Shadowlands Art Blast: Oribos, Revendreth, Maldraxxus, Torghast, and Bastion by Concept Artist Jimmy Lo

Live Опубликовано 30.01.2021 в 10:07 DiscordianKitty

Jimmy LoArtstationShadowlands Concept Art

These are early concepts I did during pre-production of Shadowlands. The need was, we are making Shadowlands, how does this place look like? I explored the idea of a central tower surrounded by realms. There were many ideas early on and it was really fun to brainstorm with the development team.

As the team talked about Shadowlands, we wanted to explore lands that were at different angles, some upside down, shrouded in clouds to add mystery.

I explored a giant fortress that was larger than Icecrown Citadel, that looked over the Shadowlands. We wanted the world to feel like you weren't on Azeroth. The floating fortress in the clouds to the right would become Bastion.

Oribos Exploration

This was one of the first concepts that helped establish the design language of Oribos, the Eternal City and home of the Arbiter. It was really fun to apply some of my texture experience to this concept as material look was very important in capturing the mood of this Undying City.

This was a fun concept to explore material, along with motifs and symbols. We want this place to feel real to players, so I approached this as real history, exploring symbols and telling stories through the design and motifs.

Only the original makers know how old Oribos is, but what we know is it is a very old and ancient city. I explored ideas of Oribos looking like a planet being formed, ancient and magical.

More ideas of Oribos being formed. Some of these became inspiration for Torghast tower.

This is a concept for the Crucible, located inside Oribos, where the Arbiter resides and judges all mortal souls that enter the Shadowlands. Portal gates are an important feature for Oribos, so we thought it would be cool and functional to have many portal gates that lead to infinite realms in her chamber.

I thought about how players would enter the room, having them walk along levitating pillars had a cool magical feel.

These are concept designs for the interior space of Oribos. I worked closely with Andy Mathews on layout ideas for the tower, he also found some amazing references of ancient Japanese artifacts which helped shape some of the swirl patterns that represent souls moving through the afterlife. Brian Youn helped with additional concepts that further developed the look of the interior. Collaboration is where the magic happens!

I did concepts for parts of the interior, and the modeler can build one part, then fill out the rest to complete the room. In this case there was no need to concept the entire room, saving me time to work on the next thing.

As I'm sketching ideas for the large space, I'll do studies of various architectural elements to help me further visualize the space.

Revendreth Exploration

Here are some concepts that explored what Revendreth could look like during early pre-production. The pitch was "What if the entire zone was a castle?" There were challenges early on with the scope of production on this, but ultimately the team pulled through and did an amazing job making Revendreth come true. Shadowlands offered something new and fresh that's never been attempted in previous expansions thanks to many awesome individuals from art, design and engineering. These early concepts served to visualize how it looked, answer and raise questions, drive conversation forward and inspire what something could be.

The idea was not that a castle would sit on top of a zone, but that the entire zone was a castle! So I worked on many ideas for how the entire area could look like. I explored ideas how the zone could be laid out. We looked at lots of castle references of how they divided spaces and applied that on a larger scale. Verticality was important in the space too. What are interesting ways that players can traverse through a space and not be all flat? I imagined myself roaming through all the stairways, bridges and tunnels as I sketched. Explored ideas of a giant statue of the leader of Revendreth sitting on top, watching over the realm, with the castle shaped like a throne. We ended up revisiting this idea for the final design of Castle Nathria. A concept never goes to waste.

Key Art concept for Revendreth. I had lots of fun working with an amazing group for this zone! So many incredible people help put everything together and the end result was something truly incredible.

Revendreth had a solid theme from the beginning. The entire zone was a castle with a Transylvania vibe.

I did a few early exploration concepts of Revendreth trees. We explored ways to incorporate tombstones into the trees and ground.

Revendreth Castle Nathria

These are concepts I worked on for Castle Nathria in Revendreth. This was really fun and I referenced one of my favorite classic animated films for inspiration. Kevin Young did an amazing job building the castle in 3d, check out Shadowlands and Revendreth to see the castle in all it's glory!

This was a very early concept of the Revendreth Realm. I referred back to this image much later for inspiration to make the Castle more iconic by adding a giant gargoyle on top.

I went more stylized to inspire and echo the feeling of Revendreth, which was darker and had a classic Transylvania vibe.

Maldraxxus Concepts

When I got a chance to work on Maldraxxus, I was beyond excited. The whole Vis Dev team worked on these at the same time and bouncing ideas back and forth was awesome! We also went back to Warcraft 3 RTS for both inspiration and approach, specifically the tech trees, base layouts and functionality of buildings. Ishmael Hoover did a lot of the Maldraxxus structure concepts and helped set some of the initial style. This is a great example of how we embraced the history of Warcraft and bring something fresh at the same time. Thank you Cole Eastburn, Mongsub Song, Matt O'Conner and Ely Cannon for the contributions they made in this fun kit, and the Dungeon Team for making some impressive models players see in the game!

Maldraxxus Points-of-Interests (POIs) concepts. We do a lot of visual development on big picture designs such as large POI spaces. We might have a concept for a building, but how do they look like in a larger space? Will we need additional structures? How can we arrange the pieces to address the needs of story and design? These concepts help serve that purpose. Visual Development helps give a holistic picture of things.

It was important to make each area of Maldraxxus distinct. I kept it simple, one area has a giant cystal peak, another is made up of bones, another area could have a giant Necroplis. If you look closely, each space is reminiscent of a player base in WC3. We drew heavy inspiration from Warcraft 3 and elements of RTS. I approached it like a tech tree, how would they build these structures, what would we see first? I wanted to show different phases.

Torghast Concepts

These are some concepts I did for Torghast. I had a lot of fun brainstorming ideas with other artists and designers on this kit, and it was a great opportunity to reference existing IceCrown and Lich King's armor, yet bring something fresh and new at the same time. In addition, Cole Eastburn did a lot of awesome visual development for Torghast, along with Mongsub Song and Matt O'Connor. And what you currently see in the game is an example of the amazing work from our Dungeon Team.

A look at how I started the concept. I wanted to capture the feel of an industrial factory from the 19th century, but in this case, a factory to torture souls.

We always look for "the cool thing" in Warcraft, so I explored an idea for these large 'Wheel of Pain' that tortured souls. I wanted the wheels to be large and iconic, like giant wheels from a medieval trebuchet.

Bastion Key Art

Key Art Concept for Bastion. We wanted the area to feel airy with souls able to flow through the clouds and structures. I want to show some of the process involved in creating this concept. A lot of exploration and studies are done before arriving on the final painting. It was fun to work with many talented artists on Bastion, some of whom were exploring tech to see how we could achieve these ideas in the game while we were working on concepts for the zone. Gabe Gonzalez, Kelli Hoover, Nick Murano, Phillip Zhang, Jessica Clarke, Lianna Tai, Brian Youn and our Environment, Dungeon and Level Design Team did an incredible job with additional art and design to bring it all together.

Early Ideas. I start with studies to explore different possibilities.

We wanted the structures to feel weight-less and airy. I explored infinite temples in the clouds that souls go to depending on the path they chose.

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