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Art 3160 Assignment #2 - Alan Lee vs. Tetsuya Nomura
Alan Lee is a British concept artist, known for his illustrations for many fantasy novels, includingThe Lord of The Rings. Prior to 1997 he was best know for his illustrations on the cover of the hardback, one-volume edition of The Lord of The Rings. In 1997 he was brought on board, by director Peter Jackson, to do the concept work for The Lord of The Rings films (2001-2003). His distinct and fantastic style of art, combined with long months of constant sketching and coloring, is what resulted in the films’ authentic and lived-in look and feel.
Japanese video game concept artist Tetsuya Nomura is best know for his character designs. He broke into the limelight with the release of Final Fantasy VII (1997). Some consider this game to be the greatest video game of all time. As a major part of that game is character conflict and progression, Tetsuya’s character designs were definitely a key asset. Carrying the Final Fantasy VII fame, he went on to design character for many more Final Fantasy games, and eventually worked up to directing the Kingdom Hearts series. His latest work is character design for the the greatly anticipated games in the Fabula Nova Crystallis Final Fantasy XIII, 3-game series for Sony PlayStation 3.
Alan Lee’s work is more rooted in a realistic old-world England. While Tetsuya’s work tend to exist in completely fantastic setting, which bare no resemblance to reality. Even though The Lord of The Rings (LotR) is a fictional fantasy piece, it hopes to achieve something different than the Final Fantasy might. LotR aims to supply England with a much needed mythology. So it’s approach in its various story and fantastic elements, need to be more believable that anything in Final Fantasy. Tetsuya Nomura has more fantastic freedom with the Final Fantasy series. And his character designs definitely reflect this. Another discerning element is their cultural influences. Tetsuya is a Japanese artist, so his character designs and character costumes are more influenced by this factor. Some of the elements include obvious Japanese race-types, and a greater use of bright colors and abstract and modern designs. The sense of history is lost in the sterility of his character designs. Even his attempt at grungy steam-punk, was relatively cleaner and more polished than anything you might see in LotR.
The characters in LotR all feel real. Even a walking tree feels real and feasible when portrayed by Alan Lee. However, one of the goals with LotR was to fulfill the sense that the environments and various cultures were old and ancient. Even the Elves left you with a sense that they had been in existence for millennia.
Another element in differentiating their work, is the ultimate application of the concept arts. Tetsuya Nomura’s designs must be strong enough to work for very longs periods of time. Some of the games he has designed character for, like Final Fantasy VIII, have stories that stretch for an easy 60 hrs. His accomplishment is really in the character’s ability to remain interesting up to and past this very large amount of time. Alan Lee must portray a large degree of emotion and information for a much shorter period of time. Much less screen-time is given to film characters. A sketch Alan Lee might spend a week on, will most likely last for a mere, yet very necessary, 10-15 seconds on film. The question is who has the greater challenge.
Tetsuya Nomura and Alan Lee are arguably two of the most important and influential concept artists in video games and film, respectively. They are two of my personal favorite artist in the entertainment industry, as they have aided in the creation of my two favorite franchises. They have definitely influenced my work as an artist and creative thinker. I only hope to aspire to a fraction of their creative greatness.
