NiroZ
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Well the buildings seem to be coming together nicely. (took me a while to notice the difference between this image and the last image) The 180 degree view that you seem to be trying to achieve doesn't seem to be quite there yet, but meh, you've probably not got around to ironing that out yet.

Is it just me, or do you have an affinity with blue/purple, especially on buildings? (not that it's a bad thing, just noticing)

Stuwy
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ErikH2000 wrote:
I thought a little about the story of the game where Beethro must learn to integrate with the city and its inhabitants to make progress.

Do I smell a puzzle game with action/rpg elements fused together?
Man am I pumped to play this game, let alone play around with the editor, MMMmmmmm

Awesome job so far with the cover Erik. It's neat to see (especially with art) your ideas coming into the project, then the flow of other ideas that come after the first sketch.

Thats what I love about drawing. I usually begin my sketch with what I see in my head, then revolve my ideas around the first little effort I made to come up with something absolutley different than what I thought of originaly.

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[Last edited by Stuwy at 03-04-2007 08:27 AM]

NiroZ
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Stuwy wrote:

ErikH2000 wrote:
I thought a little about the story of the game where Beethro must learn to integrate with the city and its inhabitants to make progress.

Do I smell a puzzle game with action/rpg elements fused together?
Man am I pumped to play this game, let alone play around with the editor, MMMmmmmm

Is this the best thread to press Erik about details of TCB? No, I thought not.

Briareos
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Stuwy wrote:
Do I smell a puzzle game with action/rpg elements fused together?
Man am I pumped to play this game, let alone play around with the editor, MMMmmmmm

Urge to play TCB... rising.

np: Autechre - Lentic Catachresis (Confield)

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ErikH2000
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File: FlatColor.jpg (86.6 KB)
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License: Creative Commons
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Yeah, NiroZ, I do seem to have a heavy bias towards blue/purple. The next drawing I do, I think I'll pick some other colors to base on for variety's sake.

I finished flat coloring the image. I guess I might explain the difference between this coloring and the previous coloring. The previous coloring was a very quick test of what the colors in the image should generally be. Same for the shading and line drawing that has been obliterated by this last round of coloring. It is difficult to plan the overall layout, shading, and color of a painting when I am worrying about being neat. So I did in two passes.

Next I'll add shading to the flat color, and I think it will start to look good.

-Erik




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[Last edited by ErikH2000 at 03-04-2007 08:52 PM]

noma
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Nice! Suddenly the buildings seem to be glowing. And I like the greenish brightness on the horizon... all very otherworldly. The colours themselves would imply fun, but the way you've used them gives an overall sense of anticipation and tension . Beethro's pose definitely contributes to that; swordless, tense -- he's on a mission -- but which way to go?

Jatopian
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Stuwy wrote:
Do I smell a puzzle game with action/rpg elements fused together?

Wait... And Beethro's standing on a giant ball with stuff stuck on it...
Na na na na na... KATAMARI DAMACY!

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vittro
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The Cover is looking really good. I can't wait for seeing it finished. Same thing for the game

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Elfstone
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Am I allowed to ask why there are two people standing on the roof to the NW of Beethro?

Well, I suppose I'm allowed to ask, but what I'm trying to say is that I understand that you might not want to answer at this stage.

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ErikH2000
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File: Shaded.jpg (89.5 KB)
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I finished shading, and the thing looks much better now, in my opinion. Next I'm going to put cobblestones on the courtyard. I have a trick for doing this that I'm anxious to try. Not sure if it will work or not.

-Erik





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[Last edited by ErikH2000 at 03-05-2007 01:37 AM]

ErikH2000
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Elfstone wrote:
Am I allowed to ask why there are two people standing on the roof to the NW of Beethro?

No special story-based reason. They are there to make the city seem more like a place that people actually occupy and use, and not just a bunch of weird shapes.

-Erik

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NiroZ
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Is Beethro supposed to have 2 hairs? I thought he had 3.

Sergenth
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Is Beethro supposed to have 2 hairs? I thought he had 3.

THAT might be a story element...

NiroZ
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Sergenth wrote:
THAT might be a story element...

It could also be an oversight. If we assume that everything is intentional and perfect, there's not much point in Erik posting this is there?

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[Last edited by NiroZ at 03-05-2007 02:09 AM]

Jatopian
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I'm more concerned by how the horizon seems to bend around into a ball shape. Presumably the effect will be awesome enough in the final version to suspend disbelief.

NiroZ wrote:
If we assume that everything is intentional and perfect, there's not much point in Erik posting this is there?

It gives the slavering masses some tidbits to tease them.

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ErikH2000
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File: WithLinesAgain.jpg (106 KB)
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Cobblestones in. The trick I was talking about is just taking one texture and repasting it many times with perspective and rotation applied to match the curvature.

Also, I was missing the sketch lines I started with so I copied them to a new layer on top of everything else. I still need to clean up the top layer sketch lines.

I think that's all I'll do today.

-Erik



____________________________
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dev journals | twitch stream | youtube archive (NSFW)

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[Last edited by ErikH2000 at 03-05-2007 02:56 AM]

Sergenth
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Without sketch lines - central area has some sharp dark line detail that "pops out" the middle of the image and applies a sense of depth of field to the less-detailed background building shapes.

With sketch lines - richness and re-added definition of sketch lines nicely darkens the alleys and closer buildings. Figures again match the detail level of the buildings (before, they looked pasted in as they were still unmodified sketch constructions while the building sketch lines had been painted over).

Now how to get the best of both worlds?

Chaco
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I believe Erik solved that problem in his previous CD by using colored, blue/purple lines as boundaries.

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ErikH2000
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File: Final.jpg (135.5 KB)
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Here's the final art for the CD cover.

Most notably I added the title of the game and Caravel logo on top of the art. Even though I had left lots of open space in both corners for this purpose, I still strongly disliked putting anything there. It spoils the symmetry of the drawing. Oh well, I don't see anything easy that can be done. The Caravel Games logo seemed particularly disruptive, so I let it the image underneath it show through a little to mute it.

Also, I added textures to some of the walls, detailed Beethro and citizens, bumped up the saturation, and erased a bunch of sketch lines that looked bad.

I'm fairly happy with the resulting image. It should look great on the front of a CD.

-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 05-08-2007 03:12 AM]

Neather2
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Good Job Erik. I like that Cd.

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NiroZ
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Sorry for being a negative nellie, but that picture strikes discordinate chimes in my head. Well, the DROD: The city beneath text does.

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[Last edited by NiroZ at 05-08-2007 08:08 AM]

Maurog
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File: altcover.jpg (13.5 KB)
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Author: Erik Hermansen
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Hmm, it's nice, but the logo and especially the title seem to disrupt the harmony of the whole image.

My choice of locations would probably be upper left for the logo and bottom for the title, since the city is less detailed there. Something like that:



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[Last edited by Maurog at 05-08-2007 09:34 AM]

Tim
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File: altcover2a.jpg (7.6 KB)
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I think I am going to agree with Maurog here. The extra images somehow feels out of balance.

My choice would be the logo just on the top, with some blending, and the Caravel logo at one of the bottom corners, something like this. (Note that I can't do any blending, since I dont have any real drawing software.)



(License is the same as the rest of the pictures on this page.)

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[Last edited by Tim at 05-08-2007 01:04 PM]

Maurog
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We must not hide the top buildings. The top buildings are way too cool to be hidden.

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NiroZ
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Now if the sketch lines were covered up, and more detail added to the street, I would struggle to find a fault. Although knowing me, I'm sure I'd find one.

Tim
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Maurog wrote:
We must not hide the top buildings. The top buildings are way too cool to be hidden.

Completely Agree. That is still my intention.

As I said, my picture was more showing the location of the stuff. Gimp just refuses to run on my computer.

That was the best I could do with MSPaint . Erik (or you) can do much better with Photoshop.

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noma
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File: AnotherAlt.jpg (37.1 KB)
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License: Creative Commons

Here's my 2 cents:

1. The artwork is great. The only thing I'd suggest is perhaps softening some of the sketch lines on the bottom centre building.

2. The operating system info distracts from the artwork and is hard to make "pretty." Maybe put it on the back or spine along with system requirements.

3. Shrink the Caravel Games logo a bit, and justify it into a corner. I found it a bit overpowering.

4. Although the font for "The City Beneath" is interesting, it's a bit hard to read and makes for 3 different fonts on the cover. I'd suggest going with something simpler.

5. Just for kicks, I rotated some of the text and put it on a transparent box. Image attached.



License: same as Erik's.

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[Last edited by noma at 05-08-2007 07:54 PM]

noma
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File: LeftTitle.jpg (35.8 KB)
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License: Creative Commons

Another version with all text and logos on a left bar with the image then centred at the right.


...okay, I'll stop now.

License: same as Erik's.

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[Last edited by noma at 05-08-2007 07:56 PM : fixed license]