Art Style Research

After deciding that I wanted my art style for this game to take some of its inspiration from a Cel Shaded art style I have decided to look at games which use it really well within their games.

One of the games that I used as an example before which uses Cel Shading as an art is Afro Samurai. When researching this game I am particularly looking at the building design and the environment design which the art team has created in conjunction with the design of the environment.
Unlike the television series which uses a manga art style, The Afro Samurai video game uses a unique Cel shaded effect which has been overlayed with dark/dirty textures giving it a distinct and original style

Afro Samurai -

The Afro Samurai video game is an over the top action packed animated adventure which is based on the television series. The game follows an afro-donning, cigarette smoking samurai who is voiced by Samuel L. Jackson, on a relentless mission to avenge the murder of his father. 

This beautiful graphic style is used throughout the game engaging the player by showing the story through graphic novel style storyboarding sequences.

I really like this image below which I found whilst researching the art style of Afro Samurai. However I wasn't sure if the image was from the game or a piece of fan art, either way I really liked the composition of the piece and also the lighting of the scene.

In particular these are some of the images which I found related more to what style I wanted to look at whilst producing my video game. These are screen stills which demonstrate the games building and environment design.

This last image is a perfect example of how the Cel Shaded style has been used as a texture for the in game models. The style they have used may be simple but it is aesthetically pleasing. This can also be seen in the rest of the images throughout the post.