Since the reveal of Kingdom Hearts 2.8, I've been wondering for quite some time how would the Boxart of this title of the series look like.

 

I had concrete ideas on my mind regarding the background of the boxart, but I needed an artwork full of characters that fitted the tone of this collection.

 

After the release of the new Artwork for the Dengeki PlayStation Magazine, I knew I had found what I was looking for.

 

With all the elements I needed on my hands, I just new I had to create a Boxart Concept for this upcoming title of the series.

 

This is the final result!

 

 

As always, let me know what you guys think of my work and if this Boxart would totally do it for you!

not bad

Beautiful That would be my second favorite boxart, behind 2.5.

How long did it take you to create this?

This looks so beautiful! The colors really feel..magical and makes me just want to keep staring at that art.... :happy:

not bad

 

Thanks!

 

Beautiful That would be my second favorite boxart, behind 2.5.

How long did it take you to create this?

 

It took me 2+ hours for the the boxart, and 2+ hours for the video (I really didn't know how I wanted to present this in video format).

 

So a total of 5-6 hours of work (it could have been less, but I had some issues doing what I wanted on Photoshop).

 

I tried to simulate the 1.5 and 2.5 "feel" (I could actually extend myself explaining all the little similarities if you guys wanted)...

Thanks!

 

 

It took me 2+ hours for the the boxart, and 2+ hours for the video (I really didn't know how I wanted to present this in video format).

 

So a total of 5-6 hours of work (it could have been less, but I had some issues doing what I wanted on Photoshop).

 

I tried to simulate the 1.5 and 2.5 "feel" (I could actually extend myself explaining all the little similarities if you guys wanted)...

 

2 hours only   ? That's amazing!!

I love the background you used, it fits perfectly.

And I wouldn't mind to hear more about it

2 Hours? that's impressive for a result like that. Usually, 13 characters are depicted on the cover, judging by that hypothesis, here are my guesses...

 

1) Sora

2) Riku

3) Aqua

4) Mickey

5) Donald

6) Goofy

7) Chirithy

8) Ephemera

9) Anguis

10) Leopardos

11) Ursus

12) Unicornis

13) Vulpeus

I think you spoiled us all with what the box art looks like.

This looks so beautiful! The colors really feel..magical and makes me just want to keep staring at that art.... :happy:

 

I really feel the same way! The artwork is amazing and the dark pink + black combo really fits with the logo and all.

 

 

2 hours only   ? That's amazing!!

I love the background you used, it fits perfectly.

And I wouldn't mind to hear more about it

 

Thanks!

 

Ok, there's a lot of explanations to do so here we go.

 

First of all, the Logo of the game was crucial for the choice of the background.

 

As you may have seen in 1.5 and 2.5 the logo and the background of the boxart shared similar colors.

 

1.5 had a lot of Black and White into it. Black + White = Gray. The 1.5 logo is mainly gray.

2.5 had a Dark/Marine Blue Logo and the Background was Blue as well.

 

As a result, I thought the background of 2.8 should have pink and dark tones to fit the Logo.

 

We all know that sexy KH pattern had to be there as well, so there you go.

 

Now in both 1.5 and 2.5 the Dark/Light concept was there as well.

In 1.5 you had the Black and White but also the Red/Blue (Duality, representing Light and Dark).

In 2.5 you had a Lighter Blue in the Background with some White added to it, to contrast with a Darker Blue on top (where Master Xehanort, Xemnas and Ansem were depicted).

 

So in 2.8, I wanted that same Dark/Light concept to be featured. Pink represents Dreams or Spirits (in other words, hope) and Black the nightmares (an allusion to DDD). To make this more obvious, I needed some stars and some lights effect ("there is always light even in the deepest darkness").

 

So now I have explained the whole background thing and why I decided to make it that way.

 

Now let's go ahead with the artwork.

 

Ok! So I wanted a artwork that clearly represented the entire collection.

 

Aqua, Riku and Sora had to be there (for obvious reasons). But since it's a Disney game as well, we can't forget our pals Goofy, Donald and Mickey (the three of them were in both 1.5 and 2.5, so they have to be in the boxart of 2.8 as well).

 

Ok, so that makes 6 characters.

 

But we still need to cover X [chi], right!?

 

Now the thing with X, is that your character is a custom, so we have to go with Story characters. Either the Foretellers or Chirithy (or simply all of them).

 

But adding all the Foretellers for what will be a "Movie", didn't feel good.

 

Then I realized something!

 

2.5 had 13 characters on the Boxart.

2.8 will be the Final HD collection before KH3, so why not give emphasis to the whole 13 Darknesses vs 7 Lights in the Boxarts?

 

With 13 Characters featuring on the box of 2.5, it would make sense to have 7 characters on the box of 2.8,right?

 

With that said, the choice was obvious! I needed 1 character to add to the 6 I've already chosen and Chirithy was the obvious option.

 

When this artwork was revealed, I knew this was a perfect artwork to fit on my BoxArt concept and really translated my original conception (but I'm not a drawer so I had to wait for that perfect Art coming from Nomura)...

 

And there you go! Full explanation behind my concept and my strange mind...

Edited October 9, 201510 yr by AirbagVII

That looks pretty damn good. Simple, to the point, shows off the main games, and over all looks good and easy on the eyes.

Let's hope the real deal looks even slightly similiar. 

I really feel the same way! The artwork is amazing and the dark pink + black combo really fits with the logo and all.

 

 

 

Thanks!

 

Ok, there's a lot of explanations to do so here we go.

 

First of all, the Logo of the game was crucial for the choice of the background.

 

As you may have seen in 1.5 and 2.5 the logo and the background of the boxart shared similar colors.

 

1.5 had a lot of Black and White into it. Black + White = Gray. The 1.5 logo is mainly gray.

2.5 had a Dark/Marine Blue Logo and the Background was Blue as well.

 

As a result, I thought the background of 2.8 should have pink and dark tones to fit the Logo.

 

We all know that sexy KH pattern had to be there as well, so there you go.

 

Now in both 1.5 and 2.5 the Dark/Light concept was there as well.

In 1.5 you had the Black and White but also the Red/Blue (Duality, representing Light and Dark).

In 2.5 you had a Lighter Blue in the Background with some White added to it, to contrast with a Darker Blue on top (where Master Xehanort, Xemnas and Ansem were depicted).

 

So in 2.8, I wanted that same Dark/Light concept to be featured. Pink represents Dreams or Spirits (in other words, hope) and Black the nightmares (an allusion to DDD). To make this more obvious, I needed some stars and some lights effect ("there is always light even in the deepest darkness").

 

So now I have explained the whole background thing and why I decided to make it that way.

 

Now let's go ahead with the artwork.

 

Ok! So I wanted a artwork that clearly represented the entire collection.

 

Aqua, Riku and Sora had to be there (for obvious reasons). But since it's a Disney game as well, we can't forget our pals Goofy, Donald and Mickey (the three of them were in both 1.5 and 2.5, so they have to be in the boxart of 2.8 as well).

 

Ok, so that makes 6 characters.

 

But we still need to cover X [chi], right!?

 

Now the thing with X, is that your character is a custom, so we have to go with Story characters. Either the Foretellers or Chirithy (or simply all of them).

 

But adding all the Foretellers for what will be a "Movie", didn't feel good.

 

Then I realized something!

 

2.5 had 13 characters on the Boxart.

2.8 will be the Final HD collection before KH3, so why not give emphasis to the whole 13 Darknesses vs 7 Lights in the Boxarts?

 

With 13 Characters featuring on the box of 2.5, it would make sense to have 7 characters on the box of 2.8,right?

 

With that said, the choice was obvious! I needed 1 character to add to the 6 I've already chosen and Chirithy was the obvious option.

 

When this artwork was revealed, I knew this was a perfect artwork to fit on my BoxArt concept and really translated my original conception (but I'm not a drawer so I had to wait for that perfect Art coming from Nomura)...

 

And there you go! Full explanation behind my concept and my strange mind...

 

That's awesome man!

 

This all makes your work even more special and precious than it already was.

And everything you said about the duality, the 13 vs. 7, the colors and so on makes absolutely sense.

I actually never thought about that, but now that you mention it, that's really cool.

And I guess you're lucky that Nomure drew this perfect art, but that you had the same idea before the art was released is amazing.

 

Thanks for the long explanation, it was really interesting, and I appreciate it.

Keep up the good work

 

(And your mind isn't strange, I would say it's ingenious!)

Very great Aqua/Mickey 0.2 Sora/Riku 3D. I doubt Square woud place a pink heart now.

I honestly love this. It looks so good!

It's super cool to see your reasoning behind everything too. Well done! 

That looks pretty damn good. Simple, to the point, shows off the main games, and over all looks good and easy on the eyes.

Let's hope the real deal looks even slightly similiar. 

 

 

Exactly! That's why it felt so right for me. Pretty "simple and clean" overall, but great nonetheless. I'm sure the final result will be different, but I really hope they follow a similar structure/planning for the BoxArt.

 

 

That's awesome man!

 

This all makes your work even more special and precious than it already was.

And everything you said about the duality, the 13 vs. 7, the colors and so on makes absolutely sense.

I actually never thought about that, but now that you mention it, that's really cool.

And I guess you're lucky that Nomure drew this perfect art, but that you had the same idea before the art was released is amazing.

 

Thanks for the long explanation, it was really interesting, and I appreciate it.

Keep up the good work

 

(And your mind isn't strange, I would say it's ingenious!)

 

Well, just like Nomura, I'm really into symbolism, so I analyze stuff with a different perspective somehow.

 

I'm pretty sure there were some kind of similar reasoning when they made the BoxArt for both 1.5 and 2.5!

 

Very great Aqua/Mickey 0.2 Sora/Riku 3D. I doubt Square woud place a pink heart now.

 

The pink heart is an "extra". I wanted to remove the original "golden heart" from the artwork, but somehow it felt like it wasn't so farfetched to be there to begin with.

 

The fact that the heart is located near Riku and Chirithy and considering that Both are Dream Eaters/Spirits (Riku acted as Sora's spirit and protector in DDD) actually felt like a good reason to have a heart next to them.

 

I honestly love this. It looks so good!

It's super cool to see your reasoning behind everything too. Well done! 

 

Thank you! It's great that I can share my thoughts with other KH fans...

The pink heart is an "extra". I wanted to remove the original "golden heart" from the artwork, but somehow it felt like it wasn't so farfetched to be there to begin with.

 

The fact that the heart is located near Riku and Chirithy and considering that Both are Dream Eaters/Spirits (Riku acted as Sora's spirit and protector in DDD) actually felt like a good reason to have a heart next to them.

 

 

Thank you! It's great that I can share my thoughts with other KH fans...

 

I think the reason would be more that Riku is the hero in the game.

Then gold is more reasonable.

Edited October 9, 201510 yr by KH4Real

I think the reason would be more that Riku is the hero in the game.

Then gold is more reasonable.

Everybody gets keyblades in DDD. Everyone is the hero now! =P

Dude, that box art is just beautiful. That looks better than both 1.5's and 2.5's in my opinion.

Possibly the most accurate representation of what it might look like. So accurate that if Nomura saw this he'd have to redesign it.

It's a decent placeholder, but considering Nomura's work on the last two HD titles' covers, I would expect the final product to look more dynamic and have a lot more going on than that.

Edited October 14, 201510 yr by Hero of Light XIV

Oh my God, if this was the cover art for 2.8, it'd be frackin amazing!  It looks frickin beautiful!  Airbag, as always, your creativity sparks great inspiration and admiration to all of us KH fans!  Thank you for your awesomeness!

This is just plain awesome.

Well done. I also loved your work on the Opening Menus of Kingdom Hearts 2.8 and 3!

Oh my God, if this was the cover art for 2.8, it'd be frackin amazing!  It looks frickin beautiful!  Airbag, as always, your creativity sparks great inspiration and admiration to all of us KH fans!  Thank you for your awesomeness!

 

 

This is just plain awesome.

Well done. I also loved your work on the Opening Menus of Kingdom Hearts 2.8 and 3!

 

Thank you! Both of you...

Thank you! Both of you...

You're welcome!

Why haven't you been "coming" to Gamersjoint lately?( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

That looks quite beautiful, actually.

Why haven't you been "coming" to Gamersjoint lately?( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

He has. All over his videos.

Edited October 28, 20159 yr by Andrew Rowland

That looks quite beautiful, actually.He has. All over his videos.

Yep. He has been shooting his Aqua all around there.