Okay, right, well as someone who has a degree in, and a somewhat successful career in visual media, I have this to say: you're thoroughly dissapointed that the community is offering some very good, very valid constructive criticism? I'm genuinely shocked by the amount of people that share your ignorance.
You failed to point out why the "Diablo III needs to be darker, and grittier" argument is weak; instead you made a ludicrous claim and failed to back it up with any evidence whatsoever. The smoothness and colour scheme are, quite simply, the main reasons for the cartoon-like quality of the graphics, whether you want to believe so or not, that is a fact.
The colour scheme is bright and happy, even throughout the dungeon; if you want to argue that point, then I'm afraid the only thing that is ludicrous is you. Moving on, if you think that the term "gothic," when used to describe an atmosphere, simply means: "dark and purple," then, frankly, you're wrong. I'm not going to linger on this point seeing as it is so ridiculous it pretty much counters itself, but the fact that you think having the curtains coloured purple checks the "gothic" box shows how weak your argument truly is. The rest of your post is just filled with words repeating the same very few, very weak points you've raised and is so redundant that I'll just chuckle to myself and sweep it aside.
Oh please, continue to "rail against this line of thinking," I quite enjoyed obliterating your so-called "fodder." At least we agree on something, the music was absolutely spot-on.
Thanks for heuristically obliterating my argument , and its not "so-called" fodder if you actually used it as such. Nice try. Superficially I would rate the response terse, yet vapid. Well done. Although you did miss something: the logic train... DING! DING! DING... just missed it, man. I do however have a reasoning mallet I can use to drive the point home.
Argument that the "Diablo III needs to be [insert random adjective that is meant to describe the realization of terror through lighting /texture here]" reasoning is faulty is contained in what I wrote. By making the environment have slightly softer lines and edges (and thus giving a more real sense as argued in the natural image processing statement), the environment would thereby be more engaging. To say it is cartoonish is in itself flawed. The hard edge is a staple of cartoon drawing, which is absent in the gameplay. Therefore, say it with me, ' it is not cartoonish based on that reasoning'.
Second, you misunderstood what I was writing for the color palate. I had said people seem to be confusing the idea of a gothic atmosphere with "dark and purple", not arguing its merits. Read first, think second, reply much later. Furthermore if you think autumnal coloring is bright and happy, then I would chalk that up to a matter of personal taste. Nothing personal. Whatever works for you, man. Although, I would like to point out that the season itself is entirely about death as the eventual end to every successful growth cycle (and a theme used in gothic literature and imagery quite a bit), and as a backdrop for the outdoors environment does a good job at utilizing for that purpose.
I won't argue that you liking it is wrong. Some people think rhubarb tastes better with strawberries.
Look a the pillars though in the actual s/s and look at the edited ones (top of page 40). The edited one is far more realistic. The pillars look like they've actually crumbled and the tops appear to be jagged and grainy...like old destroyed pillars should.
Now look at the actual game s/s. They are completely smooth. I'm sorry but that's not realistic in the least bit. The texture of this game is very WC III-ish and WoW-ish to say the least.
Maybe the color pallet doesn't need a change, but the texture of the models and art definitely needs a touch of realism and lees Wow-ism.
The pillar quality in question is a texture/skinning issue (which I mentioned was not part of the failure of the criticisms), not an object edge issue. In any case, those "How it should look [like]" are grammatically (in title) and aesthetically awful. They are as though someone took an industrial solvent and sandpaper to the original. Crank down the brightness and make it look as close to Diablo 2 as possible... then we're talking, right? If everyone wants the same color scheme, texture, and grey-wash as Diablo 2, then play Diablo 2.
The smoothed edges don't make it look more real...they make them look cartoony and fake.
This is a game about Diablo...THE LORD OF DESTRUCTION....the color pallet should not be bright and cheery. The zombies look like the UD in WoW as far as skin tone/texture are concerned.
When I look at the trees in the outside s/s they remind me of the "happy" trees Bob Ross use to paint.
1. Look at any object around you. Do you see hard lines that completely separate an object as though it has no connection to the surrounding environment? If so, you may have a brain tumor.
2. I was not commenting on the the skinning of the individual creatures/character. I agree, some minor tweaking can and will be done to make them 'pop' more.
3. I would say the outdoors are less Bob Ross and more Manet, or dare I say Renoir. Beyond that, it is a matter of taste.
After reading the previous posts on this thread, I have to say I am thoroughly disappointed with the community reaction to the gameplay video and the design movement on the whole. While not an expert in visual media or graphic design by any means, I do have a few points that I feel need to be made/
For starters, it seems that the majority opinion of the art needing to be more "dark/gritty" is, while not entirely without merit, at the very least on weak footing. Foremost, I see way too many hang ups on a perceived cartoonish quality to both the smoothness of the figures and the overall color scheme. The injection of a more realistic quality to the edges of an object, i.e. smoothing out the jaggedness on the lines, is welcomed to me. This something our brains do for us on every image it processes (The world would look a lot different if our brains did not remove the Laplacian of an object while decoding it from the information our eyes send to it). So why not seek to attain the same thing in-game? After all the camera angle is meant to give the feeling of an external agent pulling the strings on our hero puppet.
Secondly, the accusation that the color scheme is too bright/happy is ludicrous. Namely, the term gothic is being thrown around to describe the ideal color scheme. I couldn't agree more, which is why I am happy with palate chosen. When people usually think of gothic, what springs to mind is too often only purple and black, and that leads to the complaint that there needs to be a toning down of the gamma (the revival of the light radius argument) and a grey-wash in the scheme because any vibrancy is obviously not gothic and thus has no place in the Diablo universe ( Oh how I wish sarcasm was more easily conveyed via text). So here we meet a confusion of language. Dark is being confused with drab, which are not equivalent descriptions in this sense. Also if you go back and watch the video again, there is plenty of grey and your precious purples to satisfy your goth-lust (the curtains in most of the Forgotten Tombs are indigo lined with gold rope with gold tassles... devil truly is in the details) . Also, the moving water present in the two areas shown and misty backgrounds are there to support this imagery. Just because occasionally things are subdued does not mean they are absent. Remember, as has been said before, these areas are in the beginning of the game at which point the past events are viewed as mythical and the true evil present in the game is but a whisper building, one would hope as evidenced in some of the more advanced concept art, in a fantastically twisted crescendo.
I would continue to rail against this line of thinking, but that should be enough fodder for counter-argument. I just ask that the critics, go back, watch the gameplay several more times, and really think about what is being done with each visual element (because you cannot tell me that the music was less than brilliant).
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Thanks for heuristically obliterating my argument , and its not "so-called" fodder if you actually used it as such. Nice try. Superficially I would rate the response terse, yet vapid. Well done. Although you did miss something: the logic train... DING! DING! DING... just missed it, man. I do however have a reasoning mallet I can use to drive the point home.
Argument that the "Diablo III needs to be [insert random adjective that is meant to describe the realization of terror through lighting /texture here]" reasoning is faulty is contained in what I wrote. By making the environment have slightly softer lines and edges (and thus giving a more real sense as argued in the natural image processing statement), the environment would thereby be more engaging. To say it is cartoonish is in itself flawed. The hard edge is a staple of cartoon drawing, which is absent in the gameplay. Therefore, say it with me, ' it is not cartoonish based on that reasoning'.
Second, you misunderstood what I was writing for the color palate. I had said people seem to be confusing the idea of a gothic atmosphere with "dark and purple", not arguing its merits. Read first, think second, reply much later. Furthermore if you think autumnal coloring is bright and happy, then I would chalk that up to a matter of personal taste. Nothing personal. Whatever works for you, man. Although, I would like to point out that the season itself is entirely about death as the eventual end to every successful growth cycle (and a theme used in gothic literature and imagery quite a bit), and as a backdrop for the outdoors environment does a good job at utilizing for that purpose.
I won't argue that you liking it is wrong. Some people think rhubarb tastes better with strawberries.
The pillar quality in question is a texture/skinning issue (which I mentioned was not part of the failure of the criticisms), not an object edge issue. In any case, those "How it should look [like]" are grammatically (in title) and aesthetically awful. They are as though someone took an industrial solvent and sandpaper to the original. Crank down the brightness and make it look as close to Diablo 2 as possible... then we're talking, right? If everyone wants the same color scheme, texture, and grey-wash as Diablo 2, then play Diablo 2.
1. Look at any object around you. Do you see hard lines that completely separate an object as though it has no connection to the surrounding environment? If so, you may have a brain tumor.
2. I was not commenting on the the skinning of the individual creatures/character. I agree, some minor tweaking can and will be done to make them 'pop' more.
3. I would say the outdoors are less Bob Ross and more Manet, or dare I say Renoir. Beyond that, it is a matter of taste.
For starters, it seems that the majority opinion of the art needing to be more "dark/gritty" is, while not entirely without merit, at the very least on weak footing. Foremost, I see way too many hang ups on a perceived cartoonish quality to both the smoothness of the figures and the overall color scheme. The injection of a more realistic quality to the edges of an object, i.e. smoothing out the jaggedness on the lines, is welcomed to me. This something our brains do for us on every image it processes (The world would look a lot different if our brains did not remove the Laplacian of an object while decoding it from the information our eyes send to it). So why not seek to attain the same thing in-game? After all the camera angle is meant to give the feeling of an external agent pulling the strings on our hero puppet.
Secondly, the accusation that the color scheme is too bright/happy is ludicrous. Namely, the term gothic is being thrown around to describe the ideal color scheme. I couldn't agree more, which is why I am happy with palate chosen. When people usually think of gothic, what springs to mind is too often only purple and black, and that leads to the complaint that there needs to be a toning down of the gamma (the revival of the light radius argument) and a grey-wash in the scheme because any vibrancy is obviously not gothic and thus has no place in the Diablo universe ( Oh how I wish sarcasm was more easily conveyed via text). So here we meet a confusion of language. Dark is being confused with drab, which are not equivalent descriptions in this sense. Also if you go back and watch the video again, there is plenty of grey and your precious purples to satisfy your goth-lust (the curtains in most of the Forgotten Tombs are indigo lined with gold rope with gold tassles... devil truly is in the details) . Also, the moving water present in the two areas shown and misty backgrounds are there to support this imagery. Just because occasionally things are subdued does not mean they are absent. Remember, as has been said before, these areas are in the beginning of the game at which point the past events are viewed as mythical and the true evil present in the game is but a whisper building, one would hope as evidenced in some of the more advanced concept art, in a fantastically twisted crescendo.
I would continue to rail against this line of thinking, but that should be enough fodder for counter-argument. I just ask that the critics, go back, watch the gameplay several more times, and really think about what is being done with each visual element (because you cannot tell me that the music was less than brilliant).