{"id":30671,"date":"2016-02-13T18:15:52","date_gmt":"2016-02-13T23:15:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=30671"},"modified":"2016-02-13T18:27:32","modified_gmt":"2016-02-13T23:27:32","slug":"the-altered-scrolls-part-19-gloom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=30671","title":{"rendered":"The Altered Scrolls, Part 19: Gloom"},"content":{"rendered":"

Before we progress to my Skyrim<\/em> wrap-up, I’d like to share a few brief notes concerning art design. I don’t think I’ve ever made more than a perfunctory mention of art when talking about the previous games, and that’s because I’ve never had much of substance to say about it: Daggerfall <\/em>has too many pinups, Morrowind <\/em>looks weird and cool but a bit too brown, Oblivion<\/em>‘s wilderness is pretty, characters across the franchise look like dollar store coloring books or pantyhose dolls. In each entry the art does a passable job of capturing a fantastical setting for the game, whether that’s a novel setting like Vvardenfel:<\/p>\n

Bizarre idolatry? Check. Impossible mudbrick architecture? Check. Vast and lonely? Check.<\/div>
Bizarre idolatry? Check. Impossible mudbrick architecture? Check. Vast and lonely? Check.<\/div><\/p>\n

Or a prosaic Tolkish pastiche like Cyrodiil:<\/p>\n

Cottagey Fantasyland aesthetic? Check. Vibrant colors? Check. Trappings of high adventure? Check.<\/div>
Cottagey Fantasyland aesthetic? Check. Vibrant colors? Check. Trappings of high adventure? Check.<\/div><\/p>\n

And then there’s Skyrim.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Rustic viking-inspired look? Check. Evident frost and weathering? Check. Color? Uh...<\/div>
Rustic viking-inspired look? Check. Evident frost and weathering? Check. Color? Uh...<\/div><\/p>\n

Skyrim<\/em>‘s aesthetic absolutely reinforces its key setting elements: every building in Skyrim<\/em> looks like you could reach out and get a splinter, the architecture is laced with recognizably Nordic flourishes and patterns, and the air has a tangible frostiness to it even when there’s no snow on the ground. But it’s that last point that speaks to what’s probably the series’ most aggressive artistic statement, and one that has mixed results: Skyrim<\/em> is relentlessly desaturated.<\/p>\n

Skyrim<\/em>‘s colors are all muted and grayish, to the point where outside of the occasional flame or spell effect you’re hard-press to find a bold color anywhere. Once can pretty easily figure why: the warmest regions are meant to feel brisk, the coldest like perpetual galleries of hoarfrost and rime. When a place is cold, there’s generally more clouds; light is generally filtered, colorless, and weak. Therefore, a muted palette is a straightforward way to communicate low temperatures visually. If this was Bethesda’s goal, they’re broadly successful.<\/p>\n

But remember that interior I showed you earlier?<\/p>\n

Color? Still absent.<\/div>
Color? Still absent.<\/div><\/p>\n

There’s no windows here. All the lighting, in theory, is coming from that candelabra–or assuming we don’t insist the game’s environments have real light sources that make sense, which doesn’t seem like a whole lot to ask, the light’s coming from a magical miasma conjured by a Bard College too cheap to spring for glass or tallow. Neither demand such oppressive bleakness. Nor does the area’s context, which actually rejects that austerity: this isn’t the frozen and hostile outdoors, crawling with bandits, beasts, dragons, and the dead–it’s a nice warm safe building in a big town. It’s a building dedicated to art and culture in a vibrant fantasy setting, and it’s as depressing as a dentist’s office. In other words, while the grayness makes sense as an artistic statement in some contexts, the thoroughness with which it’s applied is overbearing. And it needn’t be this way.<\/p>\n

Compare that shot of Riften at the top of the article to this screenshot of Cloud Ruler Temple, a frosty mountain fortress in Oblivion<\/em>:<\/p>\n

Hey, is that blue? I remember blue!<\/div>
Hey, is that blue? I remember blue!<\/div><\/p>\n

It’s absolutely a subtle thing, but note how the warmth of the orange contrasts against the noticeably blue tint of the environment. The result conveys a sense of coldness without being sterile. You can convey cold with subtle choices in coloration. You can convey cold with sound–and Skyrim does this so well in places the art is secondary. You can convey cold through NPC behavior, such as warming hands in a fire (which they do) or huddling and shivering as they walk (which they really don’t). Simply dropping the saturation is a broad and ungainly solution.<\/p>\n

These screenshots are absolutely chosen to make my point–you could find a Skyrim<\/em> screenshot that’s more colorful than an Oblivion<\/em> screenshot, but I contend that you couldn’t do it quickly. The game’s visual palette is bland and its depressive effect is cumulative. What’s really interesting, however, is that this isn’t a new problem. Morrowind<\/em> has borne rightful complaints about its brownish cast since release. If anything, I find it interesting that Skyrim<\/em> hasn’t provoked as strong a backlash–is this because Skyrim<\/em>‘s art style accomplishes its goal of making things feel cold, while Morrowind<\/em>‘s patina arguably counters its exotic tone? Is it because more of Morrowind<\/em> is focused on atmosphere and more of Skyrim<\/em> is focused on gameplay? Or are people just better disposed toward Skyrim<\/em>?<\/p>\n

Most probably, the answer is “all of the above.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Before we progress to my Skyrim wrap-up, I’d like to share a few brief notes concerning art design. I don’t think I’ve ever made more than a perfunctory mention of art when talking about the previous games, and that’s because I’ve never had much of substance to say about it: Daggerfall has too many pinups, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[530],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-elder-scrolls"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30671"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30671\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}