E3 2015: The best of the Into the Pixel collection

For visitors of E3 2015, there's always something new to glance at every year. In particular, before the show even opens its doors, the hallway area between the South and West Halls of the Los Angeles Convention Center is the annual home for the Into the Pixel collection. This is an art exhibit with some of the most beautiful works of art based on video games, with new works presented at each E3.

Before the latest round of art is presented this Tuesday, Shacknews is highlighting a few items of interest, as well as hearing from the artists that put them together.

Battleborn - "Rendain" by Herman Ng

"This is concept art for Rendain, the villain in Battleborn. It takes the art team about two-three weeks to concept a character. Herman probably worked on this painting for about 3-5 days. The game’s sci-fi universe and story open us up to so many types of designs. I can push style and proportions further than I ever could before. The bounds are pretty limitless, it’s really freeing as an artist to make monsters, robots, aliens, humans, or almost anything you can dream up. I was one of the main concept artists on Borderlands 1 & 2, which I adored of course, but being the person that set the rules visually and thematically on Battleborn meant the whole thing would start from the eyes of a concept artist -- creating the playground for this art team has been my favorite project I’ve been a part of."
-Scott Kester, Battleborn art director

The Order: 1886 - "Blackwall Vista" by Martin Bergstrom

"This is one of the earliest concepts I did for The Order: 1886. It´s a vista view from the shipyard Blackwall Yard over the Thames. It took maybe 3 days or so to complete.

"I always been interested in storytelling and illustration and when the concept art scene started to grow around 10 years ago I thought it was very creative place and I got sucked in. I started hanging out in forums where artists such as Craig Mullins posted their work and that became a huge inspiration for me."
-Martin Bergstrom, Senior Concept Artst at Ready at Dawn

King's Quest - "Good Knight's Story" (top) and "Beteween a Rock and a Hard Place" (bottom) by Evan Cagle

"So the first piece, Good Knight's Story, was completed in two days (and) finished up in Photoshop (and) basically a character piece. We’ve never seen this version of Graham before and this was key to figuring out his key and personality. This is the end piece. This is the final piece of Graham. It sort of explores a soft side of him, a contemplative side. He's with his dogs and it's not the end of his life, but he's near the end. So this is a quiet moment with him for us.

"For second piece, Between a Rock and a Hard Place, was just a mind fantasy. It was really just... a third or fourth iteration into what our goblins look like. We knew that we wanted them to have an environmental quality. They needed to be able to camouflage into the background. It's an awfully worked up piece for being an exploration piece, but I was really in love with some of the textures that I really ran with it."
-Evan Cagle, Art Director for The Odd Gentlemen

"The Academy and the ESA are proud to honor these winning artists covering so many varied styles, narratives and subject matter from our interactive entertainment medium," added Martin Rae, president, Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. "I'd like to thank our diverse panel of jurists who all have a deep appreciation for the creativity that comes from video games. Great care and spirited debate went into curating the 2015 collection and we are exceedingly proud of the 18 pieces – especially our first ever sculptural piece!"

The full 2015 Into the Pixel collection can be found on display at the Los Angeles Convention Center. For those that can't make it out, the full gallery can be found on the Into the Pixel website.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?