Gallery LOTR War in the North

LOTR: War in the North

War in the North is an Action RPG released for the Xbox, PlayStation and PC. I was one of two Technical Artist assigned to this project for it's entire development. During that time my job responsibilities included:

  • Rigging
    Custom skeletons for each champion and many of the minions
  • Skinning
    Provide for smooth deformation of all poses during animations
  • Scripting
    Support for Animators to automate tedious tasks and improve workflow
  • Troubleshooting
    Help artist solve technical problems they encountered within the art pipeline

The first game I worked on for a Next-Generation platform, it offered me the chance to earn the title of Technical Artist. While developing War in the North I worked with physics simulators like Havok, custom shaders within 3D Studio Max and in-house solutions for limb severing and environmental effects.

LOTR: War in the North


Click the Thumbnails Below For a More Detailed View of the Game I Worked On

LOTR: War in the North 'Fight Together or Die Alone' Fight Together or Die Alone
LOTR: War in the North 'Gameplay Footage' Gameplay Footage
LOTR: War in the North 'Heroes Will Rise' Heroes Will Rise

LOTR: War in the North 'Hidden Secrets' Hidden Secrets
LOTR: War in the North 'Frosty Ranger' Frosty Ranger
LOTR: War in the North 'Pincushion Orc' Pincushion Orc

LOTR: War in the North


First Chance

While not my first job in the Industry, LOTR: War in the North was my first chance to work on a console platform. I also earned the title of Technical Artist while working on this game.

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Some Bad Guys

Diversity Training

When I was hired onto this project, Snowblind (the studio behind it), was in the process of being acquired by Warner Brothers. This provided me many opportunities in what I like to think of as diversity training...

  • I managed my own tasks
  • I learned how to communicate between designers and artist
  • I made improvements to the character pipeline
  • I was responsible for making sure all characters worked properly in the game


Increased Responsibility

As the project progressed I earned more responsibilities. Increasingly taking control of more characters and art assets. From the main player avatars, to the enemies and NPC's I was in charge of integrating them with the game.

The first step of that process was rigging and skinning. Making sure the models could provide a wide range of smooth deformation once animated. Then I would setup custom shaders so that skin and armor could have environmental effects like water, fire and frost applied to them. The enemies would have a complex system of severing setup that would allow limbs to fly!

Finally, I worked with Gameplay Designers to make sure everything was connected up correctly and could be tested within the game engine.

Monster Cutouts


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