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Guild Wars 2: Designing the Sylvari
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
Guild Wars 2's site has been updated to start Sylvari Week. The first entry for the week is a new blog post by Kristen Perry titled "Designing and Re-designing the Sylvari". The post goes into detail about the difficulty in finding just the right look and feel for the Sylvari while taking into account distant cousins such as the Dryads or Ents.
There’s one big root to the design direction of the sylvari that I hold most dear: it all must stem from anatomy. However, researching this design proved to be very tricky. It seemed that most images of plant people fell into one of two categories: painted humans with leaf accessories or outright plant monsters. The elf concept was most prevalent, featuring flora jewelry and clothing. They may have sported leaf coiffures, but they were little more than humans with an affinity for nature.
Next, I entered into dryad territory, where most of the examples paint various leaves or bark textures onto the skin to infuse plant-like detail. For me, this felt like stage makeup and didn’t really bring forth the potential of a plant race.
At the far end of the plant spectrum were all of the ents and forest monsters, composed of many root, leaf, and bulb materials that merge together to create a humanoid form. Overall, this direction is too far as it pulls away from the beautiful humanoid we wanted.
Read more about the Sylvari on the Guild Wars 2 blog.
Comments
Blown away, they're absolutely beautiful. Sufficiently humanoid but undeniably 'other'. So very much love this redesign.
"Forums aren't for intelligent discussion; they're for blow-hards with unwavering opinions."
I love the new design, they look amazing. I guess now I know what my race will be
Claire Gearhead - Level 80 Norn Engineer - Far Shiverpeaks (EU)
I can't wait to make my Winter Skin Sylvari. Definitely won't have people confusing me for some Elf. ^^
That armor design is top notch. And just as gaeanprayer says, they are humanoid but really do have their own flavor. Great stuff.
I know it is wrong but when I first saw the pictures my first thought was “ha in your face Sylvari are just elves people”. I can just see my Sylvari character now, call me an elf one more time and I will rip out your heart with my leafy hands!
I love the redesign they did a great job, I cannot wait to see them in game now.
So the avatar clones have become salads? Oh I see many jibes and jokes a comin in game chat.
i love the redesign, a definite improvement from the old ones Thnx ANET!
Have fun storming the castle! - Miracle Max
Lookin' good!
Joined 2004 - I can't believe I've been a MMORPG.com member for 20 years! Get off my lawn!
They have always been salads, they are plant people and they have always been plant people!
I would have liked to remove the mammaries and use them placeholders for various fruits. Players can choose which fruits they want to hang there and the size of them ...
Does Sylvari clothing get termites?
Heh, but the designs do look cool.
Melons.
<childish, provocative and highly speculative banner about your favorite game goes here>
They look like elves. Elves wearing plants because someone stole their clothes while they were swimming.
Sic Luceat Lux
WOW, I love this new design.
Now you are being thick headed, this looks nothing like an elf!
OMG im already in love with the warrior designs
Nice. They actually look like plant people now and not humans with plant influenced clothing on. Their design team is out of this world.
That's a great pic. looks cool.
They look GREAT.
Im actually surprised they pulled this off.
Caithe FTW
"Noble, beautiful, plant."
I had my doubts but Kristen Perry nailed it. I breathed such a sigh of relief when I saw the artwork. Now I can't wait to see the bio-luminscent markings that were mentioned. The jungle at night around the Pale Tree will probably be quite a stunning lightshow.
Oooo..... /shiver.
President of The Marvelously Meowhead Fan Club
Go take a look at the image of Caithe again, the last image of her is the one with the luminescent markings.
This is not a game.
I hadn't noticed at first but that final image definitely looks like it was captured in shadow, and those lights certainly do pop out. I noticed that in the other images that there was no glow to her eyes so I guess the luminescence is dependant on either the time of day like some weapon effects, or by the level of light in the environment. It would be cool of it was like the weapon effects, but it would completely floor me if they reacted to the intensity of light the character was in.
Makes me want to get out the weed-killer...