Background tips and tricks.

[snowflakepixie]

If you want nice backgrounds but don't want to draw them from scratch or hire anyone, there are a few methods of making backgrounds from photographs. The main downside of this is that it will be hard to get backgrounds for a game that takes place in another universe. >u<
First, you'll need some photos. You could always take your own, but there are plenty of ways to find photos that are free to use and edit.
BEIZ Graphics: Free to use for anything you might need in a VN, even commercially. I don't see them say anything about crediting them for the photos, so do just to be safe.
Image * After: Free to use commercially or not, you don't need to credit them.
Wikimedia Commons: Various licenses. Check the individual websites to see if you can use them commercially, edit them, or have to credit them.
Flickr: Photos from Flickr that are licensed under Creative Commons. Look through the licenses that let you do what you want in your novel.
Google Images: In advanced search, you can choose to show pictures with certain permissions. Try different ones that let you do what you need.
Pixabay: Free to use personally or commercially without credit.
LIFE Photo Archive: Photos from LIFE Magazine from the 1750s on. I'm not sure if you can use them commercially and you probably need to credit them.
Open Galleries: Lots of good background photos (mostly outdoors), taken all over the world. Credit isn't necessary, but is appreciated.

Once you have some photos picked out, you need to turn them into your backgrounds. Resize them to 800x600 (or another size if it's more appropriate for your VN).
The first method is tracing the photos and coloring them yourself. You'll need an image editor that can support layers to do that.
If you don't want to color it all yourself but still want to make them yourself, you can use Psykopaint. You paint the lines, but the colors are automatic. There are different effects to play with, but you need to buy some of them with Psykopoints, which can be earned if you have an account. I don't know if you need an account to save your pictures or not.
A program you can use to apply effects to your photos is FotoSketcher. It's similar to Psykopaint, but all automatic. You don't do anything but pick the settings. It has different effects so you can pick the ones that suit your novel best.

[jhernandezgames]

Hi guys! Since I've started my Visual Novels I've encountered many problems. Number 1 being backgrounds. While many free backgrounds are available, they have numbers of issues, being too big, too small, or just doesn't fit your style. Having alot of free time, I've been tinkering with multiple image manipulation programs, and have decided to post the fruits of my results here! Feel free to include your own tips and tricks!


For these examples I used a simple picture of the inside of a train, appropriately labeled "int_train" Now for int_train, I was trying to get a less realist style of art, since I didn't want it to look exactly like a picture. I began to mess around with filters. Since many programs offer advantages and disadvantages, I will be using 2 programs. Photoshop CS6 (64bit), and GIMP 2. (I use SAI for my character graphics )

Original Photo

Photoshop

For this all I did was apply a simple "oilpaint" filter. It came out excellent by itself, but you can obviously blur and apply extra filters to your heart's desire. Photoshop has a variety of filters to play with, but the image I created was enough so I stopped XD

GIMP 2

Here it gets fun, because of GIMP's many, many filter options. I went for a semi-realistic oil painting.
First thing I did was add a light "Oilify" filter, with a 3 for "Mask Size". I followed up by "Cartoon" filter with a "Mask Radius" of 1.84 and a "Percent Black" of 0.225. Third was to add a "Gaussian Blur", now you can play around with this all you want, but for me, I used a "3.0" percentage for horizontal and vertical. Add in some manual blurs using the "Blur" tool, mostly around the edges of the seats and the floor. Lastly, for some artistic flair, I threw in a "Lens Flare" it's best to use this near a light source, like a window, for example. (Lens flare doesn't naturally come from the shadows XD)

Since I was bored I did a little touch up on the original to make look old and used.

I would love to see any tips or tricks that the rest of you have, so please post.

[Anne]

With GIMP the method I like the most is edge detection (gives black outlines) then setting it on overlay (makes colors lighter) with the original foto as a base layer.





I've also tried Dynamic Auto Painter, it has a lot of (probably) okay settings with wet watercolor being my favourite (but I know I have weird tastes)



And then there's FotoSketcher, I wonder if that looks good enough...

[inohatake14]

these tips are really helpful guys, thanks for posting! I'm particularly going to have to try the gimp one that Anne posted. I have a question I wanted to throw out to all the lovely artists here though.

You see, Just for fun really, I'm making a project where the characters and such are drawn in colored pencil, and have that feel to them. Unfortunately for myself, my backgrounds need quite a bit of work. Therefore, I was wondering if any knew of any filtering techniques that would acquire a similar affect to match the characters.

I would attach a sample so you guys had a better idea... but this is a background thread so... :p Perhaps, if anyone is interested, I could pm a sample? Well, unless it's fine to put here. At any rate, It's very different, and I'm not sure people would play such a game, but it's something I've been interested in.


(Also, please feel free to move this post if it shouldn't be here c:)

Thanks guys. ^.^

[Anne]

Almost all foto-processing programs (like the 2 I've mentioned earlier) can imitate pencil drawings, the result of course depends on the original foto and settings you use (you can make it lighter or darker to match your drawing)



(not sure if you can see the pencil texture but it's there)

[Ekamu]

Here is a link that could help for a more retro style using Photos. You need Photoshop though (<_<)
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/31898/cr ... ga-colors/

[inohatake14]

Ah thanks (darn i though I removed that attachment. >.<) I like the first one best- it has a rough feel to it. What would be the best way to lighten it then?

[jhernandezgames]

The best thing about GIMP is that you can download add ons other people created. The best one so far is the G'MIC one, which includes a color pencil filter you can toy around with here is the link: http://sourceforge.net/projects/gmic/fi ... urce=files
It does everything for you as downloading goes. To use them, just restart GIMP go to "FILTERS" and all the way on the bottom there is the
"G'MIC" option, open it and select the "Artistic" option, find the "Color Pencil" option and mess around with it it until your art is done

[Taleweaver]

As there were two threads on "how to make BGs out of photos", I merged them into one.

[Anne]

Just raise brightness? I don't know about the best way, I'm kind of just playing around (was hoping someone would have better tips to get decent backgrounds )

The best thing about GIMP is that you can download add ons other people created. The best one so far is the G'MIC one, which includes a color pencil filter you can toy around with here is the link: http://sourceforge.net/projects/gmic/fi ... urce=files

Can you recommend any settings from there? I've downloaded it and tried some but was not really pleased with the result

[jhernandezgames]

As I just began to use G'MIC, I'm not an expert XD.
This guy has a bunch of great tutorials I've used, plus a really cool colored pencil filter tutorial, here is the link http://www.ramonmiranda.com/2012/12/col ... -gmic.html