Daniel Wade and the rest of the wonderful Ballistic Publishing team have finally delivered Exotique 7, the next in the series of their yearly collection of the most beautiful CG artwork in the world. For those that are unaware of what Ballistic Publishing does here’s a brief recap. Every year they take in submissions from artists all over the globe, they then chose the best possible pieces (which must be an extremely difficult process) and showcase them in a high quality compilation that’s more than worth the money it costs to buy.
As a hardcore gamer I have learned to appreciate stunning character design when I see it. Along with the voice work it’s the CG and character designs that make you attached to the characters and their stories. What Ballistic does is give me that feeling by just looking a still image of mind blowing artistry. Every time I flick through the book and see a piece of art that I’m fond of, I can’t help but stop and take in every detail about the art, the character, their weapon, their posture; and then I think through their story in my head – What is her purpose? What is she trying to achieve? This could just be the writer in me, but the point still stands… Ballistic Media make you truly love and appreciate what art is. You’ll see it in a new light, like you never have before.
This might just be my favorite Ballistic book yet. Though I am usually blown away with every book I receive from Ballistic, this one just takes it to a whole new level. I literally stop and look at the various art wondering “Just how do these artists manage to do this?, how long does it take them?” – I consider myself to have a very visually creative mind, but I would love a chance to see what goes through the mind of some of the artists featured in Exotique 7.
I usually like to name some of my favorite pieces of art from each Ballistic review I do, but it’s so grudgingly difficult this time that I just can’t do it. Instead I recommend going over to Ballistic’s own preview page to check out the flash preview and see them for yourselves. Be warned though, what you see on the screen does not compare to how the art looks on the page. As always the quality of the print is something Ballistic takes seriously. The pages feel as sexy as the art looks. Keeping with tradition there are two versions of Exotique 7 up for purchase; there’s the regular Soft Cover edition for $59 and the Special Edition (complete with golden metallic embossing) for $115 – both are worth the prices, I guarantee you!
Something else I had to touch on was the moving introduction to this year’s Exotique 7. As always Daniel Wade gives an editorial introduction to speak on his passion for what’s on show. This time however he uses an analogy inspired from Steve Jobs to explain his position on the whole thing. He shows his admiration for Steve and reveals a quote that came from Jobs himself as the iMac put Apple back in the game in 1999 – Now I don’t want to give the quote away as it comes across so better when being read from Daniel’s point of view, but it clearly must summarize the way Daniel and Ballistic feels about what they do. And though the artists themselves deserve the majority of the praise for the stunning work on show in Exotique 7, I still believe Ballistic are worthy of the top publishing awards available for giving artists worldwide a platform to be appreciated like never before.
