So elemental has been taking flak from every direction now, but one part that has been mentioned in countless reviews, but not really taken life in a discussion here: the artwork.
This entails models, textures, animations, particle effects, ui, and most importantly, the general art direction of the whole game.
I'll be starting about characters, and will add this paintover of Procipinee I did:
Relias:
Why was the direction chosen to have the texture be added on with an alpha on an existing color, wouldn't have both been easier and look better if a full character texture was hue-colorized according to the alpha instead.
Faces seem to be lacking some proper interesting shapes, and noses especially seems to be suffering.
Lips/mouth is mostly tightly shut and there's no hint of underlying musculature around it, which makes them look applied rather than a part of the face.
While I like the eye selection, they are lacking some handpainted reflection to really help sell them as living eyes.
Eyebrows are way more important then what the game makes them be, they should be a part of and as varied as the eye selection.
The hair has wig-like qualities and mostly look like coloured blobs on the heads,
The textures could benefit a bit more from hand painted occlusion under nose, head, and other such areas.
ps, I'm starting this much with the same reason everyone else starts gameplay threads: I really want this game to be good.
Not sure if I still really understand. So you mean multiplying the RGB with the base colour to make it richer rather than simply passing through (so white is the same as transparent)? Or perhaps using the equivalent of a hard-light application where RGB 128,128,128 is the transparent colour and lighter colours lighten the underlying colour by screening while darker colours darken by multiplying.
Your Porcipinee looks a bit worried, and not confident like the original. She looks like my wife after I tell her about one of my brilliant ideas.
I agree, if they had a more painted look, like in the illustrations you've shown, it would be fantastic. It would also blend better too. They could, I guess, use transparent decals for the lines in the hair and other smaller details.
@eldrone:
I admit that I do like your paint-over version better, but what about when you animate it? Once you go from static to dynamic, I imagine your styling would look a lot worse than the current in-game shot.
Shouldn't be a problem at all, proper diffuse textures is very much about creating an illusion
it would be great if the rest of the game could use this much more attractive art style! I'm repeating this like a broken record: the colours of the overland screen are dull and lifeless as mudwater. Also, as your makeover illustrates, the original characters look glassy eyed and devoid of emotion.
I guess the only problem is whether it is technically feasible to implement these chagnes realtime in game!
Another thumbs up from me. On the art in general I would say that your versions are actually closer in concept to some of the pre-release art. The art in this game was supposedly influenced by Mucha. Although he used pastel colours he did use contrast effectively. I think that Elemental's colours are better described as dull. He also used hard lines and often well defined features. The characters' faces in Elemental are much more rounded with soft, half-formed features (particularly noses) that tend give them the appearance of children. Imagine trying to make Christopher Lee as Saruman in Elemental.
Generally speaking though I like the custom appearance creator, it just needs a bit of enhancement. Preferably in the direction pointed to by Eldrone.
Yeah the game's art assets are a bit problematic at the moment. Also does anyone agree color selection could use an HSV (Hue, Saturation, Value) color picker?
Your work is nice, but I wanted to point out 3 problems:
1: Time. There are tons of characters in game, not just sovereigns, but champions, basic units, etc. If you're talking about detail painted info cards that takes 1 hour tops, I will point out that I can generate the card in .05 seconds on unit creation.
2. Resource. This is two fold, First is Stardock's art department own ability to develop many types of textures for skins. Even if you put in the work to get detailed painted skin, tinting to achieve a tan look MIGHT turn out okay with normal human skins (sometimes it will still look odd), but what would you do for some of the more exotic looks like that of the Wraith or Quendar, or how about monsters (they all use the same system). The other problem is performance. How much more system resource will detailed skin textures take to render? What happens if you have 24 stacks of 12 guys on screen? etc. In both of these cases, the usually solution is: if you can get by with simpler skins, it's usually better.
3. Isn't really a problem persay, but might be the most important. If you seriously play the game to any extent, you end up playing in cloth map mode like 70% of the time. Amazing art becomes somewhat pointless at this point, unless you're talking about how the clothmap looks.
In review: Can it look better? Sure, but does it really matter? IMO, No.
As a colour picker, yes, I think it would be easier for people to use.
Why not just have a number of auto filters you can apply to a portrait?
That was my takeaway from the OP. Filters are just math, and a small selection would let people who want more painting-like portraits have them.
Just new fixed up models and head textures, I'm talking about having realtime artwork with quality that represent a better look.
I am _not_ talking about painting every portrait by hand.
Same amount of texture budget and polygon budget, no additional resources. Same set, better execution.
Companies solve these issues all the time, since they have to create such systems for every mmo out there, and those much often look incredible and still remain customizable.
The system is already in place here, but the execution is lacking.
A valid opinion, I'm sure a big crowd plays in clothmap mode and are happy with it, but there's an equally big crowd wanting their game to really shine and look like a masterpiece.
Eldrone - great idea and brilliantly presented, +1 from me.
While gameplay remains king, I agree there is a lot to be said for the artistic merit of a game, and Elemental could use some love in this area.
Fingers crossed that the art section considers your suggestion! Failing that, can we look forward to a mod from you at some stage?
Those paintovers look amazing!
I like elementals art style a lot, except for the faces, they are quite ugly IMO. I'd love it if they looked more like what you made. Knowing nothing about this stuff, I'll take your word on it can be done
Yea they look really nice. Altough they didn't look bad before, it's a massive improvement imo
Wow this looks really really good and unique! I hope they can add this!
If these game makers change the artistic content based on user feedback and example, I am going to start an international holiday.
absolutely gorgeous... please continue!
I like the OPs art more. +1
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