Re: Re: New Gloranthan...

From: John Hughes <nysalor_at_...>
Date: Sat, 30 Aug 2003 12:36:56 +1000


Personal tastes vary of course, and it would be churlish to disparage an image that does conjour up very effectively the key idea of HeroQuest, which is freedom-loving warriors of righteousness and wholesome patriotic mcapple-pie goodness confronting and battling vile and evil oppressors with attrocious dress sense. In this, Lee has done a fine job.

And given the zero correspondance between much professional cover design and the actual contents of supplements/novels/games, Issaries have done well. As Jeff noted, this stuff is *expensive*

  I believe the root cause of the disatisfaction comes from the way the artwork was created - it seems to have begun life as a 3d model using Poser or some
other 3d software, and then post-worked with Photoshop etc.. He seems to have
taken a 'bricolage' approach, (as any mythologist would) using whatever 3d props
were to hand. The reason why the barbarian's pants look like a spandex tracksuit
is that they probably are. As a dabbler in the 3d arts myself, it took me *years*
before I could work a decent kilt. The bizzare shield is more suitable for a gothic
death knight than a barbarian, and in fact does resemble certain freebie models
on the circuit. (I think shields are more of a hindrance in aerial combat anyway,
speed, wind and motion are your allies, not stationary blocking). The 'broad strokes'
approach to the woad is because its difficult to paint intricate patterns on a 3d
surface - your base map is 2d, and when wrapped around your 3d model, all sorts of distortions occur. You can paint runes, etc, on a model, but it takes time,
patience, or fancy new 3d software like Deep Paint.

As as for the levitating bald chick, if you'll pardon my use of technical terminology, well what gives? Neither maidens' locks, matronly buns nor crones' spikes, very odd. Either chaos or head lice, neither of which you'd want your children exposed to.

When Issaries first reacquired the rights to the HeroQuest name, I did up a 'homage' to the scene in celebration. Now that HQ is actually here (except of course, in backward third world nations like Sartar, Canada, and Oztralia), it seems timely to grag it out once again.

http://home.iprimus.com.au/pipnjim/questlines/poser.html#heroquest

Cheers

John

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