Well I was going to post this in the Diablo III Art Direction discussion but it is closed now, so I guess I'll make a new thread, I hope this hasn't been discussed somewhere else.
Here are some of the points discussed at the Diablo III Art Panel, you can watch or download the video at Gamespot, there is also a very interesting Interview with Rob Pardo.
Anyhow here are the pics:
This is the guy behind the art direction and the reason for Diablo III looking as it does now, basically he choose how everything would look and the reason for it.....
A Summary of all the point that were discussed at the Art Panel at WWI 08, I'll point out a few of them (the ones of interest to this thread) and amply it further.
One wonders how Diablo III art direction is going in the direction it's going with guidelines like this ones....
I think this says it all...
And here we can see that the actual use of color in Diablo III in intentional, I'll explain the reason that Bill Morrismroe is giving for it.
Ok so the general idea as they say is to use color as a way to lead you on your way thru the game, supposely we should notice darker more gothic areas as the need to convey that mood grows, he says that Diablo 1 & 2 had a static gothic look going for it all the time and it was harder to make it darker as you got deeper into the game.
He also claimed that the general idea is make Diablo darker in "Emotion" rather than just darker looking.
So.. there you have it, discuss
EDIT:
Oh also this was at the end of the Panel, doesn't mean anything but I'll just add it for the heck of it
I'm going to trust them and just wait until I actually play DIII to see how it feels.
Well I can understand that, I actually have mixed feelings about it too, since when you hear them talk about it you can sort of feel their commitment, but then I start looking at the the screenshots and I can help being nervous about it, what if it's like we actualy feared?
I don't want to run that risk, and I'm sure that a little change in the lighting and pallette colors would do huge improvements about the way most of us feel at the art direction.
The whining wont help. You'll love the game when it gets out either way.
When the first screenshots of diablo II came out I was pretty disappointed in many ways, and I still am. That didn't mean d2 was a bad game as a whole.
Not complaining about it does not help either. May be Blizzard might hear the distant cries of its fanbase if they do accept the petition.
Stylized over realism...big mistake...someone should punch that guy to his balls to let him know what kind of *** is he doing (you can not always make atmosphere by story and things that are happening...I am going to kill you on the field filled with BUNNIES.. it looks like some kind of parody to Diablo)...and stylized doesn't mean cartoony that is truth as long as the world is not painted...
Do punch him with some style please
Stylised over realism does not mean that it should resemble the graphic style used in a different franchise (WoW). It should be of the diablo style (dark, sinister and evil).
But the 'stylisation does not mean cartoony' is a breath of fresh hope to be honest.
I'm pretty sure its going to get more of that Diablo II feel as you get further into the game. I mean wouldn't you like it a little more if Hell looked a little differently than say a barbie house in D3?
I would.
I love the screen that says "stylized does not mean cartoony" then it has that cartoony tree beside it
LOL, gg Blizzard
"stylized" is just another word for cartoony.
they already said "Stylization over Realism"
If it's not realism,--- it's a cartoon.
Please don't make up words for it, Bliz. You're not fooling anyone.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
~
"[Diablo1+2] obviously had the gothic look to it, but, you they weren't, they weren't very uh, very colorful games."
"We want to take dark as an emotion, rather than an actual color art choice." -Rob Pardo
"Why the hell shouldn't it be for 'kiddies', it's a goddamn game afterall." -lethlan
Why would they make "stylization over realism" a core Blizzard philosophy if it DIRECTLY DISAGREES with one of their core franchises, Diablo?
Doesn't make much sense. It definitely didn't use to be before the golden age of Warcraft (2003 - 2007), which is when they started making all that dough...
Im not really sure what everyone's gripe is about. Lets think about the overall static darkness that we saw in D2. Its definitley true that there was no real progression in atmosphere throughout the game because the whole thing was indeed dark. Also, looking at the gameplay trailer, it really isn't even drastically stylized and certainly not cartoony. There seems to be a good mixture of stylization and realism. In general the art direction looks solid.
Those circled images look not cartoony, but more fantasy like...which is nice imo. I personally hated the overdarkness of d2. act 3 was a horrid mess, dungeons were just ridiculous sometimes. I'm sorry but when i play this game, if the graphics are kept the same, or improved JUST A LITTLE BIT, i'm going to be a happy happy guy. If they switch to what people are suggesting, I'm going to get bored of the scenery real quick like.
agreed. Lut Gholein was bright, but it was never cartoony.
Plus the Harem was one of my favorite places.
btw we already posted Lut Gholein.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
~
"[Diablo1+2] obviously had the gothic look to it, but, you they weren't, they weren't very uh, very colorful games."
"We want to take dark as an emotion, rather than an actual color art choice." -Rob Pardo
"Why the hell shouldn't it be for 'kiddies', it's a goddamn game afterall." -lethlan
I did listen to him, from start to finish, and I understood what he said, but I disagree absolutely with his reasoning. They were trying to give reasons for why they changed the style without giving a reason to actually change it in the first place.
I see them pushing the franchise towards a World of Diablo, without giving us a Diablo III as a true sequel. His arguements of "mood" were very foolish in that they didn't say anything about improving upon the old style, rather they wanted to "change it" by adding more vibrant colors for the sake of changing it to a more WoW feel, so they can stick with the same artists rather than hire new ones that can't handle the task of an entirely different world, in feel and in look.
Their art staff is not as talented as he would like to make out. They simply took WoW and "tweaked" it a bit with a Diablo flair, rather than sticking with what made Diablo work. The backgounds are very poor at conveying the "horror" element they were working so hard to do. The "stylization does not mean cartoony" means nothing when they made the art cartoony. When I can look at the concept art for Diablo and not see Diablo in it, but rather "this could be any place in Azeroth", that worries me.
They are making excuses to make the game more "appealing" to the masses of WoW players, rather than sticking with the people that follow the Diablo franchise and bring in others. This is what worries me about the direction of the art. Everything that the art director said was arguements trying to shoe-horn in WoW style art and color into a franchise where it did not belong without giving valid arguements as to why the change was necessary. The mood is not strengthened, the creepy atmosphere is not enhanced, the characters are not feeling more epic, nothing works. Their arguements fail, and until I hear reasoned responses as to why the change was necessary, I will remain worried that they are not "respecting the franchise" as they say is one of their core values.
They say that we do not like to see realism in games because we see it every day. Well, I look at what they showed us in Diablo III and I see what I've seen in every other Diablo clone, in WoW, in Warcraft 3 and not what I saw in the original two Diablos, which is too bad.
I think they said something about investigating a lot of horror movies and how have they used lightning and colors in those to create scary and horror effects. They found out that there was plenty of colors there and not just dark.
Something like this was said in some of the panels.
Anyways good post.. I trust they will make this game nice!
I love the screen that says "stylized does not mean cartoony" then it has that cartoony tree beside it
LOL, gg Blizzard
"stylized" is just another word for cartoony.
they already said "Stylization over Realism"
If it's not realism,--- it's a cartoon.
Please don't make up words for it, Bliz. You're not fooling anyone.
Not to sound mean, but I suggest you look those two words up before dissing blizzard on "making up words" for their art style.
Here are some of the points discussed at the Diablo III Art Panel, you can watch or download the video at Gamespot, there is also a very interesting Interview with Rob Pardo.
Anyhow here are the pics:
This is the guy behind the art direction and the reason for Diablo III looking as it does now, basically he choose how everything would look and the reason for it.....
A Summary of all the point that were discussed at the Art Panel at WWI 08, I'll point out a few of them (the ones of interest to this thread) and amply it further.
One wonders how Diablo III art direction is going in the direction it's going with guidelines like this ones....
I think this says it all...
And here we can see that the actual use of color in Diablo III in intentional, I'll explain the reason that Bill Morrismroe is giving for it.
Ok so the general idea as they say is to use color as a way to lead you on your way thru the game, supposely we should notice darker more gothic areas as the need to convey that mood grows, he says that Diablo 1 & 2 had a static gothic look going for it all the time and it was harder to make it darker as you got deeper into the game.
He also claimed that the general idea is make Diablo darker in "Emotion" rather than just darker looking.
So.. there you have it, discuss
EDIT:
Oh also this was at the end of the Panel, doesn't mean anything but I'll just add it for the heck of it
Aye to that.
I agree. Not with your general statement, but in this situation.
It's the decisions you make when you have no time to make them that define who you are.
Well I can understand that, I actually have mixed feelings about it too, since when you hear them talk about it you can sort of feel their commitment, but then I start looking at the the screenshots and I can help being nervous about it, what if it's like we actualy feared?
I don't want to run that risk, and I'm sure that a little change in the lighting and pallette colors would do huge improvements about the way most of us feel at the art direction.
Not complaining about it does not help either. May be Blizzard might hear the distant cries of its fanbase if they do accept the petition.
http://www.petitiononline.com/d3art/petition.html
EVIL, GRITTY AND SINISTER WE WANT.
KEEP THE CARTOONS TO WOW!
Do punch him with some style please
Stylised over realism does not mean that it should resemble the graphic style used in a different franchise (WoW). It should be of the diablo style (dark, sinister and evil).
But the 'stylisation does not mean cartoony' is a breath of fresh hope to be honest.
http://www.petitiononline.com/d3art/petition.html
EVIL, GRITTY AND SINISTER WE WANT.
KEEP THE CARTOONS TO WOW!
I would.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2A2Jt4WOxN8
LOL, gg Blizzard
"stylized" is just another word for cartoony.
they already said "Stylization over Realism"
If it's not realism,--- it's a cartoon.
Please don't make up words for it, Bliz. You're not fooling anyone.
"[Diablo1+2] obviously had the gothic look to it, but, you they weren't, they weren't very uh, very colorful games."
"We want to take dark as an emotion, rather than an actual color art choice." -Rob Pardo
"Why the hell shouldn't it be for 'kiddies', it's a goddamn game afterall." -lethlan
Doesn't make much sense. It definitely didn't use to be before the golden age of Warcraft (2003 - 2007), which is when they started making all that dough...
http://www.gamespot.com/video/930659/6193147/diablo-iii-diablo-iii-world-lore-and-environment-art-panel-
(2nd part, at 13:30)
Plus the Harem was one of my favorite places.
btw we already posted Lut Gholein.
"[Diablo1+2] obviously had the gothic look to it, but, you they weren't, they weren't very uh, very colorful games."
"We want to take dark as an emotion, rather than an actual color art choice." -Rob Pardo
"Why the hell shouldn't it be for 'kiddies', it's a goddamn game afterall." -lethlan
I see them pushing the franchise towards a World of Diablo, without giving us a Diablo III as a true sequel. His arguements of "mood" were very foolish in that they didn't say anything about improving upon the old style, rather they wanted to "change it" by adding more vibrant colors for the sake of changing it to a more WoW feel, so they can stick with the same artists rather than hire new ones that can't handle the task of an entirely different world, in feel and in look.
Their art staff is not as talented as he would like to make out. They simply took WoW and "tweaked" it a bit with a Diablo flair, rather than sticking with what made Diablo work. The backgounds are very poor at conveying the "horror" element they were working so hard to do. The "stylization does not mean cartoony" means nothing when they made the art cartoony. When I can look at the concept art for Diablo and not see Diablo in it, but rather "this could be any place in Azeroth", that worries me.
They are making excuses to make the game more "appealing" to the masses of WoW players, rather than sticking with the people that follow the Diablo franchise and bring in others. This is what worries me about the direction of the art. Everything that the art director said was arguements trying to shoe-horn in WoW style art and color into a franchise where it did not belong without giving valid arguements as to why the change was necessary. The mood is not strengthened, the creepy atmosphere is not enhanced, the characters are not feeling more epic, nothing works. Their arguements fail, and until I hear reasoned responses as to why the change was necessary, I will remain worried that they are not "respecting the franchise" as they say is one of their core values.
They say that we do not like to see realism in games because we see it every day. Well, I look at what they showed us in Diablo III and I see what I've seen in every other Diablo clone, in WoW, in Warcraft 3 and not what I saw in the original two Diablos, which is too bad.
http://www.diablofans.com/topic/34229-diablo-iii-beta-impressions/page__view__findpost__p__743763
Something like this was said in some of the panels.
Anyways good post.. I trust they will make this game nice!
RIP: Demon Hunter: lvl 50 | Barb: lvl 60 (plvl 5) | Monk: lvl12 & lvl70 (plvl 200)
Sentence of the year:
"WoW, It's like a disease"
Not to sound mean, but I suggest you look those two words up before dissing blizzard on "making up words" for their art style.
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