Update #77: Art in Alpha

[Gromnir]

it is nice to know that fantasy scale not only offers protection, but it lifts and supports for the fashion conscious female warrior who knows how to really use her weapons.

 

*insert eye-roll here*

 

well, maybe the next game does away with such.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[Ineth]

This is greaaaatttt work !! I really like the 'realistic' feeling of the game, i am glad to see armors actually do look like armors. I'm eager to see it 'alive'

.As an hardcore fan of infinity engine games, this is the game i look forward the most.Keep up the good work and thank you for the explanations on progression and schedule ! I apologize for my barbaric english.

 

Welcome to the forums, fellow eye tyrant!

 

And I agree, this game seems to be shaping up nicely...

[Mor]

Xaurips are probably the little kobold-lizard things they covered in the animation update (because they had a staff in the animation).

Very possible, any chance that Clîaban Rilag is Glanfathan for Old song i.e. the ruin near twin elms?

 

 

 

Update by Rose Gomez, Associate Producer

 

Sometimes, a visiting anamfath will take residence in the hall when visiting the city.

This caught my attention, in a "in-between the lines" type of way...

 

Specifically the "Sometimes" in that sentence. Does this mean that there will be people in the world that appear at various locations at various times? I.E. an anamfath might be in the Hall of Heroes when I get there the first time, but for another Player there is no anamfath the first time they get there.

 

Or am I just reading into it?

 

I suppose it depends on whether their presence offer any kind of interaction options i.e. passing tribal prince will be sharing stories about the world in the hall of warriors, being related to current events or quest(give quest?) or just random piece sets..

[Endrosz]

Is that the general art direction of the armors, or are there going to be armors with a high fantasy look?

 

What is high fantasy when it comes to armors? Two style that comes to mind...

 

1. Renowned Tolkien illustrators, the first one was an advisor to Peter Jackson on the movies:

 

a. John Howe

 

 

 

 

 

Legolas's helmet is ridiculous, but his armor is minimal joint-covering, which is fitting for an archer. Gimli looks like a historical Axeman.

 

b. Ted Nasmith

 

 

 

 

2. The classic '80s ADnD look:

 

a. Larry Elmore

 

 

 

 

Elmore's paintings do have some ornate armors and overflowing capes, but by large, his artwork is pretty grounded, too.

 

b. Clyde Caldwell

 

 

This is samurai armor, nothing more, nothing less.

 

 

Caldwell does boobplate (in many other paintings, too), but that's his only departure.

 

 

---

 

Neither of the above is far in style from what Eternity offers. So, I guess we can call it high fantasy if we want to?

[IndiraLightfoot]

Elmore and Caldwell. Mmm...

[J.E. Sawyer]

Our "high fantasy" armor is more like Elmore/Parkinson stuff (well, not like their women, who often wore little of anything).  Mostly realistic, but with some features exaggerated.  Due to the size of characters, we have to exaggerate some elements or they just disappear.  E.g. the scales on the scale armor are pretty large and the same is true for the rings on our mail.  We tried doing strictly realistic proportions at first and it didn't read well at all.  The sizes we use now look a little oversized in inventory but read nicely in the game world.  We were consciously trying to capture a late 80s-late 90s AD&D aesthetic with a lot of the pieces.

[Gromnir]

what an odd dichotomy? had never considered toliken illustrators to be a specific genre. similarly, lumping erol otus and tony diterlizzi together with larry elmore and jeff easley would seem to be a bit o' an over-generalization.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[IndiraLightfoot]

 Mostly realistic, but with some features exaggerated.  Due to the size of characters, we have to exaggerate some elements or they just disappear.  E.g. the scales on the scale armor are pretty large and the same is true for the rings on our mail.  We tried doing strictly realistic proportions at first and it didn't read well at all.  The sizes we use now look a little oversized in inventory but read nicely in the game world.  We were consciously trying to capture a late 80s-late 90s AD&D aesthetic with a lot of the pieces.

Great choice of aesthetics, if you ask me!

 

And this perhaps also explains the overly shiny armours. Because of the small size of the characters, it needs more than occasional glints among grimy dirt to convey that it is plate mail or whatever. I see.

[FreeMayk]

Good job. All looks so beautiful!

But now i wonder about animation? 

Clocks need to be animated like in ToEE, in other case, all characters will be static like in most cRPG...

[Sarex]

@Endrosz

 

I was thinking more in the direction of BG2. Specifically the illustration of said armors, with the tech today it seems like such a missed opportunity not to bring to life those kind of armors.

 

Here are the sketches to refresh your memory.

http://www.gamebanshee.com/baldursgateii/armor.php

Edited April 30, 2014 by Sarex

[Skie Nightfall]

Stuning!

[Gallenger]

Very pleased - wonderful work and they're not even done yet?  Color me excited - some more. 

[Pipyui]

The beach and dungeon scenes both look fantastic.  I have to wonder who builds a shack right on the very edge of the water (and how that shack remains perfectly dry. Maybe it hasn't been painted yet? I'd like to see some water stains), but stunning work nonetheless.

 

My itch to go exploring these environs contrasts sharply with the reality that I'm sitting alone in an apartment in the city.  You Obsidian guys keep doing your good work, and I'll keep reflecting on how illusory my escapism is.  Gods, but I'm a downer.

 

Can't wait to see these scenes in motion!

[StrangeCat]

The Artwork looks fantastic!  I love the Sea Shore Picture.  I look forward to seeing that Sea in motion with the waves crashing into shore and see gulls calling in the background.  I want to see Crashed ships on the shore and Towers off in a distance through the fog.

Edited April 30, 2014 by StrangeCat

[J.E. Sawyer]

The beach and dungeon scenes both look fantastic.  I have to wonder who builds a shack right on the very edge of the water

 

Xaurips live life on the edge, literally and figuratively.

[Bryy]

 

The beach and dungeon scenes both look fantastic.  I have to wonder who builds a shack right on the very edge of the water

 

Xaurips live life on the edge, literally and figuratively.

 

Xaurip cops don't play by the rules.

 

Any of them.

 

It's a very chaotic and not very efficient police force.

[nonfactor]

SWEEET!!

[Lephys]

EXTREME DWELLING!

 

FULL-CONTACT FATE-TEMPTING!

 

Xaurips are pretty... shore of themselves? *absorbs all the energy of the ensuing facepalms to bolster his immortality*

[Pipyui]

FULL-CONTACT FATE-TEMPTING!

 

I'll have you know I'm keeping this.

[BAdler]

EXTREME DWELLING!

 

FULL-CONTACT FATE-TEMPTING!

 

Xaurips are pretty... shore of themselves? *absorbs all the energy of the ensuing facepalms to bolster his immortality*

 

I need to figure out this ban functionality. =p

[constantine]

Amazing.

 

PoE is gonna be the most visually pleasing of such games so far, also the art has its own identity.

 

You guys surpassed yourselves and more than met our expectations ! Congratulations on a job awesomely done !!

[Whitefox789]

Love the armor design however, I love the fact you guys allow us to change the cloth color as we were able to do in the BG series and the IWD series that alone just really shows how you want this to resemble an IE game and for that I say kudos to you guys.

 

I really want to get my hands on this game even more.

[Falkon Swiftblade]

I agree about the tinting feature is really nice touch, I hope they give us more choices of color than the original IE games. I work in the multimedia industry and my monitor does billions of colors per inch, it would be a shame to have like 4-6 colors to choose from. I still wish the characters were like 10% taller, something about their proportions feel micro to me for some reason.

[Azrayel]

Red blue and green in that last picture were so atop each-other it just sort of clashed for me, like at first glance I thought it was a splice together of three separate images.

 

I'm sure the way it flows in game will be very different and I'm not aboard the Monochromatic train, so I shall reserve my judgement for now//but I'd just say the "modern" Glanfathan elf stuff seems to be very well-themed in pallet and texture.

[Hiro Protagonist II]

I'd have to agree with Gromnir about the boob scale armour.

 

When I read the update the first time, I don't know which I read or saw first. The words female armour or the boob scale. The first picture on the left is more noticeable than the one on the right. It looks odd seeing scale armour potrude out like that, with the scale armour going back in under the breast, like a tight fitting t-shirt. It looks like the armourer molded the scale links into this form. It makes it odd moreso that the plate armour doesn't have the boob cups protruding out. Just the scale.