Other artists inspirations and References

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Shadow
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Other artists inspirations and References

Post by Shadow »

Note this images are copyrighted so just view it as inspiration.

Warhammer:

I know you can love it or hate but they got some pretty good artists.

Warhammer Online concept Art

Items, portraits, scenery quite dark.


Games Workshop
Skip the other trash they've got some pretty Artwork.
For example dwarves.

Sometimes they put up the concept art of the designers. Sadly the remove it pretty quick.


Again Items, portraits, scenery quite dark.

Blizzard:
Sons of the Storm

Actual a mixed bag on the on side I like the detailing on the other side the artwork gets more and more disproportionated.

Piranja Bytes:

One of my favorite developers
Some concept Art for Gothic
Outro
Intro

Some nifty ideas but only in German. Mostly scenery.


More to come. If you also know some sides post them here. I'll add some further If I can finally remember them again.

I repeat it this images are copyrighted so just view it as inspiration. So no you can't use them in any form.
Last edited by Shadow on February 2nd, 2008, 12:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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thespaceinvader
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Post by thespaceinvader »

Interesting inspiration for armour

dA stock gallery. Good for poses, background scenery, occasionally costumes etc etc etc. Caution, sorting the wheat from the chaff can take some doing here.

More as think of it.
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Post by Blarumyrran »

(not really art reference, but for developing concepts)

http://www.thief-thecircle.com/media/co ... ammers.jpg

i dont think any other game has had as much of an impact on me as the Thief series. also their artwork. the above example is imo a perfect example of what i consider _good_ concept. it has:

* modesty; overblown eye-candy stuff is a sign of lack of taste or being child-orientated; notice that there are only 2 dominant colors, gray metal and red cloth. (lack of modesty is something i hate about the new wesnoth mage+ sprites; for that, i consider the new adept+ sprites far superior)
* realism; archer lacks heavy armor, warrior has it; no absurdly large details, no 1-shoulder-only-shoulder-pauldrons-of-unfathomable-defence; metal should be of a traditional metal color unless theres some really important reason for being otherwise and its an exception; armor should be made usually out of metal; maybe in the case of primitives like ye goblins, also bone; and NEVER EVER shiny pink-green-purple-plastic.
* historical allegory; the red tight cloth cowl, cloth placed like that on the hammerer's shoulders and distinguished beards have "spanish inquisition" written all over them; but its a different universe out there and it isnt "forced".
* coolness; the most subjective in the list, but there is just something about bright red cloth and metal, and calculative fanatics.
* originality; these are not your run-of-the-mill human archers and warriors. basing stuff 100% on history (or real mythology) is bad, it makes your concept identical to thousands of others based on the same source. basing stuff on well-known fantasy is worse. the best way is always to take history or real mythology (or even biology, as with the tumonker ;) ) and give your _own_ twist to it.

say, you take a traditional hittite chariot, and exchange the horses with 2 giant green worms; and you change the chariot color from brown to gray, in order to make the contrast between green worms and it less irritating. in order to be modest, the rider has a simple spear. so you make such wesnoth sprite, and give it spear (charge) plus snakebite (poison). thats imo good, it is rather unprecedented kind of unit. to make the worms seem important rather than there-for-just-seeming-original, give also good swamp movement & defense.

say, you take a d&d/tolkien/warcraft/warhammer orc. but in your setting orcs will be different, they will be smarter and more peaceful than humans and elves. thats imo bad. first of all, copying from already over-used sources; secondly, such traits dont fit orcs, it conflicts their definition. dont conflict main definitions. if medusa doesnt have snake hair or cannot stone, dont call it medusa. get some other base, put some other race name. add something to justify their existence as a seperate race, like eg extreme masochistic pacifism.

(oh and im a big fan of some elder scrolls: morrowind stuff too - eg using giant fleas as public transport was brilliant imo)
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Post by Jetrel »

Syntax_Error wrote:say, you take a traditional hittite chariot, and exchange the horses with 2 giant green worms; and you change the chariot color from brown to gray, in order to make the contrast between green worms and it less irritating. in order to be modest, the rider has a simple spear. so you make such wesnoth sprite, and give it spear (charge) plus snakebite (poison). thats imo good, it is rather unprecedented kind of unit. to make the worms seem important rather than there-for-just-seeming-original, give also good swamp movement & defense.
The hell?
Syntax_Error wrote:say, you take a d&d/tolkien/warcraft/warhammer orc. but in your setting orcs will be different, they will be smarter and more peaceful than humans and elves. thats imo bad. first of all, copying from already over-used sources; secondly, such traits dont fit orcs, it conflicts their definition. dont conflict main definitions. if medusa doesnt have snake hair or cannot stone, dont call it medusa. get some other base, put some other race name. add something to justify their existence as a seperate race, like eg extreme masochistic pacifism.
Yes, I very much agree with this. Warcraft III did a bad thing here. If you change the essential nature of the thing, pick a new name.
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Post by thespaceinvader »

SynErr: you forgot leather in your list of good things to make armour out of....
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Sgt. Groovy
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Post by Sgt. Groovy »

Some Central Asian warriors, to get a little change for the typical banalised Western European style most fantasy art is based on.
Tiedäthän kuinka pelataan.
Tiedäthän, vihtahousua vastaan.
Tiedäthän, solmu kravatin, se kantaa niin synnit
kuin syntien tekijätkin.
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Post by Shadow »

Jetryl wrote:
Syntax_Error wrote:say, you take a traditional hittite chariot, and exchange the horses with 2 giant green worms; and you change the chariot color from brown to gray, in order to make the contrast between green worms and it less irritating. in order to be modest, the rider has a simple spear. so you make such wesnoth sprite, and give it spear (charge) plus snakebite (poison). thats imo good, it is rather unprecedented kind of unit. to make the worms seem important rather than there-for-just-seeming-original, give also good swamp movement & defense.
The hell?
Syntax_Error wrote:say, you take a d&d/tolkien/warcraft/warhammer orc. but in your setting orcs will be different, they will be smarter and more peaceful than humans and elves. thats imo bad. first of all, copying from already over-used sources; secondly, such traits dont fit orcs, it conflicts their definition. dont conflict main definitions. if medusa doesnt have snake hair or cannot stone, dont call it medusa. get some other base, put some other race name. add something to justify their existence as a seperate race, like eg extreme masochistic pacifism.
Yes, I very much agree with this. Warcraft III did a bad thing here. If you change the essential nature of the thing, pick a new name.
Correct me If I'm wrong but did Tolkien didn't made the same with his elves and dwarves. Than he had some allegories on existing human races within his work.
I want to note he deviated his elves heavily from the original.

I like the Warcraft Orcs actual the only thing that makes me like the game.

Personal I like art where it is hard to distinguish the good from the bad and the ugly. Else it is plain boring.

Good female stock if you can dig though the different sets.
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Post by Blarumyrran »

Jetryl wrote:The hell?
i meant, that would be, like, an example of what i think is good design, as compared to a usual giant with a club or usual orc with a cleaver, and using rarer elements such as chariots, and rarer kind of adds to the quality imo.
thespaceinvader wrote:SynErr: you forgot leather in your list of good things to make armour out of....
oww yeah my bad, anyway my point was plastic/unidentifiablematerial/weirdlycolored/blingful/featurecreeped armor sucks.
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Post by Shadow »

About the overdecorated armors.
It's an art called "ziselieren". It really existed.

Armors and breastplates were decorated with fine carbon lines and symbols and later they engraved them with acid. :)

Image

It is not that far fetched.
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Post by Blarumyrran »

well engravings are cool imo too, but what i meant with overdecoration is this:

http://ribbed.us/wp-content/uploads/200 ... arlock.jpg
http://nearstars.com/images/WyanneGSforThott.jpg
http://img118.imageshack.us/img118/8592/gw083xk7.jpg

(DISCLAIMER: I DIDNT MEAN THESE AS SOME REFERENCE. THESE SUCK. DONT TRY TO COPY THEM. DO THE WORLD A FAVOR.)
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Post by Shadow »

The first two I see Samwise at work. I must admit that I like some of the art of Blizzard especially Metzens concepts. Samwise is also a good artist but his style just went overboard as you can see with Wow and Warcraft 3. :|

If we talk about armour we should also mention the famous chainmail bikini
Could someone please club the inventor to death.
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Post by Jetrel »

Shadow wrote:Samwise is also a good artist but his style just went overboard as you can see with Wow and Warcraft 3. :|

It worked, sorta, in WC3, when it wasn't too overboard. There is a reason that flashy, colorful stuff is used by anyone at all; certain elements of it have primitive psychological appeal, especially when first encountered.

But honestly, that's probably one of the biggest reasons I have no interest in playing world of warcraft: the game looks like a gay disco.




:eng: At least they're internally consistent about it.
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Post by Shadow »

Starcraft II will also get this treatment. For one for the asian market and the fact that Samwise hasn't changed his style.

I admit it it has a primitive appeal but it wears down pretty fast.
The strange thing is it doesn't disturbs their sales.
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Post by Kestenvarn »

Sons of the Storm has always driven me nuts.

The quality of each painting is typically high but the design completely [censored]. HUR GORILLA MEN.

This old joke best sums it up:
  • Image
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Post by thespaceinvader »

Cobweb-stock on deviantART. One of the better stock artists i've come across on dA, with various fantastic packs which show promise for wesnoth portraits, including one from which i plan to take reference for a redo of my Heavy Infantry portrait.

I just wish Character-Stock would put thir work back up. They had some great stuff, but took it down because dA didn't get their derrierres in gear with the parties system, IIRC.
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