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"The Elder Scrolls Travels wireless
games bring to life the excitement and challenge of rich fantasy
worlds." |
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I found the biggest
challenge, at least art wise, on
the
Travels series was to fit a "first person" viewpoint in the tiny memory
and screen resolution of the then current crop of phones (circa 2003).
To do this it was decided that the creatures/characters were to be
broken up into smaller pieces and "glued" together in various ways, to
form a wider variety of forms than would be otherwise possible. It's an
old technique used in older "memory challenged" systems. |
So, for example, a base body would have three head choices, a couple of
arms, perhaps some armor. Still a tight fit though. We
thought it important to retain the first person viewpoint, as it's one
of the things that defines the Elder Scrolls series, which strive for
creating an environment in which one is totally immersive. |
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As a true 3D
environment was impossible at that point we strove to
mirror
the look of Daggerfall with its "cardboard" cutout figures. No
animation was possible however and the poses had to be somewhat
neutral. This was because a very dynamic pose would obviously
show the fact that it was the same character being reused time
and again! |
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Gehenoth
A creature from the Dawnstar installment of the Elder Scrolls Travels.
Here it is from a very large version created for a "standee" (a large
cardboard "cutout" ) for E3. It
came close to being six feet tall! |
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Click
on the graphic
to the left for
a larger version.
This
had to be finished over a
weekend and the final version was huge! 7500 pixels tall. As the
artwork for the Travels games themselves was a combination of 3D
modeling and old fashioned "pixel pushing" I had to end up creating the
standee artwork through a variety of means, to ensure enough detail.
First, the base model was
rendered to give my the lighting I needed. The base model was very low
on detail though, fine for a phone game but completely insufficient for
the artwork needed to create the "standee". Using my creature model
collection (A nice tax deductible!) I matched the lighting on the 3D
render, photographed the models, and created dozens of "monster
pieces", to assemble the Gehenoth "Frankenstein". A scute
here, a horn
there,
a bit of an arm off one model, some claws off another. This
was then all lumped together to form the base for the creature. Once
assembled it was then a case of painting for the next 36 hours to meet
the deadline.
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The Gehenoth.
Taken from the "Standee" artwork created for the 2003 E3
© 2003 Vir2L Studios Inc.,
a ZeniMax Media company. All Rights Reserved. |
Hopefully it's not too obvious where the
photography/
rendering ends and the painting begins. Once completed, no part
of the
image was left untouched, and no original "raw" image
remained. Still, cheating? Perhaps. |
Gehenoth
This time from the game itself. By comparison the larger version was
originally over 5000 pixels across where as the original to the right
is
about
120!
© 2003 Vir2L
Studios Inc.,
a ZeniMax Media company. All Rights Reserved.
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Troll.
The final version of this character. My original concept was a more
traditional/human type. Hard to get the Moria cave troll out of your
mind one you've seen FoTR! The Elder Scrolls troll is a 3 eyed, big
clawed, beasty. Below are some of the earlier
versions.
© 2003 Vir2L
Studios Inc.,
a ZeniMax Media company. All Rights Reserved.
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Early
Trolls
The initial attempt at the trolls proved to be too close to
"normal"
trolls,
and did not match what had already been established in the Elder
Scrolls
Universe. To save memory on the phones and to gain us some variety in
the graphics, the creatures were designed to be "pieced" together. Some
had different heads, some different arms. In this case variety
was
found in swapping out clothing and weapons.
©
2003 Vir2L Studios Inc.,
a ZeniMax Media company. All Rights Reserved.
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Final
Trolls
The three eyed versions are closer in feel to the Elder Scrolls Troll,
which originally appeared in Arena. There was a more "insect" like
quality to those which I tried to incorporate.
©
2003 Vir2L Studios Inc.,
a ZeniMax Media company. All Rights Reserved.
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Click HERE
to
go to the Elder Scrolls Travels site where you can
find more
information.
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