First of all, I apologise if this is in the wrong section - I thought about putting this in the WIP/Critique: Game Art Design section, but I figure my question is not about a specific piece of work per se; instead, it is about a problem inherent in a particular style and how to get around it.
With that said, on with the question.
I’ve been designing (levels, maps, environments, call them what you will) for several years and recently I’ve been toying with the idea of producing more… presentable… designs with the aim of building up a portfolio. Taking a design I recently finished on paper, I started to reproduce it to scale as line art in Photoshop using an approximate 3/4 view with the intention of colouring it once it is finished to give it a “concept art” look. The problem I’ve encountered is that several areas overlap each other, with the top-most area occluding those below and behind it. The approach I have used on paper isn’t going to work so well on a colour image so I’m wondering if anyone has a suggestion that can be consistently applied to this.
The example image below highlights one such problem. Base colour has been added to make it a little clearer, and walls have only been rendered to the height of a single floor. The areas A and B are two parts of the same (multistory) building that are split only at ground level by a passageway that runs between them. There is also a small booth at the ground level. The issue is how best to represent this without obscuring the passageway, booth or even the sidewalk behind the building that would be partially occluded once I added colour to the facing wall.
Some thoughts I’ve had so far:
Detail the facing walls along the NW and NE edges of the design only and restrict the rest of the design to floor plan only. This would seem the simplest solution but I’m worried about loosing too much context for the individual areas.
Draw everything fully occluded and add box-outs showing the areas as they would appear if the view was not obstructed. I already have to do this for area C, which leads to a basement below the building, but may make the final design cluttered.