Some people in a room.

[Paul "Otaking"]

Well, that's possibly the most imaginative title I've ever written down.
Perhaps I should have called it "Inhibited angst cycle" or something?

Anyway, it's another image from the opening sequence of "For The Game," which is now several weeks behind its deadline! Hurrah!

http://img103.imageshack.us/img103/7274/17groupshot0lv.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[corky13]

the background is awesome :)= but the different design-approach on the figures makes it a bit confusing. Anyway , nice one :)

[PriNcE oF SpAcE]

I really really don't like your characters...

your evironments are much better.

do they really need that thick outline? it makes them look very pasted into the scene, lightning doesn't seem to match either.

[Goog]

The saturation level between characters and the bg are waay too different, it makes it look like the chars were just pasted there. And maybe make the characters interact more? I mean, who is that guy (the one sitting) talkin to? As for the chars themselves, I don't really know how to crit anime, but they look fine for the style. And what Prince said, maybe make the black lines around the chars thinner?

[Paul "Otaking"]

Ahhh... an overwhelmingly positive response! Heh heh.

I know that people hate the "it's supposed to look like that" argument here, but when drawing in the anime style there's always gonna be some unavoidable saturation problems with the background. The differences between cel-shaded characters and painted backgrounds is always going to look somewhat jarring, and as I was attempting to emulate your average anime screenshot here, that's precisely the effect I was going for.

Whether or not the picture itself is any good is, admittedly, a different matter. But for the "it looks pasted on" critique...well, that's just "the style," to use the old cliche. I didn't want to turn the contrast down on the characters because I utterly despise modern anime and its grey, featureless shading, and wanted to get back to the colourful tones of the 80s golden era. Here's some screen captures from random (older, nice looking) anime and the same can be said pretty much across the board, with regard to character relation to background:

http://img238.imageshack.us/img238/5161/ep081600gl.jpg
http://img238.imageshack.us/img238/301/misc00196bu.jpg
http://img105.imageshack.us/img105/8059/ep081566yb.jpg
http://img105.imageshack.us/img105/783/ns104xb.jpg

But as to the thick black outlines and character interraction, yeah, they are firmly problems with my skill level. Though the outlines were a conscious choice which I often use just stylistically. Of course it means that the characters don't "meet" the background, but as previously noted that's not really an option anyway when blending cel-style work with more realistic background. The high contrast is, to me, one of the interesting things about the style.

To clarify, though, I not defending my work here at all, just the anime style in general, and the high contrast between backgrounds and characters that you often find therein. I'll freely admit that my anatomy and expressions are well below par and need years of work. ^^;

[wassermelone]

I think the shots you provided actually have a fine relationship between the background and the characters. Theres actually a distinct difference between what they have and what you have.

On all except the last one they are cut off at the bottom, so their placement against a less saturated background makes sense. Atmospheric perspective states that the further away something is, the more it takes on the color of the atmosphere. In the screenshots, you can surmise that this is the reason that the backgrounds are less saturated. In the last one, the ground and bamboo that is at the same parallel as them have the same ammount of saturation as they do.

In yours however... you can actually see where they are standing. The floor and area around them is DIRECTLY less saturated and carries further into the background. They dont even look like they are connected whatsoever to the ground.

Of course, if you had not desaturated the background, they would have been lost in how busy the background is. If you looked at the anime shots you had provided, you might have noticed that the breakdown of shapes and colors in the background is very simple.

[Goog]

I agree with wassermole, the shots provided do have good contrast. One thing I noticed is that in every pic, there are only two skin tones per person, as well as with their clothes.

[Hookswords]

I enjoy the effect on the rocket boots and the background is really nicely done. Though I do enjoy the characters, I must agree with the statements above

[Paul "Otaking"]

OK...how's this then? Some tweaks to saturation, etc.

http://img126.imageshack.us/img126/1582/17groupshot6jh.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

PriNcE oF SpAcE- "I really really don't like your characters..."
Is that because they're anime or because they're badly drawn anime?

Goog - "One thing I noticed is that in every pic, there are only two skin tones per person, as well as with their clothes."
Ah, now that was definitely intentional. 5 tones is the max for anime (with 3-4 during the late 80s, and 1-2 nowadays), and that's what I went for.

[tensai]

a lot better

[Shamagim]

Much much better!!!!

More things that people forgot to mention and a plus to already done changes:

- The pink haired character looks anatomically ackward ( considering the style and everything), what´s bothering me is her entire spine, and the connecting between the upper and lower part of her body, her boobs look odd too, but only because of the lines and highligts..or perhaps the hue, it makes them look wrinkly and bad tanned, I bet you that making it smoother and with smaller speculars you´ll get a much sexyer looking chest on her :).

-The guy in the back needs less contrast, his darkish skin is not helping him to be in the right place.


Be prepared for people to say " I really like the pic, but hate the characters", not because is anime, is because is always the same style, and those really strong eye lines can be sometimes annoying, If you want an advice form someone who doesn´t know much, but maybe enough, I would say that you need to get out of that line of work (" style?") from time to time, or reserve those eye lines for some characters, leaving others with simpler and/or different type of eyes for the sake of each character´s identity.

Example: completely round and small eyes, line-ish eyes, etc, depending on the character you want to depict and how. You can always add more maturity to a character by making his eyes smaller in comparison with younger characters.

Good luck with all your stuff :).

[tensai]

Be prepared for people to say " I really like the pic, but hate the characters",

I didn't have time to say more before but I actually don't really like the characters. I don't think they necessarily have to look like this either because its supposed to be 'manga' style - which manga style? There are so many...
(and so few I like - so take this crit lightly).

[Goog]

Wow, those chars fit into that enviro so much better. It really increases its quality.

[JFS]

It looks like they were just randomly placed in this pic. The guy sitting is talking to thin air explaining how silly the guy in the foreground looks.
The girl to the left is like "i'm striking a pose while hovering!" cuz at first glance she isn't standing on the ramp.
The guy who we know for a fact is flying is my favourite in this pic because he is going "Whoa what is that CyberNinja doing here?"
The fellow in the foreground must be fresh out of CyberNinja-academy, because he looks like a releived CyberNinja. On a more serious note about this guy though: The hand that is touching the railing has a grotesquely bent thumb that I think can be sorted out.

I love the background, but I think you could have filled it with more people.
The saturation tweak did wonders!
Keep it up :)