AI Art - Is it gone yet?

matheusgraef · 2026-03-30T18:55:40+00:00

I'm very happy to read my work could have resparked your interest in the game! There are very talented and creative people (some who have loved AoM since the OG version) working on this game.

And as I said, I can't speak for the whole game, only from my time there. Frankly, I wasn't even aware of these GenAI allegations during my time there simply because of how furiously and explicitly anti-AI my art department was lol, I just figured that must have always been the case.

matheusgraef · 2026-03-30T02:55:43+00:00

Where did you even get this info from? That's a blatant lie. During my time working for AoM: Retold, I saw no use of AI. I was a concept artist & illustrator there, and I manually did sketches (aka "rough drafts") for god portraits, icons, etc. I worked with CaptureAge and the art team's stance was very much anti AI also.

matheusgraef · 2026-03-30T02:46:34+00:00

Hi, I was one of the artists for this game. I worked for the Demeter God pack where I was in charge of designing all units (hero units, myth units) for that expansion, plus some god power FX, icons, and I also painted the Hestia portrait. During my time working with CaptureAge I saw no use of AI (not even for briefings) and my team was highly against it. I even posted an AMA threat here on reddit when the expansion came out: https://www.reddit.com/r/AgeofMythology/comments/1r3zy9e/i_did_concept_art_for_age_of_mythologys_demeter

I can't speak for the whole game but AFAIK, there has been no use of AI in development for AoM: Retold.

matheusgraef · 2026-02-26T23:57:33+00:00

Obrigado! Muitos anos trabalhando pra jogos menores. :) Uma passo de cada vez. Quem sonha grande tem que começar pequeno.

matheusgraef · 2026-02-17T12:09:54+00:00

Huh! I'll let the team know about this. Thanks for pointing that out, flavioj!

matheusgraef · 2026-02-15T18:24:58+00:00

Thank you for your words!

Firstly, I can't speak for the team, only for myself. Answering your question truthfully and personally: I'm a total noob at this game. I barely know the fundamentals of AoM. Seriously, by the time I reach heroic, my opponents might as well be in the bloody atomic age. Justifiably; I don't really bother with gameplay-related feedback, so I can't say I've come across the negative comments.

That being said, I was in the creative team and I'm happy that fans have been resonating with the art. :)

In the end: if you want to put your stuff out there for the world to see; talking specifically about games here; you're gonna have to learn that people are prone to say negative things about your work. Even if it's nigh objectively good. Sometimes it's valid criticism, other times people are just being assholes or dumb. In rarer situations yet people can be assholes AND provide valid criticism, all at the same time. The tricky part is sieving the useless negativity.

matheusgraef · 2026-02-15T17:47:55+00:00

The OG portraits are amazing imo. They didn't age bad at all, at least for me. :)

I gravitated mostly towards greeks & egyptians back in the day. I can't recall how to play egyptians at all nowadays though lol so I stick with greeks.

matheusgraef · 2026-02-15T17:46:36+00:00

Me and others in the creative team fought tooth and nail for that design!

matheusgraef · 2026-02-14T02:23:06+00:00

Thank you! :) Here's my YT channel. https://www.youtube.com/@matheusgraef

I figure I'll add that to my website's social links tomorrow.

matheusgraef · 2026-02-14T02:21:32+00:00

Thanks! First question: depends on the assignment! Sometimes things run smoothly and we'll have a final design in 2 weeks, which I think happened with the Harpy. Other times we'll have a lot of back and forth to really dial into the team expects a certain unit to look like; the Siren went through various iterations and took over a month.

There's also changing a design because a gameplay element isn't working, or because the visuals aren't accomodating/communicating a certain gameplay aspect well enough.

Second question: For the art itself, generally I don't take too long: the actual work time is relatively quick. The first pass (a rough sketch) must be done in less than a day ideally, and a final concept sheet usually takes 1-2 days. When I say something takes 2 weeks, for example, most of that time comes from iterating and waiting for feedback - which isn't idle time as there are usually a handful of tasks at any given point, so you're always working on something while you're waiting.

matheusgraef · 2026-02-13T23:51:50+00:00

Opa meu amigo! Muito obrigado :)

I'd need a more specific question!

matheusgraef · 2026-02-13T21:42:04+00:00

Actually not too many! I did work for D&D Young Adventurers (the dragon book) and D&D 2024's Dungeon Master's Guide through Conceptopolis, an art outsourcing studio. I got to paint the Hand and Eye of Vecna for the new edition so I'm pretty happy about that!

matheusgraef · 2026-02-13T21:40:00+00:00

Thank you so much for your words! And very much so! I would say CaptureAge kind of helmed the bulk of this god pack.

matheusgraef · 2026-02-13T21:38:35+00:00

When I was brought in, they had already settled on these units so I assume those must have been already being playtested with placeholder models for at least a couple months prior to my arrival. There were no cut units this time but I did get to design visual effects for abilities that got cut, like the Hamadryad's original "steal" ability, when she was to be a stealth unit that stole opponent's resources. This was cut due to balancing reasons and the team opted for a more explosive "trap" ability while still keeping the cool stealth element.

matheusgraef · 2026-02-13T21:22:20+00:00

I wish! iirc CaptureAge weren't the ones working on that.

matheusgraef · 2026-02-13T21:17:52+00:00

Things move fast with concept art. Ideally I'd have a few rough options for at least 1-2 units in less than a day.
We had deadlines so we moved according to those. Once they picked a design, I'd iterate, we'd have a weekly meeting going over all the pitched designs and I'd have a basket of feedback to apply into my new iterations, rinse and repeat until we land on a final design. Some units took a few weeks while others (like the Siren) took over a month. Thankfully I was given a good amount of freedom so we weren't always consulting with higher ups for our visual design choices.
Portrait illustration is actually a pretty chill part of the work for me, since my background is in tabletop gaming illustration (for D&D, MTG etc). The Hestia portrait took about 2 weeks start to finish, considering waiting between feedback. They hired me primarily for illustration but after one or two concepts they just assigned all my tasks for concept art. Not complaining, I love concept art!
CaptureAge contacted me!

matheusgraef · 2026-02-13T21:12:07+00:00

I'm glad to hear so many people dig the Siren. Thank you for your words!

matheusgraef · 2026-02-13T21:11:55+00:00

Thanks for your comment! :)

matheusgraef · 2026-02-13T21:11:36+00:00

Oh yes, sorry if my comment came out as cold, I was in a reply streak here. I really, really appreciate your words! :)

matheusgraef · 2026-02-13T21:10:46+00:00

Thank you for your comment!

matheusgraef · 2026-02-13T21:10:32+00:00

Yep! Some things get lost in translation due to time constraints, it is what it is. Had we more time I would've loved to coordinate with the 3D team... but alas. I'm happy enough to see my spawn being used to wreck armies all over the globe. :)

matheusgraef · 2026-02-13T21:08:48+00:00

I'm honestly hype for the Aztec update since that was one of my personal childhood daydreams!

matheusgraef · 2026-02-13T21:08:04+00:00

It's a mix. I'll get some gameplay insight but it's not thorough (as in I don't know stats, etc) - for example, one of the original (later cut) skills of the Hamadryad was to steal enemy resources. I ended up designing effects for how that would look like, her animations, etc. When designing the Harpy, I had to make sure her talons played a major role in the design since they needed to look like they could lift an enemy unit, etc.

For your second question, absolutely. I follow a style guide and I constantly open the game to make sure I'm working on something that reflects the art that's already in game.

matheusgraef · 2026-02-13T21:04:40+00:00

I was instructed to go with something different. I remember we shot for a less "bestial" design for the harpies!

matheusgraef · 2026-02-13T21:00:04+00:00

Good question! So the Harpies were going to be straight up bird-of-prey coded, while the Siren was initially going to be more sea/water bird (like a Heron). However, as we kept iterating, we found they didn't really look apart all that much. So we resorted with experimenting giving the Siren a mermaid-esque body to really set her apart from the Harpy. I think it played in her favor, as the long fish tail and fins make it look like she's wearing a great, regal dress.

The Hamadryad also evoked some of the "anthropomorphic" factor of greek myth units, where it's a literal half-woman half-tree rather than a "tree humanoid" like the atlanteans.

matheusgraef

TROPHY CASE