Backgrounds
Moderators: Bob the Hamster, marionline, SDHawk
Backgrounds
Out of curiosity, what programs are everyone using to make backgrounds for battles and such? I'm using Adobe Photoshop CS4, which is great, but I have trouble with colors importing incorrectly.
Also, is it possible to have a background editor in the graphics menu of custom? Or would that be ridiculous since it could technically take up custom's entire screen?
Also, is it possible to have a background editor in the graphics menu of custom? Or would that be ridiculous since it could technically take up custom's entire screen?
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Re: Backgrounds
Technically it already has this feature, though it may not work as well as you would hope. It's actually what I use to make battle backgrounds and it seems to work pretty well for me.G-Wreck wrote:Also, is it possible to have a background editor in the graphics menu of custom? Or would that be ridiculous since it could technically take up custom's entire screen?
Just use a full, blank maptile set and export it when you're done. Then, import it in as a backdrop.
I tried this once or twice before, and it worked. I just remember it being somewhat irritating.Meatballsub wrote:Just use a full, blank maptile set and export it when you're done. Then, import it in as a backdrop.
Guess it's worth another try, though
Last edited by G-Wreck on Sat Jul 02, 2011 2:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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I'll usually outline the basic landscape and any specific objects with the line and draw tools in MSPaint; then I'll fill in objects with some general colors using magic wand to contain any stray marks within the lines; then I'll take a 50x30 landscape texture from an exported tileset or screenshot and stamp it wherever I need grass, mountain, beach, or any kind of detailed texture, again keeping the magic wand outlined so that beach doesn't bleed into mountain when I get stamp crazy. I do all of this with the 256-color palette open in another window so that I don't accidentally choose colors that would map incorrectly. In some instances I'll also mess with drop shadow and lighting tools to enhance the image. Once I have a passable version of the backdrop, I'll import it into a throwaway game file as a tileset, fine tune the ugly colors and bleeding colors and whatever else is off about the image, export the final product, and then reimport it into the WIP game file as the official backdrop. This technique has produced screens such as these:
In capable hands this method works wonders. In my hands, it's passable ;)
In capable hands this method works wonders. In my hands, it's passable ;)
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I copy/pasted the OHR palette into MS paint, then made 1-point-perspective guides.
Trees and stuff were drawn with the paintbrush then refined with the pencil tool.
The grass was airbrushed, which I'm pretty sure is a no-no for pixel artists (I've already erased the above grass and redid it, it sucked :P ).
I also tried Pepsi's idea of stamping-in textures, but it seemed a bit too assembly-lined for me. Maybe I'm not doing it right.
The biggest thing that helped me, though, was figuring out a rough scale from looking at professionally made backdrops and adapting it to the OHR's dimensions.
Here's the template I made if you're curious. Feel free to use it if it helps anyone.
Trees and stuff were drawn with the paintbrush then refined with the pencil tool.
The grass was airbrushed, which I'm pretty sure is a no-no for pixel artists (I've already erased the above grass and redid it, it sucked :P ).
I also tried Pepsi's idea of stamping-in textures, but it seemed a bit too assembly-lined for me. Maybe I'm not doing it right.
The biggest thing that helped me, though, was figuring out a rough scale from looking at professionally made backdrops and adapting it to the OHR's dimensions.
Code: Select all
y 0-50 = Background. Good zone for drawing the sky and very far away objects.
y 51 - 75 = Middle-ground 1. Good for mid-distance objects, (like the trees in the far left and right of the backdrop I posted).
y 76 - 99 = Middle-ground 2. Just above the first hero's position. Good for close-up objects that aren't actually in the battle space.
y 100 - 200 = Foreground. Most of the battle space will be here. I figured you might not want to put much more than ground texture and small objects/decorations like rocks, etc. here, unless they're important to the particular battle.
Here's the template I made if you're curious. Feel free to use it if it helps anyone.