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#Post#: 14--------------------------------------------------
Foreground objects in adventure game scenery
DIR By: Pam
Date: May 20, 2021, 8:11 am
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Something I learned fairly early on from other adventure game
art enthusiasts is that adding foreground objects to a scene is
a nice way to spice things up. I think I first really noticed it
in Day of the Tentacle, those wacky, cartoony shapes sitting in
the foreground in pure black, and have used the idea many times
myself.
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These were especially cool because they took up some of the
boring floor space, added decoration without being distracting
and made it obvious where we could and couldn't walk. For quite
a while I've drawn them this way because, well, everybody else
did it, too. What really interests me now, though, is the
different ways they've been used by different people, and what
sorts of effects they can have.
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An interesting comparison to show the value of foreground
objects is to compare King's Quest 5 and 6. Here in 5 we see an
interior is shown as a picture in picture type effect - it's not
very immersive, and feels like the town details distract a bit
from the part they want us to look at.
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King's Quest 6, however, has the space taken up by the frame and
exterior now taken up by foreground detail. In this case it's
very simple - we're given the impression that a stone block is
missing and that we're peeking through this to see into the
room. These blocks that frame the shot are much less distracting
than in the previous image, and it feels more immersive as a
result - seeing a single scene at a time, rather than different
parts overlaid another feels much more akin to actually being
there.
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The game really plays around with this idea - from the fairly
basic stonework framing in the last shot, we move to a rather
evocative shot from within a bookshelf that adds a lot of
texture without adding too many distracting specific details.
The shot is somewhat awkward as a result of the books being
rather out of perspective with the rest of the shot for the most
part, but the radiating lines do feel like they draw the eye to
the centre of the image.
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Here's a much more subtle and accurate version of the same idea
- here the books are in perspective, and still nicely varied.
You can see how nicely they hide large areas of fairly boring
masonry and replace them with different colours and textures.
Again, the lines of the books that appear to radiate from a
central point in the image seem to help draw our eyes towards
that central part.
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Gabriel Knight is full of many examples of interesting use of
foreground objects. Something particularly interesting to me is
the way many of them are facing the player, rather than towards
the room itself. Here the various relics are clearly facing us,
or in directions where we can very easily appreciate their
designs, despite the fact that it'd make more sense to having
them facing towards the desk and the doorway. This is an
interesting example of style beating out realism, where this was
deemed more effective by the artist at conveying the atmosphere
they were going for. It really does add a lot to a scene that
would otherwise be quite dull, and putting them so close to us
as a viewer really does help show the grotesque details much
better than having them as tiny, scaled objects on the shelf
against the back wall.
HTML https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-4HcoBndmvcE/WJ3z8oYcKiI/AAAAAAAAAxU/7FlZFLS3gostK5SnSo4H1Z1jxy5sTKsNACEw/s400/Fate2.png
Another interesting example of relics as foreground objects is
in Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. What particularly
interests me about this is that the artists had to take into
account the user interface when doing backgrounds, but in some
cases, such as here, the interface is hidden. This leaves a
large amount of space that has to be filled somehow -
thankfully, the role of an archaeologist leaves plenty of room
for placing the many recovered treasures of his expeditions.
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Once we switch into the game proper, the foreground objects are
all hidden, with the user interface taking up this spot now.
This is a really clever and interesting way to hide an otherwise
omnipresent interface in a few specific locations without
resorting to massive amounts of empty floor that would look
quite odd.
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The use of an omnipresent interface doesn't negate the use of
foreground objects, however, as can been seen from this shot in
Simon the Sorcerer 2. Here the debris and waste of a messy
kitchen clutter up the bottom part of the scene nicely, despite
the fact that the interface takes up a similar amount of screen.
This works particularly well in the Simon the Sorcerer games
because Simon tends to walk in lines, rather than areas, so he
very rarely moves towards and away from the camera unless on a
specific path or through a specific exit. This means the
foreground objects aren't really blocking any walkable area.
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However, as can be seen in this scene from Sam & Max Hit the
Road, blocking a walkable area off still works perfectly fine.
It's quite obvious that we can walk past the Fiji mermaid in its
tank to the right side of the room, but what this helps to do is
to break up the wide, scrolling room into two separate
compositions, left and right, which helps to eliminate some of
the struggle that a wide scrolling scene can bring to balancing
a composition, due to the shifting nature of the scene. It also
establishes a nice zig-zag pattern in the floor space. This
shape of foreground detail can be seen in several other
locations in the game:
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Notice again how the compositions are somewhat broken up by a
central, more prominent object, that separates the two halves of
the foreground areas nicely, and creates a zig-zag shape in the
framing, and therefore walkable area.
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Compare this to the somewhat linear arrangement of the
interesting shapes in this scene from Beneath a Steel Sky, which
still has an object in the centre that creates nice negative
space, but here without the wonky cartoon feeling that wouldn't
fit a serious science fiction thriller so well. It still blocks
the composition off nicely, but feels more sober and realistic
than the zany angles of the Sam & Max scenes.
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Another interesting example, this time from Willy Beamish shows
the opposite - here the bottom centre is completely open, and
the foreground detail mostly sits in the corners. What I
particularly like about this is how the artist used a lovely
purple to make the foreground detail stand out from the yellow
scene - a great use of a complementary palette (see my earlier
post about this for more examples). This really makes it a great
framing device, and also adds a nice second hue to an otherwise
very mono-coloured scene.
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Here the colour difference isn't so obvious - instead, the
artist has used rim lighting to make the foreground objects
stand out. This doesn't present as clear a thumbnail as the
previous shot, but it does feel somewhat more realistic, which
suits the game better, and still reads quite well in game. The
details here are also somewhat more abstract, suitable for the
alien environment in which The Dig takes place. Here it's also
very clear that the designers wanted us to walk in a very
specific area, due to the fact that we're inside a vehicle, and
the massive foreground detail makes it very clear that we can't
walk in the bottom third of the image.
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This scene from Full Throttle also uses rim lighting to define
the objects, as well as a large contrast in values, but here
we're given much more specific details. The wonderful swirling,
curving forms presented by the group masses present in the
foreground here add wonderful negative space to the large, flat
wall that runs along the right two thirds of the image, and also
help to reinforce the luxurious wealth of the building we're
looking at.
Foreground objects, then, can be used in a variety of ways and
forms to slightly different effect, beyond the simple, pleasant
methods I first noticed being used in Day of the Tentacle.
They're a great way to make scenes look better, and there's
many, many examples of them being used in adventure games. A
powerful tool in any background artist's toolkit!
As for other forms of games, my main feeling is that this works
best for static or limited scrolling shots. Many games have
shots that move around, which makes the framing and composition
powers of this technique much less effective and predictable.
These static screens mean that an artist can usually judge - to
some extent - where most of the elements on the screen will be,
which means they arrange these foreground objects to work with
them.
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