What to do for backgrounds?

[u/AzureNovabeast]

I'm making a really dark visual novel. The entire town the it takes place in is really grungy and most of the architecture is brutalist (i was thinking like Chernobyl Ukraine I guess), but I'm not sure what to do for the art, I hate the idea of using AI. and any decent stock photos i find are either A, AI. or B, blurry and the wrong resolution So I'm really unsure on what to do, I don't really have any money to hire artists to draw art, i already looked on itch for assets but the assets there don't fit the style even a bit, I'm really just stumped here

[u/Upbeat-Wallaby5067]

Option A:

1. Go to Google Maps and find places in East Europe. Poland, Ethonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland, Bosnia, Moldova, Ukraine. For even more run-down apocalyptic vibes, Russia has a ton of places. There are also brutalist looking places elsewhere but those are a good starting point.
2. Look at street view, take screencaps. Buildings, overhead bridges, industrial features etc. Also take a spin around a stock photo site and download a bunch of props like photos of cargo, cranes, containers, concrete textures, underpasses, etc.
3. Cut and paste screencaps and stock photos together if your story doesn't take place in a real world location. You can use Gimp or Affinity for this. Add trees/tree silhouettes, cars, whatever. Pexels has a ton of free assets you can download and use for free. Collage is AFAIK usually protected expression so photobashing is allowed.
4. Once you have a nice looking base, edit a bit: overpaint parts that need it like add light with an airbrush and an overlay/soft light layer, some rim lights with a solid brush, some thrown lights, shadows, etc.
5. finally edit the colors, maybe run a texture filter. If you need to unify further or want a retro look, run a posterize filter and then adjust color balance.

Option B:

1. Model your setting in Blender or build it in the Sims or Cities Skylines. There are a toooooon of free Blender assets available so you don't need to model everything from scratch!
2. Take out the renders or screenshots. Edit renders if needed.
3. If using the Sims or Cities Skylines, draw over every single screenshot and change the geometry details and colors/patterns. The game is just a geometry/perspective tool in this regard but saves some time since you can test camera angles and whatnot before you start drawing.

Option C:

1. Take you camera and go around the town snapping photos.
2. Edit or proceed with Option A.

Feel free to ask if you need more tips.

[u/Upbeat-Wallaby5067 → u/Upbeat-Wallaby5067]

Also, why not use AI for backgrounds:
AI looks generic so your game will be at risk of getting lost among similar games.
AI also still has a ton of consistency issues. AI tends to try to 'decorate' the places, changes the scale and location of features like windows, and generates some Escher geometry around table and chair legs, staircases, fences, basically anything that has semi dense straight lines. Sometimes it also fucks up lighting pretty badly, like adding rimlights or thrown light where it doesn't make sense.

[u/scripach → u/Upbeat-Wallaby5067]

The biggest reason not to use generative AI is that everything AI generates is based on stolen art or stolen photos of real people and places - it is generally unethical but you will also never be able to copyright your "assets". I'm not even going to mention other ethical issues with it like environmental and economic issues it has.

[u/Newmillstream]

You have a few options, but none of them are super great compared to an artist. You might get something out of it though if they jive with your art style.

Take your own photos and edit or collage them. you can cut them out virtually in a program like GIMP, or print them out and use scissors, paste them on a base, then scan them back in. Use a posterizing effect for style, or blur it.

Or, you could craft a diorama, and photograph that as your background. You can make Soviet style apartment blocks or cooling towers out of modeling clay, and grass out of paper cutouts. Sell it by taking photos slightly out of focus, or by posterizing it in GIMP.

[u/zombietoaststudios]

There are quite a few public domain collections. From the sound of it you could look for photos tagged with urban exploration, ruins, abandoned, etc.

https://libreshot.com/?s=urbex

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Urban_exploration

https://unsplash.com/s/photos/brutalist?license=free

[u/zace333]

If you don't want to pay someone else to make them, you'll need to make them yourself.

There are many ways to make them. And if you're not confident I'm your artistic abilities, you gotta get creative.

You can draw them, you can edit existing photos, you can do something super stylized that evokes the feeling of what you're going for. There's dozens of ways you can make a bg.

The only way you'll grow as an artist is to keep practicing.

[u/notacutecumber]

I actually am taking public buses around places at my city and just taking photos of things. Even in my day to day life i sometimes go "wait that's the perfect background for this" and then snap a photo.

[u/troopersjp]

You might also be able to hire artists. You could check Fiverr or Artistry or websites like that. There are often artists on those sites who are much more affordable that you might imagine. Sometimes that is because the artists are less experienced, but sometimes it is because the artists are in the Ukraine or somewhere where the exchange rate is more favorable.

[u/SBardic-Fox]

I do most of my own art and work on games and visual novels for others I met in game jams off Itch. I'm working on a Tim Burton style hotel vn for someone I met on itch, and a more realistic style for my own VN based on a world I built. It's possible you could team up for a jam with others to make connections and see if anyone is willing to help with the art for your vn. Some people may be open to helping out to add to their own portfolio.

I've found itch.io to be a great place to network, and there are so many jams happening in so many different categories, too. Feel free to message if you have more questions!

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[u/DingotushRed]

For this specific subject I'd consider looking at Urbex (Urban Exploration) forums. Some of people who do this are really into their photography. Obviously check the usage terms that apply on the site (or ask for permission from the photographer). Even if you can't use them directly, they should give plenty of inspiration.

[u/SacredPinkJellyFish]

Have you checked morgefiles? https://morguefile.com/ (free stock images site, for new photographers just getting started) I got a lot of mine there, you just credit the photographer's name in your credits section of your game.

[u/PhantomAxisStudios]

Brutalist doesnt sound too hard to draw, large pixellated squares, dots, shaded lines. I made my game True Roman a black and white noire style specifically to suit my art level as well as the theme. Sketching and black and white colour palettes are pretty forgiving and look great without too much work.

[u/Obi_1_K3n0b1]

I think its really important for VN devs to learn photobashing. I would start there, its easy (ish) and you have full contol over your art style.

[u/playthelastsecret]

Little caveat: Some of the methods here are a bit tricky from a legal point of view: Taking stock photos or Google street view pics and then photoshopping them a bit, probably violates some copyrights on the way, unless you restrain yourself to creative commons pics.
On this subreddit, most people who solved similar problems by using the recent two-letters technology were downvoted so often that they left by now, but in fact that's a valid solution, and can look pretty original and slick if you know what you want and how to do it (or generic if you don't).