Dragon Age: Inquisition - Vivienne Artwork

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The Bioware Blog has posted the next Character Kit this time sharing new information, and artwork on a new companion called Vivienne.

To Vivienne, there are no impractical clothes, only impractical people. Her magnificent attire is a sign of her station, the jewel of the high court of Orlais where wealth, power, and beauty are inextricably linked.

A thousand arrows would pierce her breast before Vivienne would don beaten steel for so base an urge as protection. If one must wear armor, then have it flatter the form. Hide it beneath fine fabrics more becoming of one’s status, for steel alone will not protect you from the barbed tongues of Orlais.

To dress for comfort or purpose is a scandal—fashion and splendor are all that matter to Vivienne. Shower yourself in gold, let only the finest silks grace your skin, and wear a king’s ransom in pearls and silver upon your feet. Leave the stained tunics and rough cloaks to the commoners and their mud farms–a proper Orlesian climbs mountains in her evening gown, standing taller at the summit in her formidable high-heeled shoes.

Download the guide here

Reference
Vivienne Front
Vivienne Back
Vivienne Head (front)
Vivienne Head (profile)
Vivienne Back (details)
Vivienne Waist
Vivienne Boot
Vivienne Hand
More information.
 
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I thought this might be a joke at first. I'm currently shopping online for my daughter, turning 6 years old soon, and this sounds very close tothe many descriptions I've been reading for Monster High dolls. :p
 
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I'm afraid it's not a joke as this is the third post for Bioware fans who love Cosplay. ;)

I don't really care about it at all, but I am interested in the model renders. You get to see what your companions will look like in the new game engine.

Vivienne_front.jpg
 
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Maleficent!

It's the Maleficent hat alright. The original concept artwork of Vivienne, however:

Vivienne_Cover.jpg


was probably heavily influenced by Sile de Tansarville (Sheala de Tancarville) in The Witcher II:

witcher2201109011254137.jpg


The combination of this hat (the shape!) and a high collar is fairly unusual (The Witcher's art style mixes and matches various styles, mostly from 1200-1500) and was copied with some modifications. One of the most noticeable changes was turning Sile's fairly 'dark' dress in a 'light' (white and gold) one.
(irony: a 'white' sorceress was dressed in dark, while DA:I gets a 'black' sorceress dressed in white ;))
In the final model, it seems, the hat was replaced by one copied from Maleficent and the dress was simultaneously simplified and exaggerated.
However, it's possible that we're looking at two different dresses, in which case Vivienne's look copies that of both Maleficent and Sile de Tansarville.

Anyway, Maleficent's hat itself is derived from earlier fantasy art, but the track 'gets cold' before 1950.

boris-dolgov-weird-tales-may.jpeg


Bio's artists have a tendency to copy currently popular stuff, so I suspect we'll find more, erm, 'homages' once they release more DA:I vids and pictures
 
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@Fluffyhotep

I'm not sure how you go from Sile's look to Vivienne's look to claims that it's a copy. Vivienne's look was inspired from Maleficent (dev confirmed it last PAX), along with renaissance and medieval attire designs (which were used for Sile too).
 
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@Fluffyhotep

I'm not sure how you go from Sile's look to Vivienne's look to claims that it's a copy. Vivienne's look was inspired from Maleficent (dev confirmed it last PAX), along with renaissance and medieval attire designs (which were used for Sile too).

I didn’t claim that Vivienne’s look is a copy, although I did say Bio’s artists copy things that are currently popular (as do many videogame artists).
Artists in any AAA videogame rarely copy things 1:1, rather, they copy things they see in game X and combine it with something from game Y or ‘historical’ costume Z. Quality of implementation and perception by the audience varies. For instance, I like the concept art (influences: Sile's hat / collar + 18th century uniform coat + 'generic' fantasy pauldrons and boots / greaves) but think the final model to be hideously fugly – even if they are somewhat similar. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, tastes differ and all that.

Having said that, I stand by the fact that the collar + hat (in both Sile and Maleficent’s case) is sufficiently unusual, and sufficiently recently ‘popular’ (a successful AAA fantasy CRPG and a much-publicised Disney movie) to indicate that both are deliberate copyings. As is admitted in the Maleficent case.

As for medieval and renaissance influences…well, there’s direct and indirect influences in videogames. In most cases, it’s indirect I think (artists copying artists from the same or other media, like film, tv, fantasy pen & paper books, covers etc.), rather than directly from the historical source material. In the latter case, there’s a much stronger similarity in look and function with the original inspiration. Indirect borrowings, by way of artists copying artists copying artists, have a tendency to ‘evolve away’ from the original, which can lead to crazy, improbable designs. This is not necessarily the same as extravagant and a bit over the top but still functional design – just look at late medieval plate armour codpieces…:blush:

Sometimes the direct copying is very literal – DA:O had some decorative textures for textiles and woodwork that seem to have been taken 1:1 from photos, and DA2 had a ‘hnalla’ statue that was slightly modified from a picture of a 1920-30s art deco statue of a deer. However, this kind of copying is not unusual in videogames, you can find plenty of examples elsewhere.
It only becomes scandalous when it concerns, say, the picture of a beloved character that until then was only seen masked ;)
 
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The headpiece does provide a convenient housing for the short wave radio set.
 
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