- Joined
- May 30, 2020
Joel's design was done by AWD/Andrew Dickman. They're a real solid artist and they've worked in professional animation for a while now. Think they actually won an award for their storyboard work on the new Looney Toons reboot iirc. He also did artwork for some of the Channel Awesome personalities back in the day, including Spoony (until Spoony treated him like shit, as he does with everyone). Really wish he could have done the entire crew, because we could have ended up with something like this:I hadn't actually looked at the other designs until now, so I'll go through and review them all, because I have nothing better to do I guess. Also a nice refresher for those that haven't seen any of the designs, or their original concepts.
Already covered Alpharad's design. I didn't know he was friends with Vinny, but still, he feels like a weird inclusion.
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Limes is uh... ignoring the kind of bad art, and looking at the character sheet design, it's still kind of bad. The space furret is kind of cute, but if she's some kind of "space mermaid"... why does she need a helmet? Or is she just supposed to be an alien mermaid, and the helmet's like a fish bowl? It says her helmet's like ship shielding, so I guess she does just swim through space?
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Joel's obviously rocking the Saiyan vibes, and honestly I think I like his design the most. According to his concept sheet, he's a freaky android that can transform, and has butt missiles, so that's neat. Sounds like some thought went into making this one sci-fi.
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Rev, I get he has to have the gas mask, it's his aesthetic, but he looks more like a post-apocalyptic character than a spacey one. But hey, whatever, I can believe he's some bounty hunter or something. Can't find his original concept.
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Desert looks like a fantasy character with a space helmet. Kind of weird, but at least he has a space helmet.
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Okay now we're back to Shesez, and I guess... this is just the "guest outfit"? Like the Assistant from SS13, some custodial uniform. Sure, okay. It being a hoodie, and the same color as Alpharad's, is really weird though. And again, it really just looks like Alpharad put on sunglasses and a hat and now he's Shesez. Do neither of them have really defining mascots or traits to be used in a design? At least his mitten hands aren't horrifyingly deformed like Alpharad's.
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Dorb's got... spacey, techy things, I guess? He's definitely suffering the same "we enlisted an artist that draws fantasy characters, not sci-fi ones" issue as Desert.
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I mean just look, his concept designer (and like Limes, the concept art looks a lot better than the finished product?) made all this for Vine Realms last year. Dorb's and Desert's designs would fit right at home here.
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Actually while we're talking about Desert, here's his concept sheet... and he looks more sci-fi-ish! Weird, maybe just the artstyle/colors of the final piece makes me think fantasy.
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Here's Fred. He uh. Is Fred. Does he have a wingsuit? Is he Batman? I can't find Cheesy's concept art of him, so they might not have posted that publicly. I'm getting the impression as some sort of community project, every artist made a concept, but had another one draw the final piece? Since every one of these has "Designed by:" and "Final product by:" and none of them are the same, except the two guest streamers, who were both designed and made by Cheesy? Maybe I'm looking too far into this. Point is, Fred's incredibly bland. Aside from the weird fins and wingsuit though, his outfit's sci-fi enough I guess? Not really spacey, but whatever.
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The sauce boss. He looks fine. Nothing outlandish, he looks like a space crew member, fits Vinny just fine. His floating hat's a little weird, I just thought it was falling off in the art, but apparently it floats.
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GreatZott. Big fan. He's actually an astronaut! We went through how many characters before one of these showed up? Plus he reminds me of the walking corpses in that one Doctor Who episode, so that's cool. Why couldn't the guest characters be in astronaut outfits like this? No concept art, but the final design is fine enough.
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It's Ross. I guess maybe Cheesy isn't to blame for the design of the guests then? At least Ross looks like he's in a jumpsuit, not just a poorly colored hoodie, so it's definitely Cheesy's fault that the other two look so bad.
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Gearomatic. Looks like a cosmic entity, solid design.
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Jeff... VidyaBum. We're back to the fantasy-itis. Or, I guess since this was the first one announced, this is where it started? Also Cheesy drew this one? Sheesh, really must hate that they had to draw Alpharad and Shesez, this is way better than them. I was gonna say this isn't Halloween... but it's Jeff, so I guess a spooky design can be forgiven. But why a swamp monster? Cause vines? I can't find his initial design either, I guess because it was a collab, was the same with Zott.
tl;dr
I expected to be horrified by most of the designs after seeing Alphrad, Limes, and Shesez, but honestly most of them aren't that bad. I mean, a few are, but with this many artists scrambling around that's inevitable.
Personal favorites from the designs? Gear's, Joel's, and Dorb's.
Wonder if Jerma will at least make a cameo for VineWrestle. Would feel wrong if he didn't.
