The Companions Hall. The Companions are an elite fighter's guild of Nords with a strange secret who's sphere of influence emanates from inside the city walls of Whiterun. I wanted the design of Jorrvaskr to speak the language of Nord culture and attempted to sum up what they're all about architecturally.
I went quite a few rounds with myself in coming up with something I thought was more compelling than just a standard viking structure.
After exhausting myself with a ton of sketches I took a walk around the office and laughed out loud when I thought of what to do. Take a longboat and flip it over dummy! Rushing back to my table I quickly scrawled out this sketch.
Shields along the gutters of the roof would signify each member of the Companions. I thought it might be cool if you got your own when you passed the challenges but I think that was asking a bit too much considering the volume of other content to create for the game. I'm just glad they liked the idea of the boat...:)
All Images Copyright Bethesda Softworks LLC, All Rights Reserved 2011
4 comments:
I don't think I had ever noticed that it was an upside down boat! Clever idea.
How much of your job was you making up ideas and how much were you given instructions? Would you have designers sitting over your shoulders as you sketch something out, or was it more like you get a very general instruction on what you are to make and you come up with as many good images as you can?
Great to see how your work is reflected on game ^^, one question, ¿are you working on the concept art of elder scroll online? That game will be great!
@Benjamin: there is almost always a design brief of some kind. A lot of back and forth can happen with the AD, designers, and Todd. There are some times when I'm asked to do a straight interpretation of a design, especially if it's been seen before in previous games. Other times I'm expected to invent a visual interpretation of the lore because we've never seen it before. I'm rarely alone in the development of the designs. Matt Carafano and Todd Howard deserve a lot of the credit for guiding and helping me to understand the needs of the game. Of course Adam Adamowicz gets the lions share of credit in my eyes for helping me to break out of my comfort zones to really push for more than what was expected.
@virginia: thanks! I have no role in developing EOS.
Crazy what you can do with a light grey marker and black colored pencil to create a 3D environment that I feel like I could waltz right into.
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