The Heroes V Artwork

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The Heroes V Artwork

Unread postby {CH}ArticleBot » 04 Jan 2005, 15:10

The Round Table Proposal

Part 4: The Heroes V Artwork (part 1)

by Angelspit

The discussion about the Heroes of Might and Magic V
artwork released last December dealt with the gender of angels, mythology,
technological advance in fantasy, creatures upgrades and anime. Heroes players
are serious about the look of their game, and they have the knowledge to back it
up. As shown in the poll below, which covered the first five pieces of artwork
only, the creatures easily got most of the attention
of the fans:
Which piece of artwork is your
favorite?




Answer
Votes
Percentage


Archangel
33
Image
 31.4%


Archer
29
Image
 27.6%


Cavalier
19
Image
 18.1%


City
23
Image
 21.9%


Map Building
1
Image
 1.0%




Instead of trying to summarize everything that has been
said, I will let the fans speak by themselves. Below are the most interesting quotes from the forums. I decided to stick to the first
impressions mostly, and left the nitpicking, the theological debates and the off-topic
discussions out. Click on the pictures to enlarge them.

The Coastal City

Image
[*]If that's a town, i'm very interested in how they will
use this in game. Can't wait to see the other images. (Sisko)
The shear number of individual structures visible in the drawing suggests
to me that this is more than a mere barricade. (Helcaraxe)
It's hard to imagine that this would be a town design, because building
such a thing would be an engineering marvel of the highest order. A bunch of
settlers don't just find a likely spot and decide to throw a dam up!
(PeteusMax)
It cannot be a town. At least not fully upgraded. Come on, if it is a
town, it must only be a part of it, without dwellings etc. I believe it is a
kind of quest guard. (Pitsu)
Lots of interesting details and that -- european maybe? -- feeling,
looks charged of history, of the wishes of many governors that were trying to
make their town shine amongst the other. It's position, in the middle of a
great river or a sea pass, brings up the intriguing part on how towns in
general will be and were they will be placed... (Dragon Angel)
It would be great to have some towns we could put in different places,
like over water, between moutains, or with a built-in garrison (Shadow Hydra)
Imagine this great drawning rendered for a 3D Heros game. (Fidanas)
Taking a closer look at the bridge like structure it appears to possibly
be a gate into a castle. The mechanical contraption to the side might be a
device to raise and lower the gate. I think this could be very cool. (Bacchus
Tydral)
I'd love to have more action on the water and if this is a type of water
town, there'd be a real reason to have your heroes hop into a boat. (Erica
Marceau)
We must go back to the ‘living’ animating cities of
Heroes 1 where people walk, talk & everything moves, and not just do a
bunch of dead boring buildings with smoke coming out like in Heroes 4. Seeing
those flying birds and moving ships in your concept art gives me hope...
(Blake)
It looks just like the picture of the south/north gate from the final
fantasy ix art book, page 95. I don't know if that was intentional or not.
(Dragon Lady, former NWC artist)
The City on a Hill

Image
[*]Looks like one from lords of the rings. (White Wizard)

I'm especially intrested in the peak to the far right surrounded by
flyers... Dragons? Griffens? Thunderbirds? This one painting suggests several
various dwellings, not just the castle. (ScarlettP)
It seems we have here the 'knight' castle - so the bridgie town could be
the 'mage' one... or perhaps that points we'll get to see different factions
from the used ones. The pictures look much more Disney than Anime for me.
(Dragon Angel)
The Archangel

Image
[*]Perhaps I am a bit prejudiced because I loved the
Archangels in both H3 and H4, and this is quite different, but it doesn't
strike me as something very powerful, but rather leaves a feeling of
awkwardness. I think it has something evil about it, too... (Dragon Ranger)
Why is Angel hiding his/her eyes? Where is the power of Ultimate Life
warrior? Sorry, it's no Heroes. (Dalai)
The style looks like the usual anime (everything is overdone. I mean, who
can walk with at least 50 kg of metal strapped to your shoulders). In HoMM,
they always tried to make things look as naturally acceptable as possible.
(Marelt Ekiran)

The angel looks incredible, but fits more into
Disciples than Heroes. (Bacchus Tydral)
I don't think those colours are the best either. Blue and white worked
very well in previous HOMM games, and red and white too. (Vitirr)
The dress, the cape, the wings, the gloves, the sword and especially the
Halo and the golden Armor are unbelievable. (Svetac)
While the proportions of its hand needs to be fixed, it finally looks to
be angelic and the design of the sword is fantastic. I dislike units being
upgraded into the opposite gender so I'd hate if this is a female angel and
she was upgraded into a male angel or vice-versa. (Erica Marceau)
To make the AAs some divine muscular hunks is not a bad idea at all
but...isn that already done before? Twice? Try something for a change. (Lichie
Lich)
Has anyone noticed that the angel is left-handed? (Lord Haart)
She looks unbalanced, with all the armor at the top and a long, feminine
skirt on the bottom. It's all about proportion, really. If I were going into
battle, I would want armor and a kick-ass sword, too, but not so much armor
that I couldn't move around, or so big a sword that I couldn't lift the thing.
(Vaudy)
If the Archangel is to be Jewish (which may not
necessarily be a wise decision, since, to my knowledge, none of the Abrahamic
religions per se exist in Enroth, Antagarich, Jadame, or Axeoth), then it must
be male, because the Angels of Biblical mythology are not the fair,
golden-haired maidens that we are used to in popular culture. Rather, they are
buff, powerful men. (Xenophanes)
As a cartoon, this archangel looks like a bellaminette from bellamy to me
(Cyll)
I took the picture to my wife, who has hundreds if not thousands of anime
and manga titles in her library, on her computer, on video, on dvd, etc. She
took one look and said, "That's not anime." (Bandobras Took)
The Cavalier

Image
[*]I think that the cavalier looks as if he wrapped his
tie around his head. (Marelt Ekiran)
That [picture] makes me think about a barbarian that have stolen a horse
from a jousting tournament... I would like the Cavalier/champion to have lots
of armor. An armoured head with an armor mask for the horse. (Campaigner)
Really cool with the details (the hair) and I also like how it is yellow,
really seems to represent the good side of things. (Echo)
The cavalier is really great, but doesn't his spear look somehow wooden?
He could also wear more armor and take that ninja-like thing off his head.
(OLoRiN)
Maybe the guy's just practicing? (Erica Marceau)
The color combination, that someone have opposed to, it's fantastic for
me, I'm tired of bluish knights, black-yellow it's a welcome change. (Dragon
Angel)
I'm inclined to think that this represents a Knight Errant rather than a
full-blown Knight (hence the lack of a helmet). The colors are nice, and the
proportions are suitable. Nice... very nice... (Lwaren)

The Map Building

Image
[*]The other building doesn't really look very good. I
know it's just an early concept art, (and maybe this can look good in the real
game engine), but here it just look too simple and colours too... pale?.
(Vitirr)
The smoke is cool. I also hope that the whole thing is going to move.
(OLoRiN)
The mechanical building looks as if it doubles as a store and a factory
and I think it's great since it can be so many different kinds of store. The
big mechanical wheel is great. (Erica Marceau)
I am proudly in the camp of people who want to see a
liiiittle
steam-powered machinery in Heroes V. I approve of this building. (Lwaren)


The Archer

Image
[*]The artists clearly have great knowledge on armors and
weaponry. (Svetac)
[*]He has a chainmail or splintmail armor which is
perfect. The only platemail is the knee pads which I don't think is a
necessity. I don't agree that they should have crossbows instead of bows. If
he's an archer then he uses a bow. (Radwar)
I don't really give a rip about longbow versus crossbow. It all depends on
the context. If the storyline includes some sort of breakdown of civilization,
then it would make sense that some of the more technologically sophisticated
weapons would be "forgotten." (Vaudy)
Look at his feet and hands, They are huge. It wouldent suprise me at all
if it was the same person that drawn [the Archangel]. (Olorin)
With the big bow and those big arrows the desing reminds me of the famous
brittish longbowmen. Simply breathtaking. (Kole)
The Mine

Image
[*]It looks really nice, almost as if the cart is meant
to be tipped over and the contents dropped into the water or maybe that device
is used to put the rocks into the cart and the handles used to pull it away.
Whatever the use, it's a very interesting device and it definitely has an air
of Dwarvish about it. (Erica Marceau)
The only thing I don't like is the pond looks too small compared with the
rest of the drawing. (Dragon Angel)
Bottomline

[*]It seems that it's not Hoeroes style but I think that developers shouldn't
copy New World Computing and make their own look of the game. (Valerdos)
None of the pics posted are Manga. Manga is adult anime. I don't feel any
of the pictures are anime looking anyway. Just because it has a cartoon feel
to it doesn't make it anime. (Bacchus Tydral)
This might seem somewhat un-American, but I am far more interested in
content, story, variety and quality of game play than the "look" of the new
version. Substance first. (Gurney)
And if this game lives up to the quality of the games that Ubi Soft has
been releasing this past year, I say were all in for a big surprise when this
comes out... (ShPhoenix)
NWC, where for art thou? (Ryder)
UbiSoft should be trying to maintain the elements that made Heroes so
successful in the past, as well as adding exciting new things that are in
keeping with the existing series. For people who have never experienced the
existing Heroes games to come along and design new
artwork/gameplay/music/whatever for the next in the series is a recipe for
disaster. (Richard Hallas)
What I like most about the artwork is the simplicity. Fewer details but
great skill - still. Whereas HeroesIV was a thousand details and colours
everywhere. (Holger)
It nicely hybridizes western mythological and historical themes with a
style that is slightly anime inspired. very contemporary! (Hambone)
I would like to see some evil creatures too. Can't wait to see
some ghosts, skeletons, and dragons of course! (Vortex)
In general, one of the things that always attracted me to the HoMM games
was the bright, saturated colors. Gave me the feeling of playing with some
bright new toy. (gmknobl)
I absolutely cannot stand Anime or Manga. But I'm loving this artwork.
(Bandobras Took)
If they can make 40+ creatures of this quality, i'll be overwhelmed with
joy and humbleness. Love them and... yeah i have put one of them as my desktop
image. (Fantasizzlin)
LOTR LOTR LOTR! (Emperor Yohon)
Actually, what Ubisoft's art team is trying to do is create an atmosphere
that Eastern, Western, male, and female minds can relate to; they accomplish
this by incorporating certain styles (in this case, anime and Disney) and
certain genders (female angel). (Hero the Sandwich)  

I wish to thank all Round Table members who joined the
discussion. Look for more artwork by the time the game is officially announced.

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