Albert Truong

What do you think about his sketch?
http://i0.wp.com/www.beyondsims.com...esize=325%2C484

Albert said "These characters, what we’re trying to go for, is a little bit of a sexier, cooler, design, a little more appealing. Something more on the painterly effect, but we didn’t want to go towards a realistic thing and get into an uncanny valley.


Well these are Sims were making, so they gotta look good. We’ve put a lot of thought into the color and design of the characters, a lot of lightning for the characters, and a little bit of story telling as well. For instance, if you take a look at her, she’s probably a teen rockstar or a musician trying to get into a band or something.


We pulled a lot of inspiration from animated films, from american illustrators, to get that pseudo painterly effect. And we’re hoping that all of these come together, to show the fans something they have never seen before in any of the other iterations of the Sims."

source: simsvip and beyondsims

You can find some of his artwork on his portfolio. and his linkedin account.

His experience says he worked on the sims division for almost 3 yrs.

Lead Concept Artist
EA
Public Company; 5001-10,000 employees; ERTS; Computer Games industry
August 2010 – Present (2 years 11 months)

Concept Artist responsible for VIsual Development within the SIMS division.


Another guy who work on The Sims 4.

Tony Ianiro

I think in the next Live Broadcast(July 09) they will introduce this guy. According to his experiences he started working on TS4 on April 2010 (3yrs and 3months). Other project he did for EA are LOTR Conquest and Mercs 2.

Mercs 2 was released on August 2008. Imagine if sims can look as good or maybe better because its 2013 now.

http://web-vassets.ea.com/Assets/Ri...g?cb=1334003819


Concept Artist / Visual Development
Electronic Arts
Public Company; 5001-10,000 employees; ERTS; Computer Games industry
April 2010 – Present (3 years 3 months) Redwood Shores

The Sims 4

• Created full environment paintings using Maya and Photoshop.
• Created stylized concept art of houses (exterior and interior), world objects, interior objects and vehicles for in house and outsourcing.
• Created concept art for every build piece in the game.
• Hand painting textures in Photoshop CS5 and helped to create the overall “look” of the game
• Collaborated with designers, world builders, 3D artists to create environments
• Helped teach other concept artists on the team how to create accurate drawings and designs for architecture using Maya and Photoshop.

source: his linkedin accountand portfolio

The sketch looks nice. It might just be me, but it seems to have a somewhat anime styling to it (which, being an anime fan, might be part of what appeals to me).

However, I'm wary about drawing conclusions based on a single concept sketch. I'll wait till I see some actual in-game 3D models.

i like the pic in your avatar better.

regards,
- jesus.

I can't really tell anything from one sketch, but I really liked Albert and his laid-back enthusiasm.

I don't know how that drawing translates to TS4. I mean it's to little to see a whole game from it. I am sure the concept art drawings for TS1, TS2, and TS3 were just as nicely executed.

Well,the sketch doesn't mean anything for me.It just a drawing,that does not reveal true look of ts4 sims.Thats all I can say about it.So June 18 live chat dissapoint me.I was hopping to see something more than crazy dude with his sketch

The sketch is basically what you would find at any art show at a sci-fi or gaming convention. it tells us nothing about the Sims 4.

I suspect the reason they showed us this sketch, rather than some in game screenshots is because the Sims 4 is not a significant improvement over the Sims 3. Since they are planning on doing a big roll out of the game in two months, it is fair to say that the ingame graphics are much further along than a concept art sketch. That is, to say, the actual sims undoubtedly exist at this time. Screenshots can be made. One then has to ask why EA is playing this cat and mouse game with us.

For me, the answer is pretty obvious: If EA actually showed us what the sims in the Sims 4 look like, we would not be impressed. In fact, most of us would be disappointed. Much better to show us a sketch of a hot chick with a bare midriff.

I like the sketch and I appreciate that they're trying not to get into Uncanny Valley. Unfortunately, that top suggests our female sims will still be shopping at Midriffs R' Us. I wouldn't mind a few of those as long as they don't make every single female top in CAS like that. This isn't the 90s.

That said, her hair and boots look fabulous!

While that is a nice sketch, it's just a sketch. That tells us little about their direction. Besides the fact that someone on the Sims team has an overt fetish for midriffs.

Seriously, do they get off to navels or SVLs (Sexy V-Lines)?

I don't think the sketch tells us much, concept sketches seldom look like what ends up in the game.

The first impression that hit me is it looks a lot like the sims style in the Patrick Kelly mockups. I had to go back through the pics to see why I get that impression, and I noticed that sketch does bear a strong resemblance to the sim with the 2-tone hair in this Sims 4 Olympus mockup pic:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/simsvi...60071/lightbox/

Maybe coincidence?

I'm still intrigued. My daughter just peeked over my shoulder and commented that the sketch looked a bit like an Urbz Sim. That hair, though, might still be flat in-game. That's a minus to me.

I don't care about the midriff just as long as our modders can have a bit of fun with it.

But still "intrigued" isn't quite what EA would want, I believe. EA wants us to CRAVE this game. They did toss us a couple of bones, but they're rather puny ones. Barely enough for a doggie appetizer!

And yes, now I DO wonder if Mr. Kelly's sketches are real. The style in the drawing does resemble those in the mockups.

Looking at them both now, yeah, they really do look like the same sim. I think quite a lot of us will be disappointed if the mock ups are a lot like the actual game, though. I know I will anyway. IMO it looks too much like the sims social or another online game based around dating and relationships. But that's just what I think.

The sketch was cool, I guess, but didn't really make me excited at all. They shouldn't have even announced TS4 if all we are gonna get til August is a concept sketch (which means nothing) and a picture of three eyes which is most likely a render.

On the other hand, wow, GnatGoSplat, the concept art looks a lot like that one sim, even down to the bracelets and necklace. It seems like, from everything we've seen, that the hair is gonna be blocky like that. (Which reminds me a lot of early TS2's hair, but then again, they changed the hair there, so they might for TS4 as well)

i just hate the fact that it could be anime inspired

I hope I'm wrong, but I was also thinking that, by waiting until the conference to show the actual Sims in detail, EA can also show us the actual gameplay and other new shiny features of the overall game with the belief that we'd be too distracted and in awe to care what the Sims look like. But what they need to realize it that the appearance of the Sims matters a huge deal. We'll see soon enough!

This worries me. I really hope not. Leave the blocks for The Sims 1. I want smooth, silky hair that will make the makers of Garnier Fructis envious.

@Christmas,,, Same, I don't think I'm going to like to direction of the new sims, oh well time will tell. Hopefully we wont be too disappointed.

@ Frankie right! I want that Rich, Radiant Hair

What I notice about this sketch is that it looks like the Patrick Kelly mockups. And one thing that I think is true of both of them is that the sims don't really look like there's much facial difference going on between them, and that the art style doesn't seem conducive to faces that aren't all very similar. I feel like this style could, rather than making sims look the same due to "pudding," make them look the same just because the style isn't versatile enough. They look too cartoonish to give real depth, and that could significantly hinder the fun of creating sims--I'd rather sims to have faces that work in the same basic way as humans, and these don't do that enough, IMO.

We just have to wait and see the skins and textures. The concept art is just...well...art.

I find your lack of otaku love disturbing

So if I want to make an innocent, quirky, nerd-like character with no fashion sense whatsoever, they have to be sexy as well? *is bummed out*.

Yeah -- if they're all sexy and smirking and midriff-y like that one, I'm gonna stick with TS2 (again). I prefer the sims in the "Eyes" banner to this concept sketch. Is she pretty? Yes. But like EmotedLlama said, the mockups/previews don't have much facial/expressional difference. I don't want a town full of outgoing, beautiful sims. I want a variety of characters, with a variety of personalities, and all I've seen so far is the type of outgoing, quirky, cute/pretty characters that cater to one group of people rather than multiple groups of people.

TL;DR: Sticking to TS2 if all the sims in TS4 are like that. Also, really hoping that this isn't a sign that all the clothes have exposed midriffs. Male sims with exposed midriffs is a bit too much for me. Give me "100% ridiculous" over "100% sexy" any day. But that's just my opinion.

Anyways -- this is just promotional art. It's not even a graphics concept. It's a sketch. I'll judge the game when I see the preview (and after it's released).

Wow, everyone is really reading a lot into one pic with an exposed midriff. Even if this would be an EXACT representation of what Sims would look like, it's still just one shirt. I'm sure there will be a bunch of options, and it will be just as possible to make non-sexy sims (if that's your thing).

I just want Albert to become an in-universe Sim... he brings so much personality into the Live Broadcast.

But overall the drawing isn't Anime-styled ... in fact, its a Fusion of Anime and Western Comic Book styled...

I just hope there is some sort of realisim in the Sims 4 even if its Sims 2 realism with an extra kick I'll be okay with it...

I think of all the "stylized realism" graphics I've seen people mention in various threads, The Walking Dead "survivors" (not the zombies - not interested in them!) have the most unique and characterful appearance. Those graphics look like you could make very individualized sims.

What worries me is that the girl in the concept art looks like the girl sitting on the right of the leaked images from Patrick Kelly. Look at the hair, the clothes and the jewellery. What if the UI is the same as the one in the leaks?

Concept art from EA:


Patrick Kelly's leaked image: