Why are fantasy designs always so busy and messy?

Modern fashion. Only children wear clean designs. Im not joking. If you arnt in great physical shape and you wear a plain primary colored t-shirt and jeans you look like an autist.

You're not implying THAT isnt overdesigned compared to historical stuff, are you?

>modern fashion
>scandiminimalism is super hot and everything above streetwear-tier is generally going for clean lines and solid colours
>prints are >>OUT
Yeah that's not quite it, user.

Nah mate, geek/band tees and superdry stuff are what people are wearing

>The smelly, googly-eyed, food-autistic dwarf actually looks kind of handsome with Chilchak's clothes on
Who allowed this?

Because you niggers can't seem to realize that "overdesigned" is not a thing. More detail and stuff going on = better looking. "Looking busy" is a good thing.

Yeah, but you're supposed to use non-conventional solids. If you saw a slightly overweight guy in a cherry-red cotton t-shirt, jeans, and sandals you'd assume he was on the spectrum.

You're right that graphics are out, but we're not even nearly post ironic-minimalist-patterns.

I also thought scandiminimalism applied mostly to zero saturation shit, i.e. white to grayscale, which is a totally different ballgame.

Because fantasy illustrators get paid mostly by the penstroke.

Due to a quirk in the compensation formula, however, they get bigger bonuses for drawing belt buckles than any other article of clothing. This has led to many fantasy character outfits being absolutely saturated with belts.

because they are meant to be visually entertaining, not visually pleasing, let alone practical

>"Looking busy" is a good thing.
fuck off, spirit of all the shitty useless middle managers of my past

>so autistic

>Proceeds to sperg out paragraphs

kys senpai

Slicked back hair and a good shirt and pants can go a long way.

Looking too busy can be a detriment when it detracts from the subject of you illustration. The Nagash mini from AoS is a pretty good example of how a lack of restraint can make your design look like shit. There's so much going on in the mini that it mostly just looks like noise.

Ofc this is mostly a composition problem and can be solved with some better proportioning and color work.

>not wanting to flaunt your superiority with fabulous things covering you and your steed
>wanting to look like some common peasant warrior

Sorry, but how is this in any way, shape, or form, "so much going on it looks like noise"? There's a few nice little details, but nothing overwhelming or anything to be considered "overdesigned".

His entire post is not even a single paragraph. You're a faggot.

There's no center of focus and the color selection is complete ass because they all blend together. He's improved a lot by removing the extra spines on his back and choosing a more distinct color for the armor (though I'm not really a fan of bright red either)

I actually don't feel that model is too bad. A more amateur paint job would ruin it obviously, but it's easy to see all his limbs, his head, the blue shit flying around, and even the individual books at the bottom. It gets a little iffy at the back, but at the end of the day he's a massive centrepiece model, he should look impressive and intimidating. A better example would be that new eldar model.

Not denying that the other user is a shitter, but that post is 1 paragraph followed by two sentences separate from said paragraph.

See:
Paragraph
noun
1.
a distinct section of a piece of writing, usually dealing with a single theme and indicated by a new line, indentation, or numbering.

You're missing the point, the issue is they add a bunch of shit that ruins functionality to kake it look cool. It's the thinks like huge pauldrons, awkward spikes, knives and belts and scarves and bottles hanging off places that with just get caught on shit, fall off or restrict movement. Armour can be made overly fancy to show status without effecting the wearers ability to do his job.

>pic related
Actually War is rather tame in terms of overdesign.
Hulky as fuck yes, but it has its centers the eyes are drawn to.

The point is to be as far removed from reality as possible.

>not having huge pauldrons and spikey bits for additional stabbing when you're ramming

Because if they designed this (pic related), the client will probably want more "detail". I agree through I love simplicity.

>football pads with spikes placed on shoulders and gauntlets to be used as improvised weapons
bloodbowl's designs are pretty elegant and functional, all things considered

Darksiders was fine, but when they took the same guy to design Diablo3 thats when it went down the shitter.

I blame it on most people's interactions with the fantasy genre involving anime and video games.

I've heard that criticism that War's too visually busy before. Was Zero Punctuation the origin for it?

Regardless, it seems like he works well in picture form. There might be an argument to be made that his design doesn't work when you're actually playing as him, when you're just watching motion and processing everything down into silhouettes. Personally, I didn't mind that about him. He's got a big, vaguely rectangular sword and everything he does in combat is relative to where that thing is moving. If he's not in combat, he's stomping around with big thick limbs, jumping and climbing. I think he works.

youtu.be/pyQ8KpQQbwA
Only good thing to come out of this movie desu

The armour of a swedish 16th century king. Ornaments and other displays of wealth can be so much more than gaudy, exaggerated shit.

This thread needs more stylin-ass armour.

Of course, it's worth pointing out that the armour itself is practical and made of steel, which means that it's the accessories around the armour that are doing the heavy lifting, style-wise.

I love landknechten. They really were the warrior-dandies of the 16th century.

that looks quite fine, esp compared to, say, end times/age of sigmar

thing about that is that it is bascially just a perfectly normal (but well fitted) armour plus cool engravings and shit.

this mini is pretty fine, too
post some high-ranking sigmarine with ornaments on soles and every ab of armor

I liked shit like in the asoiaf books such as the knight of flowers armour. While still being functional it was ornamented wish saphires, forget-me-nots, engravings and was green dyed steel. It would be be a massive waste of monet when he gets struck and saphires fly everywhere but the point was to show off wealth, he could afford to to lose them and afford to have servants and squires to take care of his armour. It was not impractical, just extravagent.

Gas the greens
Horde War now

what is the point of going to war if you're not gonna look your best?

Exactly. The detail is what makes it impressive, not an exaggeration of the shape itself.

Right. It's parade armour; it's meant to be shown off as it's no more practical than regular armour of the same quality. The display of wealth lies in the details; like the emperors of Rome wearing specific shades of red and purple which became synonymous with power due to the sheer cost of the dyes themselves. Purple is still a symbol of roman authority and is generally exclusive to bishops within the church.

Rate this guy

This. A lot of them, and also of buyers do not make the difference between deisgned and overcharged, and simply think they have to add the biggest numebr of shit/details/glowing bullshit to a character before it can be taken seriously.

If I had my external harddrive I'd spam my gallery of sexy armours now.
But I don't, so I can only request that other armourfags do.

If I raise my arms these spikes on my shoulders will poke me in the head/10

T H I C C

I feel like every single time a point like this gets brought up someone should just link the Martin vs Tolkien rap battle. The genre is called FANTASY. It is about diverging from reality.

Also, there's a difference between detail and overdesign or mess. Pic related is detailed but not messy for overdesigned.

Holy fuck that paintjob actually made the mini kinda nice looking.

You can differentiate the head honchos from the poorfags without covering them in raggedy bits of fur and leather biker gear

Check this out

That's boring af though

>Every single armor design must either be a Late-Roman/Saxon Soldier, Full plate from 16th century Germany/Sweden or a landskecht.

>Absolutely nothing is allowed to be overly fantastical at all.

Literally the most boring stance on everything ever. Do you argue that Dragons are unrealistic?

You can exaggerate and still have a solid aesthetic, as long as you have a strong artistic vision. The issue is wanton overdesign that's little more than a product of the artist not knowing when to stop drawing.

You sound like an /ic/ faggot.

Here is Engra Deathsword, Factually the best picture ever convinced to show the Aesthetics of the Warriors of Chaos.

I guess he's overdesigned because he's not some retard in chainmail though right?

That looks like messy, uncoordinated garbage, yes.

Is he being punished for raisding his arms too much?

How bad is his BO?

Whoa there user, I didn't say any of that, I'm okay with fantastical designs, even real life armor can get pretty wacky sometimes, just I don't like them when they're unneccessarily busy or hard to follow.

Did you just skip the first half of my post, user? 40k is generally fine because it's very deliberate exaggeration of both proportions and gothic imagery.

I think you use words like "Hard to follow" like this guy uses "Messy" You use buzzwords when you see something overly complex and think that's bad. it's like the moron earlier who said Joe Mad's designs are "Messy" when he's got some of the cleanest lineart ever invented by man.

You know not everything has to be drawn to be realistic, at all.

That's Fantasy though bro.

Kek, just realised that's not even 40k, it's WHFB.

Same point still stands, especially since WHF is a loving pastiche of fantasy.

I'm all for realistic armor, but a shapeless mail hauberk isn't what I'd consider cool.

It doesn't really draw the line though does it.

People whine about the Nagash model and tons of other "modern" gripes when things like the Engra Deathsword picture are what? 12 years old now?

Some people don't find realistic armor very fun for their not so realistic fantasy settings and this meme that everything not a Hauberk and some pants is somehow "Messy" and "Not focused" needs to die off.

>Too busy
>Hard to follow
>The color scheme hurts my eyes
>Oh no, my epilepsy strikes
>No focus point

I've never seen this many legitimately retarded people in one thread before. Get your fucking eyes checked or just stop being faggots.

you sure showed him user

If you guys are so cool then explain why this is overdesigned.

Hard mode: You can't sound autistic.

It's especially funny when it's directed to Joe Mad.

Who is very fucking good at Focus points and making simple designs with complex details.

>is that a motherfucking JoJo reference?

That's not overdesigned, that looks cool

You can have fantastical and unrealistic designs without going full retard and covering everything in belts and chains and spikes and random bits of fur

This design looks boring and it somehow conveys that the author is afraid of trying or following the leader too hard. Just like those realistic first person shooters, all that brown and grey gets mashed it turns into a bowl of shit not worth remembering.

>people hating overdesigned fantasy armor
How does it feel to be gay? Next thing you say is that you hate fuckoff greatswords with runes and spikes.

Other than maybe having difficulty raising his arms that armor is awesome and I love it.

I have literally no idea what you're talking about. A face always provides a center of focus, and the blended colors contrast with the teal-colored magic.

I knew it couldn't be this simple, he removed the back spikes. Still a shit mini.

This mini does have a center of focus, it's the torso. Color contrast with the blue and the white, and then the spikes, bonegoatee, and front spine(???) all seem to point to it. Granted, that's not a great center of focus, but there is one

>Designers and Concept Artists don't typically design things based on the real world or how they'd actually function
Yeah, the thing isn't that armor or whatever is supposed to be realistic, it's fantasy after all. It's supposed to at the very least look practical, and ideally be practical if it ever existed. Historically people did a lot of stupid things to decorate themselves or distinguish themselves, but that meant that either the armor was ceremonial and never meant for battlefield use, or the decorations were "practical" in that they didn't inhibit movement.

Let's look at Fishface over here for example, and imagine how an incompetent and a competent artist would draw him if he were a fantasy character. An incompetent artist would probably make the fish part of his helmet, fully metal and heavy enough to snap a man's neck. A more competent artist would make the fish out of lighter material than the actually important part of the helmet and possibly make it detachable in one way or another. It's supposed to make a certain nobleman easily recognizable to his friends and his foes even when fully armored, a competent artist would realize this goal and get that a helmet can achieve that without making that fish heavy and sturdy. If a few arrows whiz through it or the fish is cut in half by an enemy, big whoop. It can be replaced, unlike a neck.

...

Pauldrons are bad for lifting his arms, and the spear crossbar is badly angled to the point that it would actually be a hindrance.

9/10 looks badass.

Why can't Easterners design good armors, like this Western design?

A little touch of paint can take you a far way

>"Haha, that guy painted a skeleton on his armor! That's so incredibly silly and something that would never happen in real life because it's a waste of effort and nobody would be this retarded in real life!"
>Suddenly remember that guy who had profane handgestures sculpted into his armor rather than making profane handgesturs himself

I thought the belt thing was because of that one guy who did it ever so slightly back on 1997, got called out on how stupid it looked for a guy to wear two no-functional belts and then spent the next twenty years sextupling down out of spite.

If the pauldrons were slightly smaller and didn't raise up above the gorget it would be perfect. The moment he lifts his arms he's getting smacked in the face with his pauldrons.

Thing is, while it's obviously unrealistic and silly, down at the core of the image is some guy in very odd looking transitional plate with a barbute.

That in my opinion is the essence of GW's design ethos. Take reality, hook it up to PURE HEAVY METAL and then turn it up to eleven.

Meanwhile Blizzard has gone full-on-meta-retarded and I bet Metzen drew all his concept art in his own blood from snorting so much cocaine his nasal bone disintegrated.

Thats just like painting "ur a faget" in your balistic vest

and that guy that had an AMAZING demonface painted on his sallet.
>tfw people scrubbed paint off armours to get them to look shiny in the early modern age

Ignore pauldron posters, post helmets

>that spearhead
For what purpose? Nothing stops you from over penetrating, and if you do then it gets stuck on over 150lbs+ of literally dead weight so it likely has to be discarded.

Good call mate.

The armor itself is alright, but that spear. I just don't get it.

Brown, look at it. It's clearly a magical weapon.

I get the impression that you guys would complain about Stormbringer if Moorcock was writing today.

How's this?

Sexy is hwat

Dark Souls has some excellent armours, some based on historical ones.

shit man youre getting blood in the headdress

do you know how hard it is to wash that thing

youre gonna cut the hairs when you pull the sword out too

fuck

Aping a shitty style well doesn't mean it's good. The design is overall busy and does little to draw the eye.