Denis Loubet interview scheduled

I'm pleased to announce Denis Loubet and I are sitting down for a chat the weekend of September 12.

Send me your questions for Denis, and I'll try to work them in.

Rahr!

 

Very cool and very exciting Sir Frank! I'll have to think of some questions!

 

I'm sure you have this covered but:

Q: Are there any further Shroud related projects in your near future, or even Underworld Ascendent?

Thx, and congrats.

 

Triple like.

 

Hmm, ok this may be a stretch but...was that concept art from the Kickstarter video created by Denis? And can he shed any light on it?

I ask because given your comment in that thread and Denis revealing tons of very early concept art that was very much steampunk in style...

 

I suspect @Scottie , but I will ask!

 

Heh! That was indeed some full-blown, Victorian-age-looking steam-punk-style art and design stuff created by me and Denis very early on when Richard was imagining the game as a fantasy expression of that genre (as opposed to more Medieval)... Denis and I worked months and months on those renders and sketches, with me working on either painting or rendering all the interiors and items, and Denis sketching all the figures and costumes... We eventually started creating exterior buildings together as we put together a Unity scene in an attempt to see what an outdoor area might look like... The largest image you see on Richard's monitor there (as seen in the linked post) was an early concept for what the base design for the Oracle Chamber could look like...

This was loooong before any storyline was developed, and more than a year before the Kickstarter, so a lot has changed since then, but Richard is still wanting to see many of those game elements brought back into the design, as you can see by some of the stuff that has appeared in the last year or so...

Perhaps, if Richard is OK with it,...I can upload most of those old concept images and show you folks... There are literally 9 months worth of Denis and my work that most of you all have never seen...(though a few of you that have visited her got a peek at some of them at one dinner or another on my phone's tiny gallery)...

For instance, as an example, this was originally what an Emporium interior might have looked like... Since we no longer have anything like this in our current game, showing this off should be no big deal...



Of course, with us going in the direction of the more archetypical fantasy feel, the majority of the high-concept "Victorian-Age flavor" had to go....

Scottie ^_^

 

Thank you, Scottie!

 

Question: Out of all the Ultima games that you have worked on and made illustrations for, what are some of your favorite pieces and why?

 

Wow, that is absolutely gorgeous. Thanks so much for sharing the history behind this, @Scottie. Mystery solved!

And yes, would definitely love to see more of the early work. I was never big on steampunk but I have to admit, the concept behind this and the artwork is seriously changing my mind as it is so uniquely and creatively presented. Fantastic!

 

Thanks "smack"!

I'll ask Richard if he'll let me post some more of these... I'm not sure how much of this is to be kept "secret" until we eventually create "Shroud versions" of them for release (which we have actually done for some of this stuff already)...

 

Argh, I wont be able to make it. Denis rocks. Top notch artist.

Here is a Q: Denis has made numerous amazing art pieces; but if there was another art piece for a game (or anything else) that he wishes he would have been the creator of, what would it be?

 

Here is my question: when will Denis continue to create characters for customers -> DrawMyCharacter ? Is there any hope he will ever do?

 

Here's my question: Where are my car keys?

--Denis

 

Question: What type of character does Denis most like to draw? (by type I mean, archetype like mage, thief, warrior, or personality - evil, honorable, a scoundrel, etc..)

 

Any update on this? I would be interested in reading about it!

 

We talked for about two hours.
I've done a rough edit which I need to run by @dloubet , @Scottie , and @Rustic Dragon . Then I'll post.

 

Thanks for the update Sir Frank! Very excited!

 

Here's the link. I may do more work to try to get higher quality video.
My primary camera failed to save the video properly, so this is my backup camera that was running on battery.
Video quits after an hour and a half, but the audio goes on, and is still worth hearing.

 

Nice Frank!