John Mamais, Associate Producer with Universal, first approached me with this image from Battlestar Galactica to critique and then asked me to provide some support for this project already well in development. Warthog (out of England,) was the developer and they seemed to be having some difficulty coming up with a look for Battlestar Galactica that would please their publisher (Universal). With the encouragement of Executive Producer Jonathan Eubanks, I began working on those elements that I could influence without disrupting the development thusfar underway. So I focused on the characters, the environment look, initiated the cinematics and created some finished art for marketing and inspiration. For the characters I introduced John Mamais to Justin Sweet, an accomplished artist that I had used extensively for The Lord of the Rings. In our first meeting I gave Justin the overall feeling for the characters, in particular for Adama the lead character. I told him to imagine a young man who has spent his entire life growing up in war, so that his very muscle structure would be that of reflex and commitment. Imagine someone growing up in Viet Nam and having been taught the lessons of battle from his earliest age... that would be Adama. We began with 3 variations (shown above) and brought the model to this final stage for the game.
	The Cylons were obviously collectively an important character; it was my desire to make them formidable and sterile. It was John Mamais that pushed for them to be taller than in the original TV show. And so it was that with the help of visionary Justin Sweet, the Cylons emerged. Comparing the original design (top of the page) to the final result, it's an impressive evolution. There were variations within the Cylon ranks; here are some of those finished game models. One of the marketing posters I created using a Syd Mead background. An .avi of the Centurion.
	I've always found that when developing concept art for games it’s important to put multiple value levels into every piece. This clarity and depth helps the artist in charge of creating the in-game assets immeasurably. Similarly, if you’re trying to breathe life into a character’s design, put him in an environment, give him some theatrical light to reveal his internal dramas and stage him in an action pose that is particular to his character. If this is accomplished other artists feel responsible to commit their best work towards making sure that the character doesn’t get "lost" from the initial inspiration. Also, great art begets great art. Make sloppy concept art in the beginning and you’re telling the art staff to be sloppy and cheap. Here are more examples from concept to inception. Great concept art becomes the first presentation art of your vision. Bringing art like this to Green Light meetings usually sells itself. Few questions are raised about the vision. Game models taking a heroic pose with a Syd Mead original in the background.
Syd Mead
	The environments and overall massing of the game felt entirely too small for an epic space adventure. So I called on Syd Mead for help. His trademark design sets him apart from most artists and his reputable concepts from TRON to Blade Runner are widely known and respected. It didn't take Syd long to visualize the expanse I wanted to convey to the art team in England. I asked him not for a particular room layout but rather a visual tool that the artists in England could use as a characteristic symbol in the environments. After a few concept efforts and two other meetings, he came up with a simple means to make the architecture consistent from one look to another based on two hexahedrons rotated on top of each other. Sounds confusing, but it was brilliant in its simplicity. Here's a sampling of work that Syd produced for the project. It was an honor to sit with someone so gifted and discuss visual geometry over a cup of tea. Review this entry design and then look at the cinematic below to see how the architectural influence was translated. Pay extra attention to the door opening into the Great Hall and look for the Syd Mead hexahedrons and how they move. For this cinematic (in progress, no sound) I felt that the audience should be left unclear as to whether the protagonist was humanoid or machine. I added the green lighting in the scene that falls on the centurions in the background. This same green color was used throughout the other cinematics whenever Cylons were present and acted as an element to tie many of scenes together subliminally. Cinematic work done by Eden FX of Hollywood.
Ships
	Beautiful ships... the ships turned out really nice and the Warthog art team really out-did themselves. The Viper model was lacking something I couldn’t quite put my finger on, so I had Warthog send me the model so that I could try some iterations on it myself. When I found one that worked and sent it back, they in turn continued with the same approach for the rest of the models.
Marketing
	During the period to bring an overall big-picture to the project, I contracted artist Phelan Sykes to create several scenes that would depict a larger-than-life conflict. These images were sent to the developer as well as circulated within Universal's management staff to add to the vision that was Battlestar Galactica. Eden FX was contracted to do the cinematics for the game and they did an exceptional job. John Mamais and I worked with them from storyboard to completion. Sound was completed by Soundeluxe in Hollywood.