Hey, Wizards!

Shady Character 2 here.

I have decided to try and shed some light on my side of the development process. I don't know how regular this section will be. Do tell if you want to hear more from me.

Today I'd like to talk a bit about backgrounds. You may or may not know that all the backgrounds we have in the game right now are actually temporary. Why is that? Well, mostly because backgrounds is something I am struggling with. It's not even UYS specific, just my personal artistic Everest.
Prior to making a game I really had no need to produce very specific and polished backgrounds, but here we are - even the most basic amount needed for the game is no less than a dozen.
Of course, my main objective was not only drawing solid, good-looking backgrounds, but also creating it so the characters would look natural on them. MC's room was one of the first artworks needed, so after making it I thought I cracked the code for a perfect bg - the key was the horizon line placed at a pretty specific place and one point perspective, where the surfaces converge to one single vanishing point.
Turned out, it's not always that easy, and not every angle is the obvious choice, even counting in the aforementioned trick.

For example, the brewing classroom we have right now will be completely changed - not only the location I drew does not really suit the description we have right now, but also, despite looking quite nice as a stand-alone artwork, it doesn't work with a character sprite on it. Of course, since I drew it without adding a sprite prior to sketching, I did not figure it out before I played the game some time later and noticed this particular mistake.

You may notice a cauldron in the lower right corner that I thought will add depth to the illustration - and it did, except when you add Prof. Hayes, the whole picture starts to look like she's a cute little fairy standing near the cauldron. Oh well, you live and learn.

Right now I am working on the MC's room, and while we only have one room with a change of colors and details for now, they will become four different rooms later.

Creating a student's bedroom sounds pretty easy, doesn't it? It has a bed, and a table, and... What else? The little details are always the most problematic. We can't just have an empty room, lacking any characterization. It is someone's, yours, MC's room. But when adding details, one should also consider that the room shouldn't have an overabundance of objects some of the players won't relate to and thus, won't like. So right now I am treading a fine line of making the room more personal and not too personal for someone the player might not feel like. Well, hope you, Talamhdan people, do like your girls posters ;)

Anywho, that's all for now! Until next time.
Shady Two, out!