I wonder : "Will you display some pictures or something to let us know, one year and a half from the release, which will be the art direction for CoT ?'
i mean, the style will more like cartoons ? comics ? Paint-like like GW2 ? realistic ?
How about the main atmosphere ? Which are the guiding lines choosen ?
Can you tell us more on the graphical part of the game ? :) I'm not talking about the pictures only, but the game itself. Maybe it's soon to ask the question ?
(And yes, i need contents for www.titanscity.com xD )
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I have been asking this very question for about a year now. So far the answer has been 'art style is one of the last things we will decide'. Hope you have better luck than I have.
But, the art direction is something to put before building the game :/ How would you know, otherwise, how the buildings or streets, or other zones, even mains characters, must look like ?
Thar Art direction is almost the game identity. Without it, or if it is not done in time, moders or even scripters or every submitter can't represent it in their mind... They should have, at least, some words, some ideas to put the game in a certain direction isn't it ?
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There's different kinds of "art" related to a game like this.
For example I could understand where it might take a long time before we get to see a bunch of examples of costume items because, let's face it, they are probably going to be making new costume items continuously for years. But things like the first few starting city zones should be fairly complete by now, or at least huge percentages of them should be "relatively" done by now at any rate. We could judge a lot by seeing more of the "artwork" related to the general open game environments like that.
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
There is a difference between not saying and not knowing.
Also a thing to keep in mind, art style in a video game is, for the large part (not completely), shaders, textures, lighting and so forth. None of which requires that the devs set the art style until the very end. Here is an example just to show you what I mean. Both of these were done in the same program using roughly the same model.
[img=500x290]https://akememory.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/maxresdefault.jpg[/img]
[img]https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/99/73/84/997384c4d6f34af3503b089104921b39.jpg[/img]
Where this topic has gone is near and dear to me. I think art style is one of the most important aspects of a game.
So many people think that hyperrealism is the only way to show off the latest graphics capabilities. But the images above are good examples of excellent graphics without hyperrealism. Granted, they are of a particular art style, showing an obvious anime influence with the oversized heads and eyes that I expect CoT will not have.
The problem with hyperrealism is that the more realistic you make something look, the more detail you have to get right.
Let me use a facial scar as an example:
The following scar exists on a stylized face:
It is clear that it is a scar, and our imagination has to fill in the blanks about it.
Now look at this face:
Look at the amount of effort it takes for the artists and modellers to render these scars in that level of realism.
Where a couple of discolored lines is enough to denote the presence of a scar in a more stylized rendering, it is not enough in the more realistic rendering. In fact, the realistic rendering now has to denote whether it is a fresh scar, an old scar, a burn, a gash, and other details like the 3D contour of it and how shiny it is that are unnecessary at a more stylistic level of detail.
I thought the level of detail present in games like Archeage or The Elder Scrolls Online show just the right level of realism.
Anything that tries to be more realistic is just asking for trouble as we notice all the little details that are just not quite right. The more stylistic the art style, the less details will have to be just quite right.
[hr]I like to take your ideas and supersize them. This isn't criticism, it is flattery. I come with nothing but good will and a spirit of team-building. If you take what I write any other way, that is probably just because I wasn't very clear.
The problem is that people want a written description of something that is inherently visual. It is akin to dancing about architecture. Unless you already know the answer, it really does not make sense.
Technical Director
Read enough Facebook and you have to make Sanity Checks. I guess FB is the Great Old One of the interent these days... - Beamrider
Yes, but with the plethora of images and videos available to use in conjunction with your written description you should be able to paint a fairly accurate picture of your intentions.
not really. Refer to the above example given by yourself. The difference between the cell shaded cartoon and the one below it was done likely in the last few weeks of work.
From the beginning, we said that we're aiming for how we'd imagine CoH to look were it developed today. Not going for cell chasing, but not going for hyper realistic either. A soft stylized form which is "realistic-lite" as we've called it before.
Technical Director
Read enough Facebook and you have to make Sanity Checks. I guess FB is the Great Old One of the interent these days... - Beamrider
Seriously guys, id rather be blown away my the imagery of the art than sit there reading a description. I think for art its one of those things that require visuals and ill gladly wait for that.
-----------
[color=#FF0000]Graphic Designer[/color]
Another problem with text descriptions is that the best ones evoke ideas in the reader's imaginations which will vary from person to person.
[i]Has anyone seen my mind? It was right here...[/i]
This... sounds... perfect.
Carry on.
FIGHT EVIL! (or go cause trouble so the Heroes have something to do.)
I am not sure what you are trying to say here. I mean, I said pretty much this exact thing right before the pictures so how would text + images 'not really' paint a picture of the games art style?
I'm not being argumentative, I really don't get what you mean.
See, this 'realistic-lite' is a description that just begs for visual reference. It could mean any of the following:
[img]http://www.imfdb.org/images/thumb/6/65/Batman-arkham-asylum-20090602030546100_640w.jpg/600px-Batman-arkham-asylum-20090602030546100_640w.jpg[/img]
[img=640x480]https://assets-cdn.daybreakgames.com/uploads/dcsclient/000/000/119/641.jpg?v=1.0[/img]
[img]http://media.comicbook.com/2016/01/gta-bvs-165658.jpg[/img]
[img=640x480]https://fsmedia.imgix.net/67/0c/93/b5/962f/43c8/8956/8b98598c089b/web-of-shadows.jpeg[/img]
[img=640x480]http://oceanofgames.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/amazing-spider-man-2-2.jpg[/img]
I like those Spider-Man shots the best. That'd be about right for me.
FIGHT EVIL! (or go cause trouble so the Heroes have something to do.)
I want to know this too! This is one of the parts I'm really afraid they're going to screw up on.
I'd rather see something more akin to the 5th posts than any of that "let's go for realistic" garbage. Which, for a CoH homage game, wouldn't feel like CoH at all :p
I'm sure there are some who wants the game to look the most realistic ever, but WildStar, FFXIV, Blade & Soul those are looks I want to see the game be akin to, which those three are different. I do not want to look even like the "realistic lite" pics shown.
TERA would be the closest to realistic lite I'd want to see.
This is my personal preference for art style. A distinct relation to high end comics but with enough reality to keep it from being too cartoony.
[img=640x480]http://www.dccomics.com/sites/default/files/imce/2014/08-AUG/batman-assault-on-arkham-the-suicide-squad-main_53ed3ca5413ac4.93869624.jpg[/img]
Better than some of those more realistic ones shown.
What I see is that we'll have whatever amount of realism and style the Devs can pull off, and that will be awesome! People who want to prejudge or preview this style, before it's completely realized, are just doomed to disappointment.
"You Devs Suck! You said the art style was going to be like 'This' and I like this, but what you actually did was 'That' and I hate that!" Or something like that.
I'm prepared to enjoy the best of all possible worlds, until the big graphics overhaul in three or four years, made possible by improved techniques and technology. Then that will be the best of all possible worlds until... whatever.
Be Well!
Fireheart
It seems that people are talking about the visual art :) But, i'm not talking about that (not entirely).
What i wanted to know is : what is the direction of the artS in the game ? Every arts. I'm not only talking about the visual art. Music, shadows, atmosphere, main mission, main characters of the game... and some things are probably missing in this list ^^.
If you think about "Batman" series. It's dark, dirty, creepy, violent. The lights are not shining, texts are pretty common or even rude.
If you think about GW2, the visual arts are the main part of its style yes, but it's pretty colorfull with lots areas of nature. it's pretty serious in the texts and the missions. All the atmosphere is about natural, except in the charr city ^^
If you think about a game, every element participates to the art direction. What about CoT ?
I know the musics are moderns and will vary but i don't think it will be classical at a time or NrB in another place and then RAP in another one ^^ It's style is pretty modern an orchestral for me.
But think about the pictures :) All the wallpapers seen have not the same style, the drawings (for instance, on the mug) has another style than the wallpapers or even the exemple we could have seen.
If we thought about the "Builder", (i love that vidéo ^^) the atmosphere is just ... there is no atmosphere (ok, it was not the purpose, you are right). But we touch a little bit, as far as we can, the art direction (or visual direction) done for thoses buildings.
Do you know what a mean Dr Tyche ? Even your wallpaper in the first launcher is not in adequation with the other images :/
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Not entirely accurate. How much they can pull off could be anything from stick figures (we know they can do better :p) to is this superhero a real person?
I'm not worried about graphics. I'm worried about the aesthetics. Hyper realistic...sucks. :p
Alright, a little bit of confusion.
What you are talking about here isn't something I am too worried about right now. Theme, atmosphere and tone will most likely not be a set in stone aspect of the art direction. What I mean is, the game is likely to include all sorts of inclusive missions, atmosphere and so forth to suit a wide range of art direction. They will do this through specialized locations, foes, allies, missions ect as well as with a more agnostic art direction which has generalized locations, foes and such.
I think this raises questions about the Uncanny Valley.
We're currently in a sort of weird place in terms of computer graphics technology. While it's very easy to render characters with better graphics quality than say Pac-Man it's still relatively hard to achieve an acceptable level of "hyper-realism" without it getting stuck firmly in the Uncanny Valley. This is why we're at a point where you either have to spend a huge amount of time/effort to get past the Valley or you back-up a little and not drive down into the valley in the first place by keeping things "stylistic".
My guess is that in another 10 or 20 years computer graphics will eventually advance us all past the Uncanny Valley. It'll get to the point where even 3 year olds will be able render original photo-realistic characters with almost no time/effort at all. Once we're at that point I think much of the negativity against striving for hyper-realism will be gone because it'll be almost impossible to do it "wrong".
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
I'll add to Huck and Lothic's arguments of difficulty and uncanny valley that overly realistic games are known not to age as well graphically.
I like MWM's philosophy of "light realism" for the game. Which, from what they've said, seems to be more realistic textures, light, physics and "graphics" in general, but more classic comic book-like art style but no cell shading.
That sounds freaking spot on to me.
FIGHT EVIL! (or go cause trouble so the Heroes have something to do.)
Fortunately !! ^^ I was really disappointed by CO and its style ^^ (and its gameplay :p)
I just hope the art direction will be at least nice, because thank to UE4, something great could be done !
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It's common to dismiss cell shading based on it's use in CO but it should be noted that there are other ways to use cell shading.
Arkham Asylum
[img]https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51r5LOIktJL.jpg[/img]
Batman the Telltale series
[img=640x480]http://www.comingsoon.net/assets/uploads/2016/06/batmantelltale.jpg[/img]
Borderlands 2
[img=640x480]http://www.macgamestore.com/images_screenshots/borderlands-2-complete-edition-22724.jpg[/img]
Dishonored 2
[img=640x480]https://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/1381/13810066/3148642-8579037099-disho.jpg[/img]
Zelda Breath of the Wild
[img=640x480]http://oyster.ignimgs.com/mediawiki/apis.ign.com/the-legend-of-zelda-hd/0/0c/Daily1.jpg[/img]
All of these use cell shaders to some degree and all have a different aesthetic.
Huh. That is interesting. Still, maybe that very top one with the Joker or the Dishonored one is ok, but, other than that, for an MMORPG, I'd prefer not personally. Or I guess at least no too much.
I will say that you've turned me around to where I'd now say "a touch" of cell shading could be kind of cool, but more than a touch I quickly start to dislike--for an MMORPG.
FIGHT EVIL! (or go cause trouble so the Heroes have something to do.)
Um... the Arkham Asylum and Dishonored 2 images above are not cell shaded. There is an aftermarket shader which can add cell shading to them, which changes their looks thusly:
[IMG]http://i38.tinypic.com/16i8l1y.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i34.tinypic.com/2ex7v5z.jpg[/IMG]
Technical Director
Read enough Facebook and you have to make Sanity Checks. I guess FB is the Great Old One of the interent these days... - Beamrider
Is it really cell shading that is the issue or is it the aesthetic that's the issue?
I don't care, personally, how they get to the aesthetic, as long as I like the aesthetic. The more realistic they try to be, the worse it will be.
Your talking about Goonl!ne's cell shading. That second image I think is Uncharted.
I am not trying to be argumentative but I am fairly sure that both Arkham and Dishonored use lighting to texture techniques from cell shading to achieve their distinct look, especially in the world environment. I will defer to you if you are sure.
I mean, if we're talking about those posts you quoted discussing whether or not we like cell shading, then cell shading is by definition the issue.
That last sentence is a pretty intense statement, even if you'd put "IMHO" in front of it. I have a hard time believing you'd rather see the aesthetic be as unrealistic as possible.
Personally, I don't want an aesthetic that looks like a typical Nickelodeon cartoon, for example (not that I don't like to watch me some Nick).
FIGHT EVIL! (or go cause trouble so the Heroes have something to do.)
Aye, that's what I've been counting on. Somewhere in the middle, but hopefully closer to the realistic side without going too far. The last thing I want is for CoT to look like a child's cartoon. Well, actually the [b]last[/b] thing I want is a large plate of broccoli, but a cartoony superhero game comes close. In that light, I hope the general tone of the game (as in story, dialogue, etc.) is more [i]Captain America: Winter Soldier[/i] and less [i]Guardians of the Galaxy[/i]. I like both films, but in gaming I had enough of the "isn't this all just so silly?" experience to last a lifetime when I tried CO.
Anyway, I trust you folks at MWM to show us more when it's the proper time.
Spurn all ye kindle.
[img]https://vegicano.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/photo-38.jpg[/img]
That said, an updated CoH look is what I'm hoping for, also. Which is still open to much interpretation, of course.
- - - - -
[font=Pristina][size=18][b]Hail Beard![/b][/size][/font]
Support [url=http://cityoftitans.com/comment/52149#comment-52149]trap clowns[/url] for CoT!
I'm glad lunch was 3 hours ago so my food had time to settle before having to see that. *shudder*
Spurn all ye kindle.
I'd rather see WildStar style art look to the characters (which, while I like WS's aesthetic, I don't think is the right look for the superhero MMO), I don't want Arkham Asylum level of trying to be real either. :p
CoH's aesthetic I liked, but feel it could have been updated a bit.
There's a lot to like about Wildstar's visual style. I do think that it was a bit too comedic in flavor, and a bit too anime in the proportions; but overall, it is attractive. I think the level of detail in the 3D meshes was too simplistic, however, for what MWM is trying to do with CoT. I remember when Wildstar Beta was launched there was such a stink about the lack of body types that the grass-roots effort resulted in several types by launch. And even with the several stock bodies, the polygon count is still pretty low. (Edit: I can't really say that with authority, what I really meant to say was that often the only difference between two costumes is merely the textures over the same mesh) Layering clothing the way we intend to for CoT would have been a non-starter.
But perhaps one of the best things you could say about the Wildstar style was that there was really no difference between high-end graphical cut scenes and promotional videos and the playable characters in the actual game. I can only imagine the level of controlled discipline and direction it must have taken in the Carbine Studios art department. I'm sure there is always be a temptation to add just this much more realism here or there. So some director must have had a big hammer to keep the art style so consistent.
[hr]I like to take your ideas and supersize them. This isn't criticism, it is flattery. I come with nothing but good will and a spirit of team-building. If you take what I write any other way, that is probably just because I wasn't very clear.
That's what i meant when i say that UE4 can give more than a CoH style like.
Hopefully, the last previews don't show characters in polygons ^^ neither faces sticks on 2 faces :p
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I should also say, when I say I liked CoH style, I actually mean, I personally loved most of it :p Sure, CoH only had a few faces I ever used (one they for some reason got rid of) and a few hairstyles I loved (sooo miss Hard Candy, wish it was in other games). But over all, the character's were everything I wanted them to be. Only Blade & Soul has matched my love of character creation like CoH did.
Out of curiosity, did you try Black Desert Online's character creator?
Technical Director
Read enough Facebook and you have to make Sanity Checks. I guess FB is the Great Old One of the interent these days... - Beamrider
EHM...
Our recent Paragons concept art is reminiscent of the style you'll be seeing in the game, as realism-lite, as far as our characters go. There has been a lot of concept art released regarding to the style of the city. I will not be sharing it all on this post but it just requires a thorough search in the past updates to find the style.
And our target shading strength and quality, ranging from characters to buildings, is a homogeneous combination of projects including City of Heroes cinematics and Arkham series. Just dropping those names to give you an idea. I'll be leaving it all at this until you see more.
Charles Logan
www.cloganart.com
No. I had heard some terrible things about the game (can't remember what) so I never did.
Thought it looked pretty in videos. Not sure if it had what I felt could work with a super hero setting. B&S for instance, I feel it's art style could work for a super hero setting with the look the avatar's had, just needed to throw in some spandex style outfits (it has some leather ones that are pretty close).
This actually makes me worried :/
The CC is great. The game.... not so much.
I will agree on B&S, other than the whole leg ratio issue.
Technical Director
Read enough Facebook and you have to make Sanity Checks. I guess FB is the Great Old One of the interent these days... - Beamrider
The leg ratio issue was a matter of sliders. Some of the races took some fiddling with the sliders to get the legs to look less exaggerated than what they started as. Took awhile to get me to get those Yun legs just right.
Mostly agreed. Wouldn't like WildStar OR Arkham Asylum, but WOULD like updated CoH (which was one way CoT's aesthetick was described by the Devs).
Like "recent Paragons concept art", "realism-lite", and "City of Heroes cinematics"--not so much the Arkham reference--but three out of four ain't bad!
Overall I'm feelin pretty good about the direction.
FIGHT EVIL! (or go cause trouble so the Heroes have something to do.)
Aye, you've given us plenty of glimpses, but I think till we see it all together with a fully-formed avatar, there will still be questions in people's minds. Still, your description above sounds like exactly what I'm hoping for. I think the Paragons piece is the best single bit of art to come out of this project so far.
Spurn all ye kindle.
I'm still convinced a slight anime touch to the art style over a realistic style would get far more players to the game.
This is basically what I was hoping for. In that range of "not cartoony" to "not hyper realistic." The buildings and costume textures look great, if the previous tech updates are any indication of what you are going for.
Again - sounds great. Can't wait to start seeing more.
I'm all for lots of anime options, but it wouldn't make sense to give a game based mainly on classic american comics the overall look of a different genre. I could see a more classic comic style like CoH had over a more realistic style maybe...
FIGHT EVIL! (or go cause trouble so the Heroes have something to do.)
I said a slight anime touch. That's just because I feel it would give it a more universal appeal to players who may not otherwise play the game. Which I also feel is something that should be looked into.
If I had it my way though, the game would look like Michael Turner, Mike Silvestry, Tony Daniel or J Scott Cambell wad done the characters of the game.
So we do not cancel the game because it doesn't make any money in South Korea! :P
Charles Logan
www.cloganart.com
Nope :) Should I ?
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HA!
As I'm sure MWM already knows, moving the style towards either end of the spectrum will gain players who prefer that style and lose others who prefer the opposite. While a more stylised aesthetic might pick up anime fans, a more realistic one could entice more fans of superhero movies, as well as gamers who expect to see the latest graphics capabilities implemented. It's just conjecture to say which would increase the player base more. Seems to me that MWM's plan of shooting for a middle-ish target is the best option available to them.
Spurn all ye kindle.
I was never even interested in giving BDO a try due to its arbitrary limitations on classes (seriously, WHO THINKS GENDERLOCKING IS A GOOD IDEA AND WHY!?!).
BDO gives you a lot of buttons to push and knobs to turn and sliders to mess with, but ultimately there's very little that all of those can do* to break out of the sort of typecast preset that they picked for your class (in particular this is a complaint about the Wizard [Literally the ONLY Male available class that's not a Melee Fighter], where you start of as "Gandalf clone #347" and it's virtually impossible to to make him NOT Gandalf in any way, shape, or form**).
*From my admittedly small experience with its character creator.
**I guess they more recently added a younger preset for the Wizard, but basically went from one extreme to the other, where the "Young" preset is "Barely-legal-twink-boy."
All this talk about Blade and Soul and the mention of specific comic book artists brings up a good point. Blade and Soul is a good example in a thread about art style because, like it or not, it was the faithful adherence to the art style of one particular artist:
[url=https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/hyung-tae-kim]Hyung-Tae Kim[/url]
and the amazing art style of Dofus and Wakfu is very much that of [url=https://www.artstation.com/artist/xaxa]Xavier Houssin[/url]
both of which are relatively consistent across their respective enterprises.
So I would hope that our own [b]Charles Logan[/b] has a big hammer to make sure that his own art style pervades City of Titans with very little compromise. So far, we have not seen the 3D art match the 2D art very faithfully, and I hope he gets a tighter reign on that.
And I also want to point out a common misconception by using this quote from Cinnder:
Realistic does not necessarily make any more demands on a computer's graphics capabilities than stylistic. Graphical demands are a result of the number of polygons your rig has to calculate multiplied by the number of lighting effects upon all those polygons and the amount of post-processing required for environmental effects, etc. So, please don't keep equating realism with graphical capabilities.
In my mind, I'd rather see a simpler [i]style[/i] with smooth curves and features, than a more realistic [i]style[/i] with blocky curves and features.
By the way, [i]a touch of anime[/i] is now pretty pervasive. Overwatch and the sadly cancelled Everquest Next were good examples. The disproportionate faces allow more expressive features viewable from a greater distance. But anime-ish or not, I'd like the game to be recognized as the art style of Charles Logan. And I'd like it to be consistent with whatever that style may be.
[hr]I like to take your ideas and supersize them. This isn't criticism, it is flattery. I come with nothing but good will and a spirit of team-building. If you take what I write any other way, that is probably just because I wasn't very clear.
That's a very narrow view of style/realism/graphics. A blocky avatar -- even with photorealistic textures -- is not going to come across as realistic. If you implement the same poly count and the same lighting, a level of ultra-realistic detail on top of that is still going to explore the boundary of current graphics capabilities more than a cartoony look. Not that I want that much detail in CoT, of course.
EDIT (for clarity): I didn't mean to imply that just because modern graphics are capable of more realism that it's a requirement. I'm certainly not of the school that says "if we can then we must."
Spurn all ye kindle.
Umm.. No. It won't.
If we have the same poly count and lighting, and, I'm assuming , the same level of post-processing effects like anti-aliasing, then there will be no difference between the graphical requirements of the systems. So what is it you mean when you say "a level of ultra-realistic detail" that is not meant in those other characteristics? Are you talking about the complexity of the textures? Those are just 2D images applied on top of the 3D meshes.
The only thing an ultra-realistic level of detail will accomplish is to suck the resources of the art department as they try to make more noticeable deviations from reality less noticable.
That's not entirely true. One other thing an Ultra-realistic level of detail will certainly have is an impressiveness quotient that we can not deny. The more realistic it is, the more people will say how stellar the graphics are. And it will certainly get notoriety for it. Stylized graphics are not generally viewed with the same amount of awe, no matter how detailed or advanced they are.
Let's take a look at this trailer for Everquest Next:
[youtube]jh_73qvfI8Y[/youtube]
Take notice of the lion's armor. It looks blocky like WoW armer, right?
But look again at the shapes and edges of it, like in his shoulders.
In old-school WoW there were straight edges and a texture was applied to them with shading to make the edges look like they were slightly curved. The below image is after the relatively recent graphical upgrade in WoW, but still helps to make the point.
[img]http://wow.zamimg.com/uploads/screenshots/normal/438972-sergeant-major-clate.jpg[/img]
So you could get the appearance of more polygons with less. In the lion's pauldron in this video, the edges are actually curved slightly, showing that a number of polygons were used to make the edge, not just one. So, even though the armor has the appearance of being blocky, it is actually quite detailed. This was a [i]Style[/i] choice. And shading can now be applied as a function of lighting instead of ingrained into the texture.
I really loved the style of Everquest Next and I am sad it never got to see the light of day.
[hr]I like to take your ideas and supersize them. This isn't criticism, it is flattery. I come with nothing but good will and a spirit of team-building. If you take what I write any other way, that is probably just because I wasn't very clear.
Charles Logan isn't a bad artist, but gah, his style is not appealing to me at all. :( Unless I'm looking at the wrong Charles Logan artwork on Deviant Art right now.
Sadly, I probably shouldn't be to surprised by the art choice if this is what was taken. I kinda feared it when I pledged that this would be the one area really lacking in CoT. :(
As long as it doesn't look like Champions I am a happy camper. I downloaded it last night after not playing it for years and I can honestly say i hate the way everything looks.
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[color=#FF0000]Graphic Designer[/color]
I'm not really sure CLogan has really fully established a personal style yet. It looks like he's been more of a bullpen artist, doing works in accordance with customers' desires, not his. I'm looking forward to seeing what he comes up with when he calls it his own. So far he's given us some glimpses.
From what I've seen, it looks like a gritty style, not too heavy on the details, but more on the feel of the characters. I like that. It almost reminds me of Simon Bisley with the way he uses darkspace and shadow. If he capitalizes on that, it could make for a very unique feel for the game; a feel I would actually enjoy.
[hr]I like to take your ideas and supersize them. This isn't criticism, it is flattery. I come with nothing but good will and a spirit of team-building. If you take what I write any other way, that is probably just because I wasn't very clear.
He's, obviously, no where close to the likes of J Scott Cambell, Tony Daniel, Mike Silvestri, Michael Turner or Humberto Ramos. His style reminds me of what you'd see on a variant cover that I always avoid for the more comicy style.
He looks like he's trying to get more realistic, which I often find, makes for a terrible super hero comic. I'll give, that his style looks better than Gary Frank and he looks like he may have been inspired by Alex Ross, but I was never a fan of Alex's style either :p
Man, I love me some Alex Ross. He gained my attention when he did the Earth X, Universe X, and Paradise X series covers. I haven't followed him that closely in some years, but someone knowing of my interests in The Shadow (yes, from radio and pulp comics) and Alex Ross' art told me about the series Masks, which is good stuff.
To realistic for my tastes.
CO's art style had bigger problems with Cryptic Engine than anything else. We complained for years about "comic-style outlining" not being anti-aliased. When they finally explained, they told us they'd have to rip up the rendering pipeline to make it work. STO is making enough money for Cryptic to completely upgrade the lighting model, while CO is making just enough money to keep the server hamster fed, so nobody's holding their breath. (The male default model, Captain Lumpface, didn't help either.)
I'd have no problem with cel shading in CoT if they could pull off an "animated Jamie McKelvie comic" look in UE4, like this:
[youtube]B9BLMNn0PrQ[/youtube]
Twitter: @SisterSilicon
That's a really neat art style. I wouldn't mind that as well. What I hated was not just the art style in CO, but everything seemed kind of cartoony. It really takes you out of the world.
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[color=#FF0000]Graphic Designer[/color]
STO lighting got an overhaul because they were going to console (and later they found out that "screw it, we'll patch it later" isn't a good strategy for console, since patches have to go through console manufacturer approval and take much longer to ship), and they still didn't get half of it right. There were a lot of places where it was ridiculously dark, and others where the bloom effects made things illegible.
And I'll let Redlynne tell you about how Earth somehow got three suns...
[i]Has anyone seen my mind? It was right here...[/i]
Good discussion. I can work with a lot of art styles. BUT, I am an altaholic. I play both male and female toons.
I ask for only one thing, that the gals do not look ugly like in Champions Online.
Handsome guys, pretty gals...that's all I want.
Thank you Mr Logan for answering our questions.
[img]https://s15.postimg.cc/z9bk1znkb/Black_Falcon_Sig_in_Progess.jpg[/img]
I'll second this from the other side.
That the Guys don't look ugly like in Champions Online. (Seriously, who designed their face models right?)