Art Lab 4: Backgrounds

Return to CIS 300.

Objective

Create a side-to-side scrolling background.

Backgrounds

Backgrounds are a crucial component of any computer game. They create the mood and atmosphere for the user experience. It is up to you as artists to convey your team’s vision to the player. In this lab, you will create a background in the theme of your game. It is time to start thinking about what kind of art you want to put in your game.

This lab has a lot less explicit instructions than the last one - we have covered all the technical material we think is a minimum for this course. Instead, you should just focus on the artistic side. However, there are a few technical things to keep in mind while working on your background.

• For this lab, backgrounds should wrap around and scroll. That means the left and side edges should match up, like the textures you designed.
• The background style should be consistent with your other artwork.
• Characters should not be camouflaged in the background (unless you are making a chameleon). The background should allow your character to stand out without being to dull.
• Color Theory says that far away objects look bluish and greenish, so you should be careful with cool colors.
• Do not make a boring blue screen background. Backgrounds should make the game interesting and attractive.

You will find the techniques from the textures lab to be useful again for this lab. Furthermore, feel free to take advantage of the Wacom tablets that are (now) available in the lab.

Matte Painting

An additional technique that is useful for making backgrounds is matte painting. Matte painting is used in photography and special effects film making to combine two or more image elements into a single final image. It is used heavily in special effects movies like Star Wars or Lord of the Rings.

You should feel free to use matte painting to combine photos/pictures to create a complete scene. There are several tutorials available online. In addition, there are several sites where you can get stock photos. Here are just a few:

• Matte Painting
• Free Stock Photos
• Morgue File

One Last Thing

In addition to working on the background, it is time (if you have not started already) to begin communicating your artwork with the rest of your group. You should share the artwork that you have created with the others. Furthermore, you should think about how the the mood of your art corresponds to your game/levels/difficulty/story. In other words, it is time to work on concept art!

With that said, no concept art is due with the lab. However, it will be an important part of your milestones that you will develop over the next week.

Submission

Submit your background as the file "background.png" to CMS.

Due Wednesday February 20, 2008 at 11:59pm