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Art Direction
Look guys, i know i'm about to commit a cardinal sin by first posting a trollish comment after lurking around for ages- so you'll have to forgive me.
I'm pulling for darkfall's success, because the game mechanics sounds really exciting to me. That being said, I see all of these debates about how good/bad the graphics are and i can't help but feel as though people are missing the main issue. Frankly, if the mechanics are good enough, i don't mind an ugly game- but i don't think its the engine/ texture rez's or render effects that are DF's problem.
I'm a senior illustration student in art school, and to put it plainly- DF's art direction (especially armor design) is pretty damn ugly. plain and simple. Its not something game-breaking for me by any means, but a lot of these armor designs are hideous. they're like something i would have drawn in middle/high school concept art- with as many spikes and "badassness" as possible. Sure, this is a syndrome of several mmo's, but instead of people constantly arguing over the quality of the DF engine, i felt this needed to be said.
Does anyone else agree with me out there?
Comments
From what I've seen, the lowbie armor is a little dull and flat, and the upper-tier armor is wierdly spiky and such. It goes a little too far, but I think they're making their best attempt to stylize and conquer, as it were.
I don't mind what I've seen of their style. It looks suitably gritty without being All Brown or making it really tough to see things that aren't right up next to you. I'm a little neutral, though. I really like WoW's art as well, but that's mostly because their sense of stylistic vision is so fucking completely unified. WAR has the same thing going, in a style I appreciate more. EVE, same deal; everything looks like it belongs, but you can tell an Amarr cruiser from a Minmatar from fifty klicks away.
I like DF art style better than WoW, less than EQ2, not quite as much as DAoC.
I really don't like WoW, and pretty anime doesn't do it for me, like Aion. I'm ok with the DF art style.
Great examples, thanks for the input. The uniformity in WOW, WAR, and EVE definately bring the game's visual library together best, reguardless of individual preferences. Personally, i'm not a big fan of WOW's look, but i respect their art design (I mean, its blizzard, what do ya expect). As far as DF goes, and granted- we won't know until the game is out, there seems to be a poor combination of over-spikiness and over-designed textures combinations. also, shape/silhouette diversity isnt really there- alot of stuff seems equally robust.
some examples:
"the ultimate badass":
http://www.darkfallonline.com/gallery/races/humans_04
http://www.darkfallonline.com/gallery/races/mirdain_05
and texture clashing/overdesigning:
http://www.darkfallonline.com/gallery/races/mahirim_05
http://www.darkfallonline.com/gallery/races/alfar_07
http://www.darkfallonline.com/gallery/races/alfar_04
Anyway, like i said before, visuals are always secondary to gameplay dynamics, but i had to speak my peace.
I think Henning and his partner Natascha, who are both professionally trained artists with many years of commercial experience, have a clear idea of their art direction in Darkfall.
If you do not like it, that's fine; the fact you're studying art doesn't come into it.
Yeah, in terms of the DAOC comment- i think back in the day when we couldn't have complex modeling in MMO's, art teams were more significant to creating good texture design- and thus I feel alot of mmo's had better feeling art direction. I'm likewise not a huge fan of WOW or alot of asian mmo's styles these days, though i don't have a huge preference between "realistic" and "stylized"
I think Henning and his partner Natascha, who are both professionally trained artists with many years of commercial experience, have a clear idea of their art direction in Darkfall.
If you do not like it, that's fine; the fact you're studying art doesn't come into it.
That's valid man, everyone has their own aesthetic- but reguardless of my or their training, design basics seem to be more the issue than taste here. but eh, to each his own.
I did read in some interview made to Tasos that they had no Art direction, the designers were making what they want with each piece of 3D art. So this may explains why this uglyness (Opinion that I share) in some of the things qe see in te screenshots.
May some DF fanboi may find this interview im referring to, I dont know where it is, I but have good memory.
Haha really?
Looks great to me.
http://www.darkfallonline.com/gallery/races/humans_06
http://www.darkfallonline.com/gallery/races/humans_04
http://www.darkfallonline.com/gallery/races/alfar_07
http://www.darkfallonline.com/gallery/races/dwarves_06
http://www.darkfallonline.com/gallery/races/mirdain_02
http://www.darkfallonline.com/gallery/races/humans_02
Of course every game has armor that some find ugly, but for the most part it looks great. (And we havnt seen 1/100th of it)
I enjoy the more realistic look, if you want crazy armor I think you may enjoy WoW's armor style.
Some of the armour I really like (really only a few of the more simple Human armours). But I will agree with you OP.
The vast majority of the armour in the game is over done, and too spikey like you said. It's by no means a game breaker but I hate playing a character that is wearing like a purple breast plate and some nice green plated leggings (Ithis is an exaduratation obviously).
I'm going to be playing a Human character. For no reason other than every other race has extremely ugly armour from what I've seen.
The vast majority that you have seen, for we have not seen the vast majority of the armor in the game.
all races can ware the same armor... and you dont have to have the spikes on there if you dont want. they are shoulder pad parts that can be removed
@strongaxe
if you read my posts you'd realize that i not only said i wasnt a fan of wow armor in general, but that the qualities of the armor i'm critiquing are the most apparent in the armors your responded with. Again, if thats what you like, then fine- but i was saying the craziness is what i thought was ugly- and frankly none of those are "realistic" armor.
actually thinking about it, you're right, the armor designs are bad, but that's not what I care about most. The landscape and location art is pretty darn good (though some things, like the ork city, seems cliche)
w/e design is only important to most if your graphics suck (which is why its important in WoW). (though I actually prefer design over graphics, w/e)
When I'm energetic I'm:
the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.
When I'm at default I'm:
WHITE/BLUE
Lol according to this I'm bipolar :O
Armor isn't there to look great ..it offers some protection..
IMO art looks very good ..
Arn't you school offer lessons for uniqueness and originality if not start with study DF art to get a grip.
-----MY-TERMS-OF-USE--------------------------------------------------
$OE - eternal enemy of online gaming
-We finally WON !!!! 2011 $OE accepted that they have been fired 2005 by the playerbase and closed down ridiculous NGE !!
"There was suppression of speech and all kinds of things between disturbing and fascistic." Raph Koster (parted $OE)
looks good to me
The game has no art style.
Most of the texture work is terrible. The color palette is terrible. Everything is either Shit brown or some form of shit brown matched with bright blue Carribean water..
Rofl, that's a great parody of a DF troll! Keep it up my man, let them know how they are the laughing stock of the entire community
Rofl, that's a great parody of a DF troll!
No that's reality. Deal with it.
Rofl, that's a great parody of a DF troll!
No that's reality. Deal with it.
Deal with what? Ignorant trolls? I'd rather not.