Matthew Meleady

Maurice Kimball and Dejan Ostojic – Prototype Concept ArtistsThis Prototype concept art by Maurice Kimball uses a large amount of Gaussian blurs, this technique uses the Gaussian function to blur the edges and outlines of an image. It seems to have been used in this image to create anonymity of the foot soldiers and policemen, to over expose light on the focus of the image (the giant monster thing) and to blur the background (especially where the sun light is coming from) which makes the creature more inviting to look at than the rest of the image.

Something else that could be used to attracted attention to the monster would the design of the monster itself, from the centre of the image to its mouth are a set of lines that act as leading lines. These lines draw attention to the focus of the image, in the case the monster’s mouth. Other lines doing this in this example could be the veins of the monster that run all around its body and its tongue. The tongue is hard to see at first because it does this so well, the monster uses it to stab the person in the bottom left and the line continues from there to its mouth.

A major part of emotion and tone of this image is the limited but fitting colour scheme of reds, greys and blacks. The red is used the least but it creates the most impact as it is both the colour of the monsters innards and the blood of everyone else; this creates a power connection between the creature and what it’s causing. The (with varying contrasts) blacks and greys of the image increase this emphasis on the reds of the image, while severing as a good set of background colours and contributing to the overall darkness of the image.

One final point of interest would be that the rule of thirds has been obeyed as the creature’s head and tongue cross between the top left and middle boxes, which creates a focus on it, and the tongue lands in the middle box. This puts it at the very centre of the image and makes our eyes draw to the edges of it.

Maurice Kimball, (2008), A first look at a Hydra attacking Time Square [ONLINE]. Available at:http://www.themindbehindyoureye.blogspot.co.uk/2009/06/prototype-is-open-world-chaotic-action.html[Accessed 19 September 17].

After looking at several pieces of Prototype concept art from Kimball’s blog (after finding him from the sleeping dogs art), the thing that interested me the most was the sword on the cover art. I found that this was made by another concept artist – Dejan Ostojic.

Dejan Ostojic, (2008), Alex Power Arm - Blade [ONLINE]. Available at:http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/prototype/images/6/6d/P2_Blade_concept.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20120106192217 [Accessed 19 September 15].

This piece of weapon concept art by Dejan Ostojic uses an unusual but impressive and technical structure by having the a large piece of the blade go below where the holder would grip, this is very interesting as it would be unorthodox if it were to be held by a normal person. In the case of prototype however, the sword grows from the character who wields its arm; the tentacle like things around where the handle seems like it would go are part of the mutated arm of the character, this would give him an extra strong grip over it and would make it able to swing it faster and more accurately. And the extra blade that goes further than the arm would be able to cut through more and the extra weight wouldn’t matter.

Similar to other prototype art as shown above, this piece of arts uses red as the most outstanding and highlighting colour with black, grey and white as the less significant colours, although only marginally this time. The metal of the sword sticks to the conventional metal sword (probably steel) colours while the red and orange flow over them and make the weapon noticeably that of the game. Another visual element that adds to the image would be the clever use of high contrasting negative space as the background