Background creation process (Patreon)

I said I would make a post talking more in depth about the creation process of ORS background images. This was a very important aspect I wanted to improve coming into the new project, but it's a tricky one. 

Creating backgrounds from scratch requires a ton of time, effort and skill. If I had to do it myself, I would take at least a week per image, and the result wouldn't be as nice. To go around this obstacle in GGGB  I had to cut corners and use edited photos as backdrops, since that was the only affordable and time-efficient way to go about it. The result looked cheap (because it was) but just good enough.

I wanted to up the production quality with ORS, and my first priority was hiring someone to help with the coloring of the drawings. That was a must. At first I wasn't sure what to do with the backgrounds, and I considered sticking to using edited pictures. After all, the backgrounds, though important, are the least vital element in the enjoyment of this VN (being writing the first one and character drawings the second one). However, having quality art for the background would greatly improve the overall look and polish of the game and I really wanted that. So I started looking for someone I could work with. After a lot of digging I was lucky enough to find GVIO.Art, and I fell in love with their production. I had to work with them, and I'm super happy about it. 

Having background art  especially created for the game has a lot of pros, but also some cons. The main drawback is that backgrounds cost time and are quite expensive to produce, so I can't have as many as I had with GGGB. I have to be very mindful of where the story and scenes take place, use the scenarios intelligently and plan ahead of time. The pros, however, greatly surpass the cons. Apart of the backgrounds looking fantastic, now I can be very specific about what I want on them, giving the scenarios a lot of personality. This is how the process goes:

First, I send GVIO's team a brief with what I want the background to be like, using photo references as guide and inspiration. Sometimes I'm very specific with what I want and other times I'm a bit more open and vague, and I always encourage them to make their own creative decisions. I'm well aware that controlling someone's creative process can be really annoying for the artist, after all.

After a while, then send me a linework sketch of the background for approval. Sometimes I add some notes, like in this case, but other times they completely nail it right away.

And finally, I get the final result. I can also ask for modifications on it, but I rarely have to do so, and if I want to change anything (lightning, color or some detail) I usually do it myself so I don't clog their pipeline unnecessarily. 

Normally I commission backgrounds in groups of 2 or 3 pieces, and the whole process takes around a month to complete. 

Do you think the new backgrounds are a vital improvement to ORS? Did you find the process interesting, and it's how you imagined it? Do you want to see more of these? Let me know in the comments :)