Substandard Artwork
Data1001
✭✭✭✭✭
in The Bridge
Exhibit #1: Battle Beverly Crusher
Maybe letting your receptionist take a shot at creating art for a character isn't the best idea. Seriously, though — this is awful. And we were doing so well there for awhile.
Maybe letting your receptionist take a shot at creating art for a character isn't the best idea. Seriously, though — this is awful. And we were doing so well there for awhile.
Could you please continue the petty bickering? I find it most intriguing.
~ Data, ST:TNG "Haven"
9
Comments
The good artists were too expensive.
But whhyyy Bevery?! 😭😭😭
Exhibit #2
Better than Crusher but still...
😳😳😬
Given that the examples folks were complaining about were data mined, my guess is they were using low res or draft versions for placeholders.
Starport
Sorry, but that Crusher looks hideous. Especially compared to Tallinn. Just look at their faces. Tallinn looks like a human that is slightly stylized. Crusher looks like an animated character. As Big Book said, Crusher looks like she's from Star Trek: Picard: The Animated Series and not a live action show.
Vadic looks better than Crusher, but still looks way more artificial than Tallinn.
Looks like the shading isn’t as detailed on Vadic as it was on Tallinn.
Looks like they de-aged Crusher 30 years and gave her a nose job without fixing her hair.
Well, not sure how this Vadic compares.
More importantly, I’d like to reflect that as we engage in this kind of conversation, there are people on the other end of the line who are trying their best to provide the best experience, art, and game that they can provide. Belittling them or the job of anyone who may support the efforts whether they be a receptionist, intern, or community manager is behavior unbecoming of the Starfleet Officers we aim to emulate and strive to be.
As far as the critical feedback, I’m all here for it. Wrapping the feedback in jokes actually muddles it and makes it harder to take action on. So much of this is subjective and I would love to help provide a few key words that can help clarify the conversation in future so we can talk about the same things.
Likeness - Accuracy of the character. The primary focus of this is usually the facial features, but could refer to the body proportions / posing / etc…
Material Rendering - How certain “materials” get illustrated can sometimes give a piece of art a different read. Does the skin seem natural, or does it read a little “plastic-y”. Does the metal of the armor read more like rubber, etc...
Colors / Saturation - Hopefully self explanatory, but can affect the read in drastic ways even when it is very subtly off.
In all the above cases, we have had clear misses in the past. I’m sure some of you will recall our “Yellow era” in a time where overall the colors of the characters were shifted toward that color. In the case of Crusher, I believe the chief criticism is targeted at her likeness, and most specifically her face, but I am open to hearing more of what you all think.
I hope we can have more productive conversations on topics like these in the future. I find it very difficult to engage in threads like these when it seems like a place to simply pile on frustrations with no kindness or respect for each other.
Be well,
-Joe.
For me, it’s the likeness, particularly her face. It is probably a texture and/or shading thing as much as anything (I suspect that she should have some wrinkles).
Thanks for the explanation. With crusher the issue is her likeness. Her face is also too smooth so that it looks unnatural. There is also a lack of shadow that breaks the illusion of the character being a real person.
The only time I've been bothered by the art otherwise is the potato heads. I want Blood oath & Martok art brought back!
It would be nice if Crusher could maybe get a redo in the forseeable future
Khan looks great FWIW
Also... you want Potato Head Martok and Smooth Skin Jadzia back, or do you simply want to reminisce?
Here they are ready for battle on some lush forest planet.
LLAP,
-Joe.
I thought it was lollipop head? 😆
I was bummed I never got to get to immortalize Martok with the old artwork 😄
And I really like original art style/artist. Never got the dislike for Dax 🤷♂️
I think for me it’s the coloring on Dax’s face that makes it look weird. It’s like reflected light was just added to her face. I’m good with reminiscing with this art. Martok was interesting though.
Thanks for your thoughtful and detailed post Joe!
In the case of the Martok and Jadzia referenced above, a lot has evolved from the style that originated at launch in 2016. The rendering of details was a little softer back then, especially in the costumes. Additionally, the "rim light" wasn't applied uniformly and has now become more of a stroke/border treatment with the orange and blue colors. As you can tell with the Martok and Jadzia examples, it can be difficult to execute and cause other unintended issues.
The Beverly and Vadic in question were done by different artists than Mike, but I would say about 90% of the crew art in the game was produced by him.
But isn't that the same with all of the early crew who have what I would call the gloss effect?
Why was Jadzia singled out
I think because of how flat the colors are. There is little blending between the light and the source colors beneath the harsh light. Look at Judge Q for example. They aren't bars of color across his cowl, but it follows and implies the shape of it with the rim lighting.
[edit] @WRG_JOE can you pretty please share the high-res art of these crew ?
If you could skip the “different artists” 👨🎨 that would be super. Especially the one that did the Beverly art send them back to the theme park drawing caricatures. Thank you very much.
― Musashi, Japan's Greatest Swordsman and Samurai
We all love @DScottHewitt right? Well, a lot of us do and those that don't I think are just missing pieces of the puzzle because Scott is a great person and a true asset to our fleet. In that vein, I think you will enjoy this, I know I did!
When this issue first came to the community's attention Scott came to our fleet discord and shared all the feedback about the artwork, specifically about Battle Beverly Crusher. I am a day sleeper so I woke up to quite a lot of missed comments that day.
Then Scott bought a few event packs when they went live, got lucky and hit a couple Battle Beverly Crushers, flipped the switch to 100% LEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEROY Jenkins, and immortalized her! I literally LOL'd when I saw that, it made my day. Heck, several days later I'm still happy about it. I'm glad Scott got the card and had fun with the whole process, these are the stories that I feel make this game unique and engaging, and I was glad to have had a front row seat!
I see you've missed the entire point of Joe's first post in this thread. Show a little class, sport.