Studio Insider – Flesh Raiders

The Studio Insider is a chance for us to give you a quick sneak peek at work-in-progress art, special screenshots, animations, and other exciting insights from The Old Republic™ team. This week we’re sharing a fresh look at the creation process for the Flesh Raiders, as well as answering some of the questions posted in the forums.

Be sure to visit November’s Fan Friday to get a look at some awesome fan creations and other goodies!

Flesh Raider Step-by-Step

The Art Team is delighted to share another step-by-step break-down of how concept art is created for The Old Republic. Concept Artist, Diego Almazan, goes into detail regarding the process and thoughts involved in creating a set of Flesh Raiders.

When starting a concept, it’s important to get as much information as possible to help make the creature or object fit best in its place in the game. For this concept in particular, I was excited to take on the task of creating an alternate Flesh Raider which would fit alongside the current set.

After gathering and studying art work and other assets related to the Flesh Raider, I started off with a base which is a rough body sketch similar to an existing one in the game. At this point I was not exactly sure how far we wanted to stray from the original design, so in terms of the head and protrusions on the body I threw out some different ideas on what could be done. I tried not to spend too much time on the base, but wanted to give enough detail so there was a clear idea of what I have in mind. I even threw in a crazy wacky one to see if the team wanted something completely that deviated from the current Flesh Raider model.

Of course they go for the crazy one! I have not added any armor yet, so naturally this model has the most striking silhouette.

From there I went into a bit more refinement and ended up going back to something more like what I had in one of the other roughs. This is generally done to bring it back into the Flesh Raider family, and to incorporate a design that will allow the character to better accept armor. Flesh Raiders tend to pick up whatever's around and wear it for protection and to look more aggressive, so we need to have that in mind when creating the model.

Now I can start layering it on. Tattered rags, tubes, straps, and junk parts are what it's all about! I cake it on thick. Aside from the fact that these are meant to accompany the existing Flesh Raiders, this guy in some variation would be used to portray a boss or at least a stronger type so we want him to stand out. I also keep in mind that many of the parts on this model will come off for the more reasonable looking ones.

Once we have the main concept approved, I can add a back view to show what's going on there. I also started on some color variants. I used the less armored versions to show more skin detail; one has the splotchy skin pattern and the other has tribal paint. You'll also see that the rags and metal plates are different colors too, which makes them unique.

That’s it! There’s an inside look at how we created a set of Flesh Raiders.