29 replies to this topic

[Oduru]

Here's something that has bothered me from the moment I saw it. When I first entered Rata Sum after completing the Asura tutorial, I noticed something was completely wrong with the loading screen for Rata Sum. This is what it looks like:



The first thing I noticed was that the faces in the Asura foreground of the picture don't even look remotely close to the available faces in character creation. Then after looking it up again, I realized that none of the Asura in the picture actually have hair. I really wonder why they chose this specific picture as loading screen and didn't adapt it to a something that would actually be relevant for the game. Asura have had hair and snarky face from the start in Guild Wars. The faces in this picture are way too cute, friendly, and humanoid, if you ask me.
It seems like the creatures in the loading screen are a somewhat distant related species that remind me of Asura because of their skin color, possible height and big ears, but that's where the resemblance ends.

Had anyone else noticed this and do you have any ideas why on earth they chose a loading screen for the Asura capitol that hardly resembles the race?

[XgreatArtist]

i thought of it too. How come none of the asuras had hair. Also, they look completely different than the ingame asura.
Evolution?

[ClintonD]

XgreatArtist, on 15 August 2012 - 08:15 AM, said:

i thought of it too. How come none of the asuras had hair. Also, they look completely different than the ingame asura.
Evolution?

Probably an early image from when they got the look of Rata Sum worked out but haven't yet finished figuring out how the Asura would finally look like. I'm assuming they toyed around with the idea of tweaking the appearance of the Asura, like they did with some of the other creatures, but decided on keeping them relatively the same, with some new variations in faces and hair.

Either that or the artist is just good with environments but sucks at Asura. Hey, that happens.

[Greensuitjacket]

Hair is hard to draw

[Oduru]

Greensuitjacket, on 15 August 2012 - 09:49 AM, said:

Hair is hard to draw

Not much of an excuse for a professional artist to not draw it at all .

[Red J]

Probably just an "artistic license" to make them look more alien.

Also, in GW1, many Asura NPCs were bald or had very little hair on their head.
http://wiki.guildwar..._Commoner_m.jpg

edit: wrong number >_<

Edited by Red J, 15 August 2012 - 05:01 PM.

[Bharell]

Here's a blog from one of the ArenaNet's artists on designing the Asura and how the design evolved.

http://www.arena.net...on-asura-design

[dss_live]

It's concept art, it never ment to be an exact match to what you see in the game.

[Snowboi]

dss_live, on 15 August 2012 - 04:55 PM, said:

It's concept art, it never ment to be an exact match to what you see in the game.

As dss has said, it's just early concept art.
A lot has changed, as do most games in comparison to their concept art.

[Oduru]

Then I guess they should make sure they replace it before launch... Not that great to have outdated concept art as a loading screen, hehe.

[Burk]

Oduru, on 15 August 2012 - 11:13 PM, said:

Then I guess they should make sure they replace it before launch... Not that great to have outdated concept art as a loading screen, hehe.

I wouldn't say its necessary. I'm an artist myself and I know that a painting like that would have taken a substantial amount of time. Its a beautiful picture even with the funny looking Asura.

[Konig Des Todes]

Aren't all concept art, by the nature of what concept art is, outdated by release?

[The Greyhawk]

Oduru, on 15 August 2012 - 11:13 PM, said:

Then I guess they should make sure they replace it before launch... Not that great to have outdated concept art as a loading screen, hehe.

Ridiculous.  Its a beautiful piece of art that exceptionally conceptualizes Rata Sum.  The Asura faces are unimportant to this image.

[Mizzory]

XgreatArtist, on 15 August 2012 - 08:15 AM, said:

i thought of it too. How come none of the asuras had hair. Also, they look completely different than the ingame asura.
Evolution?

250 years isn't enough to evolve. Unless you mean something else by it.

[Oduru]

Konig Des Todes, on 16 August 2012 - 06:45 AM, said:

Aren't all concept art, by the nature of what concept art is, outdated by release?

Definately. So perhaps it might be a good idea to make a new piece that's up-to-date or use something bit more recent and true to the state of the game as it is now, if available.

The Greyhawk, on 16 August 2012 - 07:15 AM, said:

Ridiculous.  Its a beautiful piece of art that exceptionally conceptualizes Rata Sum.  The Asura faces are unimportant to this image.

I would think the (likeness of the) race is quite important in the loading screen of its racial capitol. But perhaps that's just me.

[Konig Des Todes]

I'd say it's just mostly you. There will of course be those who agree but personally I don't see an issue. In fact to me they just look like a generic design. Trust me, there most likely isn't going to be concept art where each face is unique and with as much detail as this. Not unless the person was intentionally putting detail into it (read: the point is in the faces, not the surroundings, unlike this piece).

[EsstothuhArr]

The reason it looks odd is because it uses an artistic trick used when drawing concepts for environmental scenes.  Those are "everyman" Asura.  They have been deliberately simplified and their faces all look the same so that it doesn't distract from the scene as a whole, whose purpose is to showcase "this is what Rata sum might look like full of players and NPCs".

As for why this is used as a loading screen... why not? You can find some of the artwork from the other loading screens actually hung on walls in game in Divinity's Reach and Hoelbrek.  So you could interpret this as a genuine Tyrian painting by someone who cannot tell the difference between one Asura and another, or who didn't get a chance to finish their sketches of the scene before something exploded or someone's golem ran amok so went somewhere quiet to finish it.

[IDarko]

I wish Asura looked like that.

[Myndrian]

who gives a fuh?

[Xalted]

Mizzory, on 17 August 2012 - 08:03 AM, said:

250 years isn't enough to evolve. Unless you mean something else by it.

Ironic you'd say that...i just realized about an hour ago that the Sylvari spawned out of the Pale Tree in the year 1324, 1 year before present day. How did they manage to create a massive, sprawling civilization within a year? It may have something to do with their Dream being 'shared' between members, but still.

[Oduru]

Xalted, on 18 August 2012 - 08:00 AM, said:

Ironic you'd say that...i just realized about an hour ago that the Sylvari spawned out of the Pale Tree in the year 1324, 1 year before present day. How did they manage to create a massive, sprawling civilization within a year? It may have something to do with their Dream being 'shared' between members, but still.

You're a couple years off, actually. From the official GW2 Wiki:

Quote

The sylvari are a young, inquisitive race of botanical humanoids spawned from the Pale Tree in Arbor Bay - the first sylvari emerging in 1302 AE.

But on topic: I know that it's definately not a major issue, but it's something that bothered me and I thought I'd share .

[Midnight_Tea]

What looks off to me about this concept art is the shape of the asura themselves. Their heads are too round and they have a human's head to body ratio.

[Oduru]

Midnight_Tea, on 18 August 2012 - 06:28 PM, said:

What looks off to me about this concept art is the shape of the asura themselves. Their heads are too round and they have a human's head to body ratio.

You know, I hadn't though of/seen it that way, but that's definately a big part of what bothers me too.

[Mizzory]

Oduru, on 18 August 2012 - 07:47 PM, said:

You know, I hadn't though of/seen it that way, but that's definately a big part of what bothers me too.

I was going to be an asura... but the animations and the way they look compared to the concept art puts me off.

[Midnight_Tea]

The asura from GW1 definitely look different from their GW2 counterparts. For example, the eyes of the GW1 asura were just black, they didn't have pupils. Their skin was also a bit rougher or more-wrinkled looking. The GW2 asura by contrast are decidedly "cuter" with even some cat or rabbit-like features and more colorful hair choices.

Whether this was simply an art evolution (likely based on that loading screen) or a literal evolution (their eyes need to take in less light) is probably open to interpretation. I wouldn't write off the latter because it seems pretty asura-like to me somehow to rapidly adapt to new environments in a fraction of the time it'd take bookahs.

[Censtudios]

I don't really pay that much attention to loading screens. I noticed the Hoelbrak one is different from BWE1 and 2 and that they removed the progressbar from all the loading screens (WHY?!) but that's about it

Mizzory, on 18 August 2012 - 08:27 PM, said:

I was going to be an asura... but the animations and the way they look compared to the concept art puts me off.

I actually think they look better than the concept art... but that's just me I guess LOL

[Generic Fantasy Name]

*piles on* It is concept art, although I do find it more than a little strange that Arenanet would be rethinking major aspects of asura appearance that late in development since the asura played a big role in the EotN expansion for GW1.

[Awbie]

Yeah, they look weird. My friends and me were playing and trying to figure out why we didn't like that loading screen, till one of them shouted: "They're all bald!!"
Also, they just don't look Asuran at all. They look like someweird human cult who forces its members to shave their heads and wear prosthetic ears nothing Asuran about them.

While a more fitting loading screen would be a pleasant surprise, it's really a very very minor issue.

[RottenCookie]

When I saw this loading screen it, I notice them different, more cute/child looking, but not what bother me most. I passed hours looking at the place of Rata Sum that is in the loading screen (a desert looking market). I didnt managed go under the 'cube' but is this place under the floating cube?

[Konig Des Todes]

That spot isn't in the game. Concept art doesn't always make it into the game, after all. But I fail to see how you get "desert" out of that. The Tarnished Coast never was a desert-like area, nor was Rata Sum. I guess because of the ground's color? But it's not a desert nor desert-like.