Raven Needs New Portrait

[pure.Wasted]

And I mean PRONTO! The one it has now, which is pretty lame, could have worked if they'd emphasized its blue-collar worker Joe vibe. Like the guy is so unimportant, we don't even need to see his face... just him getting chewed out by his boss, getting a BSOD, and so on and so forth. All the stuff we laymen have to put up with. It could have worked.

Except it now turns out the Raven is a robot, which instantly makes its face more interesting than 99% of the Terran roster. The portrait clearly does not measure up; in fact, it does not even fit the unit's identity in other ways. The Nomad was a constructor and engineer, but the Raven? Spewing out an attack drone takes no more engineering skill than planting a spider mine. Did Vultures have screens covered by spider mine schematics? No, they did not.



Something I thought would be a relatively fitting direction to go in. And if it reminds you of another blue-ish character who happens to be super-, or maybe simply in-human, all the better. As far as I'm concerned, he can have the quotes to match.

You can comment on the pic if you like, but primary focus here is need for new portrait in general. This was just an idea.

[sulik]

Nice pix, but that would be more suitable for dead civilian than to raven. The Raven, as a giant cockroach, is not really as attractive as Science Vessel.

About the portrait, perhaps of a smartass working in a hi-tech factory?

[pure.Wasted]

Nice pix, but that would be more suitable for dead civilian than to raven. The Raven, as a giant cockroach, is not really as attractive as Science Vessel.

The Raven's like the sleekest and most elegantly designed unit the Terrans have...

Did ya... miss all the posts that complained about how it was so elegant it looked more Protoss than Terran?

[MillenniumDH]

The Raven's like the sleekest and most elegantly designed unit the Terrans have...

Did ya... miss all the posts that complained about how it was so elegant it looked more Protoss than Terran?

It looks like Terrans had great time reverse engineering all those crashed Arbiters.





I mean, seriously?

[Kaiser]

Big unit portrait, how did you manage to get it like that?

[pure.Wasted]

Big unit portrait, how did you manage to get it like that?

SCwiki. Now, to save you the trouble, your next question is obviously going to be "where did they get it?" and the answer to that, in all likelihood, is the batch of images Blizzard released in their fansite pack a year (or two) ago.

[Nicol Bolas]

The one it has now, which is pretty lame, could have worked if they'd emphasized its blue-collar worker Joe vibe. Like the guy is so unimportant, we don't even need to see his face... just him getting chewed out by his boss, getting a BSOD, and so on and so forth.

I think you're really misinterpreting it.

He is the "control." It's a common black-ops character archetype. A guy, sitting alone in a dark room, lit only by a number of monitors, his face obscured or otherwise hidden from view.

He is without feeling or remorse. He is always watching, seeing machinations and wheels within wheels. The spider in the web, plotting and scheming while keeping tabs on everyone and everything.

That being said, the portrait itself isn't properly doing the archetype justice. And that's for one reason: bad framing.

When framing a shot of such a person, it is important to emphasize the fact that he's:

1: in a dark room

2: in front of many monitors.

3: in a large room, larger than is necessary for apparent functionality.

4: alone

If the portrait box had a more widescreen-style ratio, then they could really have pulled it off. As it is, the camera is way too close. You can imagine that there are 10 other people in the room with him, and he's just a cog in the machine. He's supposed to be aloof and distant; that requires keeping the camera away from him to emphasis the fact that he is very alone.

Also the hat. Control should not be wearing that kind of hat. Even the StarCraft hick-Terran version of this archetype doesn't wear that.

[pure.Wasted]

I think you're really misinterpreting it.

He is the "control." It's a common black-ops character archetype. A guy, sitting alone in a dark room, lit only by a number of monitors, his face obscured or otherwise hidden from view.

He is without feeling or remorse. He is always watching, seeing machinations and wheels within wheels. The spider in the web, plotting and scheming while keeping tabs on everyone and everything.

That being said, the portrait itself isn't properly doing the archetype justice. And that's for one reason: bad framing.

When framing a shot of such a person, it is important to emphasize the fact that he's:

1: in a dark room

2: in front of many monitors.

3: in a large room, larger than is necessary for apparent functionality.

4: alone

If the portrait box had a more widescreen-style ratio, then they could really have pulled it off. As it is, the camera is way too close. You can imagine that there are 10 other people in the room with him, and he's just a cog in the machine. He's supposed to be aloof and distant; that requires keeping the camera away from him to emphasis the fact that he is very alone.

Also the hat. Control should not be wearing that kind of hat. Even the StarCraft hick-Terran version of this archetype doesn't wear that.

It's a great argument, but the fact remains that you're retro-justifying the portrait's design. It was created for the Nomad first and foremost; combining the portrait animation with the unit's role (advanced SCV), the interpretation you provide is obviously a stretch. Mine may be incorrect, but I'm giving Blizz the benefit of the doubt -- it's the only way I can see the lack of face working.

The Nomad eventually became the Raven, but the abilities shifted very slowly, so it was hard for them to draw the line and say, "Well it didn't need a new portrait last week, but it does this week."

Now, should the unit lose the hat, lose the screens with meaningless schematics, lose the "hit the screen in frustration" animation, and gain better framing... I could absolutely see your archetype working for it, instead of against it.

But even so, that involves fundamental changes... so I think we're on the same page.

[sulik]

The Raven's like the sleekest and most elegantly designed unit the Terrans have...

Did ya... miss all the posts that complained about how it was so elegant it looked more Protoss than Terran?

I didn't really been around here these time. Aesthetic-wise, i prefer rough, mechanical, robot-like for Terran; and slim, curve, shiny for Protoss. Unfortunately, the Raven just remind me of those cockroach's wing, so meh!

Btw, the most protoss-like Terran should have been the ghost.

[ROFLbanshee]

Personally I think the most fitting portrait is something like the HAL 9000.