A discussion on the art of TES. Do you like what they do now? Would you prefer more rendered concepts? Do you like Oblivion's or Morrowind's style of drawing?

To recap: Game Informer is supposed to have pants wetting art on the cover next month. Some people think TES does not do "pants wetting" art.



the concepts beth makes may not be fully rendered and epic, but they are great for modeling. when you're modeling something you don't want a fancy pose and realistic rendering and a good composition, you want a simple, clear image which you can import directly into a modeling program. Something likehttp://ericreber.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/09d-138-011.jpg or http://www.worldofwconline.com/gallery/albums/concept-art/ca14.jpg may look cool, but its next to useless for modeling.

Personally, I prefer Oblivion's European-esque style to WoW's "fantasy" style. As I've said several times before, the giant spiky paldrons thing isn't fantastic, its cliche and even more boring than copying Europe.

Personally, I don't mind what Oblivion and Morrowind did. They were not fantastically rendered but they have their own sort of flair. That being said, ArenaNet is my favorite when it comes to concept art. They have a great collection of both functional and atmospheric concepts, and they are always willing to share with fans.

giant pauldrons are stupid. give us armour that looks like a person could manage to wear.

I liked Morrowind's concept art...But of the lastest concept arts I really followed was WAR's concept art for the various classes. Most of what they did ended up in the game, even intricate designs of chaos. When it translated into the game, it wasn't absurd and translated well to a natural WH setting, as opposed to a cartoony, giant pauldron WoW world.

I think the discussion in the spec thread and here are conflating 'concept art' with 'promotional art'.

Concept art, typically produced before and during development, starts at rough sketches (coming up with the visual concept) but can be anything from sketches to schematics to paintings and renders. These can be used practically or asperationally by the team developing the game - sometimes a model will literally be built on top of a detailed sketch, other times a fantastic painting will be used as a 'target' by the art team. Concept art may be posted or released in an art book, but is rarely, rarely used in advertisments or other large-scale promotional situations.

Promotional art is produced with wide distrobution in mind, and are typically more 'finished' images. They may be an accurate or exaggerated depiction of the game, and they may be produced by the same art team that worked on the game, or commissioned out to a third party. Promo art can be illustrations or renders, and is used for advertisments, magazine covers, and for distrobution to blogs and such to generate hype.

I like their art.

This. http://worthplaying.com/press/152/elderscrolls4_cover.jpg cover wasn't concept art, but is still clearly considered as 'cover art', which is what the twitter comment said would impress fantasy fans.

As far as whether Beth's concept art is any good, I agree that simpler concept art is great for modellers, but I strongly believe that although detailed and captivating scenes like http://aionftw.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/aion-concept-art/aion_concept_02.jpg http://www.discoveraion.com/images/concept_art/img_concept_worldaion_1.jpg might be hard for modellers to work with, they do a great job for highlighting a game's setting and making it look simply epic from the early stages of development. That's a great feeling for both developers and fans when they see it. I think a healthy amount of both styles of concept art is important, and Bethesda is lacking in the visual flair style.

Lady Nerevar, I know which Oblivion concept piece your talking about. It says Past, Present and future on it. It was the cover spread, yeah.

It was a great piece. It almost seemed like an oblivion gate would be some sort of mirror.

That and this http://www.elderscrolls.com/images/art/ob_concept/ob_concept10B.jpg

Not so much the image on the right hand side but more of the image on the left's coloring. A good majority of the composition appears to be flat. Especially near the mask.

Stahlbrand: good post.

On atmospheric art: during modding, I've found that concept images of cities and specific landscape features are nearly useless. Once you get into the CS you are constrained more by models and by the already present land than by any sort of vision. I personally think that is better to make a city based on the land you have than on a concept you made before you ever laid eyes on the models or the terrain. Of course, the style of the architecture has to be conceptualized to, and it would be real nice to see those sketches. For example,http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v445/flaptraps/GuildWars6.jpg, but its nice to see what sort of atmosphere they were going for.

[edit] on the same note, my favorite part about the MW art book is that it didn't look like what ended up in the game. oblivion's, by contrast, looks almost exactly like the finished product. I like to see the evolution of the idea more than the actual art.

I agree with this completely. Why stop at, "Here's a solid image of what we want it to look like," when you could go on to, "Oh hey, wait, this would make it look cooler." I'm sure that's what they do, and that picture was probably tweaked to look like the armor they made in the game. :laugh: But still, despite the 'blandness' of Oblivion, the architecture for the imperials was done right. But we're not going there again, and Skyrim better be a hell of a lot different, and I liked the alien feel of Morrowind thank you very much.

I'm not all that concerned with how the concept art looks on its own as long as it gets the job done, I'm more interested in seeing how the designs depicted in the concept art transfer into the games. Because the games are what I'm going to be playing, not the concept art. I'd say that concept art should aim to provide a clear idea of what the designers envision for the game for the modelers to work with, Oblivion's concept art seemed to get that job done, at least the pictures that were released seemed pretty clear and straight forward, and I'm not complaining about the fact that the armor, creature and such translated into the game, because looking at some of the things that didn't quite follow the concept art, such as say... Leyawiin, I can only regret that the real thing in the game couldn't have looked more like that, since it would have been much more interesting.

Leave the cool poses and lighting to material actually created for promotional purposes I say, concept art should focus on being just that.

So at what point in the development process did they say, "You know, that mithril armor looks really cool, but could we lose the beard on the guy? Beards are lame."

I really hope beards are an option in the next game. Nords without beards would be a travesty.

True nords shave every inch of their body.

I hear FO3 had a great collection of facial hair. If DC can have it, so can Skyrim.

I want to disagree with you,but http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:Hrisskar_Flat-Foot guy should have given me a bigger cut.

"hear"... Lady Nerevar, does this mean you have not played Fallout 3? Heresy!

I thought for a moment they'd released concept art. <_<

Me too. :sadvaultboy:
I check in every week looking for news and I hear something about concept art.
Its not what I was hoping.

Not on the PC, no. I did for a little bit on the Xbox, though I rolled a lady in that and never even got out of the vault (damn console controls). It came out during a time I that was real busy with modding, and it didn't draw my attention enough to make me go out and buy it.

The reason I like Morrowind's concept art is because it's very stylized and deliberately unrealistic (Bosmer art in particular that WAS on TIL. Can't wait for the new setup).

Oblivion's art looks good, hell the whole game does really, but it is just too realistic, too "finished." It doesn't even seem like concept art so much as someone drew the Imp that had already been modelled.

http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20081106215843/fallout/images/a/a3/101overseer.PNG
http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20081106010512/fallout/images/3/3a/Stanley.PNG
http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20081119191410/fallout/images/4/4a/James.jpg
http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100206102547/fallout/images/thumb/2/25/FO3_Lucas_Simms.jpeg/800px-FO3_Lucas_Simms.jpeg
http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20090823134131/fallout/images/2/21/Fallout_3_Elder_Owyn_Lyons.jpg

I think their selection of beards was quite satisfactory (though this isn't nearly all of them, merely a sample). Now, as long as we get some good tattoos...

You can't blame a concept artist if they're good at making incredibly refined pieces of concept art. In fact, thats better because it then helps the character and environment artists create the concept artist's vision. I know the 3d version of the imp and its concept predecessor look quite similar, but thats simply because the concept art was so refined, the artist was able to create a replicated render.