Interview with Art Director Greg Grimsby

[Garthilk]

It's been a long time in the making but I'm very happy to finally announce we've cornered a real life Warhammer Online developer. The squirrelly subject of this interview is none other than Greg Grimbsby the Art Director for Warhammer Online. He's the guy ensuring that all Chaos Chosen have pink as an allowed armor dye color. Just kidding folks. Though, if it is something regarding the art of WAR, then odds are Greg knows about it.

How are things coming along with Warhammer Online? What are some of the most recent developments in the project?

Greg: Progress has been amazing these last few months. We have moved past the stage of getting all the core elements in, so now we can polish and tweak the art as needed to ensure we meet our very high quality bar. In terms of recent developments, the final lighting and sky systems are now in and our talented lighting and concept teams are working hard to push the visuals to glorious levels.

How many artists are there on the team, and how are they divided up in terms of functional areas and different categories of work and assets?

Greg: We have over 55 internal artists working on WAR as well as additional resources, such as freelancers we use as necessary. These artists are specialized into a number of art disciplines such as character artists, VFX artists, concept artists, animators, world artists, and UI artists. There are also sub-specialties within some of these disciplines such as tech artists, lighting artists, terrain artists, etc.

Are there any significant differences between the ways the Warhammer art team works compared to its counterparts on Dark Ages of Camelot?

Greg: We have a much greater investment in concept art and terrain art in WAR. The level of detail and artistry our terrain requires must be handled by skilled artisans, where as in the early days of Camelot there was no such thing as a “terrain artist”. Additionally we have a sizable pool of great concept artists that produce the work you see on a monthly basis. Those guys feed the hungry production monster with highly detailed visuals to work off of. Its not that we haven’t done concepts for DAoC, its just the scale and ratios have been much improved on WAR.

In what ways do the size of the team and magnitude of the project affect how the work is organized and done?

Greg: We generate so much artwork on a daily basis that our art leads have a great deal of responsibility. They are expected to deliver on the look of the concepts and ensure the work of their teams is of consistently high quality. The quantity of work has also placed a great deal of importance on robust scheduling and capacity analysis to guarantee that the art pipeline keeps working and that art does not gate the other teams. Because of this communication between the leads and other teams is key, since small goofs can cause features to miss milestones. We also have dedicated development directors that handle scheduling for WAR.

Do the initial concepts persist through the various evolutions of a project or do they tend to change? How close is the final product to the preliminary sketches?

Greg: Our concepts push the artistic vision. The final product and the concepts are expected to match as closely as our technology and budgets allow. The concepts are our visual targets and we have hit them very successfully.

Who are your biggest influences? Which artists or designs have particularly inspired you on this project?

Greg: The obvious answer here is that the GW material itself has inspired us the most. Its 25 years of great stuff. Why look elsewhere? Beyond that blanket statement, the Hudson River school artists and Piranesi have always provided for us great visual examples of how cool even a traditional “forest” or ruin can look.

How much freedom did you have to create models according to your own style and taste? Did you get much direction from Games Workshop?

Greg: We had great freedom to make statements within the visual language and expectations of the IP. That language however has very specific rules. The more material GW has produced on a subject, the less “freedom” their was to reinvent stuff. This may sound a little contradictory, but essentially so long as a black Orc looked like a black Orc, we could play a great deal with how its armor was decorated. To continue that example, the Black Orc should look like an indestructible tank. It has great, thick pauldrons. It has thick armored gauntlets. It has a full helm that is shaped to mimic the visage of the Orc itself, albeit stylized and angular. So as long as we deliver on the core ideas of what a black Orc is, we can fill the visuals in with whatever details help reinforce the core ideas. In terms of direction, GW gave us years and years of it to look at. If we ever hit any fuzzy areas in the IP they helped us work through these points until we had clarity.

To what degree did working with an established property factor into the look of Warhammer? In what ways was it beneficial, and what restrictions did it impose?

Greg: Well, the answer to this question better be "a great deal" or I didn't do my job. Our primary goal has always been to make a great Warhammer game. There have been other factors as well. We knew from day 1 that we didn't want to make another grey/brown game that’s normal-mapped into stale oblivion. Aside from my own personal distaste for that aesthetic in a fantasy game, we want WAR to have a broad audience. We want it to be accessible. Other games have gone for “realism” and gore. We are going for fun and broad appeal, in the spirit of the table top miniatures. The only real restriction this placed on us was in terms of blood and gibs.

What graphical touches are you particularly proud of?

Greg: Our careers look great. There is so much variety in the armors, effects, animations, and abilities of our careers that you could play the game a dozen times and the experience your avatar provided will feel different. It was a huge undertaking, but the IP really demanded it. There are no “generic” classes in WAR.

Beyond this our trophy system is an exciting innovation in WAR. Being able to visually display your accomplishments to other players and have this additional customization option is great stuff.

Lastly, the final lightmapped zones and their new sky boxes look great. It’s taken a huge effort from terrain artists, fixture artists, concept artists, and our lighting artists to pull all this together to offer a great, varied palette of zones. Ask anyone in the industry how they feel about lightmapping over 40 sq miles of world. They will shudder in horror, and understand what we have accomplished.

What lessons have you learned from working on this project? Did you have any preconceptions that needed to be adjusted?

Greg: There are too many lessons to relate them all. Seriously. You can’t walk away from a project of this size without learning a bunch of stuff, or at least affirming your original thoughts. However, I would say the single biggest takeaway is that getting support from management, and EA in terms of getting the time and resources to make WAR great has been key. In the end, assuming you have a solid game design, the success of your game will boil down to the time it is given to grow, be iterated on, and be polished. All games are subject to this basic law. Having a great staff and a very solid vision has allowed Mythic to do amazing things in a relatively short time.

How does the amount of work compare to other projects in your experience? Has this difference had any impact on your role with the overall activities of the art team?

Greg: Well there is so much work that micromanaging is impossible. The best you can do is be proactive, facilitate, and keep your eye on the big picture. Our art leads rarely, if ever, get their hands dirty, so to speak in their actual crafts. There is too much of a need for managing and reviewing the art process. For me in particular is has proven quite a challenge to stay on top of all the issues that affect art on a global level, review the art on a consistent basis, and still make myself assessable to the production artists.

What kinds of challenges have arisen or become more significant due to the nature of this particular project and the engine you're using?

Greg: Texture resolution and system memory have been technical hurdles forced on us by the performance needs of a large, open MMO world
like we have in WAR. This combined with the ever advancing visual bar and expectations of the players and you can see the vise-grip we are caught within.

What are the main challenges you face in creating art for the game and in making it stand out, especially when some potential players knowledge of art is very particular?

Greg: Our mantra is to make evocative, interesting, and Warhammer-appropriate art. Our own expectations are very high, believe me. So the daily challenge is maintaining this standard and trying to never say “good enough”. We strive to never settle for anything less than ”great” or “cool”. That means everyone on the art staff needs to execute at a high level and keep it up for a very long time.

In your personal opinion, what is the single most interesting aspect of Warhammer Online's art element, and why?

Greg: This may be lost on some people, but I hope the most interesting aspect of the art of WAR is that it is "transporting". I don’t mean that in a beam me up Scotty kind of way, but that when you play WAR, you believe the world. You are sold on it as a successful fusion of story and art. For example, the High Elf lands have their own architecture and color palette. Their zones are beautiful and grand, just like the elfs. The chaos lands are brutal and threatening, just like the Ruinous powers themselves. The dwarf areas feel like dwarfs would live there and that they would build stuff as we have. So for me, the most interesting part of the art for WAR is the gestalt of it all. Hopefully while players are in WAR, they will forget so much that they are playing a game filled with models and AI and textures, but instead they would buy into our story and help tell part of the tale themselves.

A big thanks to Greg for taking the time to answer these questions and for giving us an insiders look at how art development is handled inside the EA Mythic studios.

[rogue_gamecube]

Great article, nice catch getting Greg Grimsby, Garthilk !

If there was ever a doubt the art department for WAR was ever going to be 'lacking', those doubts will be sorely disappointed .

[Brela]

Awesome read, thank you!

[DeathMetal]

Nice interview!

[Lucivar]

Great stuff. Don't want to get my hopes up unrealistically, but from everything I've seen and articles like this, WAR is looking to be absolutely on the money in terms of the IP and its look.

[Ravenlaw]

Good interview.

Though I'm surprised they had the entirety of it on the front page.

[Stigus]

40 sq miles of world.

Well i guess that gives us a rough idea of how "big" the world is.

Great interview, and nice to know there is so much effort being put into the eye candy part of the game. Hope that it will put all the naysayers to rest on launch.

[Orock]

Cant wait to see the live animations and terrain.

[Wazakage]

Originally Posted by Orock

Cant wait to see the live animations and terrain.

Can't wait to see everything in the game overall, will be nice to finally play a Warhammer based MMO that's true to the IP

[Revolutionomni]

I just hope most people will understand why things are the way they are when they come face to face with things in WAR. Then again, it's up the the writings to make sure people understand why things look or act the way they do.

[Speedy]

Very interesting read--always nice to get a "behind-the-scenes" look at the game.

If what he said about the 'feel' of the game, how each city and race go hand in hand is correct, I will squeal with delight as I walk through the Dark Elf city, along with the rest, of course :P

[[EC]Awe]

Nice interview indeed! Thanks for the read, was very interesting.

Keep it up WHA.

[Keiser]

There seems to have been a long-running bashfest on WAR's art direction and graphics. People have said for a long time that the graphics have been awful, even though the "it's only beta at lowest settings" card has been in play the whole time.

This interview definitely helps me believe in WAR not only playing great but looking absolutely beautiful when it ships. I can't wait to see it with all the bells and whistles enabled! When I read "skybox" I almost got a little too excited, there's nothing I love more than a nicely rendered sky.

[Kahlua]

Originally Posted by Garthilk

What kinds of challenges have arisen or become more significant due to the nature of this particular project and the engine you're using?

Greg: Texture resolution and system memory have been technical hurdles forced on us by the performance needs of a large, open MMO world
like we have in WAR. This combined with the ever advancing visual bar and expectations of the players and you can see the vise-grip we are caught within.

This is why we won't see much instancing like that other game

[dutch_gamer]

Great interview. This is the first interview I actually find interesting in a very long time.