Yeah; it's a great book, (SS)Sensational art.
I picked up the Japanese version (Along with the 3142 Artbook) at a Anime Convention last july. I love them both!
And then a week after purchasing them, Udon announces localization of both books. My luck... :banghead:
Edit: Damn site's been finicky lately. Just when I thought I couldn't post, BAM, quad-post.
Is the 3142 book worth my attention? I've only seen the preview pictures and I'm quite intrigued by it, especially since there are 4 games covered in it, how much space and attention does each one get?
Dat quadruple post.
Also, i'm looking forward to get it (If I can get it, the darn thing it's impossible to get unless it's importated, and it's gonna cost, A LOT)
Still, the artwork is amazing, I'm not going to deny that!
Just get it of Amazon, they usually have some in stock
Yeah, the artbook is amazing isn't it? I've got the Japanese version since quite a while now, and simply can't stop fallin in love with it again and again while flipping through these pages!
Also, about the artists, I'm not 100% sure but I think only Taini and Dan Baker worked on it (judgin by artstyle and stuff I've read).
By the way, would it be possible for you to post the staff comments and other texts from the book? Cuz I don't speak no Japanese and I've always wantred to know what it said. And where did you buy your copy? Because I'm thinking about getting the English version sometime aswell :3
I bought mine at amazon.de don't know if the other amazon shops have it though.
Yeah, I knew a lot of the art through Dan Bakers and Talexis Blogs, it's still nice to have them in a nice printet quality^^
EDIT:
I was to lazy to put the page numbers since I don't know if they are the same in the japanese version, so I put the characters that are on the page. Enjoy
Staff Comments
Dante:
It was a long roead getting to this design. We wanted to blend the cool vibe of a street-smart guy with the sorrow of a demon and the grungy realism of someone you might find hanging out in an alley. We tried to balance new elements with the old markers associated with Dante's character. I think it turned out quite well. His face was based on a face we created by combining different features from multiple handsome men.
Kat:
Kat went through a lot of changes during the creation process, and it took quite a while for her to settle into this design. The hardest part of working on a hooded character is getting the balance between the natural shape of the hood and the shaow that falls across the characters face. It is especially important to be careful of these things when you have a character like Kat, who isn't wearing a hood for the specific purpose of hiding her face. The low neckline of her shirt was something that was changed at the last minute with the cheerful comment, „I made her sexier!“
Vergil
The first time I saw Vergil, I thought he looked like a mentally unstable guy who suffered from mysophobia, the kind of guy would have to swap his bloodstained gloves with brand new ones after every single fight. He was always wearing a hat, and carried his sword disguised as a walking stick; he certainly stood out in a crowd. But he grew milder over time and he's more like the Vergil we know from „devil May Cry 3“. I'm just sad he doesn't wear his hat anymore.
Phineas
The early Phineas designs had him rather alien-looking, but we were able to make his appearance closer to our familiar reality by adding elderly features like facial hair and wrinkles. He isn't wearing his ocular piece when he makes his first appearance in the game, which makes the encounter all the more shocking.
Bob Barbas
We designed Bob to be the archetypical „grown up“ that young people hate. We incorporated every visual trait we could think of that would give off a detestable vibe. If you look closely at him in-game, you'll notice that there is a ton of dandruff on his shoulders. Now that's detail! The design of the demon of Bob went in a different direction from our usual demonification of characters because it was based solely on the desire to punch Barbas in the face really hard. We did go through a lot of changes with the design, so it took quite a while. I think I'd be age away if I said it kind of reminds me of Max Headroom...
Lilith
When a Japanese designer creates a female demon, it just naturally turns out inhumanly beutiful. Lilith is the result of trying to pursue reality over everything else. Since she maintains her beuty through repeated cosmetic surgery, the skin of her face is pulled taut like she has a super tighr ponytail. It's also easy to tell that her hair is a wig.
Mundus
Mundus started of as a more comical symbol of evil, but he settled into the look of a powerful man you could easily find in the real world who has lots of influence over the world politics and finances. He just looks like the kind of guy no one says „no“ to. This design does not follow the usual lines of „ultimate demon overlord“ that comes out of the religious influences of Japan, but is more affected by the culture of the western world. „Devil May Cry“ fans will recocnize the three scars on his forehead as his three eyes.
Stygian
The common theme among the demons is that they are all hybrids of inorganic objects in the human world and organic creatures in the demon world. I find it very interesting that demon designs tend to take on humanoid forms when influencd by western culture. Creating humanoid enemies is relatively easy, but we do fall into the trap of them looking too similar. This is always a challenge and we usually use weapons to differntiate one enemy from another.
Pathos
Have you ever noticed that many of the „DmC“ demons are white? To express the world in this game, we prepared a variety of colors for background light. When you have white enemies, they can seem very different based on the color of the lights in any given stage. Some enemies are red or blue depending on wether they are susceptible to demon mode weapons or angel mode weapons, but those were developed later on so that wasn't the main reason for white enemies.
Dreamrunner
We wanted the Dreamrunner to look cool and be a strong rival character. Dreamrunner was completed and put into the game toward the end of developement, so I was a bit worried we wouldn't get it done in time. There was an idea to use a japanese Noh mask, but I'm glad it didn't get used because Japanesse people tend to view chaacters wearing Noh masks as more comical than anything else.
Hunter
The Hunter actually started out with acage on his back , which would have been used for capturing Dante. The early drafts make it easy to see how Hunters branched off to become Rages, The Hunter's face is quite memorable, but the early designs had them looking like undead samurai, so the designer was asked to be wary of that.
Succubus
Succubus was the first boss we completed. The main focus was on the visual aspect, so we had to go two rounds of edits before we got the boss fight the way we wanted. By default, giant enemies are difficult to put into a game. I spend over a year working on Succubus, so she's quite a memorable character to me- Succubus became a sort of guidline for graphics quality, with her soft semitransparent skin.
Lilith Boss:
Initially Liliths transformation was going to involve her human form ending up as nothing more than a little accessory on the demon Lilith. In the ned we went with the more unique concept of the demon baby inside of Lilith taking over with Lilith repressing into an umilical cord for the demon baby. Another idea that didn't make it into the game was our original plan to have the fight take place atop a speeding train. I'm dissapointed that we couldn't pull that off, but you can see a bit of our idea coming through in the scene where you encounter Phineas.
Mundus Boss:
Mundus is another Character that went through a lot of design changes. He started off as more of an octopus or squid like creature, which is pretty typical for demon characters. Unfortunately, Japanese people would have a hard time accepting an octopus or squid as the final boss, so we ended up merging a whole bunch of humans to create Mundus. They would just fall off him like dust motes every time he moved, which turned out to be quite interesting. As the story evolved, Mundus became a merged form of the buildings and surrounding cityscape. As expected, putting such amassive enemy in the game was very challenging.
Stages Part 1
Initially the large humanoid located in Dante's inner world was designed after Sparda. It was symbolic of Dante unleashing Spardas powers by cutting the chains that bound him.
Stages part 2
The idea of the entire town trying to kill Dante was something that existed early on, but this was initially implemented through simple things like billboards and neon signs changing into representations of demons or death. The notion of a „living town“ wthat changed in real- time was interesting and sounded like it would look great on the screen, but we weren't sure we could pull it off properly. We overcame a great deal of work, and I think we were all pleaseatly suprised when we finally got to see it in its finished state.
Stages part 3
As far as Japanese design is concerned, a“demon world“ usually consists of red or purple lighting over dark colors and magma. In this game, however the demon world is prtrayed using many vivid colors. I think being able to convey a creepy and evil atmosphere using these colors was a result of religious or cultural differences, but either way it was lots of fun to try. Though the general objects and shapes are things that exist in the real world, I feel we were able to achive a good sese of fantay in there as well.
