ErikH2000
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Just for kicks, I thought I would show how I'm putting together the CD cover art for the next Smitemaster's Selection CD. It might be interesting, you might learn something from it, or I might learn something from you.

Here goes...

-Erik

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ErikH2000
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File: JourneysEndSketch.jpg (84.3 KB)
Downloaded 621 times.
License: Public Domain

I decided I wanted something that included big impressive architecture that would be contrasted against a tiny Beethro. I was inspired by the excellent vector art in the classic Amiga game, Another World.

So I started with a sketch just to get the composition how I wanted. It's very sloppy because I'll only use it as a guide for the real drawing on the computer. Normally I ink all my lines on paper, but I am going to need the precision of the computer for this one.

I dropped the Smitemaster's Selection header over the top of it early so that my color choices will be based on it. In fact, the first color I picked had be changed because it was too close to the grey on top.



-Erik

____________________________
The Godkiller - Chapter 1 available now on Steam. It's a DROD-like puzzle adventure game.
dev journals | twitch stream | youtube archive (NSFW)

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[Last edited by ErikH2000 at 07-21-2006 07:45 PM]

Bunches
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That's.... big!

ErikH2000
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File: JourneysEndLines.jpg (129.7 KB)
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License: Public Domain

Next I added in blue lines over the sketch that will be used to outline the architecture. Why blue instead of black? The colors are going to be mostly shades of blue and by choosing lines that are blue, it allows a compromise between cartoony black lines and reality which doesn't have outlines around shapes. Lessening the cartoon look is more important for the illusion of far away spaces I want to achieve.



-Erik

____________________________
The Godkiller - Chapter 1 available now on Steam. It's a DROD-like puzzle adventure game.
dev journals | twitch stream | youtube archive (NSFW)

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[Last edited by ErikH2000 at 07-21-2006 07:45 PM]

Citrus
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That reminds me! I have to take adavantage of that special offer soon! I need to find some money.

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ErikH2000
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File: JourneysEndFlatColor.jpg (98.8 KB)
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License: Public Domain

Now that I've got the lines in, I can ditch the crummy-looking sketch. I take that out and color in over the top of the lines. If you are familiar with Photoshop, there's a nice trick for this. Put the lines on one layer, and the color on a layer above it. The color layer is set to "Multiply". Then when you draw on the color layer, the lines always show through as long as they are darker than the color you are using.

So I don't have to spend a lot of time staying inside the lines while laying down color, I mask the areas I'm going to paint. I want to keep everything looking precise. Particularly when depicting far-away objects, lines need to be straight and crisp. If the lines waiver and jiggle, it suggests details of an object much closer.



-Erik

____________________________
The Godkiller - Chapter 1 available now on Steam. It's a DROD-like puzzle adventure game.
dev journals | twitch stream | youtube archive (NSFW)

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[Last edited by ErikH2000 at 07-21-2006 07:45 PM]

ErikH2000
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File: JourneysEndBackground.jpg (101.3 KB)
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License: Public Domain

I've found that it's dangerous to get into details of coloring until all of the color has been put into the picture. So there's still that white background to define. I kind of like it white, so I'll just darken the bottom. I'm not sure if the stuff I put at the bottom will be clouds or weird bumps on the ground. We're still underground, but there could be clouds of steam from some heated water far below. Hmm.

This is as far as I've gotten on the drawing as I write this. I'll post some more updates as I go. I expect I'll be finished with the drawing later today, but it might take me part of tomorrow too. Although I'm not going to float on the whims of the masses, I am open to feedback and suggestions.



-Erik

____________________________
The Godkiller - Chapter 1 available now on Steam. It's a DROD-like puzzle adventure game.
dev journals | twitch stream | youtube archive (NSFW)

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[Last edited by ErikH2000 at 07-21-2006 07:45 PM]

Citrus
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All I can say is this: It certainly looks like Iceworks will be featured.

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ErikH2000
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Bunches wrote:
That's.... big!

You mean the image size or the depicted scene? You probably mean the image size. Yes, this is not a bandwidth-friendly topic. I did put the images in secret tags to at least alleviate the screen clutter of images that you've already viewed and don't want to see again. Unfortunately, I think the images will still load even if they are in secret tags. I could take them out of the message bodies, but I think most people that are interested in this topic will need to download all of the images anyhow. And once they are in your browser's cache, they don't need to be redownloaded.

-Erik

____________________________
The Godkiller - Chapter 1 available now on Steam. It's a DROD-like puzzle adventure game.
dev journals | twitch stream | youtube archive (NSFW)

Chaco
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That looks really, really, awesome. Beethro looks so tiny and insignificant.

I think white isn't really that good as a background color, however. Maybe sort of a dark grey-ish brown?

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Bunches
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ErikH2000 wrote:

Bunches wrote:
That's.... big!

You mean the image size or the depicted scene? You probably mean the image size. Yes, this is not a bandwidth-friendly topic. I did put the images in secret tags to at least alleviate the screen clutter of images that you've already viewed and don't want to see again. Unfortunately, I think the images will still load even if they are in secret tags. I could take them out of the message bodies, but I think most people that are interested in this topic will need to download all of the images anyhow. And once they are in your browser's cache, they don't need to be redownloaded.

-Erik

I mean the depicted scene, all of that underground!

Elfstone
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I'm both impressed and fascinated. I have never attempted 'computer' pianting, even in Appleworks; much too difficult! Painting T-Shirts with a real paint brush is just fine thankyou. It is very interesting to see the process in stages like this.

May I echo Chaco's comment though: the white in the background doesn't look quite right. You mentioned that the scene is underground. Ask yourself where all that very white light would be coming from? Darker or perhaps redder? - underground, lava, fire pits of goblins, (Journey-to-the-Centre-of-the-Earth-ish)?

Come to think of it, it has just a hint of a modern Khazad-Dûm about it (which is wonderful )

Elf.

____________________________
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FAPCA - Technical Design Excellence in Layout and Aesthetics

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[Last edited by Elfstone at 07-21-2006 10:17 PM : punctuation]

Citrus
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Think of this, where does all the light come from in a dungeon period?

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ErikH2000
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File: JourneysEndShadows.jpg (98.7 KB)
Downloaded 464 times.
License: Public Domain

I added shadows to the foreground objects. At first I thought I would freehand the bridge shadow, but I realized it would come out looking very sloppy. Drawing curves freehand is already pretty hard, but adding in the translation for the cast shadow is beyond my drawing capabilities. Instead I masked the bridge Beethro is walking on, flipped it horizontally, sheared it, and then moved individual segments of the copy to match how they would fall on the walls. Then I tweaked the brightness and transparency of the copy so it would look like a shadow.

The other shadows of the verticle ridges were much simpler. I just masked the area I wanted to be a shadow and set brightness down.

And now... finally... I get to do my favorite part: detailing the walls! (Really. I'm not being sarcastic. It's going to be fun!)



-Erik

____________________________
The Godkiller - Chapter 1 available now on Steam. It's a DROD-like puzzle adventure game.
dev journals | twitch stream | youtube archive (NSFW)

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[Last edited by ErikH2000 at 07-21-2006 10:29 PM]

ErikH2000
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Ezlo wrote:
Think of this, where does all the light come from in a dungeon period?

Here's the thing...

So much of the DROD story happens underground. I don't want DROD art to suffer from what I call "Avernum Syndrome", where every piece of art is rendered in the dreary light-starved environment that you would logically expect. Liberties should be taken.

But if you must have an explanation, there is always phosphorence. You know, like a bunch of glowing mushrooms on the ceiling? Or maybe the Empire has engineered light sources. It's certainly within their means. Or maybe the whole scene is depicted through the eyes of some creature with eyes very sensitive to light, so that what seemed dim or unlit to us, would be brilliant to it.

-Erik

____________________________
The Godkiller - Chapter 1 available now on Steam. It's a DROD-like puzzle adventure game.
dev journals | twitch stream | youtube archive (NSFW)

Citrus
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It's looking really good. I love your style of artwork!

EDIT: I wasn't actually serious in wanting an answer, I was just pointing out to Elfstone that stuff in DROD had broken science before.

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[Last edited by Ezlo at 07-21-2006 10:36 PM]

Schik
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ErikH2000 wrote:
But if you must have an explanation, there is always phosphorence. You know, like a bunch of glowing mushrooms on the ceiling? Or maybe the Empire has engineered light sources. It's certainly within their means. Or maybe the whole scene is depicted through the eyes of some creature with eyes very sensitive to light, so that what seemed dim or unlit to us, would be brilliant to it.

I thought they just had a bunch of fiber-optic cables running up to the surface to bring some sunlight down underground.

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Chaco
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Perhaps in the Great Southern Desert, where few people go anyway?

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Beef Row
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Schik wrote:

ErikH2000 wrote:
But if you must have an explanation, there is always phosphorence. You know, like a bunch of glowing mushrooms on the ceiling? Or maybe the Empire has engineered light sources. It's certainly within their means. Or maybe the whole scene is depicted through the eyes of some creature with eyes very sensitive to light, so that what seemed dim or unlit to us, would be brilliant to it.

I thought they just had a bunch of fiber-optic cables running up to the surface to bring some sunlight down underground.

Nah, they scrape sunlight off the walls inside Sun Island and hire goblins to smear it around the walls of their holds.

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Tim
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I can only say that it looks great!

One question though, I would imagine the columns would be perpendicular to the bridge. Now it just look a bit slanted.
Is it Empire architectural style, or should I be looking at the scene from a strange angle?

-- Tim

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[Last edited by Tim at 07-21-2006 11:14 PM]

eytanz
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ErikH2000 wrote:

Ezlo wrote:
Think of this, where does all the light come from in a dungeon period?

Here's the thing...

So much of the DROD story happens underground. I don't want DROD art to suffer from what I call "Avernum Syndrome", where every piece of art is rendered in the dreary light-starved environment that you would logically expect. Liberties should be taken.

But if you must have an explanation, there is always phosphorence. You know, like a bunch of glowing mushrooms on the ceiling? Or maybe the Empire has engineered light sources. It's certainly within their means. Or maybe the whole scene is depicted through the eyes of some creature with eyes very sensitive to light, so that what seemed dim or unlit to us, would be brilliant to it.

-Erik

In early Discworld novels, Terry Pratchett mentions a few times that discworld light is heavier (and therefore slower) than Earth light. Maybe Eighth light is even heavier than that, and ends up sinking underground

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Niccus
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Awesome picture. Awesome feeling to go with it.

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I think we can all blame a four-dimensional sun.

ErikH2000
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Tim wrote:
One question though, I would imagine the columns would be perpendicular to the bridge. Now it just look a bit slanted.
Is it Empire architectural style, or should I be looking at the scene from a strange angle?

You are right that the angle was wrong. Since you rubbed my nose in it, I fixed the shadow to be aligned with the wall ridges and it looks much better. You'll see the change in my next update. Thanks for the useful critique.

-Erik

____________________________
The Godkiller - Chapter 1 available now on Steam. It's a DROD-like puzzle adventure game.
dev journals | twitch stream | youtube archive (NSFW)

Syntax
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I think the artwork should reflect the ambition of the game, not the setting. After all, there are 7K+ underground rooms to go through. With this frame of mind, I think the white works extremely well in a sort of... "the light is at the end of the tunnel" type approach. After all... Beethro is only going underground so that he can resurface with more greckels.

In the same vein, it's a very hope inspiring image... like all those times when you *finally* finish a hold, one last bolt to freedom.

Great artwork...

[Bootnote]

You said you were inspired by Another World but have you tried The Heart of the Alien. It's a little known spin-off, but captures Chahi's original feel and vision a lot better than Flashback ever did (damned coporate contracts ).

I guess it didn't do too well as it was Sega CD only, but, although harder, really perfects the artwork of the original. AFAIK it's now abandonware too and runnable under Daemon tools.

Elfstone
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ErikH2000 wrote:
Here's the thing...

So much of the DROD story happens underground. I don't want DROD art to suffer from what I call "Avernum Syndrome", where every piece of art is rendered in the dreary light-starved environment that you would logically expect. Liberties should be taken.

I have no idea what "Avernum Syndrome" is, but I agree entirely that one would not want the dungeons to be dark and gloomy. There is a disease in TV dramas recently wherebye nobody ever seems to want to switch a light on and much of what is happening can't be seen; most frustrating.

But if you must have an explanation, there is always phosphorence. You know, like a bunch of glowing mushrooms on the ceiling? Or maybe the Empire has engineered light sources. It's certainly within their means. Or maybe the whole scene is depicted through the eyes of some creature with eyes very sensitive to light, so that what seemed dim or unlit to us, would be brilliant to it.

All very plausible, although I wasn't really asking for an explanation, and in a sense you have made my point (which I was obviously not explaining very well - it's late here ) What I was - gently I hope - suggesting was not that the light was too bright, but that it was too white, which is different. Phosphorescence for instance would surely give a greenish glow? - appropriately sinister perhaps.

I know it is a very personal response, but I see the dungeons not as being dim, but being lit in various ways, and therefore differently coloured, but not with white light. Is it possible that the 2 different snakes give off some light in their own colours; that goblins likewise emanate green shades; that the reason we see/don't see spiders is because they are luminous in some wavelengths of light only; could queen roaches' carapaces be highly irridescent, breaking up the available light in to many different colours; rock golems might be constructed from some quartz-like stone in a fluid form which, while they are alive, generates light (pick your colour) by converting their heat energy (and when they are killed, the solidifying process is accompanied by cooling/fading?); could the tribbles glow with a creamy-pinky sort of light which gets stronger as they get closer to Beethro, so that if he is near a large group of them the light level is very bright (but not white)?

I know I haven't touched on how the dungeons are lit when all the monsters have been killed, but I'm spouting all this off the top of my head, and it is past my bedtime - my brain is slowling down!

I'm sorry I've rambled on a bit, but I just feel white light is visually wrong. Ho hum, everyone will have his/her own idea of what the dungeon look like and yours is, as I said originally, very impressive.

Elf(sleepy)stone.

____________________________
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FAPCA - Technical Design Excellence in Layout and Aesthetics

ErikH2000
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File: JourneysEndWallTexture.jpg (102.2 KB)
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License: Public Domain

I added this very detailed texture to the walls, all drawn freehand. It took hours and by the time I was done I was pretty tired of it.

A question I asked myself is what are these things I'm drawing? They aren't magical runes, because the Eighth just doesn't swing that way. They aren't electronics, because that isn't a technology that appears in the Eighth. I ended up thinking of two possible explanations and choosing one. I'm not going to tell you what I decided, but there is a reason for all the squigglies on the exterior walls of buildings. Just trust me.



-Erik

____________________________
The Godkiller - Chapter 1 available now on Steam. It's a DROD-like puzzle adventure game.
dev journals | twitch stream | youtube archive (NSFW)

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[Last edited by ErikH2000 at 07-22-2006 02:11 AM]

Citrus
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I know why! I know why! Because it looks cool! Stuff should always be added to the exterior of every underground building complex to make it look nicer.

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Syntax
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I think it's the queen bees.
And Beethro is running for a rather related reason: the queen bees.

They're, after all, bees *and* queens. Beethro is after all *alive* and *running*.

Im sure my mother used to tell me about not running from bees. Hmm...

Queen wasps!

trick
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Hm, I don't think we should be able to see the upper side of the upper bridge (which, btw, either doesn't cast shadows or is much larger than it seems). The ground seems a bit tilted too, but that just gives a nice, dizzying feel.

Anyway, I like it!

Are these supposed to be PD, btw ?

- Gerry

coppro
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trick wrote:
Hm, I don't think we should be able to see the upper side of the upper bridge (which, btw, either doesn't cast shadows or is much larger than it seems). The ground seems a bit tilted too, but that just gives a nice, dizzying feel.

Anyway, I like it!

Are these supposed to be PD, btw ?

- Gerry

The lack of a working perspective is what gives Erik's art a unique feel.