Agreed. Although it looks toned down in the final build (including motion blur), it adds a subtle layer of artistic realism that not many games focus on.
*thread spin-off* Artistic Direction
- Thread starter DemoCoder
- Start date
Agreed. Although it looks toned down in the final build (including motion blur), it adds a subtle layer of artistic realism that not many games focus on.
Halo 3 should have looked like the 'Starry Night' trailer, maybe next generation.
http://www.xbox.com/NR/rdonlyres/BB1F5F9E-688E-4E84-B3B6-6CF129A3ADAF/0/vidHalo3StarryNightHi.asx
I like KZ2 and Gears's art as well, Epic has really talented artists, their designs for the Locust and their environments are so cohesive, it really draws you into their world.
http://www.xbox.com/NR/rdonlyres/BB1F5F9E-688E-4E84-B3B6-6CF129A3ADAF/0/vidHalo3StarryNightHi.asx
I like KZ2 and Gears's art as well, Epic has really talented artists, their designs for the Locust and their environments are so cohesive, it really draws you into their world.
It actually seems to be a running theme that they can put out very good designs for artificial objects, from armour to weapons, to vehicles. This is in stark contrast to their plain human designs in particular, which are rather... cartoony or plain ugly. Even the last cut-scene of Halo 3, you can see blocky heads for the troopers. Could they not have spent some time to make it look decent for the one scene?
The brute chieftain, I thought, was a very solid creation, but once you start taking the armour away.. it just doesn't look good. Maybe that was the intent - bad ass armour to cover plain-looking creatures - but there is the choice of making the creature bulkier and more menacing, which was not apparent. Up-close, I actually liked the Grunt design, and when you actually look at them, you can see the menacing eyes and the spiny details on their pop-eye arms. But there is indeed a disconnect when you start paying attention to the humourous undertones. As you mentioned, it's been like that since Halo: CE, and it's been a signature of sorts that unfortunately clashes with the mature advertising for the game.
Again, intricate details for the elite armour and Prophet of Truth's crown and all, but they seem to fall flat as far as facial designs go. While I can understand lower detail assets in-game, I think they should have gone the extra distance for the cut-scenes, which they did from a lighting and shadowing point of view, but that was it (not to belittle those qualities) and it seemed a waste with the models being less than stellar.
Maybe the only thing they got right with characters (from what I recall) was the detail in the eyeballs.
Agree, I really don't get why Bungie can't do faces right. I mean if you have no artists on your team who can model a decent face, go out and get one, poach someone from Valve etc., it's not like they can't afford it right?
When it comes to games and art, there's one series that shines leaps and bounds over the others - Warcraft, the cartoony-but-still-not-quite look has carried through the first game to World of Warcraft and is still going strong, it makes easily up for the aging game / rendering engine (which, though, does get improvements every now and then and there's even rumors about total rewrite & new graphics in the next expansion)
One of the most cohesive series I've ever played, as far as art direction is concerned, is Ratchet and Clank. Next up after that, IMO, are the Mario titles.
Some games seem to have really really awesome direction, like Portal and Mirrors Edge, than can do "reality" while still bending rules and using low color pallets, but not coming off as grey, or brown, etc.
One game I think really needs help is FEAR 2...at least, they could really cut back on the post processing and all the filters lathered on top of it to give it "character" but ultimately just distract me and make me angry.
Some games seem to have really really awesome direction, like Portal and Mirrors Edge, than can do "reality" while still bending rules and using low color pallets, but not coming off as grey, or brown, etc.
One game I think really needs help is FEAR 2...at least, they could really cut back on the post processing and all the filters lathered on top of it to give it "character" but ultimately just distract me and make me angry.
Interesting example. When I tried the WoW demo, I found the visual style an instant turnoff. I hadn't seen any screenshots of the game, and from the way people talked about it, expected it to have a very serious look/feel. Coming from Guild Wars and NWN, WoW looked very simplistic and, most importantly, handled it's artistic style in a pretty boring way, where 'simplistic' in itself isn't necessarily a bad style.
Personally I don't have any issues with the different artstyles seen in Halo, GoW and KZ franchises. They have their own style and they all look great in their own special way. However I do prefer a more realistic artstyle like in KZ which I would categorize as similar to Metal Gear Solid but with a more Western touch. It still has the monotone pale color palette but instead of green it's greyish/blue with some orange/red/yellow for the sky. Soldiers have the traditinal frabric pants/shirts seen in present day soldiers.
I've never played any of the Halo games but I've seen trailers and it's evident that the CG trailers using the same artstyle as the game look really incredible. For example the CG trailer for Halo Wars which has a similar feel to the Aliens movies. Halo's universe use some materials that are very shiney.
GoW has that HE MAN kind of vibe to the artstyle with a mixture of old and new. Obviously the armor is super heavyduty the kind futuristic knights would wear and the guys are bodybuilding HE MAN types. The GoW universrse also has a pale orange rusted palette for everything which looks great.
I've never played any of the Halo games but I've seen trailers and it's evident that the CG trailers using the same artstyle as the game look really incredible. For example the CG trailer for Halo Wars which has a similar feel to the Aliens movies. Halo's universe use some materials that are very shiney.
GoW has that HE MAN kind of vibe to the artstyle with a mixture of old and new. Obviously the armor is super heavyduty the kind futuristic knights would wear and the guys are bodybuilding HE MAN types. The GoW universrse also has a pale orange rusted palette for everything which looks great.
Naturally all styles can't please everyone
So it's always a matter of taste, for me, Warcraft -style has always been perfect 10