Background Blitz: October 30th - November 13th [WINNER ANNOUNCED]

[vict0r]

Brilliant... Just brilliant!

[ildu]

Right!

Time is up and we're ready to start voting. I've been pretty busy this past week, so I haven't had a lot of enthusiasm to scroll this thread. Believe it or not, I had completely forgotten about this until some 3 hours ago . Anyways, I didn't really have time to weigh the voting system, so I just went with something. Please try not to get confused by the category descriptions. The voting rules can be found in the first post.


The voting categories are as follows:

Idea - The underlying idea to the background. Doesn't necessarily have to coincide perfectly with the theme of the week, just strike you as interesting/amusing/inspiring; a place you'd really enjoy visiting within a game.

Atmosphere - How well the image manages to evoke a certain feeling or mood.

Design - The style of the picture, architectural, landscape design, etc. In essence, how the elements in the image are designed.

Composition - How well the elements in the image are positioned in relation to each other.

Functionality - How well it would work when adding sprites, including appropriate walking distances, a good angle for character sprites, clever walkway solutions, easily understood exits, etc.

Technique - How well the ideas are executed in form of rendering.


Let's try to keep this as uniform as possible. Here is the code you can use for voting:

Code: ags

[b]Idea[/b] - 
[b]Atmosphere[/b] - 
[b]Design[/b] - 
[b]Composition[/b] - 
[b]Functionality[/b] - 
[b]Technique[/b] - 

The entries are:

1. Mr. Buckéthead
2. lilemX
3. Tocsik
4. nihilyst
5. Mikko
6. Privateer Puddin'
7. loominous


Ok, so there you go. Let's start voting !!

[Elric]

Can I just say that loominous, you surely surpass alot of my teachers. This is purely unbelievable; I've been painting for 8 years, studying art at the uni for 4 and I have never, ever seen a person produce such a beauty of digital art.


Idea - Loominous : Brilliant, mikko was close by. ( Your entry gave me the idea of the inside view of the pumpkin house but no time + no tablet = no entry )
Atmosphere -  Loominous : I can't really put it into words. Just pure Inspiration.
Design - Loominous : Excellent as always, you give life to everything you paint.
Composition - Loominous : I do think there is a little balance problem with the left part of the image but it's barely noticable. Well done once more.
Functionality - nihilyst : Great compo for this kind of game, well done.
Technique - Loominous : I'm sure you can paint anything, anything at all, with no trouble in producing the finest rendering possible.

[buloght]

idea - nihilyst
atmosphere - loominous
design - loominous
composition - loominous
functionality - nihilyst
technique - loominous

[Mikko]

Idea - 3. Tocsik Whereas this bg lacks slightly in functionality and composition, the idea struck me the most.
Atmosphere - 7. loominous  The only thing i'm not sure if I like is the white hazy background in the image. Other than that, it is marvellous.
Design - 7. loominous
Composition - 7. loominous The image is easy to read, but it's not too straightforward.
Functionality - 4. nihilyst Being in form of RPG emphasizes functionality.
Technique - 7. loominous

[gypsysnail]

Here are my votes:
Most of my votes are same as buloght except for 'idea'.

idea - Mikko
atmosphere - loominous
design - loominous
composition - loominous
functionality - nihilyst
technique - loominous

Well done guys, you all did great! And I do mean that

[Tocsik]

Idea - nihlyst
Atmosphere -puddin
Design -mikko
Composition -loominous
Functionality -mikko
Technique -loominous

[Neil Dnuma]

Idea - Nihylist for the RPG choice. I liked Mikko's setting also.
Atmosphere - This is where most entries shine (as opposed to really great ideas...but I guess the theme makes it hard to improvise). I think everyone managed to bring a lot of atmosphere to their pieces. I will vote for Loominous though, it's a variation from the other nighttime settings, the washed autumn colours are carefully chosen. But again, everyone did very well here.
Design - Privateer Puddin'. A bit funky, but interesting. Expressionist.
Composition - Tocsik. I like it; symmetry, Kubrick style.
Functionality - Buckethead. Plenty of useable space.
Technique - Loominous. It'd be cool if you shared some of your brushing tricks

Nice entries all over this time.

[MashPotato]

Idea - Mikko--> I may be wrong, but it's inside a giant pumpkin, right?  It's certainly a different type of room ^_^
Atmosphere - Tocsik--> the cold, sparse room with blood spatters gives a creepy feeling1
Design - Loominous--> great use of natural materials, it looks almost organic
Composition - Loominous --> lots of detail, but the eye is still drawn toward the main focus of the picture
Functionality - Nihilyst--> would look perfectly at home in a RPG ^_^
Technique - Loominous--> your statement that the trees suck makes me weep...

[ildu]

Idea - Mikko. To me, this was overwhelmingly the best idea in this competition. It's fun, zany and most importantly very halloweeny. A joint second place to nihilyst and loominous.
Atmosphere - loominous. The mid-day foggy brown-skied atmosphere is enough to drive any man crazy. No woman, though .
Design - nihilyst. I was gonna give this to loominous, but I gotta give props to the whole RPG style. It's not a very common style in the blitzes, which is really unfortunate. Anyways, great design on all the cutesey stuff .
Composition - loominous. While I found the composition in this piece a little confusing (with the left side left quite open and the puddle under the tree showing just slightly, suggesting there's more, it still kicked the compositional asses of the other entries.
Functionality - nihilyst. Pretty obvious here. I can already picture the sprites.
Technique - Privateer Puddin'. While I really wanted to give this to loominous, since the technique in his piece is definately the strongest of the image's qualities, I ended up giving it to Privateer Puddin' (custard) for using 3D in his piece. I'm a big advocate for 3D and I always hope it would be used more in the blitzes. And Puddin' doesn't just use it, he made it look quite good with the lighting there. This would've been one of my most favorites, if it had been finished in 3D. Nevertheless, a good effort.

Notes:

Mr. Buckéthead - Your bg was ok, but I think it suffered a lot from being a screenshot from what I assume is Unreal Tournament. People tend to be put off by that, unless the image looks somehow special and different to what they're used to seeing in such games. Also, the composition was very lacking and it hardly looked like a functional adventure game background. One reason for this is that it's taken from very far away from the all the objects. This would've been a lot better if you moved the camera closer and lower, perhaps somewhere near the fountain and portrayed the castle from there. It would've helped the depth a lot as well.

lilemX - This looked pretty cool and the colors were good, but the design and technique as well as composition were lacking. The design was ok, but it still showed a lot of rough edges that could've been corrected. The composition could've been a lot more dynamic by having the house somewhere else than in the middle and closing the image with other objects, such as more buildings, knolls, mounds, forests, etc. What is most critical though, is the technique. I understand that it's pixelled and all, but in my opinion that's the weakest point in the image.

Tocsik - I think the design and colors here are very good. The walls could've been a lot darker and shadowed to bring up the atmosphere, though. I think the composition suffers a little from the chair being in the middle and being a silhouette. It would've been a good framing tool to have it as a 3/4 view on the side of the image. However, I think it's the functionality that's the weakest point. Still, great work.

nihilyst - What can I say, other than "awesome" ? Great work all around, and nice to see something different for a change. I've got only one gripe: It seems to me a bit overshadowed, but maybe it's just the 2x zoom .

Mikko - Composition, design, technique good, idea and atmosphere great. No complaints other than personally I would've showed more of the floor to add more functionality and make more of the composition. Nah, you don't need no advice .

Privateer Puddin' - No complaints other than not having it all in 3D. Would've looked quite great .

loominous - Ah come on . You're an inspiration to us all .

Sorry if I sounded a bit patronizing. We discussed having this kind of crit-giving so I gave it a shot. I expect the same kind of brutal honesty towards my entries as well . Also, writing all this took way too long, so it's already past the voting time. I'll count the votes and close this in a few minutes.

[loominous]

Idea - Mikko
Atmosphere - nihilyst
Design - nihilyst
Composition - Mikko
Functionality - Mikko
Technique - nihilyst

Mr Buckethead:

I think the image could have benefitted from focusing on a smaller area in the enviroment. For one, to get closer to the character, which makes it more intimate, instead of a impersonal moving dot, and to decrease the walk distances (my entry is hardly ideal in these aspects).

In this case you could have placed the camera by the pond, which would've given you a nice foreground, and would've gotten you closer to both the pond and the house.

The colour of the sky could've affected the building more, which atm seems lit up by the single outside lamp, which would've added a bit more colour variation.

The building is interesting though, and I really like the pond design.

lilemX:

I like the muted colours and the sky. Think what I'm missing the most is a background, since the world seems to end behind those trees (again, something that my own entry is pretty guilty of). A mountain line or something could've worked.

Placing the camera a bit lower, and pushing the building back a bit could probably give the composition some breathing room in the lower region, which seems very cramped.

Tocsik:

I really like the palette and the more intimate size of the room, as well as the details on the walls n fireplace. Since the room is pretty brightly lit, there's no real reason why the chair should be black though, and it kind of sticks out in a bad way, and could've benefitted from a upper side (atm it looks paper thin).

nihilyst:

I really like the colours and shading, and the frame is great. The only real thing I can think of is the empty areas, especially on the right side, which makes it less believable as an inhabited area, though I suppose this might've been a conscious move to make it more creepy.

Mikko:

What bugs me the most is the lack of depth in the eyes, which atm looks like two papers taped on the wall, as well as the hellspawn of the devil tool.

It's a nice n unusually cozy room though, and the design of the fireplace is really cool.

Privateer Puddin':

The colour scheme is really nice, and the tree design is damn cool. Feels somewhat like Bone (even though I havn't actually that game) and the empty 3D feel doesn't bug me, even though it's my usually biggest gripe with 3D entries, though it might be due to the 2D elements.

The composition and black value of the background elements really bugs me, and it would've been nice to see how they'd turn out without the timestrain.

[ildu]

Can anyone guess who the winner is ? That's right, let's all say it, on three. One, two, three...

1st place: loominous - 26 votes
2nd place: nihilyst - 13 votes
3rd place: Mikko - 8 votes

Congrats to loominous for yet another amazing entry. Big ups and high-frequency claps .

Well, it was really nice hosting a Halloween blitz, although I was expecting a lot more enthusiasm towards one, in terms of the entry turnout (which ended up being pretty good). But I don't have any reason to complain. This was still a great blitz to host . I'm still pretty disappointed that no one asked what games were included in the inspiration image. That's happened to me multiple times with every earlier blitz I've hosted . But you know what they say: BG Blitz hosts who complain about inane stuff die alone in a violent fiery death inside a seedy motel room in the middle of the desert. Yeah, that's definately what they say. But I'm not gonna go like that! You hear me, Papa?! I ain't gonna go out like you did!!

That's all from me at this point. Take it away, loominous!!

[Kweepa]

Why don't you just tell us what the screenshots are from? I was curious, but not curious enough to post "off-topic".

Thanks!
(Great blitz everyone!)

[ildu]

Ah sure .

1. Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge
2. Igor: Objective Uikokahonia
3. Tony Tough & the Night of Roasted Moths
4. Hugo 1: House of Horrors
5. The Nightmare Before Christmas
6. Sanitarium
7. A Vampyre Story
8. Scooby-Doo Phantom of the Knight
9. Hugo 1: House of Horrors
10. Tony Tough & the Night of Roasted Moths
11. Alien Incident
12. Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge
13. The Nightmare Before Christmas
14. Curse of Enchantia
15. Psychonauts

[Buckethead]

hmmm, this BG compitistion seems to be swifting between ildu and Loominous. Well it's never a shame to loose from them because they are both great artist. Anyway, thnx for your comments, better luck next time I guess. 

[loominous]

Thanks for the kind comments and to ildu for another well hosted round. I'll try to get the next one up  asap.

Elric:

Careful there or I might actually swallow that praise. But I'm very glad you enjoy the atmosphere, since it's usually my primary objective, and I keep struggling to find the right style that will capture the mood I'm after (which I have yet to reach).

The composition is indeed a bit funky, and it's probably much due to the fact that the image started out horizontally flipped, and have then been altered over time to function decently in the current way.

[Snarky]

In a question to Loominous, what do you think of the functionality of your own entry (goes for previous entries as well)? I always admire your backgrounds as artworks, but I have a hard time imagining them with sprites moving around on top. Do you think the technique is suitable for creating integrated game scenes, including characters, hotspots, cursors and UI?

[loominous]

Snarky:

My aim has never been to make games with anything remotely close to pixelhunting and generally a very limited use of inventories, which allows for a much looser background style. And with the alpha channel ability, you can make backgrounds even more painterly like, because the smooth edges intergrates sprites and foreground elements seemlessly. Add to this the ability to tint, create haze effects with semitransparent overlays etc, and the style restrictions are pretty much gone, as far as my tests have shown.

Since I usually keep the different depth levels on seperate layers, it's easy to just place parts of the background as foreground objects, with perfect alpha channels.

As far as sprites are concerned, some may think that a cel shaded style may clash against more painterly backgrounds, but I'm, and probably most with me, are so used to the flat style being used against painted backgrounds, so there's not much of a problem.

Course, some background elements have to be done in a celshaded style, in this case, the door probably, if it's supposed to open, but I usually don't bother doing this in bb entries.

So, while I'm well aware that my backgrounds may come across as more of paintings than actual backgrounds, it's deliberate experimentation.

[Snarky]

Interesting. Yeah, there seemed to be two ways to go on the characters: Rembrandt or Disney. And while sprites in a classic painterly style would be awesome, I suppose it wouldn't be feasible to animate. (Unless 3D rendering with some kind of oil paint filter might produce acceptable results.)

I would be very interested in seeing some of your tests. Stylistically, your backgrounds strike me as a bit looser and more impressionistic than the painted backdrops in most animated movies (Disney, the Asterix movies, etc.), and with less vivid colors and so forth. I'll take your word for it that it works, though.

I'd also like to commend many of the voters for their comments on the entries. I'm sorry I didn't have time during the voting period. If this thread isn't locked, I might post some comments later today.