Darksiders art, and art ethos
The images below are by artist Jonathan Kirtz.
Here's the Jonothan's CGhub page: http://jonathankirtz.cghub.com/
Kotaku was talking about it here: http://kotaku.com/5935552/the-art-of-darksiders-ii
What I find significant about Darksiders art, besides its awesomeness, is that the artists have been allowed to, and even encouraged, to post the art they've done on the project in their personal capacity. And the art of Darksiders 2 has been a significant marketing tool leading up to the release of the game, allowing artists to feel proud of their work and involvement in the game.
The art is all very well presented of course, and has obviously been curated, but it seems to me that Vigil and THQ are employing development practices that benefit their artists, and provide incentives for their artists to produce better art.
Here's the Jonothan's CGhub page: http://jonathankirtz.cghub.com/
Kotaku was talking about it here: http://kotaku.com/5935552/the-art-of-darksiders-ii
What I find significant about Darksiders art, besides its awesomeness, is that the artists have been allowed to, and even encouraged, to post the art they've done on the project in their personal capacity. And the art of Darksiders 2 has been a significant marketing tool leading up to the release of the game, allowing artists to feel proud of their work and involvement in the game.
The art is all very well presented of course, and has obviously been curated, but it seems to me that Vigil and THQ are employing development practices that benefit their artists, and provide incentives for their artists to produce better art.
Comments
Back to the topic though - it's refreshing to see art come out before the game self - it certainly creates hype during the build up. I don't know if that's better or worse for the game in juxtaposition to other studios that keep their stuff in utter secrecy (Blizzard to a certain degree, Apple to a large degree, but different industries :P), but it obviously gives the artist more satisfaction.
It also depends on the artist themselves too, though. Some just can't be bothered to, so kudos to Jonathan and THQ for being awesome together :)
I understand the reasons for demanding secrecy, when working with clients or marketing teams, but it does disenfranchise artists and arguably deemphasize excellence (and I see it happening in South Africa).
If you want to do this kind of work maybe compete in a Dominance War (or a competition like that). I've hired local artists based on their Dominance War attempts.
Obviously I didn't get to hire the winners (I wish!). I'm just saying you don't need to get paid to do this kind of work. Lots of top artists do it for practice and for their portfolios.
Please make a thread with links to these comps so I can perve moar?
And yes, my fiancé did work on DarksidersII and from what I saw there was not a lot of encouragement about posting artwork. AT ALL. Even after release. I think it's far more likely that the weapon design competition caused a sort of ripple out, and once a few started sharing without any backlash, more joined in. Then the whole thing with half the crew being uncredited probably fueled the motion.
You can see some of the pieces from my fiancé's contribution over at http://dawidfrederik.deviantart.com/gallery/