Five Things about Background Art

by S.

At the moment I am steeped in Tell a Demon background art, so I thought I would write my thoughts about background art in general, including some of my past experiences (and errors).

1. Telling a Story

Background art can say a lot about the characters who inhabit it, whether it's an interior or exterior.

All exteriors in Tell a Demon and Asher, for example, are intended to give hints about the world, from the old stone foundations to the altars visible on every street corner. 

From Tell a Demon (Demo).

Background art in a visual novel takes on the role of background description in a regular novel; where a book might tell you about the street altars, the design of the theater, and the style of doors most popular in a fictional city, the background art does that in a visual novel without having to tell you.

Background art can also be integrated into the story or gameplay: such as in adventure- or hidden object- type scenarios. For instance, one of the backgrounds in a visual novel I worked on, Sunrise, had an airplane that could be added or removed. It later played a key role toward the end of the story.

2. Contrast in Style

It's important that characters stand out on the background art. One way to achieve this is through contrast in style.

It's fairly common to see a visual novel with cartoon characters on painted backgrounds, but the reverse also works to make the characters pop off the background:

From Sunrise.

Here the background art is abstracted, flat, and saturated, in contrast to the realistic, painted, and less saturated character art.

The difference in style doesn't have to be so dramatic, but even a slight difference, such as a change in line quality, can help make the characters stand out.

3. Contrast in Value

From Asher, god this art is old.

One issue I had with the painted black and white art style of Asher was getting the character art to stand out no matter where it was placed on the background art. I found that backgrounds with a wide range of values (light, middle, and dark points) often had places in which the character art blended in or disappeared!

To counter this problem, I made the backgrounds a middle-grey to light tone. I also upped the contrast in the sprite art, exaggerating highlights and shadows to establish more contrast.

This can be a problem with color art, too, and it helps to occasionally look at the artwork in grayscale to check whether or not the image holds up in black and white. This is important when designing for a wide range of viewers, since a shift in color that looks fine on one monitor might be difficult to see on a monitor with poor color calibration, and what looks distinct to one person's eyes might be indiscernible to someone with, say, color blindness.

4. Remember the Textbox

I'll admit to having a mild obsession with the textbox. I have thought of putting it at the top of the screen, where it would be out of the way. I have thought of using a subtitle style and doing away with it altogether. It seems like I often have to choose between hiding something important or adding more art (which is time-consuming) to get around the Textbox Problem.

Some of my early attempts were simply poor planning and Asher's background art was generally awkward as I figured out what I was doing, and it suffered from several art and textbox clashes:
 

Actually, the textbox is there to cover up the spoiler.

I came up against this problem with the Sunrise sprites, too. Because the sprites took such a long time to paint, it was difficult to add poses. Fairly early on in the story, a bird cage was required. There are two natural ways to carry a bird cage: from the top, or by holding it at the bottom*. While the latter would avoid the textbox issue, it would require significant repainting. However, the bird cage is only held like this for a brief period of time, and the character inside it has her own side sprite to compensate, so I settled on minimally repainting one arm pose to get the bird cage to work.

Sometimes you just have to cut your losses.
From Sunrise. Text by Hazel-Bun of Cherubim Scribes.

Ever since Asher, I draw my background art thumbnails and sketches with the textbox. Anything important has to go above that point and it's easier if it's planned in advance.

5. Focal Point

Some more recent Tell a Demon background art

If there is an aspect to the background that you want to draw the reader's attention to, create a focal point. Here, the converging lines and lighting draws the attention to the center of the composition.

This doesn't have to apply only to items in the background, but can be used to make the characters stand out on the background:

Callista from Sunrise.

In the above screenshot, the darkest part of the background is behind the lightest element (the character), creating a high contrast focal point. There is also nothing to compete with the reader's interest (read: this background is boring). Sometimes it's better if some backgrounds do not draw attention, because focus is then placed on the character art.

It's also worth noting that if a character is placed on a background which is very dark, it's better if it's not a flat #000000. One thing that can add extra polish to a VN are custom light and dark screens that match the overall feel and texture of the visual novel.

*You could also hold it from the sides, but then the bird of prey inside might take a finger.

Adapting Photographs for Background Art

by S.

Sometimes you have to cut corners to finish a project in time. Here's a quick step-by-step tutorial on adapting photographs for use in a visual novel.

1. Pick carefully, or shoot your own photographs

These photos came from a trip to the Painted Desert from a few years ago. I'm pretty sure at that time I only had a regular point-and-shoot. Anyway:

1. This photo doesn't have a very dramatic light scheme, nor a strange viewpoint. It wouldn't be difficult to put a sprite on this one.
2. The horizon line is too low.
3. There are too many dramatic lights and shadows, which might compete with the sprite art.
4. The light here is too extreme, and the perspective is strange and a little warped.
5. This one could work, but that fence at the bottom creates a big, high-contrast bar of shadow. If I really wanted to use this one, I could try lowering the contrast, but the vertical line in the middle of the composition could still be distracting.
6. I'm not sure why, but visual novels that use photographs often use pictures of the ground, or the ceiling, or looking down at a bed. This can break immersion because it usually creates such an extreme contrast between the perspective of the sprite art and the perspective of the background art.

Number 1 is selected. The soft lighting and location of the horizon makes it a practical choice; it's not likely to compete with the sprite art.

2. Crop and find the horizon.

When adapting photos to sprite art, it's useful to have sprite art or concept art as a frame of reference—something as a color and height guide. In this example, I'm taking Shiye's sprite from Sunrise and adapting the photo to work with his sprite. He is painted with a fairly limited, very warm color palette, so even a muted photo like this contrasts too much.

The grainy texture of the photograph isn't helping, either. However, the perspective of this photograph and the fact that the sprite is already pretty realistic makes this adaptation easier than if I happened to be using cartoon sprites.

3. Filter

To fix that contrasting texture, I apply a filter. Photoshop's default paint daubs will do, but for the sake of example, and because paint daubs isn't very overt, I've used an oil painting filter here. Ultimately, all you need to do is reduce some of the photographic texture. Surface blur might also work.

So, after applying a filter, you're done, right?

Nope. One of the most common mistakes I see is too heavy a reliance on filters. While having a nice painted look to the background art might help, it's not everything (it's not even the most important part).

4. Tying it All Together

To tie everything together with Sunrise, I made a texture using charcoal on a piece of sketch paper, then scanned it in. This is the texture in normal mode, 100% opacity, with the Sunrise color gradient applied (just to show you the colors; the texture should be applied grayscale). It was used with everything in Sunrise: the background, GUI, and and the sprite art. It helped tie things together with a consistent texture.

This is how the texture looks when applied to the photograph:

That already makes a big difference. When  applying the texture, I used a layer set to Soft Light at 45% opacity. Depending on the texture, you might want to use a different setting and level of opacity, but for this purpose, these settings are fine.

Next, I apply the Sunrise gradient map. It is set to Color mode at 35%. Here is how it looks:

Now it looks a bit like a vintage postcard, which happens to be exactly what I'm going for.

5. Finish

Text from Sunrise

The Sunrise backgrounds also had a retro charcoal border. This is how the above background and sprite would look in-game with both textbox and border applied.

6. Some Variations

Here, a variety of filters are used. Beginning at the top left, the first is filtered using Paint Pro 3, the second is the original photo without filters, the third is Photoshop's default paint daubs, the fourth is a watercolor filter, and the final is an impressionist filter.

The watercolor and impressionist filters might work a bit better with cartoon characters, but the simple paint daub filter is all you need for this style of character.

So, no fancy tools needed (you might even be able to do all this in the GIMP, in fact, but that's a tutorial for another time). However, you may want to check out Creative Market to find a filter that matches your sprites' art style in particular. (These were filters that came with some design bundles I had purchased).

Pros of Photo Backgrounds

1.  It's fast
2. It can be cheap (my $99 point-and-shoot, for instance; although many phones can take decent photographs, too)
3. The results can look good, when done well
4. It works really well with photorealistic/painterly sprites
5. It can be great for placeholders that convey the right mood before committing to paying for, or making background art

The Limitations of Using Photographs:

1. You have to visit the location, or purchase stock photography
2. Generally, it takes taking dozens of photographs to get one good one
3. Highly outlandish fantasy or sci-fi settings are out, unless you happen to live in Narnia or outer space. In fact, any extra or fantasy elements still have to be hand-painted or photo-manipulated
4. It still takes time to manipulate a photo to match cartoony or highly stylized sprites
5. There is less overall control of the composition, especially if you have limited photographic resources

This is one of the actual BG's that went into Sunrise. It would be impossible to find a real-life scene that resembled this image exactly, and that's one of the benefits of a custom composition.

This background...

1. tells the story through multiple layers that can be added or removed to fit different scenes
2. reveals the personality of its occupant through the items and decor
3. is compatible with cutout style animation
4. has custom colors that are designed to work with the sprite art
5. however, took much more time (and it would take even more time if I went for a painted or photorealistic look)

Finally, it is absolutely possible to take photographic images and rearrange and manipulate them to tell a story much like you might with a hand drawn background, but at that point it becomes an artistic medium in its own right, and no longer a time-saver.

Story text by Hazel-Bun of Cherubim Scribes. Screenshot from the visual novel, Sunrise.