Diablo IV Interview
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Last week, we got a chance to check out a new quarterly update for Blizzard's highly-anticipated action-RPG Diablo IV. That meaty update mostly revolved around the game's character art. But if you'd like to learn more about Diablo IV's art style and the inspirations behind it still, you may also want to read this PCGamesN interview with the game's art director John Mueller.
Here's a quick excerpt:
What are the particular components that make a Blizzard game look like a Blizzard game?
I mean, it’s handcrafted. There’s a feeling that this was made by people. A lot of the tools that are really incredible now also have a lot of procedural aspects to them – they’re very good at rendering photorealism. That was never our goal. Our goal has always been to create art, so it’s important when we have these tools in the hands of artists that we let their artistry come through.
The tools shouldn’t drown out your creativity and your contribution as an artist. I feel like we are striking that balance and hopefully that comes through in the blog. People will decide whether or not we’re doing a good job and I have a lot of respect for that process.
That blend of fantasy and realism, which you find with artists like Frank Frazetta, is really striking. Are there any fantasy artists that you can point to as inspirations?
We kind of refer to it as the Old Masters pillar. Frazetta was kind of in that style, his paintings reminded me of old European works – the subject matter was very different and visceral, but the technique and the way that surfaces were treated really did feel like those Old Masters paintings.
It was a great place to begin cultivating an art style and identity for Diablo IV, because if you look at old medieval paintings it’s a lot of angels, demons, and mankind being tortured in the middle. It’s really one of the only things we have from that period to look at and interpret what was going on at the time, and if you take those paintings literally then you have something that feels like Diablo.
