Earthrise is one of the most anticipated title of the year. MMOs and Sci-fi fans are waiting for it like a Messiah that must save the originality ( and the quality) from the baddest part of the mass market .. This time Gamesource has talked with Ed Mattinian, Lead  Artist for Masthead Studios, about the incoming game... with a touch of humor ...

 

Ed: Hey guys, first off thanks for your interest in Earthrise and the development team. We’re really happy that there’s so much attention drawn to us, not only at this final stage, but throughout the whole development process. My previous experiences in the videogames market range from buying videogames to playing videogames; I’m more of a shooter type of guy.

 

 

 

Ed: The most important thing is to balance and ground your designs to reality. A concept artist does that by looking at a lot of references beforehand. If we have to for instance do some type of reactor, we start off by searching for reactor pictures and end up with a folder full photos of the CERN supercollider. Reference is the key to having credible designs and an artist’s imagination and skill are key to having a cool looking sci-fi design.

 

 

Ed: I’d say that technological products have their own beauty to them. It’s all about function and how that “product” – be it a weapon, a craft, or a teleporter - is designed for its function. That’s the beauty that we’re looking for.

 

 

Ed: Those are the hardest. Ideas that concern gameplay and game mechanics for the programming phases usually come from game designers. But it’s not uncommon that an artist draws something and we say “Cool, can we do that in the game?”; then we have to explain to the programmers how we want this cool feature to behave. And since we’re used to communicating in more visual ways we explain our idea in something like a comic; but of course, we don’t sit around drawing comics for the developers all day.

 

 

 

Ed: Yes. We’ve been working hard so that the different zones have their own unique look, but still keep a consistent style wherever that’s possible.

 

 

Ed:  Well the concept artists and texture artists use Photoshop and our in-house tools to help them in their daily work, while the modellers and animators grind away on 3ds Max. The most difficult part of creating a texture is creating the texture; it’s potentially life threatening so do it at your own risk.

 

 

Ed: The sci-fi prevails for sure, but I don’t think that labels do the game justice. You could have a mixture of both that’s balanced, looks sharp and doesn`t clash. In that case you’d have giant robot rats with rocket launchers.

 

 

Ed:  Yes, players will be able to customize their gear in different colors depending on their affiliation and add a nice decal or symbol to show their allegiance.

 

 

 

Ed: Weapons will have a different look depending on what materials they are made from. The whole crafting process is so complex and intricate I’d have a harder time explaining this to you than drawing it for you in a comicJ.

 

 

Ed: Oh they are too much to list out since it is such a long process everything during that time has an influence on you. I remember in the first months when we started work Earthrise we used to watch movies on a projector in the office, the most memorable ones in terms of inspiration were Minority Report, Equilibrium and The Island. Also there was a point when we wanted to add a hint of art deco in the architecture of Sal Vitas; it was right after Sky Captain came outJ. For me personally the Ghost in Shell series were of great inspiration not only on a visual level but on a purely conceptual one.

 

 

Thx to Masthead Studios and Ed for the interview.