General Screenshot/Movie Thread

I've been trying to find the words to describe that art in a polite manner, but I'm struggling. Truthfully, I think it looks horrendous. The art doesn't seem to have any particular theme going for it (snow, cave, water, bricks, weird orbs etc), the background and foreground clash so badly that if you were to take Sonic out of the picture, I couldn't even begin to tell you which is which and the palette choice feels bland and uninspired. Using so much transparency on the foreground is a big no no, because all it does it make it hard to tell what is foreground and what isn't. If you want to give something a transparency effect, put some highlights into it to give an effect of reflecting light to at least make is stand out a bit.

Onto the other parts of the video now, the SSRG screen looks awful as you seem to only be using a single line of the palette for the entire screen. It actually looks like a very badly converted image. As for the "new title screen", it actually looks like a broken mess. I can only assume that the title screen is unfinished, but if that's the case, I wouldn't have drawn attention to it in the title of your video.

All in all, this needs a hell of a lot of work to make it look decent. I understand you're trying to improve the art, but I think you should pay attention to how other zones have been constructed in terms of palette choice and art style before getting too involved with the current art choice. Look towards the original games and hacks such as The Next Level, S Factor and other hacks with major art mods and you should pick up some tricks to help you improve.

 

While I do agree with you, I think looking at big hacks like TNL and S Factor is a bit too much.
Those hacks had a lot of time to be developed, the art in those is great, but just because they've experimented with it, and they took their time to.
I suggest to either find some tutorials or let somebody else do the art, because as of now, it really needs a lot of work, but not TNL and S Factor amount of beauty has to be reached, heck, even simple art porting would make everything different (and much better than the current result).
Take your time and learn, It's not like you're in a race for SHC 2017, I mean, that's like, 11 months from now.

 

I said to look at them for ideas on how good zones should look, not because I expect him to match that quality overnight. Telling him to get someone else to do it is unhelpful as well, because how does he learn anything by just asking someone else to do it? When learning how to make something of a high quality, you should always look to other high quality work for tips and tricks. You wouldn't look at shit art and hope to learn anything, in the same way you wouldn't look at a drawing by a 2 year old and expect to learn how to create something by the likes of Van Gogh as a result.

 

We need to talk, PM me when you get time.

Don't ask why, because I think you know why.

 

You know, I knew that background art looked familiar but I couldn't place it. Now you've spoken up, I know exactly where it was from. Hello S Factor Placid Sapphire art...

 

Whoops, I'm sorry, I misread your message.
Also, I don't see any problem with asking for help, maybe he's good at coding or something else, and not art.
Also, Isn't the BG from Ice Ca-Oh nevermind, I figured it out.

 

May someone please point out where's the stealing, i can't figure out...

 

It doesn't matter, I'm dealing with this privately. Please trash any further messages.

 

You know, I was wanting to save this post for the demo release for this hack, but since that the only thing that is keeping me from releasing it is some tracks Eduardo and A-S-H are making for Marble City and Egg Plant Zone, I might as well share some screens anyways.



Marble City Zone, now finally brought to life in the game. Thanks to StephenUK for help with the sky. Sadly this is pretty much all to see in this level, as I still haven't made a few slopes needed for the level so it isn't all flat, and I haven't put as much stuff into this a few days ago as I did with...



...This! This is Desert Dazzle Zone, basically the Not Mirage Saloon/Desert Dazzle of this game. A lot of work has been put into this. Half of the level layout has been worked on and a lot of art has been put into this. And it took only 1 day+a boring morning just to get all the needed art done and into the game (I spent a whole day working on the art, went to sleep, and just dis some finishing touches to the background art). As the background shows, this is supposed to be a desert... But with water. However I haven't actually gotten any water stuff for this, so it's just gonna be a regular old Not Dust Hill Zone for now.

It's funny, I was expecting both of these levels to be only partially in the game, with Marble City having more progress, but look where we are.

 

They look pretty good but the saturation of sonic and the levels are a bit much imo.

 

Aside from things being a bit too bright, the only other gripe I have is with the cacti in the background lacking any kind of shadows. They appear to be just floating the way they look right now. Beyond that, you've got some excellent work here; the kind of effort I've been dying to see from many people for a long time now. Keep it going!

 

Quite oversaturated, yeah. The desert tiles are a bit repetitive, and why is there walls in bacground? Walls are boring, remember!

 

Marble City Zone looks great I there are no noticeable issues for me other than how some palette tweaks could be done as previously mentioned. Desert Dazzle, on the other hand, has a few big issues. First is the common use of black where just a darker shade of orange-brown could be used. Considering how vibrant it is, black looks very out of place. Second is the weird transparent tiles used in the Plane A background in the first screen shot. Those should be changed to work better with the non-transparent blocks and there shouldn't;t be lines floating in midair. Third is sand in the third screen shot. Those curves are way too sharp and there is no reason for that double hump to exist in a Sonic game unless you want to annoy the player. Forth is the blue space between the water waves (I think) and the those chunks in the water in the background. I doubt it would use up any extra tiles to add some waves closer to the chunks to make it look nicer. Fifth is just the annoying amount of repetiveness in tiles. There should be more variation.

 

Okay, opinion time. I can't decide on a background for my zone. I'm leaning towards B, but I need some more input. Palette heavily inspired by Wacky Workbench.

Spoiler: Option A

Spoiler: Option B

 

I like A a lot more than B. It looks more distinct from the foreground than B looks and I like the darker color and overall design of A, to be perfectly honest.

 

Please wait a second while i'm picking up my dropped jaw from the floor....

Yeah, A is definetly better.

 

A all the way. I am wondering, is it completely original, or influenced of something? It looks really nice, and with proper animated art and bg scrolling it would look amazing for sure.

 

It's actually a modified version of the background from Quartz Quadrant Bad Future:



The foreground art isn't mine because I suck at making zone art. This is the source

 

A is seriously really good.
It gives a feeling of depth to the Background.

 

A. It has more of a unique look to me.