Noble Savage

Flattery will get you everywhere--thanks!

All of that sounds incredibly fun, and I'm a big fan of Troy's writing. But for now, I think new comic material is most likely to appear in-game (like the 5-page tutorial intro), and I imagine it'd have to be for something really BIG.

Fixed. Good catch! I remember writing that and not being 100% sure (and yet too lazy to double-check on Paragon Wiki).

Yes--loved it! They did a good job of preserving the look of each character without getting into Fruit Loops colors. Really well done, and my only quibble artisticallty was that the Magneto helmet looked completely ridiculous on Sebastion Shaw.

I'll reply to both, but if you have a question that's good for a group discussion, you may want to put it here. I find that the DA format is great for quick 1-person chitchats but kind of worthless for in-depth conversation.

That's very insightful actually. If you read comics, you've probably noticed by now that the characters and their movie counterparts are going in the same direction: towards realism. (For example, Captain America's scales/accessories and Iron Man's armor are now drawn with an focus on functionality and a LOT more detail. )

I think this is happening for two reasons:

1) the comic audience is, on average, older than it used to be, and the comics have to cater to more mature, sophisticated tastes

2) for the characters to work on film for an all-ages audience, they needed to drop the super-saturated Power Ranger color palettes and embrace darker, less saturated colors and more realistic textures. (Can you imagine anyone older than 15 embracing an X-men movie w/ the characters wearing their costumes from the comics?!)

CITY OF HEROES is a modern comic book-inspired game for an all-ages audience, so like Hollywood and most mainstream comic book companies, we've embraced the newer, more realistic approach to super-powered fiction. So no, we're not big on "Bif! Bam! Pow!" logos or overly-colorful cartoon characters. Can you create that in game? Of course! But it's not the focus of our outward-facing artwork.

To create the FREEDOM artwork, I had to rejigger my methodology a bit. Instead of applying simple gradients (as you might see in comics) or hand-painted color techniques alone, I gathered a library of brush and texture resources that could be layered on top to add greater depth. That particular texture was also used on the Statesman highres 3D model, so it gives us some internal consistency too.

As you point out, it's already happening. All the newer costumes have benefited greatly from detailed texture treatments, and the Character team has several more improvements to show-off in the coming months. But what about the older stuff? Well, we never want to take away options from the costume creator, but we've planned a number of new additions that cover similar territory while showing off modern texture tricks.

You're very welcome! I created the gallery and footnotes with you guys specifically in mind. On Facebook or the GR website for example, there's not enough space to include EVERYTHING. But for those interested in digging little deeper into the archives, I needed a place where I could put a relatively complete selection of artwork (including the little throw-aways, like park benches).

In both those cases, quite a bit of the original concept still made it into the game, thankfully. There are plenty of other cases where things had to be shelved outright, but such is the nature of concept art; our motto should really be: "We get out there and fail quickly so 3D doesn't have to."

In some cases, though, even shelved concepts can come back to life at later date (which is why I can't post things that were cut). I've got a few of those that I'm hanging on, but interestingly, one of them just graduated to the big leagues, and you'll be seeing it in FREEDOM very soon.

I'm looking forward to posting them. For FREEDOM, we're using a different, somewhat more realistic style on concept and marketing work, and it's a fun way to paint.

Thanks. This is actually a highly abridged version of the art. Will try to post a bunch of concept after Freedom launches, and you can check out the complete version then.

Would you believe 33? Still being confused for 18 though. (rassum frassum...)

Yes.

These guys are meant to be souless, pumped-up versions of Cole. Glad that's working for you.

We've been on the subject a while, and I've said pretty much all I can on the topic, but to recap:

--This has never been, nor will it ever be the way we evaluate pieces. We make sets according to a theme, and that's ultimately what helps decide reflectivity levels.
--I've heard plenty of requests for a matte Metallic option, so I will pitch that to the team. Cheers.

Options are great, and I think everyone's made a good case for a non-reflective Metallic-type set. Best I can do is to pitch it as a Quality of Life improvement addition for a future issue, but I will do that.

About a hypothetical new medieval set: So my personal artistic taste would be to go a little less reflective on "period" outfits. I feel like the full-chrome look makes more sense on modern and futuristic costume sets. But really, this is a decision that'll be made by the character artists.

Alas, this is a question for the Character team. When it comes to very specific costume details, unfortunately I don't have the answers. I'm a concept artist, so broadstrokes about character design and the art history of COH are probably what I'm best equipped to speak about.

You are right of course. I guess what I meant is that we'd want to draw a contrast between the modern stuff (more shiny and reflective) and the "older"/ historical stuff. Would still have some shine, but I'd downplay it just a bit.

As you've seen, visual updates for signature characters often coincide with major new storyarcs involving those characters (for example, the Praetorian storyline at the heart of GOING ROGUE). So Art would have to get a plan from Design before it really makes sense to massively rework those characters.

Which characters might Design have in its sights? I'll never tell, but I do like your ideas about new shinies.

This is a good summary of what I'll taking away from this thread. You guys clearly want more flying devices; vehicles (esp. motorcycles) would be a welcome addition; and elemental (esp. ice)-themed travel is definitely on many of your short-lists. That last one's fascinating to me--I would've thought a specific elemental power like that would be more niche, but if forum tastes are anything to go by, it's more than that.

That's what I'm here to find out though, so thanks for the insight.

That's a great question, but I'd have to ask Tunnelrat.

Yes, totally agree. Were we to do more medieval armor, I'd like to see it accurately represent the time period, i.e. not very reflective at all.