In this third Illustrator, we will know more about one of the current masters of the Graphics Workshop: abbews.
Together, we will take a tour on his workshop.
But what is the true meaning of abbews? Listen to abbews himself:
"Well, the story behind abbews goes back in time (quite far for me, not so far for you :tongue:). My real name is Albin and therefore I got the nickname 'abbe'. While registering on a Swedish social site several years ago, 'abbe' was busy and I had to pick an other name. Therefore I choosed 'abbews' and I've carried that name on all sites and games from that time to today. "
I parry you never suspected it? I personally thought this was in reference to the Sweden music band "Abba".
About the artist:
There would be lots to say about abbews since his name is tightly linked to the life of the Graphics Workshop and he opened his workshop a year and a half ago. From the first page you can judge of the quality of his work.
Here is some nice sample:
This one is actually his favourite sig. It only got appreciation from Giovi, but he still think it's one of the best sigs he has done, if not the best. It has an interesting story behind it too... but abbews did not let me know ;)
Although personally i find this sig to be one of the best (if not the best) i have ever seen in the Graphics Workshop. The colours are simply godly !
The artist also tried himself in loading screens, here some loading screen for the an imaginative mode "Robin Hood" (I guess the purpose of this mod if it existed would be to shoot the sheriff).
Note the originality of the logo, incorporating an arrow in it. Too bad that abbews do not make more modding stuff, I'm quite sure i could find a way to hire him on my mod.
abbews also started to use a tablet and while not at the level of other artists like Aanker or Marcel, he has made good progress with it, as you can see here:
I personally feel he could invest more time in drawing through the tablet because he shows good potential. But photo manipulation is so much easier.
Conclusion:
abbews has been striving for the Graphics Workshop's gold medal, awarded for winning 15 Graphics Competitions. He is now the only one to have won this prestigious prize. It seems that nothing could have stopped him from getting this award first into the whole history of TWC. Well done abbews.
Starting with this issue of the excellent Illustrator publication, offering an in-depth look at the mysterious creative workshops here on TWC, I - Aanker - will be offering my views and thoughts on the Graphic side of the community in a series of articles known as the Creative Quill.
The Art of Signatures
They appear at the bottom of every post, are distributed freely around the TWC community - especially in the modding forums - and very often subconciously offer our mind a picture of the poster. Even so, the very basic methods of making a good signature are unknown to many: partly because few know exactly what they want to achieve with their signature, and partly because some don't know how to carry their message through.
Before we start looking at ways of making a good signature, it's important to know what kind of signature is referred to here. The intention of this article is not to delve deep into the methods of making the perfect written signature, or how to combine custom user bars to achieve the best effect (though some might find the suggestions here useful for that purpose). The kind of signature that we'll explore is the basic image signature, featuring an image that to some extent covers the 'sig field'.
Knowing this, it's time to take a quick look at what a signature can accomplish. To most, a signature is a simple way of carrying forward a message - the purpose of this message can, then, vary wildly. Mod signatures often aim to attract viewers, and the image itself is commonly a link leading to the download section of the mod, while 'personal' signatures generally tend to offer a portrait of the poster by including some well-chosen quote or phrase. The difference may seem marginal at first, but this is comparable to the quite obviously deep divide between company advetisement and personal choice of clothes.
The main purpose of a mod signature has always been, is, and should always be to attract attention. Mod players roaming the forums with signatures of the mod will inevitably attract viewers to the thread or subforum where the screenshots and download links are - provided that the signature is visible. There are a good number of ways to make such a signature visible, too: contrast (both colour and shade), lighting (strong light sources) and the text that nearly always accompanies a mod signature all play part to make the initial impression on the unsuspecting forum reader.
In the first case, the balance between a striking piece of art and a headache is easily shifted towards the latter without a good artistic touch of shaded hues and sparse use of saturation.
Lighting is a fairly easy tool to use when wanting to make an impression, but cheap Photoshop 'lens flare' effects may turn down the viewer; it's usually worth the effort of making these things yourself.
Text is also a quite handy method of catching someone's attention - imprinting a huge ':wub:' (yes, that 'wub' is intentional) over the entire signature might be less recommended - but a catchy, capitalized message is able to interest most readers on first glance. Make sure to include a second, smaller line to tip the potential mod viewer into clicking the link! Also, pay attention to spelling errors, those are commonly the bane of what could else have been a good text line.
http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/2993/illustrator.jpg Isn't it catchy? Although not a mod signature, still a very fine piece of advertisement: notice the excellent use of light and contrasts to attract attention. It's a piece of eye candy.
The personal signature is often meant to leave the reader with an impression, an image of the poster. Here, a striking image is still key (and could well suffice on its own), but it shouldn't be as forceful as that of the mod signature. Remember: unless you want to be taken as an attention alcoholic, stay on the edge between the eye-catching and the sublime with your personal signature. As for text, your favourite historical/movie quote will do fine, an additional, smaller text may finish up the imprint, but isn't necessary. Good examples of such personal signatures can be found below:
http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/1345/discoveryu.jpg It still attracts a lot of attention, but it's not screaming out the message to the viewer, as is the case with the previously provided signature. It finely creates a virtual portrait of the character of the poster.
Before we wrap this, rather short, article up, I'd like, once again, to point out just how important it is to think about these things before making a signature. The signature challenges the avatar on how it portrays the poster, and is one of the basic elements that is remembered as part of the poster.
Cheers,
Aanker
The opinions expressed are solely those of TWC member Aanker.
The overall theme for the graphics in Shogun 2 total war is the blending of traditional Japanese art and the modern 3D graphics. The use of traditional paintings was already hinted in the beginning stages of the game's promotion, and they're being used as loading screens in the demo. We also see an example of this blending in the campaign map's Fog of War that takes the shape of a Japanese style map, that's the first time a total war game does that and it's quite interesting. The designers' objective is really to take the player back to that time and experience ancient Japan and their culture.
I'll walk through some of the element of the 2d art and explore how well they work:
The campaign map: Like I said the transition from the vivid 3D landscape to the 2D map is successful but some other 2D elements are not. When you select a settlement you get this yellow/beige brush stroke with a weird shadow that just looks ugly, the color and brush are even more of a miss considering the beige highlight the region gets when selected. We also have the banner that I wish was bit more vivid.
The interface: The menu interface looks good and is easy to navigate. The information in the campaign map is divided into several modules and it's easy to navigate through them too, there is the recurrent issue of having to go through several windows to manage your territory but for a complex strategy game it's something we're willing to work with. One thing I disliked about the campaign interface was the lack of color, most of it is gray and it also lacks a bit of texture, overall kind of boring. I can see that they we're going for a more soothing atmosphere but a color here and there wouldn't hurt.
Portraits: Something interesting they did here is that we get the animated portrait in the campaign map and also the cool painted portrait in the army tab and family tree. Just another example of the 2D and 3D graphics coming together.
Icons, unit cards and event pictures: They are all Japanese Paintings, which I think is great and sets it apart from other total war games. It's nice to see the effort that went into it (6 months spent just learning the art style!). The upside of the low key interface graphics is that the Japanese art pops a bit more. One thing though, it would be nice to have some way to visualize the 3D renders of the units so we can have a good look at them.
Clan symbols: I'm not surprised here, total war games don't normally make very interesting faction symbols, they're quite simple. The average TWC artist can make much more appealing symbols, like the ones made by Cedric37 for his Japanese mod. The simplicity of the symbols probably stem for the need to easily read them and quickly identify them, which is not always the case with more extravagant symbols.
Loading screens: Very fitting and simple loading screens, making use of the gorgeous japanese style paintings made for the game. The map on the battle loading screen I find very odd mainly because it's in perspective.
In conclusion, 2D art was never really the strong suit of the total war games but they still managed to blend the 2D and 3D elements really well in Shogun 2 total war and deliver the best art among TW games. In large part due to the extensive use of the amazing traditional Japanese art.
Now that Shogun 2: Total War is finaly out, we have prepared some freebies you can use to get a bit more shogunized. Below are 75 avatars, and 19 signatures free for you to use. Enjoy!