Yeesh, I thought the previous character arts they released could've been much better had they released them in colour. But even colour can't improve these.
But since Vault Boy was brought up, and Obsidian say those are work-in-progress, I'll draw a silver line here.
Here's the earliest version of Vault Boy, called Skill Guy:
Then we got this:
I think he was saying that Eternity's art may not be indicative of what we get in the end, much like how Skill Guy turned into the improved Vault Boy.
I like how the watermarks are self-trolling. It's almost like they know it looks bad.
What is going on in this thre... oh fuck, people.
Seriously. Characters what you see are wearing default armors and weapons they will look nothing like that in game after few hours of playing.
Also they are going for more realistic approach meaning most of your posted concept art will not work in this game meaning most of common things you can get are bland armors normal looking swords etc just like in BG or IW. Special weapons armors that are uncommon will look way different.
Also Obsidian creates PE expecting what Obsidian does the best meaning story world choices and here we are we are complaining about first batch of concept art.
Arcanum didn't either have good art moreover it was even worse than that what we already saw and yet it was awesome game. And yet Arcanum was living and it was awesome in short hours that art lived meaning it grew on you.
What if this dude who look like aragorn is actually very very very evil dude who behaves more like thief than paladin ? What if this steel plate woman is actually very delicate and well behaved ? If we look at torment art we couldn't know how characters would behave. Swearing skull ? or Letho from witcher ? He looks like butcher but in reality he is highly intelligent and very logical.
Art should not look only good but also fit a role even if this role is to miss direct player. And from what i saw art is good. It is we saw it in form of dwarf girl and mage woman with black/white hair.
Maybe it's just so bad and generic that it's good? XD Totally had the generic DnD vibe to me..
I'll trust that they'll make something serviceable and possibly impressive in the end though.
I think good fanart or an active fan community for the game might help. I found this piece on Deviantart (it might be the only one):
And apparently, the artist making the first concepts we saw of the companions has a DeviantArt account too: http://ravenlight.deviantart.com/
(she can certainly colour better than what the concepts might lead you to believe.. Go check her out!)
In the spirit of Project Eternity being a work-in-progress, here's my spin on Cadegund:
I WANT to like her because she has red hair. But I just don't know..
I'm personally hoping she's debonair and sassy with a good sense of justice.
I think so... Maybe these pieces are rush jobs just to get the general characters and equipment down? Tweaking when things are finally put together, and then actual nice and impressive pieces can be made so fans don't lament about how the game looks nothing like the amazing concept art? One can hope!
This is artwork from Planescape:Torment. Not sure if it's concept art though.
Reference for fantasy art from a game that Project Eternity is at least partially trying to emulate. Maybe reference was a bad word for it.
Yikes, even worse than feared.
Here is a random example of good fantasy art:
Yikes, even worse than feared.
Here is a random example of good fantasy art:
