Quote from SenturaErm the first pics are concepts and the other is box artwork, where are the screenshots?
so you think that's handcrafted? those are screenshots bro
You are so wrong, I can't even...
Zoom in on this picture (firefox ctrl+scroll up)
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5042/524 ... 767e_o.jpg
You'll see that the plane is hand painted, you can see the brush strokes. Drake is a ingame version (prolly cinematic version) with some painting on top of it too.
If you zoom in on this one:
On the top right corner of the plane you can see a glow, which is exactly the same HDR glow algorithm that was used on U2, which makes me think that at least the top of the plane is ingame render. but the rest is totally concept / matte painting work. just look at the dune in the background on the left., it's obviously painted.
So, all in all, this is matte painting but instead of using photos they prolly use ingame content.