Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Adolf Lachman and MACHINARIUM

Vast desolate urban environments overrun by technology are going to become a recurring theme with me, just so you know.

This image is actually a screenshot from Machinarium - an indie flash-based game developed by a tiny Czech company Amanita Design which is basically ten people + a metric ton of talent. The man specifically responsible for this image and the overall look of the game is Adolf Lachman (http://www.adolflachman.cz/ - fair warning: the site is in Czech).

Lachman's work, including this piece is created by penciling a very detailed layout first, then scanning it in and coloring it on the computer. The end result is a combination of intricate details of this dusty, worn, succumbing-to-rust-and-decay world of technology and the soft organic shapes of everything inside of it. Look close enough and you’ll notice there are very few truly straight lines in the image – even the rails jitter a little. This evidence of the artist’s hand really changes the feel of the world. Bleak and eery as it may be, it is not hostile – not to the tiny robot character, not to the player controlling him. It’s a puzzle to be solved, not an enemy to be defeated, or evaded.


Check out the demo for Machinarium here: http://machinarium.net/demo/

Through occasional promotions, the game itself is sometimes available dirt cheap, and even when it isn't, it'd still worth buying, if only for the breathtaking visuals (that's why I bought it anyway).

3 comments:

  1. I have noticed your recurring theme of desolate urban environments. This piece is very interesting to me. I love the little robot right outside the door. The piece is filled with very nice detail.

    ReplyDelete
  2. This illustration makes the world in this image giant and industrialized. This too is another good example of illustration, actually achieving a sense of whats trying to be made known. There is a unique style, especially with the human characters, but what I think jumps out the most for me is the buildings. They seem to have a personality of there own, or at least they are highlighted (that first brown building, I love the detail and color).

    ReplyDelete
  3. the detail and texture used here are awesome. i love illustrations that manage to capture a specific setting as well as this one does.

    ReplyDelete