Team Fortress 2: The Art, Its Impact, and Why You Should Play
- Willow Harper
- Mar 31, 2019
- 5 min read
Updated: Apr 1, 2019
Most people who have been semi-active in the gaming world over the past few years recognize the game title Team Fortress 2 (TF2 for short), a comical, "cartoony", first person shooter– with hats! Even 12 years after its initial 2007 release, Team Fortress 2 is still inspiring future generations of artists, animators, and gamers, bringing a stunning early 20th century art style back into popular culture.
The Art Style
Team Fortress 2 has a very distinct art style, primarily based off the style of 20th century artist J.C. Leyendecker. Other artists that influenced TF2’s art direction include Dean Cornwell and Norman Rockwell, as well as general propaganda art from the same period. Valve’s dedicated development team for the game realized the potential of the unique rim lighting and stylistic clothing folds to make their characters stand out artistically, from both a marketing and game play standpoint.
Leyendecker’s work, and subsequently Norman Rockwell (as he was inspired by Leyendecker), is connected to the Art Nouveau movement of the early 1900s. Art Nouveau later regained popularity and inspired new pieces during movements of social change in the 1960s, the time period in which the storyline of TF2 is set. The main story, while hard to decipher from the in-game experience, is elaborated upon in the official comic series produced by a subset of the TF2 development team and also takes inspiration from the same sources as the game's art style.
In addition to having an art style unique to the gaming world, each character also has a unique silhouette, height and body shape, and height at which they hold their weapons, making the recognition of each of the nine classes quick and easy. This is a key factor in the success of Team Fortress 2 in the first person shooter (FPS) genre; Players are able to immediately tell who their enemy is, what team they are on, and what weapon they are holding.
Many class based FPS that have come after Team Fortress 2’s release have tried a similar strategy in class distinction, but in my (slightly biased) opinion none has come close to the readability of Team Fortress 2’s characters. I believe this is largely due to TF2’s art style and focus on team coloration, as the rim lighting, clothing folds, and the use of sinuous lines derived from both Leyendecker’s and the Art Nouveau’s distinct style allows for every character to be unique as possible, all while having the characters both fit into the world around them and stand out from the background.
Impact on Art and Animation
As with most popular video games, the amount of fan made Team Fortress 2 artwork is seemingly limitless. However, what is unique about TF2 (and other Source engine games) is the Source Filmmaker (SFM) software that allows anyone to take the game’s characters, maps, and other objects and create a poster or animation with those assets. It's the same software utilized by the development team to create the official posters and promotional animations such as Meet the Team and Expiration Date. (Expiration Data was going to be the first episode in TF2 television series on Adult Swim, but it sadly never happened.)
The Source Filmmaker team hosts an annual competition called the Saxxy Awards, which calls upon the talents of artists and animators to utilize the software and game assets to create films. The Overall Winners of the Saxxy Awards earn a unique in-game weapon called the Saxxy and a trip to visit Valve headquarters to meet the TF2 development team. One of my favorite SFMs was the winner in extended category for the seventh-annual Saxxy Awards, called Leak!, created by Erick Wright and his group of dedicated fellow animators, modelers, 2D artists, and level designers called the “Lost Cosmonauts”.
Source Filmmaker isn't the only software fans of Team Fortress 2 utilize to make posters and animations of the lovable group of mercenaries. Garry's Mod (GMod) is a physics sandbox that utilizes the Source engine, the same video game engine used for most, if not all, of Valve's games. Animations produced with GMod typically fall under the comedy genre and generally have the same frame rate as older animations, reminiscent of old saturday morning cartoons or amateur stop-motion animation. Some animators can make incredibly smooth animations with GMod, but most animators who use GMod like the choppy style that it can create.
One of the most well known and influential GMod animators is a man named Colin Wyckoff, or kitty0706. He passed in early 2015 from A.L.L. leukemia and is deeply loved and missed by the TF2 community. His GMod videos are absolutely hilarious and a joy to watch, and they have inspired many people to start animating themselves. Kitty0706's most popular GMod video is Team Fabulous 2, sitting at 22 million views as of March 2019. It's a pretty accurate representation of how fun, hysterical, and chaotic community run TF2 servers are. It's the video that got myself and many others to play Team Fortress 2 for the first time.
Two animators who were inspired by kitty0706 are Greatdictator and Batman1138 (who I could not find a social media profile for). Together, they are creating a beautiful sitcom style animation series based on TF2s Red and Blu teams in a suburban neighborhood setting. Team Neighborhood utilizes both SFM and GMod and is proof of how well a TF2 television series would have done (I'm looking at you, Expiration Date).
Playing the Game
The TF2 community, overall, is welcoming and fun loving. In most settings, such as in Valve casual matchmaking or community run servers, there isn't much pressure on those learning how to play or just messing around. It really allows for newcomers to get a feel for the game and enjoy it casually.
However, those who want to take their experience to the next level can play competitive matchmaking or join competitive groups such as UGC or RGL, where you can join practice games and find or create teams. Competitive seasons often have monetary and in-game rewards for winners.
If nothing above has convinced you to at least watch a Team Fortress 2 letsplay video, let my personal experience try to change you mind. I started playing TF2 in early 2017 after stumbling across Team Fabulous 2 and TF2 YouTuber MrPaladin. I never played first person shooters much because of the stress PvP and the pressure of team based games, but the silliness and causal nature of the game drew me in. After playing it for the first time, I was hooked. I quickly found myself addicted to playing the classes Pyro and Scout, and also spending way more than I should on cosmetics. Eventually I found myself playing competitive TF2, joining teams of likeminded people who I became fast friends with. Playing the game in general over these past two years has lead to me making many friendships and helped me get through my difficult junior and senior years of high school.
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