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We couldn’t be more proud of the Magic Media team’s talented artists, who are experienced specialists in everything from 2D game art to 3D, concept art, and video game art in its many forms. Our artists are never short on compelling visual ideas that not only command attention but also tell a story and remain in the viewer’s memory long after seeing a piece.
One such piece is inspired to take on a deadly combatant with a distinct visual style and aesthetically pleasing color palette. This piece of video 2D game art began life as a fan art of Caitlyn from League of Legends, leveraging her iconic visual qualities to create our take on her.
The most immediate influence was League of Legends’ Caitlyn and her trademark steampunk style. This style is defined by its mashup of industrial-era visual qualities and futuristic or contemporary technology. This can be seen clearly in the modern-looking sniper rifle the eponymous Sharpshooter wields with its magnifying glass scope. Art Deco was another influence, which is seen in the weapon and aspects of the character’s clothing in the same vein as Caitlyn.
As the Sharpshooter aims to capture the essence of 2D game art, specifically Caitlyn, there is naturally significant influence from video game art styles, from mobile and MMORPG games in particular. The artist looked to the heavily stylized art and characters of Riot Games’ titles, especially their use of varied highlights and use of saturation. Blizzard’s art concepts were a major influence as well.
This 2D game art piece was created as a splash screen, a piece of art shown commonly during loading screens in games. With this in mind, it was important for our artist to ensure the piece possessed a potent sense of immersion. Our character is placed on a watchtower of sorts, with the larger city viewable on the left side of the background, with birds flying past which helps create a sense of movement and height.
This setting not only perfectly suits our long-range gunner but also creates a broader context for her and places her in a definite location. Some similar artwork of Caitlyn exists but from a different perspective and even inside of the watchtower.
One of the initial steps followed was to craft a series of art thumbnails to explore some early concepts. This involved sketching several different dynamic compositions including the character, inspired by the various pieces of Caitlyn. As with all splash art, it was critical to instill a sense of atmosphere in the piece, so a large amount of research was carried out to craft a compelling environment, along with a visually interesting color palette and the character’s clothing, hair, and overall image.
Once a thumbnail was chosen from the selection of early concepts, it was drawn with more detail in a fashion close resembling the final piece. Photoshop was used for the painting, layering, and adding numerous effects. Interestingly, despite this being 2D game art, Blender was used to help produce the artwork. Using a 3D block in Blender, our artist was able to better understand the light and shadows in the scene and how they interacted with the colors and textures.
At Magic Media we are veterans of the gaming, tech and entertainment industries, offering comprehensive services including game development, VFX, animation and full art services! Our main goal is to provide a one-stop solution for any project. If you’d like to utilize our expertize and experience in creating, game art and more, drop us a line and let’s create magic!
