SOE is hosting eight art interns across our studios this summer.  These internships (ten weeks long) give students an opportunity to work in a real game development environment creating assets for several of our titles.  Not only does the experience benefit students, it also helps SOE provide an opportunity for its full time artists to mentor an emerging talent, preparing themselves for senior artist roles.  This year’s intern selections come from schools across the western US.  There are four from The Art Institute of California-San Diego, all of these students come directly from the SOE mentor program that we run with the Art Institute. There are two students from Brigham Young University, one student from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, and one from The Art Institute of California-San Francisco.  I’m looking forward to seeing the talent and energy they bring to SOE this summer.

Monk armor created by one of last summer’s Vanguard interns

We just got our copies of EXPOSÉ 7 from Ballistic Publishing.

SOE has more selected for publication in this international digital art annual than any other game company!

The number of pieces selected has more than doubled from last year’s volume.

There were ten pieces chosen that were created for Legends of Norrath (including one that received the Award of Excellence in the Fantasy Femmes category); and three from PoxNora.

The chosen entries were:

From Legends of Norrath:

Lyrirae Oakwynd – Michael C. Hayes, Art Director: R. Chamberlain (Award of Excellence)

Crested Mistmore Shield – Steve Argyle, Art Director: D. Herring

Bayle – Derek Herring, Art Director: R. Chamberlain

Dagda Icefury – Derek Herring

Favor of the Dead – Derek Herring, Art Director: R. Chamberlain

Firebolt – Derek Herring, Art Director: R. Chamberlain

The Forest Guardians – Graciano Lucas, Art Director R. Chamberlain

Thythus – Lius Lasahido, Art Director: R. Chamberlain

Optocolypse – Kerem Beyit, Art Director: R. Chamberlain

One Way to Settle – Ray Toh, Art Director: R. Chamberlain

From PoxNora:

Master Axeman – Bryan Rypkowski

Siege Monger – Jakob Kaspar, Art Director: Bryan Rypkowski

Eager Cyclops – Bryan Rypkowski

In addition, SOE was well represented with five pieces selected for Exotique 4, the international digital annual for character art

The chosen entries were:

From Legends of Norrath:

Legacy of Thorn – Derek Herring

Chant of Flame – Kieran Yanner, Art Director: D. Herring

Cyndra – Thomas Sincich, Art Director: R. Chamberlain

Battle of Kithicor – Steve Argyle, Art Directors: D. Herring, R. Chamberlain

Neriak Brawler – Dante Fuget, Art Director: R. Chamberlain

SOE was honored by having two works of art selected by the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences for the “Into the Pixel” exhibit.

From their website:

“The Into the Pixel exhibit features sixteen works of video game art, selected by a panel of jurors from a field of submissions gleaned from artists around the world. The exhibition offers an opportunity for published video and computer game artists to be reviewed and recognized by the public and by their peers in both the fine art and video game worlds.”

Both pieces are from the TCG Legends of Norrath – Against the Void.  The pieces were assigned and art direction provided by Roger Chamberlain (SOE Denver). 

Radiance by Nicole Cardiff

Enhanced Steamsuit by Chris Dien

Welcome back Grayson Chalmers (SOE Austin outsource manager) who just returned from the “Autodesk in Games” tour in China and Taiwan. His subject was: Understanding needs of game companies and how vendors can make themselves attractive candidates for contracts, as well as how these partnerships are most effective.

Original article

Translated article

Mat Broome (SOE’s Visual Director for DC Universe Online) was recently featured in the FXposé section of the May issue of ImagineFX.  The magazine’s website can found here: www.imaginefx.com

A brief bio and two of his cover illustrations are printed showcasing his cover art for “The End League” and “Thor vs Astonishman”.  Nice job Mat!

Jason Smith who works as the Lead Character Artist on DC Universe Online was awarded “First Prize” in ZBrush’s Action Hero creation contest for a personal project.

Jason’s character is called “Overwatch” and you can follow its creation from concept to finished work in ZBrush.

A few weeks ago I spent several days at Brady Games in Indianapolis polishing and revising the final layout for the anniversary book. The team at Brady were great hosts and the three days spent going over the final layout allowed us to make the visual layout triple A.

It was an interesting challenge combining so many different illustration styles in one volume. We approached each page spread as a separate piece of art, sometimes featuring the work of one artist and other times showcasing several styles focused on one theme such as combat or a particular player race. I think everyone will really love the final result.

A few months ago I had the opportunity to visit BYU to give a presentation to animation students on SOE.  We had two interns last summer from their animation program working on Vanguard.  They have been doing some great animation work there.

I also had the chance to visit USC Game Pipe and other top notch programs. I have also been working on a mentoring program with another top school, the Art Institute of California – San Diego, where SOE developers mentor senior students on a game prototype project.  More on this next time.

Over the last few weeks I’ve been reviewing and selecting additional book images. Dok Whitson, concept artist for EverQuest II, located some really interesting pieces from the early days of EverQuest- some studies of the various races and size comparison on old yellowed sketch paper. Here’s one:

I’ve been going through 10 years of art from the EverQuest franchise games as we select images for the upcoming anniversary book.

I have a renewed appreciation for artistry of the original print maps created by Rick Schmitz for EQ and its first several expansions as well as for EQOA.

Rick’s style was very influential in the character designs for EverQuest, but the maps were among his most visible contributions to players.