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Mace
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- Before
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Vivendi Universal
Games had purchased the uncompleted Mace Griffin Bounty Hunter project
originally developed by Warthog in I broke down the character into key areas: hat or head dressing, facial appearance, body armor, holster, leggings, boots and weapon. Even though the gun he was carrying looked like a child's water pistol, and there was obviously no way for it to fit in his holster, I couldn't persuade marketing to allow me to change it. So I just stepped over the gun issue and proceeded to redesign the character. |
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- New
Concept Art |
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I started with some quick sketches as a substitute for the sombrero and soon realized that without seeing Mace’s eyes, a player could not become attached to this character. Additionally, it would be extremely difficult to develop Mace's emotions hidden behind a mask. I hired visual development artist Jeff Watts and renowned portraitist Michele Mitchell and from both of them I had a number of new faces within a weekend. Since it was Jim Wilson himself approving the art work, I had Michele do me some sketches using Jim Wilson’s face as the influence without telling Jim :) I was thinking for sure he would choose the ones that looked similar to himself without really knowing. Nope.. didn't work. He liked the more gritty version instead. Even with the face that he liked, there were many more versions to be created based on the approved sketch. |
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Next was a combination of action poses with
costume choices. Here I went to Jeff Watts’ studio in I wanted strong arms, legs and shoulders. I wanted Mace to appear damaged emotionally and yet resilient at the same time. I wanted his body language easily translatable for the character modeler and animator. I then removed his Ninja Turtle Shell body armor and made it more like the marines in the second Aliens movie. Marketing and the developer were emphatic about keeping the red stripe and number 13. I didn't get this, you're going to wear red in battle.. gee, do you think the enemy can see you? I still was able to prove to them that the Ranger logo would look better than #13. I removed the competition stripe around his chest and made the red a deeper value to cover his breast plates and holster belts. The leggings and boots came from Jeff Watts who created a hybrid mountain- man boot and motorcycle influence. They worked wonderfully and were easily translated into the game model. We made a couple of concept sketches where we introduced a knee brace ala The Road Warrior. As holsters go, I used the red coloration to draw your attention to the straps and how they fit almost sexually over and around his leg. Since you will be playing behind this character I made sure his buttocks and hind quarters were spectacular. |
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- Final
Art |
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And then, presto, the new Mace Griffin, the culmination of weeks of modifications and input from the Producer Marcus Linblom, Associate Producer Ian Stevens, the developer, Marketing and Jim Wilson. At first, we wanted to keep some form of the cape but it was too difficult to model and animate in the game so it was dropped. I played with colors that would look military alongside RED... not easy but if you look at the final model I think you would agree that they all work together without competing with each other and, a big AND, when in an environment, he stands out just enough to claim attention and dominance (like he should). I was asked to create the cover for PSE Magazine so I took the game model, posed him, created his expression, armed him with an enhanced version of a gun from the game that I created, added the multi-gun muzzle blast, illuminated him, re-touched the image, added the fighters in the background (same angle as the gun), placed a dark blue architectural form for dimension and visual lift towards the upper right of the page, subtly added the Ranger logo misting in the background. And I had a lot of fun in process…. |
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Ships |
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Mace Griffin was designed to be part space combat and part land based game where you would also be able to move into a vehicle and drive. Here is a smattering of the artwork created for vehicles both in the air and on the ground. |
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Environments |
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And some of the finer concept work for the environments.
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