Jump to content

FAC - RESULTS ARE IN!! Fan Art Competition 27: Panzer Dragoon Series


bonzai!
 Share

Recommended Posts

Before I put any thought into what game/series to go with next, I have to ask...

What happened? With all the settings (lands and locales), creatures, characters, story aspects, ancient technologies, monsters, vehicles, and so forth, where the hell did everyone go? I can't believe that with all the things this franchise offered for potential inspirational directions, that hardly anyone got inspired by what they saw or read.

I'm honestly disappointed, and a bit disheartened. A franchise with the visual flare and story telling of the PD series didn't inspire you guys on any level? I don't mean to sound like an ass. I really don't. I'm just completely dumbfounded at how few people took part.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm honestly disappointed, and a bit disheartened. A franchise with the visual flare and story telling of the PD series didn't inspire you guys on any level? I don't mean to sound like an ass. I really don't. I'm just completely dumbfounded at how few people took part.

I TRIED. I REALLY DID. I WAS SO INSPIRED. Unfortunately I left for school and with no photoshop/internet there I couldn't finish that entry. Here is the unfinished entry.

http://i563.photobucket.com/albums/ss77/piendry/fac27.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

To be honest, I could see this coming. The contest died a long time ago, but then it was revived using broader topics that spanned a large variety of games. Instead of "WarioWare" or "Chrono Trigger", there was "Boss Month", "Mecha", "Badass chicks", "Creatures", "Blizzard games", and "Marvel vs. Capcom".

I can't speak for anyone else, but I entered several times for games I've never played, sometimes even never heard of. I entered Chrono Trigger because I thought trying my hand at an anime-ish style would be fun, and making a "Chrono Cereal" cereal box was just TOO MUCH fun. I entered WarioWare because Wario is awesome in the Warioland games. I entered Skies of [blank] because it was very easy to find compelling and self-explanatory reference material. And I entered Secret of Mana because it was the first month ever, and someone gave me a request.

But Panzer Dragoon... I have no idea what the heck anything is. I can see there are some cool pictures of creatures and places, but having never played the game I don't know anything about them and can't draw them appropriately. And I've never drawn anything from a game based solely on concept/promotional art or solely on in-game sprites or models - I always use both for reference. However I wasn't really able to find creatures in screenshots that matched any creatures in the concept art. I had no idea which game to choose, or which characters or creatures or places in the game were important or compelling. I mean I could have just picked something at random and drawn it, but I didn't have the passion to do it, and I'd still have no idea what it is. And I did ask for requests, but when Dshu posted a few, I had no idea what these things were even supposed to be, and wasn't able to research them (though I suppose I could have asked Dshu what they were). And then Dshu didn't enter either :puppyeyes:

So, pick something that spans a large variety of games! =D

[Edit]

And I guess my entry requires a bit of an explanation... Typically each FAC gets a joke entry or two... just look at Bonzai's sig if you want to see a winning entry. I chose to draw that creature because there was more than one picture of it (some different pieces of contradictory concept art, and then different angles/poses of a couple contradictory 3D models)... but even then I did not know the creature's name, what it looks like in the game and animates like, who rides it, whether it's good or evil (are there even villain creatures?), what this creature does... you get the idea. I would've even put the name of the creature and called it "the Burninator", but I didn't know its name, nor whether it burns anything.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah, sorry for not entering, but I really had trouble trying to think of something with the material. The creatures are really intricate, and I basically had not experience with any of the games whatsoever, so it was hard filling in the blanks that I can do with a lot of other games I've played.

Great job Coop for winning though, your entry was gorgeous :-).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

"Badass chicks"? Sorry I missed that one. I could have drawn up Fran. Though I think that would have been more like "nice assed chicks". Anyway...

Here's what I don't understand, friendlyHunter... how was this franchise so limiting? With a broad topic like "badass chicks" (no pun... well, maybe intended), it allows everyone to go to where they feel most comfortable artistically by just going right to their favorite characters. Same thing with Marvel vs Capcom. I wanted to get people to step outside that comfort zone a bit by narrowing the scope, and see what people would come up with when what was offered was a continuous single world where all the events in the franchise took place (as opposed to something that could have things pulled out from all over different worlds). With the PD franchise, I figured it would allow the character artists, landscape artists, creature artists and so forth to all come in and find something to their liking. With five games, it seemed like a good combination of scope and focus, with a lot of play room for those who weren't interested in beasts and monsters. Seems I was wrong.

Keep in mind, my intentions aren't to put anyone down here. I know people have different tastes and interests, and I'm not belittling anyone for theirs. It's just... well, after years of seeing people say "I'm not listening to this remix because I don't know/haven't played the game" over and over here and on VGMix, and wondering why some found unfamiliarity to be such a hard thing to get through, it was disheartening to see that same basic mentality creep into the visual arts (something near and dear to me) here as well.

So, my apologies for beating this into the ground. I don't want to turn this into a bitchfest or drive anyone away, so I'll shut up now. Thanks for the compliments on my piece, and thanks to the folks who took part, as well as those who tried to. I'll pick something either later tonight, or some time tomorrow, and I'll try to make it more appealing to everyone.

friendlyHunter- The dragon and girl are from Panzer Dragoon Orta (they're the main characters), and the big dirigible-like ships are warships from the first game (I liked their design more). The storm background was inspired by the first stage in "Orta" where you can see lightning in the distance.

piendry- Not bad. Shame you couldn't have gotten it done for the contest. It's a great start.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hehe, all three of us drew the same dragon ^__^

Here's what I don't understand, friendlyHunter... how was this franchise so limiting?

I guess it's not really limiting, just... intimidating? Drawing a scene from a game you know nothing about can feel like a crap shoot where you can end up with this:

Mega%20Man%201.jpg

Concept art rarely looks like the end product in the game, and low-poly in-game models often differ a lot from how the world REALLY looks, as shown in pre-rendered cutscenes, promotional art, or instruction manual art. If the theme was Megaman and I didn't know anything about Megaman and I spend 6 hours on a drawing where the only reference I could find is this:

http://media.giantbomb.com/uploads/0/6101/198243-cntgmmegaman_super.jpg

... well actually that would be pretty funny =p

I guess this was just a difficult theme to research for. But then again, I'm into researching way too much before I start a drawing. I can't draw something from a game unless I'm swimming in reference images and backstory =p Either that, or there's some great reference images to go off of, like when I more or less copied Crono's pose from the box art. To me the dragon images are cool to look at, but even when I see awesome pictures like this:

http://www.moonapples.com/lagi/pd3/creatures/images/pd3_atolm1.jpg

...I have no idea what this guy does or what it is, so I wouldn't be able to draw it beyond copying the image directly and guessing what the background might look like.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I personally never played the series so I couldn't relate to it nor muster up any motivation to do something. The games never appealed to me.

I think that's part of the problem here. Not many people have played the game.

As for me, another month mixed of procrastination plus a good dose of working on my self.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think that's part of the problem here. Not many people have played the game.

Of course, if I would've played the game, I wouldn't have had to worry about researching the characters or settings :)

I can play them on PC, eh? I might just have to try it... after I try all those other games I've been meaning to play over the years :tomatoface:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...