Cave background...

[Stefano]

First of all, greetings to all of you guys. Some cool stuff you've got going on here. 
I've already seen some familiar heavy-weights champions from AGS and on top of that, after all the great stuff I've seen here, I think this is the place to improve my skills.

Anyway:
I did a silly pixel background for the next Sprite Jam competition that I'll be hosting at AGS forums and it turned out to better than I expected.
I'm not saying it's the most beautiful background ever (), but despite of that, I think it's at least worth some critics and comments so I might actually learn something from it.

The title of the competition will be UnderWorld. It's supposed to be the entrance to a strange world under the earth, filled with strange creatures and lit by bioluminescent mushrooms.
I know I could add new elements to spice the scene up (the mushrooms, crew entering the cave, a hiding creature, etc) but it had to be a quickie, so apart from that what would you do to improve it?



Thanks.
-Stefano

[Dusty]

While quite lovely lighting is done, it's all very sketchy.

[lilwing]

While quite lovely lighting is done, it's all very sketchy.

Yes, there is nothing that a little Antialiasing can't fix 


(especially on the stalag[wahtevers] that are hanging down)

[Dusty]

AA is not the fix. It needs to be gone over completely and touched up with proper techniques, not just AA. It could probably use some dithering, clean-up, and AA(though I don't think this will be as needed as the rest). Right now it's not that it needs techniques, just that he needs to go over it and finalize it.

[Lee N]

I have a problem with the stalactites and stalagmites. In real life they always pair up since the water that drips from the stalactite end up forming a stalagmite directly under it. Yours seem to stand alone..

[EyeCraft]

Wow this is lovely. There's a trippy blue in there than doesn't seem to fit, though. It runs in a band from near the top right of the image, down the right wall, along the floor and onto the large rock. I agree that a solid clean up is in order to minimise the jagginess of the lines, and then an AA job as a final polish.

Towards the top left on the ceiling, there's spots of midtone that seem too bright, or something like that. Maybe take that trippy blue I was talking about out of the rest of the image and use it to make a new tone that will fit in there (it can also be used to buffer other things from then on).

[Stwelin]

Don't know if this was mentioned, but because you're putting these dark figures on such a light background, their edges need to become softer, as would happen with a specular highlight. Take some of the mid-blues and use them along the edges of the stalagmite forms to make them softer looking.