How Monster Hunter uses Imaginative Realism in their Games

hey all welcome to another episode of subjectively speaking if you're new to this series welcome subjectively speaking is a show where we discuss character design in popular media through subjective lens which basically means that a lot of what I'll be saying here is my opinion so please be sure to leave your own thoughts on the video down below in the comments and start a conversation while you're there don't forget to Like and subscribe and check out our partner ink gaming they make awesome gaming merch the guy play mats hoodies mouse pads all kinds of great stuff with artwork designed by independent artists supporting them means well-earned revenue for the hard-working artists to sell their work there so be sure to check out the link in our description and use the code subjectively 10 at checkout for a 10% discount site-wide all right guys I'm pretty pumped about today's video so let's just dive out let's talk about monsters [Music] [Music] can anyone really say that they have no interest in monsters it's such a broad term that can cover a wide range of character design and it's hard to think of a popular game series that doesn't include monsters in some capacity stories for centuries have used monsters as storytelling devices and influence from ancient mythos has helped creators of today dream up a myriad of iconic creatures that all serve important roles in the stories that they star in what is it about monsters that fascinates us for some people it's the limitless power to create or destroy for others the sheer mystery and desire to learn more is what attracts them to such creatures of fantasy in fact my definition of a monster is something you want to know more about and in many cases monsters serve as a plot device to progress a character throughout the story in their quest to learn more about them we've talked about monsters on this channel before some of the most iconic characters in today's storytelling can be described as monsters Pikachu blue eyes Godzilla in their worlds these monsters all play very different roles sometimes as allies other times as enemies and in the case of the kaiju movies onre an uncontrollable force of nature that laughs in the face of mankind's hubris and to fit the roles that each of these monsters play in their respective worlds they're all designed a little bit differently that's kind of the beauty of a beast for a character designer they can look anyway a creator wants in order to fit and/or set the tone of the story that they exist in sometimes they're cute simplified and generally appealing other times they can be designed with the intention to horrify an audience with intricate details that strike fear in our subconscious mind and sometimes a creator chooses to use what they know about our world and the Beast we share our planet with to create monsters with believable and realistic designs here's the tricky thing about designing a realistic monster a fictional creature that's bound to the laws of nature limits its ability to play a role in a fictional world in some case this is important for the storyteller and a realistic monster could be something like a bear or maybe a rabid dog but if you want to create a world of fantasy inhabited by creatures never before seen by man you need to strike a balance between reality and imagination in your designs under James gurney some of you might already recognize the name he's the creative mind and illustrator behind the fantasy world of Dino topia he's also the artist who coined the phrase imaginative realism a term he uses to describe his own artwork basically imaginative realism describes artwork that uses heavy reference from real life to create worlds from your imagination sure no one's ever seen a living Brachiosaurus but if you saw this illustration you'd be convinced that the person who painted it did and that's because the artist behind this work used everything he knew about anatomy physiology engineering lighting color weight texture all the boring things you learn from still life drawing in freshman year of art school and applied them to his own fictional world Jack I thought we were supposed to be talking about Monster Hunter you know if I wanted a lecture on how to paint from life I just spent a half a million bucks on an art degree fair enough I know that this is the boring stuff but guess what the artists behind Monster Hunter used this process to create their world in fact Monster Hunter is one of the finest examples of imaginative realism in video games and these guys really had their work cut out for them when they went to make their first game the Monster Hunter franchise is a series of fantasy themed action role-playing games and started back in 2004 on the PlayStation 2 back then it was not easy creating a video game that looked realistic imaginative or otherwise the graphic processing capabilities of consoles at the time meant the game developers had to either simplify and stylize their games to work with the limitations set by technology or suck it up and try their damnedest to make a ps2 game look realistic Monster Hunter kind of met in the middle mixing a little bit more imaginative into the realism I mean this isn't Call of Duty over here I mean we can have some fun with it but over the years technology improved and the game developers had much more to work with and by the time of their most current games release about two years ago the Monster Hunter team could finally put their imaginative realism to work building the beautiful captivating and terrifying monster hunter world where can we see imaginative realism in monster underworld well pretty much everywhere in their environments each area is thoroughly researched and references real-life ecology botany and zoology to fill in every nook and cranny of the map this creates an airtight suspension of belief that elevates a player's experience and deepens their immersion in the world in the character design the humans that exist in this world are obviously heavily referenced from life but are imbued with that subtle anime influence that separates you from reality just enough that seeing this guy's hair isn't really as crazy as seeing this thing and in the design of the armor weapons and technology of the world using historical and cultural influences when creating things like armor opens up hundreds of doors for design potential and when you combine that with your established fantasy elements you can create all kinds of cool and unique things what are we here for I mean this is an armor hunter is it no damn it this is monster hunter let's talk about monsters you'd hope that a game focus around monsters would have some incredible designs and Monster Hunter does not disappoint some people say quality over quantity and Monster Hunter says is it too much to ask for both each game is packed with dozens of unique and compelling creatures all of which have a level of thought put into their design that really set a standard for subsequent designs in the genre the designs of the monsters in this game don't just look cool they do what every good video game character design should do convey to a player their role in the game their attacks abilities behavior and so on flaming red Manticore yeah bring a cool drink hey that monster looks like a giant snake oh it attacks like one too check out the armor on this guy I wonder if my attacks will just bounce right at hope yep yeah they do they're easy ways to convey things like this to a player but master hunter isn't lazy it wasn't enough for them to just say I want a t-rex with a sword tail I mean they did that too and it was awesome but they also explored hundreds of concepts and designs to create the monsters that we know today and they did it all with hard work research and a lot of imaginative realism let's talk specifics this is an ogre one of my favorite monsters in the series here's an example of a monster that's a little bit more on the simple side in terms of translating reality into fantasy I think from the point of view of the character designer we'll start with a concept say we got a description from the death of a monster that charges and pounces and summons and generates volts of electricity to attack the player now there are infinite options for design with a concept like this but when thinking of charging and pouncing the first thought for most people would be a predator like a wolf or a large cat the designer might also have tied in the Lightning aspect with a concept for a wolf imagining a massive beast whose howls roared like thunder and commanded the heavens themselves applying these visual motifs to a design means that the artist needed to understand inside and out the anatomy of a wolf not to make the monster that was simply a wolf with electricity powers but a monster that implied the same behavior and physical capabilities of a wolf at times 50 if you understand how wolf muscles look and function you can exaggerate them in a way that fits your design purposes this goes for things like texture - wolves don't have scales but if you know how scales work on different animals you can apply these textures to any surface and have it look believable and don't forget when it comes to things like scales you can't just think lizards crocodiles snakes fish even birds they all have scales and every species has different scales that serve different purposes when adding color it's okay to get crazy every once in a while I mean this is a fictional world after all while most apex predators in our world have colors and patterns that help them camouflage and catch prey we don't need to restrict fantasy designs to those limits this is a video game and if we want to convey to a player before they start to fight something like elemental powers it helps to stick to basic design conditions blue and yellow are colors associated with electricity and boom now we've gone from concept to design to execution and suddenly we have an iconic monster that is at once easy to understand visually pleasing and just downright cool that was listen over but some monsters in this game series gets so crazy that there's really nothing on earth and you can compare them to or is there the val has AK is basically a zombie dragon but how do you create something convincingly real based off of two concepts that don't exist in real life think about it this way dragons in general are kind of an open-ended subjective design and are usually a mix of many different features borrowed from real-life Val Kazak has the head of a viper fish a secondary jaw like an eel twisted talons that reference both birds and lizards wings like a bat and the body and limbs of a predatory quadrupedal mammal like a canine and if you understand anatomy inside and out you can turn it inside out literally if a director wants a convincing zombie they need to know how skin fits over muscle how muscle wraps around bone and how it would all look if you ripped it apart by your bilayer in this case you got to know the anatomy of all of the animals I just mentioned and enough about them to combine them seamlessly so that it all makes sense together and of course we got to add in that extra element of fantasy that wouldn't exist on earth at all like the ability to manipulate a toxic gas and drain the life force from other creatures most of the elder dragons in Monster Hunter follow this process of animal fusion with an additional elemental power as well as tying in some elements from cultural mythology to add another layer of the effect presence the Casal Endora is as baseline dragon as Monster Hunter gets but it's Anatomy still draws from mammals and reptiles on earth unlike the valley Zac though its wings take less from life and more from mythology mimicking European dragon designs dating back from medieval times the Zora Magna Rose is pretty obviously a giant volcano turtle but it's inspired by the Japanese caillou movie genre with a structure that resembles a human in an oversized costume it makes sense considering it's one of the biggest monsters in the franchise and one of the newest monsters the nameö also one of my new favorites in the series in addition to that trademark mammalian reptile hybrid body the Nami L has physical features inspired by sea creatures like rays sea turtles and bioluminescent squids and jellies I mean look at this thing how has this not been used in more fictional creature designs it's basically a Pokemon you see a solid knowledge of our world and the awesome things that live here gives away the unique design options that are not only freaking awesome but fresh and new we can't glaze over the element of paleo art and significance in the Monster Hunter series let's face it dinosaurs are awesome and you don't really need to add much to make this any cooler than it already is but while we're creating some badass beasties why not put a sword on a t-rex tail newer monsters like the Angela and the cool uyoku try a little bit harder to create monsters that actually look like what paleontologists assume dinosaurs would look like but I mean this is monster hunter it's not enough to have a dinosaur that doesn't breathe fire dinosaurs are obviously harder to reference than living animals in fact paleo artists use imaginative realism to create the interpretations of animals that we're familiar with today James gurney uses this as his main expression of imaginative realism using what he knows about our world to what might have been millions of years ago by the way imaginative realism is not the pinnacle style of art direction and it's not what every artist should aspire to create I've said it before but if every character design looked like it was from League of Legends the world would be a really boring place but even in the broad spectrum of realistic design Monster Hunter stands out and appeals to artists and non artists alike it strikes that perfect balance between brilliant fantasy design and convincing realism that's both immersive and compelling if you haven't played any of these games I highly recommend giving at least one of them a shot I know the actual mechanics and play style of the game has a bit of a learning curve but it's worth it just getting a taste of this beautifully crafted world I suck at it but I still enjoy the hell out of it it's fun playing dress-up and meeting awesome monsters and I bet that even if you don't like drawing in the style this game is gonna be the one that makes you want to try thank you guys so much for watching I hope you enjoyed this video if you did please throw me that little thumbs up and subscribe for more we've got the final design for Celeste going up in a video this Sunday as well as the prompt for the next character I'll be designing so look forward to that thanks again guys and I will see you in the next video [Music]

Channel: Subjectively

Views: 398,946

Rating: 4.9491768 out of 5

Keywords: monster hunter, monster hunter world, iceborne, new, art, how to draw, tutorial, video essay, character design, video game art, process

Id: 5HIXzVUZGPo

Length: 13min 59sec (839 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 12 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/Toxitoxi]

Feel like this video could have covered far, far, far more here. Stuff like using real life animal references for various features (like a comb jelly for Namielle’s bioluminescence or a vulture for Anjanath’s color scheme), or designing powers to always have a biological explanation.

It would have been worthwhile to see a comparison of Monster Hunter’s approach with another popular fantasy game just to show what a difference the imaginative realism approach can take.

[u/LurkerGonePublic]

I saw this a few days ago and it just deepened my love and respect for the MH team more.

[u/victorybower]

Taking these stupid fantasy concepts and treating them like real animals is definitely why this is one of my favorite series, and James Gurney with Dinotopia is a perfect comparison.

[u/[deleted]]

I don’t even have to watch the video. I’ve known for years and years that they’ve always been good with that. : ) They my bois...speaking of which if they don’t fix the weapons the bois ain’t gettin dinner.