StarCraft II Artwork Thread

[Turalyon]

Um, what? I was commenting on the picture, not any wording.

Heh, talk about flying over one's head. Jokes on you I guess.

This is why I'm wary of critiquing art, because I can only give subjective rather than objective feedback.

You shouldn't be. All critiques of art beyond describing what you see (in the case of abstract art, even that simple process can be a bit of a stretch to call objective) are ultimately subjective.

[Visions of Khas]

Nice, it's got a predator vibe to it, though I wonder what Blizzard's take on Fenix would look like given that they basically re-imagined Protoss faces since SC1.

Good question. I found some old concept art of Artanis that retained the "tribal markings" you saw in old protoss portraits and used that as a model to go by on the more recent Fenix portrait. I'm sad to see that feature go by the way side.

I'm wary of critiquing art, but looking at the lower Fenix sketch...sorry, it looks more like a silent than a protoss honestly.

I can see that, yeah. Especially in the brow structure. I tried to steer clear of the sweeping Zeratul-crest-brow... thing, and modelled it after the SC2 zealot portrait. Didn't do too well though. =\

-Again with the silent comment. A comment that was just a quick blurb of a first impression, but apparently, that isn't allowed.

No, that's totally allowed.

The glowing eyes are a kind of weakness, in that they feel a bit too far back when compared to the ridges.

Hm, I see what you mean. I was working from this artwork as inspiration for this portrait. And the eyes of a protoss do seem recessed in their new iteration. Moreover, the primary lighting is coming from above, with a secondary, pale blue light from behind. That said, if the impression is that, even with all this, the eyes still seem too recessed, then I'll fix it.

The forehead is a bit of another clincher - it's a bit too smooth IMO

Yeah I'll be working on that a bit more. I prefer the boniness of the original too.

So yeah. This is why I'm wary of critiquing art

Pfft, don't be. Thanks for the honest feedback.


So, besides the brows, how can I best differentiate this from the Silence and make it more of a protoss?

[Jconant]

Anyone can criticize, but I always try to offer something constructive. Saying "oh this looks like so and so" without elaborating on why or how to correct it doesn't help the artist improve their work.

Regarding the second protoss, part of why it looks off is the bridge of the face (from the eyes downward to the chin) dips backward with the shadows and foward again with the chin; the shadows there are too dark. By keeping the range of values in that area within the light family it wont be as visually confusing. Now...for the chin to pop out even more like how some protoss use egyptian like decoration there, restrict your brightest highlights for those sort of areas.

[Visions of Khas]

part of why it looks off is the bridge of the face (from the eyes downward to the chin) dips backward with the shadows and foward again with the chin

That's what I was going for. Going by this and this as models, and with Fenix's chin dipped slightly, that's the sort of shadow casting that I'd imagine being produced.

I'm seeing now that the eyes appear to be full-on to the viewer, disrupting any impression of that chin dip though.

[Jconant]

Which is ok, but I think you went too dark with the shadows; that whole area would be cast in light, so any shadows present in that dip would be faint, and never as dark as the "dark family" would be.

[DeltaCadimus]

AAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW...

[Gradius]

I still can't get over all dat needless ass.

[Robear]

I don't think this has been posted before; it's totally new to me: I found the gallery of another one of the 3D artists who worked on HotS, with some really great images, even though not all of them are Starcraft-related.







An interesting infestor concept, totally different take from Samwise's:

[Existor]

A bit more arts here
http://pr3d.ru/existor/144-swarm-art
or on deviantart/cghub

[Kaiser]

Wow, some of those are awesome.