprites from scratch and was quite happy with the old one, but it seems extremly boring and doesnt seem much like a cowboy. Also there are some slight readability issues.

So does someone know how to solve these issues without draging the style too much from the other grafics?