CGI Vs Hand-drawn

as long as the aesthetic is wholistic, in that every art component fits every other art component, there shouldnt be any complaints

CGI and hand-drawn can look however you want it to. In both cases there are good and bad examples of this.

You can't just say one is better than the other, It's all about presentation.

In my opinion, I wouldn't shoot for a realistic approach like the examples you have...I'd stylize it. Use cel shaders. Try flattening out the textures so that it's more like a cartoon (and a lot easier to render) Stretch out the caricatures a bit. Your pics look like the bad end of the Uncanny Valley (if you don't know what that is, look it up).

We all know the "look" of hand-drawn, but consider the CGI examples of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, Storm Hawks (show), League of Super Evil (show), even Family Guy (in certain scenes). All great presentations of CGI, NOT going for a realistic look.

Hope this helps.

I am of the opinion that unless you are a highly-respected CGI innovator working for a high-end cutting edge company like Pixar, then leave it alone for production purposes. Sure, if you want to play around and learn go ahead. Unless you can match the current CGI expectations, it's gonna look like crap.

The nice thing about 2D is that it's been around forever, and due to so many styles, there is a much broader interpretation of what is "good."

Personally, I'd rather see correctly proportioned rendered 3d characters than weak attempts at realistic drawings/paintings. Using something like Poser is a way for a shoestring budget to look more expensive.

My other observation relates to something that bugs me with a lot of CCG art: contrast and varied layouts/cors is really important for a player to quickly recognize things and speeds up the learning curves. I'm not not going to a gallery; I'm playing a game.

I have actually addressed this question in the past and can see that, based on the responses of users, your posted images have created and absolutely predictable response.

CGI Images of this STYLE (the key here) lacks meaningful impact. Images created in this STYLE force feed the players imagination and lack the detailed and emotional undertones of hand drawn work.

Artwork that renders to such accuracy, without even a modest offering of drama or flare is perceived as flat and, to be blunt, real. It offers nothing to feed the mind of the viewer.

Had you chosen CGI that are CURRENTLY on magic cards, on the covers of board games or a variety of other media you would have elicited an entirely different response from these posters. Style, as we see in these unimaginative and flat images, is everything when making a CGI offering.

We do not become immersed in the world and mechanics of a designer when it so cloyingly resembles our own world. Asking a potential gamer to become immersed or intrigued by these images would be akin to asking a gamer to play a game that involves complex geometry. These images betray any possible creativity or imagination by lacking those very traits.

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