I am going to start this blog off with a quick post answering the most commonly asked question about splash art: “What is it? How do I get it? Do I need to worry about it?”
Splash art comes in two varieties. The first type of splash art, which I will call ‘base splash art’ for lack of a better name, is the artwork that goes on the bottom left of your champion page. This is the splash art that Riot uses in promotional material and official media. The second type of splash art, which I will call ‘in-game splash art,’ is the artwork that shows up when you hover over your champion portrait in game. Some champions have base and in-game splashes, but not all.
I made a chart to show you how much space each champion has on their page for both types of splash art:
Champion name Base Splash In-game Splash Additional Information About Champions Sizes Champion Page Size Ahri 758x529px 585x507px 155x112px Champion Page – Small Alistar 693x440px 563x460px 108x126px Champion Page – Medium Amumu 602x524px 544x522px 83x66pix Champion Page – Large
In short: Splash art is the art you see before you start a game. It is not part of the game itself, but it is usually created by the same artist. It is just a fancy title screen. There’s no point in getting upset about it.
The first question that comes up in discussions about splash art is: does it matter? Is it worth discussing or complaining about? Well, yes and no. In most cases, splash art doesn’t matter at all. Sometimes an interesting piece of splash art might contribute to your enjoyment of a game, but often it will just be some random artwork with no particular relationship to the game itself. But a lot of people take splash art very seriously, and there are companies who put out games with a lot of effort put into their splash art. So it’s worth understanding what it is and what to expect from it.
So, you have a novel. Or maybe it’s not so novel. Maybe it’s a sequel, or the third book in a series. You’ve done your research, you know what the market is looking for. Your writing is good, you’re getting some good reviews, and you’re starting to get noticed by agents and editors.
Thing is, you want to make sure your book stands out from all the others. You want to grab your reader by the eyeballs and not let go until they’ve finished reading the last page. And one of the best ways to do that is with splash art.
What is splash art? Splash art, also known as cover art or jacket art, is the artwork that goes on your book’s cover or jacket. It’s essential, because this is how most people are going to see your book when browsing through their favorite bookstore (or online).
Splash art can be high fantasy or urban fantasy or science fiction or steampunk–whatever genre you write, there are artists out there who will be able to develop an amazing piece of splash art for you. But how do you find these artists? Where do you even start looking for them?
Splash art is a term used to describe the image that appears on the loading screen for a champion. Splash art can show off a champions appearance, their personality, or just be something cool and fun.
Splash art was created to help players get excited about playing a new champion by showing off their appearance and personality. The splash art team at Riot is made up of artists, who work with the Design Team to create and implement new splash arts for champions. Although splash art was originally only intended for loading screens, over the years it has expanded to include other promotional uses such as login screens and champion select banners.
Tropes in Splash Art:
Smiling: A lot of times when making splash arts, Riot artists will try to make sure that the champion looks like they are happy or having fun. This helps set the tone for other champions or skins you may use that are based on the one you are currently using. It also makes your champion feel more alive because they are enjoying themselves while playing.
Pose: Another thing that is done in splash arts is trying to have them make sense with the character’s personality. One example of this is Lux, who is shown in her “tomboy” stance from her original splash art rather than her current
Splash art is the image that appears when you first boot up a game, also known as the logo screen. When designing this splash art, there are two things that make your life difficult:
1) You’ve got to get people hooked on your game in under 10 seconds.
2) Your audience has widely varying preferences and may be distracted at first by other windows or applications on their computer.
Splash art can be difficult to design: it’s short, needs to be visually interesting, and a good logo should be self-explanatory. While this blog won’t help you with making a good logo, it will explain some of the pitfalls of splash art and will hopefully clear up some common misconceptions about them.
Splash art is a term used in the industry to describe the art that appears on the cards of Magic: The Gathering. The artist is given a brief description of what they are asked to create. Sometimes it’s an illustration of a character, sometimes it’s an action scene, sometimes it’s something else. They are also given an example of what sort of image would be acceptable (or unacceptable) based on the current standards of Magic: The Gathering and Wizards of the Coast.
Splash art appears on the back of cards, so called because these images used to appear on the reverse side of tournament level card-stock before Magic began using card-sleeves. Nowadays, Wizards has begun producing their cards with different artwork on each side, allowing two different artists to showcase their work without decreasing the overall quality and value of the product.
Splash art or the “splash” is the image that appears on a page when you view a card in MTGO. Splash art is often the first impression players get of a card. In many cases, it’s the only impression they’ll get of a card.
Splash Art is also an opportunity to convey information about the world and lore of magicthegathering.com. A good splash conveys some additional information about a card that might not be immediately obvious from the rules text.
Splash art must communicate all of this at a glance and be clear, appropriate for all ages, and support Wizards’ brand values as well as the goals of Magic Online.
**I hope that you have found this blog useful. I am going to attempt to cover more topics in future blogs, so if you have any questions please post them in the comments section below and I will do my best to answer them. Also please feel free to leave any suggestions or criticisms in the comments below. I will read them all and try to use what works and improve on what doesn’t!
Await my next post with bated breath! 🙂