Concept Art vs Reality of GW

Now I just want to make a quick statement for the first half of my post as to whether or not people think the concept art of GW looks better than GW itself. Personally I happen to think the concept art looks 10000x times better.

Second half of the post!!! Okay, so heres my debate. I think the concept art of GW in general has a much darker appeal; much more dramatic almost R-rated. By that I mean I think the concept art had to be brought down a rating to around PG-13 to what GW actually is. I mean if you don't believe me, I think the Kurzicks are a great example. http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=74118 <-- Look at all the Factions concept art is all through out there, and its funny because theres a general curve towards the end of the thread of "lighter" more kiddy artwork. Perhaps producers telling them to soften things up? Blue and yellow bubbles instead of blood?

http://www.discoverguildwars.com/ http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=83394 <-- Go there the concept art is ABOUND!

When has anything in GW ever looked this gross? http://www.conceptart.org/forums/att...d=11649848 90

Giant eyeballs!? That actually look real? (Sorry those glossy marbles don't do justice)
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/att...d=11649864 30

All I'm trying to say is that if what I think is true, we might just have baby turtle mounts with bubbley eyes in GW2. http://entertainment.upperdeck.com/A...WoW/turtle.gif
So I think the community needs Anet to know if they like a darker more mature GW2, or a funnier cartoony GW2.

I have to agree with you. The concept art is amazing. It has a distinct and very dark and sinister feel to it. I think alot of the feel was lost in the translation from the art to the game. I would love if GW2 somehow manage to stick closer to the concept art.

That last one is World of Warcraft.

I have to say when I first glanced at the art book that came with factions collecters I was completely gobsmacked. Some of the best artwork I have seen in the industry.

It is a shame they had to tone down the detail and overall sinster feel.

Art is amazing idd.

Thats the beauty of concept art, it is not restricted to the confines of the current game format, it's a way the artist can show his talent off. It's then up to the development team to take the ideas and put it into game, which is where a lot of the charm is lost unfortunatly. BTW, I totally love the concept art book from Nightfall.

I've always felt like the actual working models in the game did poor justice to the concept art (no offense intended at all to the developers, I know how incredibly hard that must be to translate a 2D pencil sketch into a 3D working model).


I've always loved images like This, This, This, This, This, and This. Their sense of epic grandeur really made it look like a truly astounding game, it's a shame it so hard to translate into the gameplay. And I think, in part, that is why the sinister and dark feeling that the OP pointed out is missing from the game; the dark grandeur exhibited in those works is lost because the very fine atmospheric detail imparted in the drawings is missing in the final product.

What ends up in the game usually seems much less grand, much more subdued compared to the concepts. I would really hope that this year we've been kept in the dark about GW2 has been exclusively devoted to making incredibly detailed and graphically astounding models and landscapes that are equal to what's shown in the concept art.

id have to agree with this, this is something i haven't considered for gw2 because anet's quality is so high anyways but...

YES, comparing concept art with what is in gw, it seems that special parts and the rawness has been torn out of it and replaced with an old Shrek animation.

I'm wondering if this is part of the plan for gw2, to make the game as compelling as its' concept art?

Well, yeah, of course the concept art looks better than the real game. The concept artists don't have to make things out of a finite number of polygons, textures, and lights. Of course, for GW2, the world artists will be able to get much closer to the concept art, what with improved poly counts, better shaders, bigger textures, and all that goodness. I suspect the gap will close a bit.

Of course, when employing dozens of concept artists each with their own particular style, a lot of the individuality in the concept art is going to get lost when bringing it all together in-game in any cohesive way.

Exactly, there are technical limits in regard to performance. Hopefully will get decent graphics at low settings and oustanding (much better than GW) graphics for the stronger machines.

Well it's hard to keep it low-poly while very detailled at the same time.

Ye lol. GG, but I had a laugh at the turtle anyway!

Concept art is way better imo, but I cant complain cause my videocard fails anyway.

In my opinion the conversion from concept art to in game models has been very good. Artists are allowed (and expected) to 'go wild' and produce all kinds of stuff and the actually implemented models are then picked with certain criteria including technical feasibility and consistency of design. Some of the hulking machines and sprawling cityscapes in the linky look absolutely awesome but bear closer resemblance to the universe of Star Wars than that of Guild Wars, IMHO.

My main design related gripe with the current game is the inadequate use of the Z axis, and this is largely caused by the limitations of the GW engine. With some notable exceptions like Sorrow's Furnace, the world of Tyria is terribly flat. I wouldn't love anything more than to scale some vertigo inducing vistas like those seen in the concept art, and I have high hopes for GW2. I want to see stuff fly, fall and smash to pieces

Great art work as always. I can't wait to see what GW2 is going to look like.

Not really. DOOM3 showed how you do it. You create a very high detail modell to create all the textures, bump maps or even normal maps and then apply them to the low poly modell used ingame.

It's no secret that Anet has some of the best concept artists in the industry. The problem is that even the best digital artists can't always duplicate the same effect in a 3D landscape. Nonetheless, I think we also have some of the best digital artists- how many other games can come so close?

no shit sherlock .. ;

I've only really accurate modeling to artwork in a couple of games...
I think Granado Espada and Lineage are two of them.

But, hey. They try sometimes, like when they remade the Prophecies henchmen to be closer to artwork.

i see some interesting things here:

Urgoz anyone?

Dervish Envoy?!?

Mallyx in a not-so-ape-like form

and i am also seeing new Professions such as Lancer. Fistfighter, Duel Wielder(maybe they're just daggers=Kanaxai)