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No42.05W70.2

Banned
Jun 14, 2018
763
What are you talking about? Kojima created the studio, produced the game, designed the mechanics, wrote it, and directed it, including directing actors on the set. What "different persons creative vision" is the entire production resting on?
He designed the actors? All he did was write it and come up with the game mechanics. He's responsible for all the worst aspects of the game.
 

signal

Member
Oct 28, 2017
40,183
Wrong nerd it's the team of people designing old pop'n music character art.

Shinkawa art translated into a game (successfully) might be cool. Not this though

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Mexen

Member
Oct 26, 2017
2,927
His is the most unique design I have had the pleasure of seeing, my favorite for sure.
 
Oct 25, 2017
10,749
Toronto, ON
He designed the actors? All he did was write it and come up with the game mechanics. He's responsible for all the worst aspects of the game.

Do you realize what a director or producer or writer does? You do realize that Hayao Miyazaki didn't actually draw every frame of his films, right? Or that he didn't personally voice act all the characters or write and perform the soundtrack?

Eh, this conversation is completely absurd, and is completely off-topic.
 

XaviConcept

Art Director for Videogames
Verified
Oct 25, 2017
4,896
Greatest mecha artist? Up there
One of the great art directors? For sure

Dont think I can go higher than that, however. Nomura has him beat as far as range and responsibilities goes. Robh Ruppel's work for Naughty Dog elevates him higher. Akiman's breadth of work speaks for itself, Akihiko Yosh ... Many more

Shinkawa is certainly up there and its odd to me that he gets more props from his illustrations than art direction, the latter being a much more difficult job. Id say hes certainly among the best within the MOST FAMOUS category of artists in videogames, but how many of you know Isamu Kamikokuryo, the AD for Final Famtasy X, XII, XIII and XV? Satoru Takizawa on Zelda? Yusuke Naora on the rest of the Final Fantasy series?

We havent done a good job celebrating the artists who actually make these games, we focus too much on the lucky guy who gets to make the illustration. Shinkawa is THE MAN regardless so my opinion here is more macro, but it did remind me of the usual train of thought when it comes to these things.
 

TheJollyCorner

The Fallen
Nov 7, 2017
9,451
Thank you for bringing up Naora, Spaniard. He's a wonderful art director and artist in general. I've wanted him to do the whole gamut for a FF game (character designs, world design, etc) for a long time. He's awesome.
 

Garlador

Banned
Oct 30, 2017
14,131
Greatest mecha artist? Up there
One of the great art directors? For sure

Dont think I can go higher than that, however. Nomura has him beat as far as range and responsibilities goes. Robh Ruppel's work for Naughty Dog elevates him higher. Akiman's breadth of work speaks for itself, Akihiko Yosh ... Many more

Shinkawa is certainly up there and its odd to me that he gets more props from his illustrations than art direction, the latter being a much more difficult job. Id say hes certainly among the best within the MOST FAMOUS category of artists in videogames, but how many of you know Isamu Kamikokuryo, the AD for Final Famtasy X, XII, XIII and XV? Satoru Takizawa on Zelda? Yusuke Naora on the rest of the Final Fantasy series?

We havent done a good job celebrating the artists who actually make these games, we focus too much on the lucky guy who gets to make the illustration. Shinkawa is THE MAN regardless so my opinion here is more macro, but it did remind me of the usual train of thought when it comes to these things.
This is quite true. And many times when you do concept after concept - sketches that form the framework for a game - it's not representative of a full-fleshed out illustration.

One of my favorites is Andrew Jones, who worked on some lead designs for Metroid Prime.
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ce7e2306c28f29d28c00f2cb5ed3fe2d--sketch-art-sketches.jpg


His actual gallery is MIND-BLOWING.
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robotzombie

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,853
Three pages and no one has mentioned Makoto Tsuchibayashi...

Also, there is a serious trend here on a lot of the artists mentioned

CAPCOM
 

Damn Silly

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,187
I love his work, but I'd be hesitant in calling him the best (if you can really do such a thing) because of just how similar a lot of it is.

For example, it feels like he has maybe one or two faces for all the women characters.
 

Patitoloco

Member
Oct 27, 2017
23,613
I agree OP 100%.

Which makes me sad that his art is not used in the covers in recent games. The MGS1-4 covers are fantastic.
 

NSESN

▲ Legend ▲
Member
Oct 25, 2017
25,300
I will be murdered by SMT fans but I don't like Kaneko art for humans, I prefer Doi's and Soejima's
His demons are very iconic tho.
 

No42.05W70.2

Banned
Jun 14, 2018
763
Do you realize what a director or producer or writer does? You do realize that Hayao Miyazaki didn't actually draw every frame of his films, right? Or that he didn't personally voice act all the characters or write and perform the soundtrack?

Eh, this conversation is completely absurd, and is completely off-topic.
Miyazaki makes good movies.
 

NediarPT88

Member
Oct 29, 2017
15,077
I don't know about greatest or best, but I sure love his art. It looks so unique. It's a shame Kojima game covers don't use his art anymore.

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Nov 1, 2017
1,844
Shinkawa's ink illustrations are the definition of aesthetic and ooze cool from every pore. But greatest artist in gaming? Let's not pretend masters like Craig Mullins don't also do work for games.
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Grudy

Unshakable Resolve
Member
Oct 29, 2017
2,643
This is quite true. And many times when you do concept after concept - sketches that form the framework for a game - it's not representative of a full-fleshed out illustration.

One of my favorites is Andrew Jones, who worked on some lead designs for Metroid Prime.
metroid-prime-f.jpg

ce7e2306c28f29d28c00f2cb5ed3fe2d--sketch-art-sketches.jpg


His actual gallery is MIND-BLOWING.
samskarafeature-625x350.jpg

i_belive_tdx.jpg

samskaraart.jpg
That last one is insane, holy crap.

I'll also give a vote to the all the artists working at VanillaWare. All the bonus art pieces you get in dragon's crown were delightful and honestly better than any gameplay-related reward lol.
 

Griselbrand

Member
Oct 26, 2017
3,237
There are lots of people that share that distinction too but Shinkawa is easily my favorite for his style and mechanical designs.
 
Nov 1, 2017
1,844
Ruan is a great artists but he doesn't do much concept art for games at all. That Sekiro illustration is from a workshop he did.
What. Most of his portfolio is ilustrations and concept art for video games. In a bio he lists work for "Halo, Guild Wars 2, World of Warcraft, Diablo 3" and probably other MMOs. Just look at his Artstation. I think he just does a lot of his own work and teaches now that he's become really popular.

He done a ton of art for Guild Wars 2 in particular it seems and so much of it is just jaw dropping.
Guild-Wars2_War-Arenanet-NCSoft-full.jpg
 

Bomi-Chan

Member
Nov 8, 2017
665
shinkawa(mgs), amano(ff) whoever designed created okami and whoever is behind the art of IIDX stuff.

i could bathe in those all day.
 

TFORTOM

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 27, 2017
18
I've always wanted to grab some large prints or posters of some of these artist's work, but I can never find any. (Anyone know of any places?)

Yoji Shinkawa, Yoshitaka Amano and Ayame Kojima, they all create outstanding work. Really love the inky quality to Amano's and Shinkawa's specifically.
 

SPRidley

Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,231
Same as there is no GREATEST artist in painting, theres not a GRRATEST artist in videogames. Its composed of various incredible amazing artist different each other in what they do, with different and varied arstyles.

In summary this thread would have been better without the hyperbole of Shinkawa being the best and be a thread talking about his amazing artistry.
No matter if its your opiniom or not, not doing what you did would have made amore interesting thread about his art.
The only thing you do with this tyoe of threads is people start throwing names of his favourite ones to try to up you op.
 

Dreamboum

Member
Oct 28, 2017
22,847
When it comes to drawing art it makes no sense to say one is the best over everyone when the styles are so fundamentally different
 

Wulfric

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,963
I love Shinkawa, but there's a lot of blockbuster artists out there with a more diverse breadth of work.

Wei Wang (has done almost every iconic WoW artwork)

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Amano (needs no introduction)

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Ayami Kojima (bishonen meets goth)

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Kekai Kotaki (helped establish the look of Guild Wars alongside Daniel Dociu and Ruan Jia)

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Alex Horley (one of the best oil painters in gaming)

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HylianSeven

Shin Megami TC - Community Resetter
Member
Oct 25, 2017
19,026
I agree with the people saying Kazuma Kaneko. He's worked on many games, most SMT or Persona, but he's done a few like Maken X, some guest art for Devil May Cry 3, and some others.

I own all 7 volumes of the Kaneko Works art books.
 

Nacho

Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,108
NYC
This is quite true. And many times when you do concept after concept - sketches that form the framework for a game - it's not representative of a full-fleshed out illustration.

One of my favorites is Andrew Jones, who worked on some lead designs for Metroid Prime.
metroid-prime-f.jpg

ce7e2306c28f29d28c00f2cb5ed3fe2d--sketch-art-sketches.jpg


His actual gallery is MIND-BLOWING.
samskarafeature-625x350.jpg

i_belive_tdx.jpg

samskaraart.jpg
Yeah I wish he still did game concept art, but he, as far as I know, is into doing those live art paintings. Would be wild to see live tho.
 

KomandaHeck

Member
Oct 26, 2017
3,353
Shinkawa's art definitely resonates with me more than any other in gaming overall. As far as a single piece of work goes though, I don't think I've seen a sketch that does a better job of embodying a character and their story better than this one of James Sunderland from Silent Hill 2 by Takayoshi Sato.

sh2_art_sato_14.jpg
 

Servbot24

The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
43,059
Ruan is a great artists but he doesn't do much concept art for games at all. That Sekiro illustration is from a workshop he did.
He does tons of concept art, he just posts the works he chooses.

he didn't work on Sekiro but I thought people would enjoy it

This is quite true. And many times when you do concept after concept - sketches that form the framework for a game - it's not representative of a full-fleshed out illustration.

One of my favorites is Andrew Jones, who worked on some lead designs for Metroid Prime.
metroid-prime-f.jpg

ce7e2306c28f29d28c00f2cb5ed3fe2d--sketch-art-sketches.jpg


His actual gallery is MIND-BLOWING.
samskarafeature-625x350.jpg

i_belive_tdx.jpg

samskaraart.jpg
I met him recently, very insightful guy. I wish they could get him for MP4.
 

Phoenixazure

Member
Oct 27, 2017
6,434
Amazing artists. I'm gonna give a shout out to Hiroaki who has done amazing art for fighting games (mainly KOF) but has done other stuff including the story portraits from SCVI. A distinct style I can spot a mile away that I really clicks
latest

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Last edited:
Jun 24, 2019
6,365
I am shocked no one mentioned the FromSoftware art team, their art is sublime. Look at their divine pieces:

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For Megaten games, the more I am exposed to Kaneko's work, the more I want to play games under his vision. He gives life to his creations.

His work on SMT2 are among my favourites:

latest


SMT2Poster.jpeg
 

Midas

Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,535
I really like Shinkawa's style. I won't bring anything more than that to this discussion though. There are lots of amazing artists out there, that's for sure looking what other people posted.