CGHub Is Gone - An Industry Standard For Concept Art Disappears Overnight

The entire concept art community has been shocked to learn that CGHub, a website born out of necessity following the downfall of Conceptart.org a few years ago is now gone forever. Following a DDOS attack and a hack that redirected the website to Cghugs.com, the website made the announcement that it would be closing it's doors for good yesterday.

The entire mess spawned from a subset of users who were incredibly vocal and unhappy with the website announcing that it would roll out premium accounts to raise funds for the website, which had never charged it's users for their service. I actually paid for an account willingly as they've allowed us to discover many talented artists to feature over the years, so giving something back was warranted.

What surprised us was that the roll out of a premium feature prompted some serious backlash that we witnessed on social media by high profile artists, accusing CGhub of having 'sold out' among some truly negative language pointed their way. Could the premium featured have been better though out? Sure. Was the reaction completely blown out of proportion? Absolutely.

A few days ago we received an unexpected refund for the premium account, around the same time the website went down in an apparent hacker attack. While people were initially confused at first, rumors started to circle about the fate of the website following rumors of financial difficulties and the founders being fed up with the attitudes some users had taken towards them making money off the website. If anything this entire experience just saddened me, as the discussions I saw on social media just showed off how self entitled some artists I really admired were. I won't give out names but we've featured quite a few of them on AwesomeRobo in the last few years.

What now? We're left with a complete void in the concept art website scene that needs to be filled. A once amazing treasure trove of networking and beautiful art gone. While I wish they'd taken another approach other than just unexpectedly pulling the plug, I can understand why they did after having their hands bit by a community that unfortunately expected a website to fund itself with money that appeared from thin air. The failure of users to acknowledge that these websites have staff and hosting costs to pay was a truly unfortunate one.

Even after the closure of CGhub, users took to attacking the team that supported the website, which was an absolute catch 22 moment. It kind of reminded me of the childish response that users had to Wikipedia shutting down for a day in support of an anti-SOPA protest last year. This is why we can't have nice things.

The Expert- The Madness Of Corporate Interaction

Following 5 years in the game industry at some notable companies, I chose to go indie this year. Partially thanks to the fact that over the years AwesomeRobo and getting the chance to talk to small devs allowed me to realize just how uninhibited they are creatively, able to act on their own ideas (What a novel concept) without the need for committee input, pointless meetings and the opinions of people who honestly had no clue what they were talking about.

That's the thing about this rather young game industry, it's still in an awkward phase in which business folk are trying to incorporate corporate thinking into a highly creative field, and the results are more miss than hit (Companies like Valve avoided this altogether with a flat structure). While as gamers, we'd all like to think that companies are simply trying to put out an awesome looking, fun game you have to realize that there is a subset of dark figures lurking at these companies. People who scoff at playing videogames, insist on playing it safe at every turn to save money and suck up to their corporate overlords while contributing nothing of value. Completely out of touch.

My eyes smile, but my soul screams.

The Expert perfectly sums up some of the experiences I had as a concept artist at a few of the larger companies, although this scenario probably applies to any corporate environment (Insert your field here). When you're asked to do the impossible and offer an opinion, there always seems to be someone who questions your ability to do your job if you don't blindly comply. And if anything this is the type of system that has been allowing the indie scene to flourish, while most AAA devs have been stumbling to muster up the courage to tackle new IP's over infinite sequels.

In retrospect, choosing to leave the world of red lines is one of the best things I've ever done. However, I do not regret having these mind numbing experiences to put me on the current path we're on.

The 3D Art of Darksiders 2 And Warhammer40K - And Some Clues About The Unannounced Vigil IP

(Via)

With THQ dissolved and Austin's once prosperous Vigil studios rendered into a mere asset in a bankruptcy hearing (All employees were laid off following not finding a buyer this last week), former employees have started to upload their work to portfolio sites in preparation of finding a new job.

It's a shame to see the company go, because Darksiders 2 and other unreleased Vigil projects (Warhammer 40k, anyone?) were shaping up to have some of the best art direction I've had a chance to experience in a long time. Following the departure of creative director Joe Madueira and some bad decisions on the part of THQ in regards to handling their companies, it definitely didn't pan out for studio's longevity.



A good example of the types of decisions that ultimately sank THQ and marked the beginning of the end, the neutering of the Warhammer 40k: Dark Millenium Online into a single player experience. Having had the chance to talk to some former Vigil folks, it turned out that THQ simply dropped a large scale MMO project (Based off a license no less) onto a developer with only one title under their belt and no experience developing massively multiplayer online games, let alone a team that could properly handle such a massive undertaking. Having to hastily put together a new team inexperienced with working with each other typically never goes very smoothly. Rumors also suggested that Joe Mad wasn't a fan of the Warhammer IP, which probably didn't help.

That said, the work that senior 3D character artist Tohan Kim, lead character artist James Brian Jones (aka 'BoboTheSeal') and character artist Crystel Land created for the entire library of Vigil titles, including the new work posted for Darksiders 1&2 is truly some amazing work, faithfully translating the concepts into awesome stylized models, down to the painterly texture work matching the concepts by Paul Richards, Joe Mad and other folks who once populated their concept team. The interesting thing is that Tohan also uploaded some 3D sculpts titled '???' in the last few hours, perhaps hinting that the work might have been from some of the unannounced IP's included in the THQ bankruptcy hearing. Check them out after the break, along with Bobo's awesome work, and let's appreciate the thousands of hours that talented employees at Vigil spent crafting the beautiful world of Darksiders, a franchise that may as of yet still have a chance of finding a new life at some other studio.