Disenchanted by the lack of imagination displayed in gaming’s current crop, and with a devotion to the art style of games such as Odin Sphere and Muramasa: The Demon Blade, Parisian artist Mikaël Aguirre (aka Orioto) creates beautiful artworks based on classic videogames. We caught up with Mikaël to discuss his influences, how he creates a typical piece and how his artwork is being used to create a videogame called ‘Swimming Under Clouds’.
infinitecontinues: Hi Mikaël. Who are you, and what do you do?
Mikaël Aguirre: I’m a 29-years-old, Parisian graphic designer and director. I studied cinema after school, and learned to use Photoshop by myself because I always loved graphics.
ic: Where does your nickname Orioto come from? Can you explain what that means?
MA: Orioto is a contraction of Morimoto, from my favourite Japanese director, Kôji Morimoto.
ic: So, tell us how your videogame-inspired artworks came about? What was the very first piece?
MA: Two years ago, I was more into Anime portraits, using photos as a base to do it realistically. Then I saw a Sonic 2 HD remake and some flashy mock up of a Sonic game, and I thought to myself, ‘Why not give it a try with my own style…?’ I didn’t really like the aspect of those, because it was really clean and cold, and basically a vectorisation of the original design. I wanted to add some more creativity to it by giving a more smooth, painted feel, as I would see in the Vanillaware games like Odin Sphere.
ic: Take us through the process, from start to finish, of creating one of these paintings. How long does it take to create one?
MA: I need between 20 and 30 hours to do such a piece. The process can vary. Sometimes, I need a picture of a background, or a painting to inspire me. In this case, I look at it and I try to recreate it by adapting its content to a particular game. In other cases, I begin with a picture from the game, and I recreate it; but I prefer the first process. After that, I look for pictures on the net – rocks, trees, grass – then I cut them, transform them, change the colours, retrace some parts, remove details and then add some handmade details on top of them. I do that again and again to assemble my landscape.
ic: Some of your pieces have been commissioned by IGN. How did that partnership come about?
MA: After LifeHacker made a big feature on me, with some 300,000 hits, I received many offers, and one was from IGN Insider. They wanted a picture every month. I’ve done that for many months now and we’re currently discussing whether we should continue or not.
ic: There’s been a lot of discussion recently within the videogame community on whether games can be art, with film critic Roger Ebert declaring that they never can be, and thousands of videogame supporters commenting on his post to protest otherwise. Obviously your artworks are based on real games, but what is your personal take on it – can games be classed as art? If so, what makes them art?
MA: Wow, this is always a tough question! Let’s say I don’t see why videogames wouldn’t be classified as a form of art, but less than the comic books or the movies. It’s a medium that allows storytelling and which has a culture, specific codes, a history. That’s it. There is absolutely no valid argument that it shouldn’t be.
ic: Tell us about your own experiences of videogames. How did you get into them in the first place, and what were the games that did it?
MA: I discovered videogames when i was 11 I think, eighteen years ago. First I had a Genesis (Megadrive), then I saw Super Soccer on SNES and I sold the Genesis to a cousin… I still have some good memories of it, like Mickey and Donald, Golden Axe 2, Street of Rage, and of course Sonic, which was my first game!
ic: Do you play a lot of games nowadays? What are you currently enjoying?
MA: I don’t, obviously. I’m a little disappointed with the evolution of games nowadays. I would like more imagination and poetry, and less soldiers and realism. But I try to play some games. I played FFXIII on PS3 but it was painful more than fun (Agreed! – ic). I’m currently finding Chaos Rings on iPhone looks more like a pretty game to me. I also played Street Fighter IV, because I’m a big fan. I’m looking forward to Marvel vs Capcom 3! What I miss currently is the latest Mario games, because I don’t have a Wii anymore.
ic: What are you working on at the moment? Can we expect to see any further game-related artworks in the near future, or are your priorities elsewhere for the moment?
MA: I’m less motivated right now. I’ll see if I continue to do an artwork each month for IGN. I need to explore new things, and I’m currently working on a game with an American, Swimming Under Clouds, which is an old-school exploration-based platformer. It’s exciting to see my art in a game.
ic: That sounds like an intriguing title. Can you tell us a little bit more about Swimming Under Clouds? How did this collaboration come about? Do you have any early screens/concept art we could see?
MA: There is a Facebook page. The game is about a little girl who lost her golden fish, then the pet tries to find her back in a magical bubble of water. It’s really moody and old-school!
ic: I know this is a difficult question for some artists to answer, but what inspires you? What influences inform your work? And which other artists do you most admire?
MA: The Vanillaware games were my first influence. I wanted to achieve this look, even if I couldn’t exactly do it. I wanted to see every old game re-made with their style. But it’s not especially a matter of drawing style. It’s a matter of colour and rendering style. That’s what I look for in general; styles of shading, lines… I see that as a “genre” that can change for every project. I’m like a chameleon in some way. I study some kind of style for a particular project. For my first Megaman picture, I wanted a sci-fi concept art look, the kind of speed painting you see a lot. I love that style, and I wanted to match that. It inspired me to imagine a modern and dynamic Megaman, really stylised and different from the games. In the end I was really far away from what I imagined, but it inspired me at least. That’s the kind of thing that motivates me. I see an artwork and I say to myself, ‘This game would look so cool like that.’
But to answer your question more precisely, I would say Amano, concept artists in general.. I also really like backgrounds from Studio Ghibli movies and some illustration art from English guys from the 19th century.
‘Crystal Catacomb’
‘DKC’
‘Green Hill Zone’
‘Lava Ballad’
‘Through The Night’
‘Toxic Planet’
ic: Your most recent piece, Catch The Squirrel, is something of a departure from your usual videogame works. Explain the idea about the change of direction? Is this an IGN-commissioned piece? Will we see more of them?
MA: Well I’m not that happy with it, but it was important for me to kick off this series. I wanted to try something more artistic and free, more based on mood and cultural inspirations. So I had this idea to evoke games in an old-fashioned setting, and especially in a 17th-century style painting. Alas, I’m far away from the skills I would need to do that, but I’ll continue on this road. I need new challenges to inspire me. It wasn’t an IGN commission at all, actually.
ic: Lastly, where can our readers stay updated about your works should they be inspired by your art?
MA: They can still watch me on deviantART if they are member, but the most simple way is to follow me on Twitter!
ic: Thank you for your time, Orioto!
All images come from Orioto’s deviantART page.
‘Catch The Squirrel’
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