Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is coming! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Fire Giant Dreadnoughts in VOLO's GUIDE TO MONSTERS
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Mercule" data-source="post: 7701764" data-attributes="member: 5100"><p>Agreed.</p><p></p><p>Actually, my first thought had little to do with the absurdity of carrying a small destroyer on each arm, other than indirectly. It was that the fire giant had just left himself in a position where a smaller race -- say, dwarf, well known for fighting giants -- could easily skate between his shields and legs and shoot a crossbow bolt at his under-armored nether regions. Give him a dwarf or two on each side, and they can wolf pack him in no time flat because he can't actually turn quickly enough to face them, but trying to do so would require moving the shields into an unusable position leaving him even more open. He makes a mighty cool looking snow plow, but he's a bit absurd as anything other than a sitting duck in combat. That can all be chalked up to the WotC team having a dumb idea and the artist just doing what he was paid to do.</p><p></p><p>As far as the art goes.... I'm not a particular fan of the no background thing. It's fine, if the image is set with text around it, but always looks horrible, stand alone. You can get away with it -- and it often looks cool -- if it's a stick and ink sketch, but that's about it.</p><p></p><p>That aside, the coloring looks flat and weird. The helmet doesn't look like it's sitting on a head so much as the face looks like one of those 1980s He Man toys that had the face printed on the helmet. The braid looks like it's either glued to the cheek guard or is floating is space in front of it (again, the artist seems to have a problem conveying depth). If the left armor were consistent with the shape of the right, there's no way the giant could hold the shield that close. The right shield appears to be shaped differently than the left because the bottom flairs up in back, indicating the front is closer to the ground, but the top also appears to be leaning back. I hadn't consciously realized just how much difficulty the artist had with perspective until I started trying to figure out why the picture looked "wrong", but it's pretty far out of whack. Even the shadow is off a bit: only the shields cast a shadow, but the the left shield shadow angles back, across the giant, while the right shield shadow comes more or less straight down (possibly forward, just slightly). Meanwhile, the actual objects (giant, shields) appear lit as though the light source is directly in front of them -- with the lower body lit slightly from the giant's right (look at where the shadow is) and the head area slightly from his left (his right boot actually seems to be lit by a night light mounted on the inside bottom of his left shield) and the braid must be lit by the firelight from his nostril because it's well lit even when it should be shaded by the collar that's lit from the side.</p><p></p><p>Finally, if you want something else, I have no idea what the armor is made of. The spiky top and jutting collar, as well as the juggernaut motif, make me think it's metal. The ragged edges at the bottom make me thing leather or even cloth. The ridges imply that it's layered, but I'm not sure what lays like that -- strong, distinct ridges at the top but sloppy, worn ridges at the bottom. Once you throw the weird gray into the mix, the overall impression I'm left with is that he's wearing some sort of spider silk. That's kind of a cool idea, in a fantasy world, but it really doesn't gel with the rest of the vibe.</p><p></p><p>Could I do better? Probably not, especially in color. But, I'm not trying to sell my stuff to the biggest RPG on the market. This is <u>not</u> what I'd use as a promo picture. It really belongs on a second or third tier Kickstarter game. The artist has some ability, probably enough enough to warrant pursuing a career in art. Unless D&D is such a rounding error for WotC/Hasbro that they're now using it to farm future talent for illustrating Magic cards, they shouldn't have used this picture.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Mercule, post: 7701764, member: 5100"] Agreed. Actually, my first thought had little to do with the absurdity of carrying a small destroyer on each arm, other than indirectly. It was that the fire giant had just left himself in a position where a smaller race -- say, dwarf, well known for fighting giants -- could easily skate between his shields and legs and shoot a crossbow bolt at his under-armored nether regions. Give him a dwarf or two on each side, and they can wolf pack him in no time flat because he can't actually turn quickly enough to face them, but trying to do so would require moving the shields into an unusable position leaving him even more open. He makes a mighty cool looking snow plow, but he's a bit absurd as anything other than a sitting duck in combat. That can all be chalked up to the WotC team having a dumb idea and the artist just doing what he was paid to do. As far as the art goes.... I'm not a particular fan of the no background thing. It's fine, if the image is set with text around it, but always looks horrible, stand alone. You can get away with it -- and it often looks cool -- if it's a stick and ink sketch, but that's about it. That aside, the coloring looks flat and weird. The helmet doesn't look like it's sitting on a head so much as the face looks like one of those 1980s He Man toys that had the face printed on the helmet. The braid looks like it's either glued to the cheek guard or is floating is space in front of it (again, the artist seems to have a problem conveying depth). If the left armor were consistent with the shape of the right, there's no way the giant could hold the shield that close. The right shield appears to be shaped differently than the left because the bottom flairs up in back, indicating the front is closer to the ground, but the top also appears to be leaning back. I hadn't consciously realized just how much difficulty the artist had with perspective until I started trying to figure out why the picture looked "wrong", but it's pretty far out of whack. Even the shadow is off a bit: only the shields cast a shadow, but the the left shield shadow angles back, across the giant, while the right shield shadow comes more or less straight down (possibly forward, just slightly). Meanwhile, the actual objects (giant, shields) appear lit as though the light source is directly in front of them -- with the lower body lit slightly from the giant's right (look at where the shadow is) and the head area slightly from his left (his right boot actually seems to be lit by a night light mounted on the inside bottom of his left shield) and the braid must be lit by the firelight from his nostril because it's well lit even when it should be shaded by the collar that's lit from the side. Finally, if you want something else, I have no idea what the armor is made of. The spiky top and jutting collar, as well as the juggernaut motif, make me think it's metal. The ragged edges at the bottom make me thing leather or even cloth. The ridges imply that it's layered, but I'm not sure what lays like that -- strong, distinct ridges at the top but sloppy, worn ridges at the bottom. Once you throw the weird gray into the mix, the overall impression I'm left with is that he's wearing some sort of spider silk. That's kind of a cool idea, in a fantasy world, but it really doesn't gel with the rest of the vibe. Could I do better? Probably not, especially in color. But, I'm not trying to sell my stuff to the biggest RPG on the market. This is [U]not[/U] what I'd use as a promo picture. It really belongs on a second or third tier Kickstarter game. The artist has some ability, probably enough enough to warrant pursuing a career in art. Unless D&D is such a rounding error for WotC/Hasbro that they're now using it to farm future talent for illustrating Magic cards, they shouldn't have used this picture. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Fire Giant Dreadnoughts in VOLO's GUIDE TO MONSTERS
Top