Ever since Shadow Era was launched so many years ago, one of our main bottlenecks has been quality art. It simply takes a lot of money and a lot of time to produce all the art required for a set of cards. Does anyone remember the days of Placeholder Puwen?? Being the game's creator as well as the original designer and lead programmer, it has always been a personal goal of mine to become self-sufficient on the art side as well. Being proficient in Photoshop is one thing, but creating art good enough to appear on the cards is quite another!
I am pleased to formally announce that I have now accomplished that goal. Thanks to advances in technology as well as a sizable investment into training, modeling, and programmatic artistic AI, (and a bit of Aldmor magic!) all of Shadow Era's art requirements can now be accomplished in-house at a fraction of the cost and time. Instead of waiting sometimes weeks for a piece of art, it can now be produced in a matter of hours. Using sophisticated 3d software and a custom-designed AI painter, the results are quite impressive.
But is it still art? Speaking as someone who has spent hours positioning objects in a scene, adjusting lighting, and posing the fingers just right, I can say for certain that it is. Perhaps "computer-rendered art in a painterly style" is more appropriate, but the results are really what matters here. For Shadow Era, that means quicker set releases, alternate arts, more special sleeves and playmats, etc etc
Below are a few samples of upcoming art for Lost Lands Part 3, all of which were about 3-5 hrs of work.
The best news is that our process is still being refined. Each image is saved as a full 3d scene and can be easily adjusted, changed, or rendered again with ease.
So, what do you think? Is this good news for Shadow Era, or will the cards lose their artistic charm? Let us know!
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