COH Concept Gallery

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.

Have you seen X-men: First Class yet?

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.

Still waiting on those visual sound effects.

My background is in film, and the first rule (as I suspect is the case with artists) is make what you show visually interesting. Some people have complained about the on-set photos of Captain America on The Avengers that the costume doesn't look very good, but they're neglecting what details the camera can pick out and enhance that a regular photo can't. I'm all for details, both subtle and visually striking, myself.

I agree with you that audiences are more sophisticated and there's an expectation that there should be a level of function to costumes, particularly. That's why in-game, I favor the IDF belt for characters with pouches over the Stealth or other belts. It looks more functional and grounds the character in reality. However, if the costume is done well and updated subtly (the Sam Raimi Spiderman springs to mind immediately) it can look functional and capture the nature of the character well. Batman Begins did so too, I thought. I see City of Heroes as a late Silver Age (1970's-80's) setting, with the darker morality of Praetoria encroaching on a more balanced, but still heroic, viewpoint of Paragon City.

The texture gradient sounds very interesting. I'd like to do that on some custom pictures of my characters or ask commissioned artists to do the same...can you elaborate a bit more?

And as for the in-game model of Statesman, I think that's a good idea, and I'm wondering with such things as the Steampunk pack faces, if there's an intent to gradiate player looks and costumes in that direction as well? A certain game by Cryptic I thought did a very good job in giving a sense of layered detail that isn't always possible here, even if the aesthetic wasn't to my personal liking.

I think the realistic look for this game would work tremendously well, myself...and by that I mean the aesthetics of say Aion or APB. I have a particular attraction to both the Unreal game engine and the Havok physics engine for cloth rendering, as I think they add a gradient of realism to looks. Would the decision for more realistic rendering of pieces extend as far as character models in your opinion? That isn't a 'please consider this' question, but one grounded in art. Some people would argue that the infamous 'mitten hands' should be more detailed for instance, whereas I don't think it detracts from the larger picture.

My personal interest is in having things such as the texture on Statesman's costume being a standard option, or a pattern, for instance. The IDF suit's pattern and the faint 'scalemail' effect on the Thorns suit I personally could see standing on their own as a valid aesthetic choice. A good example is something I'll include here, a custom piece I had done for the character featured. The idea of 'scales' on the costume I thought added a subtle but distinctive feature, and I immediately found myself frustrated I couldn't do it in game.

Apologies for the size; it wouldn't let me scale it down for some reason.




S.

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

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.

I've been meaning to ask something about this sort of thing. Are we going to see more and more pre-textured items in game? I'd love to make-use of some of the parts like the Victorian Corsets but the texture colour-shifts things and makes it hard to match them up. For instance, the colour white with the pre-texturing comes out grey.

If you were looking at keeping the old style and the new wouldn't it be an idea to try and have both for the new pieces? a High-Res and Simple version?

- Raith

This whole section I find very strange coming from the art lead for a superhero game. Not just because realism for a costume is relative to the character's powers (Superman has no reason to wear armor, Batman does, but arguably may not want it if it weighs him down. Spider-man would definitely not want it interfering with his agility. Iron Man gets his powers from, and is defined by his armor), but because of the idea that certain colors are somehow "immature", and the classic X-men costumes being something only people under 15 would like. I don't think that you can argue that this isn't insulting an entire group of people, people this game is aimed at. I see nothing immature about the colors of the American flag, or any flag for that matter, and those costumes are classic. They're not only for people under 15.

Also, sometimes less is more. Texture is great sometimes for some people, but other times and for other people simplicity is going to be more appealing.

I like most of the promotional artwork you've been doing, by the way. I just don't agree with how you've characterized the classic Golden and Silver age style of the genre here, and I'd put forth Kirkman and Walker/Ottley's Invincible as a fantastic example of modern, really high quality work that still uses bright colored tights to good effect. And it's not for kiddies.

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow City of Heroes is a game about freedom of expression and variety of experiences far more so than it is about representing any one theme, topic or genre.

Flattery will get you everywhere--thanks!

The majority of my time on GR, I was working on architecture, whether it was researching real-world examples, painting moodpieces, or matching up the details on front-side-back buildsheets. And a pretty significant amount of time was spent figuring out what a Praetorian bench or fire hydrant should look like. So yes, definitely! I often felt like Emperor Cole's City Planner-in chief.

Cole: looking over David's shoulder So... You REALLY think my tower should go THERE?

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow City of Heroes is a game about freedom of expression and variety of experiences far more so than it is about representing any one theme, topic or genre.

Making art for games turns out to be a lot like making art for comics. In both cases, artists begin with written descriptions (from a comic writer or game designer) that spell out the visual needs for a given story or mission. Design docs included detailed information about the characters and environments in each story arc, and sometimes, there's even a little top-down 2D map to get us started.

If we're making a new costume set, the theme is often chosen by a Leads group, then passed on to Concept to elaborate on. We'll be going over this process in detail at the Player Summit next week--hope to see some of you there!

Though we always try to dream up the coolest possible solutions to the visual problems posed to us by the Design docs, the impetus usually starts with them. As for the look of specific costume designs, we always pay careful attention to what's already in the game and then try to create things that offer an entirely different option to players. With each new set, our goal is to dramatically expand what's possible.

Hmm...well, I listen to lot of podcasts (about video games, film, and comics) while I work. Also a ton of Pandora. Before they removed the monthly limit, I used to routinely break it around the 20th of each month. At the moment, I'm getting some good results from "Santigold Radio."

What about a nice cheesy out of character web-comic. That could be fun and entertaining.

I've got one coming that might be just right for a wallpaper. Stay tuned.

There's some stuff coming soon. Player Summit will have the details.

Never say never. If we've made a concept for something, there was at least some interest in doing it at some point.

If you ever add a space station, it should totally be a Vanguard one, either as a staging ground for Incarnate Trials, or as the first line of defense agains the Battalion starfleet, or any other enemies of Earth.
It'd make more sense for their HQ to be in orbit rather than in the RWZ, not only because the Rikti aren't the only threat that they deal with anymore, but also because it'd fit the Vanguard theme really well - they'd literally be above all national boundaries, and literally be watching over Earth.
Plus, Lady Grey would look really impressive standing in front of a ginormous observation window with the Earth in the background behind her