Bit o' new Desktop Art

jtr7 on 21/2/2008 at 06:13

Over-zealous is fine as long as it's clean fun and tempered with a reality check, so you're doing fine. I would like to believe there's a storage compartment loaded with all this stuff, but that's too optimistic, yes. I'd also like to believe there's a big spool or backup tape of large, hi-res digital copies of the media. (http://web.archive.org/web/20000711002840/http://www.advancedlink.com/lgs_auction.html) We know the computer towers were all sold off.:(

The Magpie on 21/2/2008 at 06:21

I temper my realism with wishfulness. ;)

But come to think of it, who is the cover artist, really? Robb Waters or Dan Thron?

--
L.

jtr7 on 21/2/2008 at 07:21

Having not found the specific clue that would give the proper credit, the closest I've found in the first five minutes of searching is this:

"Daniel Thron is easily fascinated by large, brightly colored objects. He also likes jokes about monkeys and slacks.
Cutscene Art & Animation, Product Art"

From here: (http://www.thief-thecircle.com/darkproj/band.html) http://www.thief-thecircle.com/darkproj/band.html

Nothing definitive, yet. I have a nagging suspicion I've read something somewhere maybe.
-----------------
The next five minutes produced this:

"Artists for Thief 1 and Thief 2 included:
Mark Lizotte (T1: Lead Artist; T2: Lead Artist)
Dan Thron (T1: cutscene direction, art, & animation; manual illustrations; T2: ...)
Jennifer Hrabota{-Lesser} (T1: cutscenes; 3D modeling; ...; T2: ...)
Robb Waters (T1: ...)
Steve Caniff (T1: "additional art")
Erin Coughlan (T1: "additional art"; cutscenes)
Nate Wells (T1: "additional art"; cutscenes)
Brennan Priest (T1: "additional art")
Marlon Carlo Violette (T1: "additional art"; cutscenes)
Matt Gilpin (T1 Gold: new textures and art...)
Karen Wolff (T2: briefings ...)
Neil Forman (T2: cutscene animation; ...)
Fred Galpern (T2: cutscene producer)
Ross Spiller (T2: briefings animator; ...)
David Stoupakis (T2: box art)"

From here: (http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?p=155840#post155840) http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?p=155840#post155840
------------
Hmmm. If this is correct, we have our best guess for that image:

"Daniel Thron
Cutscene art and animation, box art, maps, particle system effects, voices"

From here: (http://www.thief-thecircle.com/guides/unusual/) http://www.thief-thecircle.com/guides/unusual/

Specter on 21/2/2008 at 07:29

Didnt somebody restore the original Thief website? I dont remember where it was, but I suspect that it would be a good place to start looking for specific team members and their responsibilities... assuming that was ever on the site.

EDIT
Bingo!
(http://www.thief-thecircle.com/darkproj/band.html)

Best guess from this information is that Mark Lizotte would know, as he was lead artist, however your quote about Thron is here too, so I dont know what to think. Though maybe we should be looking at the artists from DS since they would have been the last to handle the material...

EDIT 2

Ok, found an interview with him from 2005. Not terribly recent, but not terribly old. If Rustmonkey still exists, then thats where he is.
The interview can be found at (http://www.stephenkingshortmovies.com/) in the interviews section.

"Dan Thron: I currently live in Boston, and make movies primarily for the videogame business, doing the ads and 'cutscenes'-- the (usually animated) cinematics that advance the story between levels of gameplay. I did the movies for Eidos' 'Thief' series for PC and Playstation, as well as work for 'Neverwinter Nights' (a Dungeons and Dragons license) and many others.

For the past 4 of those years, I've co-owned and ran an animation and effects company called Rustmonkey ((www.rustmonkey.com)), with the aim of making features. "

Specter on 21/2/2008 at 07:47

I guess we've crossed paths! And I think that Mr. Thron is certainly the man to be speaking to, given what you found, and what I 'found' after you. I tried looking for the book, but no luck yet. If there was a certain title in German, I think I'll need it if Im ever going to find anything. I'll keep digging for a bit, but sleep may soon overtake me.

EDIT

Ive also crossed into the realm of regular member here at TTLG. Its a monumental day!

jtr7 on 21/2/2008 at 07:49

:laff: :laff:

That's great.

Specter on 21/2/2008 at 07:55

Alright, so not speaking german has not slowed me down. Ive found this:
(http://www.eidos.de/gss/legacy/loebu/index.html?id=20)
BUT, unfortunately, the picture they show there is not the one we're dealing with here. There must be a different version...

The Magpie on 21/2/2008 at 07:57

The best link I see between the box art and the cutscenes - not necessarily mission briefings, but I don't see why not - is IMO the drawing style of (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:TDPgarret.png) Garrett in the chair, meeting Viktoria & C. What do you think?

I've spent some time researching this myself, concurrently with you two taffers ;) , but Thumper's credits eluded me. Good job! Maybe one could get a confirmation from somebody?

--
L.

Beleg Cúthalion on 21/2/2008 at 08:16

My scanner is this monster:

Inline Image:

http://i.pricerunner.com/prod/16_3_10_10_568401l/Canon_PIXMA_MP830.jpeg ...and I doubt that it is it's fault. You must have quite more than an artwork to see significant changes in today's scanners differences I guess.

However the original quality of the image won't get better if I do it again, I could only try to make it smaller so that those printing irritations vanish because I fear you cannot take them out if they're too big (or at least no one here has). Meanwhile, I already posted (http://s2.directupload.net/images/080216/tacetwo8.jpg) this one* from the TMA guide; one of my favourites.

So, with polished glass but without any changes on the image itself:
(http://jayb.ath.cx/Eidos/Clocktower_200dpi.jpg) 200 DPI
(http://jayb.ath.cx/Eidos/Clocktower_400dpi.jpg) 400 DPI
I'm almost surprised I was right about the worse Moiré effect on higher dpi value. The little white circles are there and so is this "printing structure" causing the patterns, but unless you ask the designers himself...this way you can also bother Krypt about this unpublished Kurshok artwork he spoke of because he hasn't answered my PM yet. ;)

@Specter: This is the Thief Gold guide which I however don't posses. But a friend of mine has it and maybe I'll pay him a visit during the next few weeks.

*directupload shrinks the filesize so if you want this one, too, I'd have to give it a place on the server as well.

The Magpie on 21/2/2008 at 09:15

Funny thing I observed while comparing that high-res version of the tower climb with MG's web-dpi version of the (http://www.mobygames.com/game/windows/thief-the-dark-project/cover-art/gameCoverId,12620/) box cover flip (hey look, it was posted by TTLG member CheshireCat) - the latter somehow appears more detailed. But then again, it's not really the same picture, either. Pay attention to the lining up between the hammer stained glass window and Garrett's hood and quiver in the two versions.

Maybe an amalgamation could still be possible.

--
L.