[Quasar]

Marketing geniuses killed Spooge's game art work for the second time !!! The Lucas arts version is the twisted nightmare that they made from craig's work for the game box covor..

Original



Lucas Arts Mangled Version

[Lomi]

actually if you look closely at the head you can see that its not just an edited pic, although I do think they used cm's pic as a referance, and of course cm's is a hell of alot better .

[Dr. Bang]

Spooge got some major bad luck going on here, he spent like 4321784112 hours on a piece and ends up being messed up by the 12 years old son of his boss.......ALWAYS!!!!! Except for Final Fantasy.

[ December 17, 2001: Message edited by: Dr. Bang ]

[Quasar]

Lomi it's the exact same picture not reference you better take a closer look there. They just ran it through some lame ass filters and did some wierd motion blur on it.. looks really bad now..

[horstenpeter]

That is simply bad. It's not even good from a filter-art or photomanip point of view. They took all the appealing things from the picture.

Oh well I ceased liking the Lucas companies years ago - so whatever. LucasArts didn't do any decent game since Outlaws, IMO.

[wayfinder]

looks more like they altered the pic spooge used as reference.

[[Shizo]]

Nar i dont think spooge uses reference, but i do think that 'original' and 'altered' are two different pictures.
If you look at details like angle of his head, angle of his glo-stick and little things on his body.. The only similar detail is his white scarf (or undershirt).

[balistic]

Craig actually posted the reference he used for this image. It was a fairly low-quality photo, and I don't think it had the same lighting as the final painting . . . he mentioned it was used to get a likeness of the actor.

[LoTekK]

umm, seems kinda obvious to me that the lucasarts pic was simply altered from mr. mullins' pic:

seems kinda obvious, no?

[Quasar]

ha ha thats pretty cool lowtek...the two pictures lighting and brush work completly matched up I never seen the argument myself.

[Tillek]

What does one do when a company like lucas arts jacks your art? Isn't that what copyright laws are for?

[synj]

son of one! what creeps. I doubt this is anything new to mister M though.

eheh

[LoTekK]

if you ask me, i think it's kind of sad when a large company like lucasarts - who i used to practically worship until their recent crap as well as their attitude towards fans, etc - takes a damned fine piece of artwork, and figures "let's take the piece wholesale, apply a couple stupid filters, and ever-so-slightly change the position of the hands and re-paint the lightsaber... that way we don't actually have to pay for the thing and can claim it as ours!"

pricks...

[Bg]

It's shame to see good paintings raped.

This is the reference photo:

[BooMSticK]

lotekk - if im not totally wrong, I still believe Craig was paid full for the painting he did. With big american corps you most often loose all copyrights to the work you do for them. They are totally entitled to alter your work if they want to. That said I actually like the green Xbox version. Quite catchy! Anyway, Craigs work is awesome too... but the new altered version fits the Xbox feel better I think...
,boom

[ December 18, 2001: Message edited by: BooMSticK ]

[eyewoo]

I love CM's work. He is one of my few digital gods... But I have to say, I think the cover Lucas Arts chose for their box will work a lot better for them than CMs picture... especially if the boxes are to sit on retail store shelves... Sorry to be in an obvious minority on this subject, but me thinks the cover has a great deal of impact... OTOH, I'm in the majority with my admiration for Craig Mullins artwork...

[lel]

CM's picture should have been made into a big poster to promote the game, rather than being put through some filter disease experiment (IMHO).

The LucasArt magic moments are far apart these days.

"Unify and rectify, bones.... bones... bones... I am more than dead!"

[Socar MYLES]

Hm...I've got to disagree with you there, Fleabrain.... A few years ago, I bought "Fallout". I didn't buy it because I'd read a review. I didn't buy it because someone told me it was good. I didn't know anything about it.

So, why DID I buy it? Well, it had a pretty picture on the box. I bought it hoping and expecting to see more of the same in the game, and, in this case, I was not disappointed.

When I shop for computer games, I never even pick up the ones with ugly boxes. When I see a shoddy green-filtered box design, I think "Hm. Total lack of effort. Probably a shoddy game. Next!"

So, superficial as it sounds, if anything would persuade me to buy a Star Wars game (unlikely, but hey...), it would be stunning visuals on the box.

[LoTekK]

i'm with socar, to an extent... while box art normally doesn't decide what i'm going to buy (it's the result of lots of research... ), pretty packaging certainly is a plus... in the case of the ugly-ass green piece of crap up there, i'd almost be embarassed to buy the game...

seriously, the green pic just screams of shoddy work, even if you didn't know that they ripped off mr. mullins... lack of character, gobs of unnecessary negative space, bad filter work, i could go on forever...

[Flinthawk]

Well, first off, I think BooMSticK hit the nail on the head when he said that Craig was paid in full for this painting so whatever LucasArts does with the piece is their business. When you do commission work, it is my understanding that most times you are selling the rights to use that image in a number of ways depending on what the particular contract outlines.

As for the comparison of the two as box art: I would wager that the green one will receive better results when viewed by the general public. It's a growing trend I see...overfiltered crap, it seems that it will speak to the general public more than the piece Mullins has done.

I think when a younger generation looks upon Craig's piece the skill it takes to do that piece will be lost on them and it actually looks a bit more like a cover for a novel than for an action game. How many kids do you know enjoy action games and also enjoy reading...? I know there are plenty of exceptions, like myself, but again, the general target audience for a game like this may not respond to this type of illustration on the cover. They want to buy the game for the action, the gameplay experience of being a Jedi. Besides, black and green are very 'Matrix', very cool, simple and accessible.

That all being said, I like Craig's piece more. I think the green one will possibly be received better, probably stand out on the shelf better, but I also think they could have done better than that hack/filter job on it. This is the kind of thinking that has gotten Lucas in hot water with his fans in the first place...the catering to the broader audience. This box cover is a perfect illustration of that, IMHO. It's a shame when things are created for the lowest common denominator, for lack of a better term...

-Flinthawk

[Quasar]

Hey flint hawk.. no qualms with the owner ship part..im just blown away that they messed up his art that badly and are gonna use it for a box covor.. I mean they should have went back and said.. " Hey can you make this all glowy green and matrix like" I guess my real problem is that they did such a horrible job. I mean I think craig or just about anyone could have done better justice. It's just that look how it turned out and they are gonna use that over the original. It's just marketing jack off's who think they know everything ..they piss me off if you can't tell

[edible snowman]

.

[ December 19, 2001: Message edited by: edible snowman ]

[Queezy]

I don't know what that green and black looking thing is, but it sure is ugly. If they wanted green maybe they should have just tinted the image green. What a shoddy design...

[ December 18, 2001: Message edited by: Queezy ]

[[Shizo]]

where is spooge when you need him?

[Muzman]

Heh. I remember he said something about that pic that went like;" Are you sure you don't want something interesting perhaps, I asked. but no. They wanted Obi Wan. In the Desert. Fighting... no one"
I giggled and giggled