Quote: Original post by LockePick
The reason it works is because heavier lines make the image "pop" off the page (or screen, in this case). So the farther away the background is, the more you want to stick out from it.

To use a more mathematical term I've been trying to use line lengths to vaguely show the Z position of objects, but I didn't think of using delta Z; the distance between objects rather than the absolute position. I'll give this a go in my next image. I should also look up some more hints on lines and brush strokes; I've got a few cartooning and manga books on the shelves so there's bound to be info in there.

Quote: You can see the effect really obviously in your zelda image: Link and Navi appear to be closer than the title, even though you can see the title covers Link's hand (and titles are usually the top layer by convention).

There's a real clash between the logo graphics and the cartoon art style. I've been trying to emulate the logos style as close as possible while retaining my cartoon look for the rest of the image, but I might need to look into creating some sort of buffer.

Thanks for the advice; looking at line widths is a good element to focus on for my next header. I might see if I can get in some more background work too, since I skimped on that with the Final Fantasy one.

Quote: Original post by Karnot
Looks quite alike something one might see at VG Cats.
Have you thought about your own videogame themed web-comic ?

Scott Ramsoomair's VG Cats strips are one of the comics I sometimes use as a reference. I'm pretty sure he uses Flash to vectorise his work as one of the production steps, except he scans in pen drawn images first. I can't ink to save my life.

This header work is actually a practice trial to see if I can improve my habits up to the level where I can create a webcomic. I've been wanting to improve my art for ages, and making a regular comic seems like a great exercise for self-improvement.

I'm still working on the theme; however If I do end up making a comic it's almost bound to have some game related angle. The only interesting bits of my life involve graduate studies and game development, and I don't think I can improve on Piled Higher and Deeper! However I doubt I'd do a standard videogame based webcomic (i.e. the "two guys on a couch playing video games" approach); firstly because it's been done to death, and secondly because I haven't really been on the ball with the latest trends in popular videogames since about 2003.

I am envious, they look really nice.

Just one small note. The texts do not really fit to the other art styles. They seem a bit stamped on it.

It is not a big thing, I just noticed it at the third look.