Okay I get it, I get it, you guys like Civ V graphics (though they aren't even as realistic as you might think they are...). Forgive me for a moment
as this isn't directed at the poster I'm quoting but to
all of the people who deride Civ VI's "cartoony" artstyle as lazy...
We're all entitled to our own opinions, but please don't disregard the work of an entire team of professionals just because you think it looks bad. The amount of effort required to make a single animated Civ VI-style leader is
immense- you not only have to write, translate, voice, and animate their cutscenes, but you also have the idle animations, trade agreement animations and more!
This is not mentioning
making the design. Some posters on here think that stylization is just a switch you can flip on or off, when in reality it's a slider. The farther to either end of an extreme on it you go, the harder it is.
Civ V doesn't even go for photo-realism- it's stylized too! It is
far less stylized than VI, but it is still
not trying to imitate reality.
Making the ultra-stylized leaders seen in Civ VI isn't easier than V's style- it's actually
much harder! It involves having a baseline design for a leader/object (with all the research
that involves) and then choosing what to intentionally distort to make for a more expressive and striking character.
These are character designs.
Civ leaders are characters, for the purposes of the game. They are
not portraits.
So once you've researched the design, finalized it after iterations of concept art, you still have to model, texture, and rig it, the entire process taking hours. Oh, and then there's all the animating, writing, translating, and more mentioned above.
So to imply that there is no "talent or effort" in Civ VI's visuals, that its highly detailed models and textures and animations all just
appeared when someone said to "make the visuals 'cartoony,'" is not only ridiculous but also insulting to actual artists and game developers.
Civ VI
did have an Art Director. His name is Brian Busatti.
...and because I realize that whole spiel was very rant-y and can be interpreted as a personal attack despite my disclaimer, I want to clarify that
Civ VI's art isn't without its faults.
@AffineConstant, I actually
agree that Civ VI's leader backgrounds are pretty lacking. The painted artwork looks cool but it's relegated to such a small portion of the screen that the overall effect is that the leaders are just floating in a black void.
I also want to make it clear that I absolutely
love this new style, as well, even as someone who appreciates Civ VI for what it tried to do.
Okay, long, ranty, long-winded post over. I am just excited as the rest of us to get to see more of this high-quality art from our favorite game series
(edit: thank you
@pokiehl for saying what i said but at a length that most people will actually read

)