The End of the Art Controversy?

Posted 11th Sep 2008 02:59 PM by Flux

Thanks to the heroic video editing efforts of a guy calling himself Sozou, we may have reached the end of the D3 “too colorful” art controversy. The end, one way or the other. Sozou has taken the WWI gameplay movie, and reprocessed the entire dungeon section (the first 12 minutes) so it looks like those gritty, grainy screenshots players were turning out shortly after D3’s announcement. Darker, desaturated, no greens and blues, etc. The file is high quality, it plays at the full frame rate, and it switches between the original version and the desaturated, modified version regularly, so it’s ideal to compare the different visual styles..

Since the initial outcry, Blizzard’s designers have explained that the colorful, green/blue tinted D3 we see today is the third or fourth version of the art direction. They say they initially tried it in a darker, desaturated style, and found it unplayable. Monsters and other characters were hard to distinguish, the game became visually monotonous, and when they went back to more closely examine D2, they realized it was much more colorful in actuality than in their memories.

You may agree or not, but this is probably as close as we’re going get to seeing what D3 looked like in the earlier versions. Read more to see the video embedded, and with direct download links. We also conducted a short interview with the video’s creator… 

Also on Sozou’s site, you can also check out a big page of desaturated stills from the movie, and a short, super high quality video comparison. It’s a 64meg .mov file with 10 seconds of action. The same 5 second clip is shown twice; once in the original color, and once in the desaturated style. He’s also posted the full movie on rapidshare.

Sozou’s official explanation, from his page:

I believe the Diablo team will make the best game of the year when it is released despite the color discussions at this early stage of the first released gameplay footage.

I like others want to tone down the colors. Basically;

  • Desaturated Environment
  • Colorful Interactions, spells & skills.

To get more of his thoughts, we conducted a quick interview with the video’s creator:

Diii.net: How did you do it? (graphical tools, applied filters, etc)
Sozou: I used After Effects. Getting into what effects and such is going to take a while, but basically I desaturated different channels and added grain and vignette effect which gets more heavily darker and grainier to the edges than in the middle.

Diii.net: Have you followed the arguments Jay Wilson and other D3 teamsters have made, about why they rejected that dark, gritty look on early versions of the game? Agree/disagree?
Sozou: Well as of for the discussions that is going on; To get something clear, despite the outcome, the gameplay will be most important. that said, my thoughts of the early released footage from d3 team has been mixed feelings. I’m in no position to say whats right and wrong, i have big respect to the D3 team. But as fanboy to the Diablo world, I felt, like many others, that the colors were presented didn’t apply to that universe. specifically it’s the environment in the dungeon, Tone down the colors environment colors, I’m not saying make it gray or black. But keep the colors in character interactions, spells & skills. different dungeon environment should have a majority color applied. Cold = blue, warm = red etc, sewers=green.

Diii.net: One of the D3 team’s main arguments was that it was hard to tell the monsters from the characters from the background. I get that feeling on your version, especially at the beginning where the gray ghouls are hard to pick out against the dark gray stone. Your thoughts?
Sozou: Your char is the light. I believe the characters that are further away from the screen should be a bit harder to spot out. It adds a mystery feel to it, until you have the classic mouseover highlight effect. The ghouls at the beginning are almost the same color scheme as the environment. It enhances the dramatics of their appearance at that specific stage. I don’t feel it’s necessary to make the monsters more colorful contrast to the environment.

Another thought is that now we are in HD gaming, i often see games to digital perfect when they shouldn’t be. Grain it out make it more dirty, more rougher edges.

All this is pointing out how Diablo has been for two titles and I’m absolutely positive that the D3 team knows all of this , talked about it, and thought that it’s time to move to a more colorful Diablo dungeons, who knows. nevertheless, im excited as many others.

Diii.net: Did you try this technique on the second half of the movie, when they go outside? Or you don’t mind the colors and such when it’s outdoors?
Sozou: I haven’t color priority the second half, I feel that it works as it is. All my thoughts have been in the underground, dungeons, whatever you want to call it.

Thanks to Sozou for creating such an interesting conversation piece, and taking the time to answer our questions.




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Filed under: Controversy, Fan Stuff, Videos, DIII.Net Articles
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Hodl Pu
Posted 11, Sep 2008 11:11 PM
(0)
 

and yes I agree with some people.  Don’t bring up ideas such as, Act2 was bright.  Its the color choice of the game that matters.  Outdoors could have full radius at day time, that’s fine with me!  but the colors and saturation is what mattered.  In dungeons and at night, I like the feeling of being "lost in the dark"

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Vandro
Posted 11, Sep 2008 11:57 PM
(0)
 

While I’m ok with how Diablo 3 looks, I do think the darker version is better. It gives the Diablo 1 vibe that Diablo 2 was lacking. When Blizzard says that Diablo 2 was colorful they are right, but I did not enjoy those colorful area’s as much as Diablo 1. I replayed Diablo 1 last month and the feeling was so much better than replaying Diablo 2. Seeing a monster pop up out of ****ing nowhere, getting ambushed more often etc because it’s so ****ing dark, now that gives you adrenaline:). Setting the butcher free because you think "how hard can he be, with all my Diablo 2 experience" and running for your life. You get immersed alot more in the story as well, with King Leoric, Lazarus and the kid—> Diablo. And the area’s are all so creepy. No green or purple Quil Rats, no Demons and Undead:)

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Vandro
Posted 11, Sep 2008 11:59 PM
(0)
 

No green or purple Quil Rats, just Demons and Undead is what I meant:)

Reply
 
Flux
Posted 12, Sep 2008 02:18 AM
(0)
 

No one’s asked, but yes, my title for this post was intentionally ironic, knowing how it would be greeted.

As for the video, I’d be fine with less blue/green, but I thought this one was too monotone gray. I think playing many hours in such dungeons would get boring. I would add more color accents if it were this dark; the almost invisible barbarian’s war cry is lost now. Give the ghouls glowing eyes and claws, etc.

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xComatoast
Posted 12, Sep 2008 03:37 AM
(0)
 

It looks awful. The original is much better imo.

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z00t
Posted 12, Sep 2008 04:15 AM
(0)
 

I’m sorry, but I think that the desaturation of the colours makes the game look horrid :(.  Granted, this is just editing by a fan and not a professional, but this example doesn’t enhance the look of the dungeon at all, I feel.

", I’m not saying make it gray or black."

However, this is more or less exactly what he did in this video. 

Inevitably, a dungeons are going to end up looking alike if they’re all so dull in colours. 

Basically, I just have a hard time understanding how anyone can not be happy for Diablo 3’s current look.  Have you guys TRIED playing CnC3?  It’s so easy to get sick of looking at that game reaaaaaaally quickly.  Despite there being some variety in tilesets in that game, it’s all so dull and bleak for the most part, that all the tilesets all kinda blur into one another.

Really, that Penny Arcade comic pretty much sums up the demographic I think is so eager for the game to be dark to the point where you can’t see a thing.

Reply
 
Bertis
Posted 12, Sep 2008 05:25 AM
(0)
 

I actually much perfer the original.

Reply
 
dawgma
Posted 12, Sep 2008 05:31 AM
(0)
 

For those of you who are complaining about monotony or too much desaturation, keep in mind that editing the hue/saturation levels in a video is COMPLETELY different than altering the actual artwork of the game. 

The artists have control over every single item in the game, so they can alter the hue/saturation levels of the background, lets say, and keep the monsters in full color.

If a video editor wants to remove the green hue from the video then you have to remove the green hue from EVERYTHING on the screen.  You can’t just select the background in a movie and change the hues there and leave the monsters completely untouched.

This video, and the screenshots that came before it, only give you an approximate idea of what a "darker" Diablo would look like.  NONE of these altered videos and screenshots represent 100% perfect recreation.

If Blizzard actually attempted to alter the artwork they would not simply turn down all the greens and purples, desaturated and darken the overall look.  No.  No. No.  They could actually pick and chose which elements get desaturated and which elements RETAIN their FULL COLOR.  So the background and environment can be desaturated, but the artists can still include really colorful highlights in the environment.  Also, the monsters and the characters can be made much more colorful so they pop out from the background.  And the shockwave of the Barbarian’s shout could retain ALL of its original blue color.  Big and bright with tons of contrast against the darker environment.

So remember… when you view this video you can’t actually believe this is a perfect, 100% representation of what people want.  It’s only an approximation.  If you like the darker tone, but don’t like how universally desaturated the game looks you have to remember that the actual artists have a lot more control over every single game element.

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Michal
Posted 12, Sep 2008 05:59 AM
(0)
 

wow, this is awesome. this is exactly (well, almost) how I wished it would look. You could get the colorful lighting from objects scattered around dungeons, weapons, monsters, torches etc. I think that’s how they should brighten up the scenery, not using artificial blue/green hues. It would retain the dark atmosphere but also provide nice contrast and change from the various light sources. Damn, they should go back and do another art iteration!

Reply
 
SanctumDDD
Posted 12, Sep 2008 06:09 AM
(0)
 

Thats what I was thinking, how hard would it be to just make an option? Color on… Color off??? where there’s a will there’s a way!

Reply
 
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