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TREKCORE >
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DESIGNER DIARY > First Images
PUBLISHED: Aug 15, 2005
AUTHOR:
Ken Henderson Hi
Ken Henderson here, the Art Director for Star Trek Online. As I'm sure
you've heard about by now we've released some imagery that gives a peak
into how we are evolving the look of Star Trek. We were excited to share
the images on Friday in Las Vegas and are equally excited to be posting
them on our BLOG. It was great talking with some of you at the
convention and getting your reactions first hand. Look for more updates
of this nature as the project progresses. I'll also be throwing up a
non-image entry from time to time just to share some thoughts or pose
some questions. Either way, the BLOG will be a great resource for the
projects Art Direction from here on out. Before I dive in I want to
acknowledge all the help and guidance from Paramount as we've
progressed. Harry Lang has been a great source of encouragement and
enthusiasm for the work that we have been doing and having his input in
this process has been invaluable.
So on to the images [link no longer functional].
We revealed two of the visual corner stones for STO yesterday, the
Uniform designs by Hyoung Nam our resident conceptual illustrator, and
the next generation of L-CARs by Mike Okuda. We decided to tackle these
two areas for a number a number of reasons.
Uniforms:
The uniforms in Star Trek have been, and continue to be, one of the
single most dentifiable elements of the franchise. We felt that we had
to get the uniforms right and that when we did, the design cues and
solutions we had come up with would go a long way towards informing how
we evolve the rest of the Star Trek universe for STO. As well, we had to
tackle the quintessential MMO problem of character customization. How
can we make the MMO player experience in Star Trek payoff when we have a
world based in uniformity? How can we make our version of the Federation
uniforms be personal and malleable enough while still retaining the team
feel that is Star Trek? What you see is our solution (well at least 4
images towards it). We had to keep the department colours along with the
area between the chin and the chest (shoulder area). These are the key
elements of the Start Trek uniform and our design had to work with them.
As long as we kept the shoulder area of the uniform "feeling" like Star
Trek we realized we could add other elements to the uniform. We've also
made the uniforms more visibly purposeful so that departments could be
distinguished by more than just colours. This has allowed us to add
specific features, details and add-ons for every department and every
rank which will allow players to differentiate themselves from one
another and to wear their accomplishments and progress as all MMO's
allow you to do. To allow for player customization and gear / detail
add-ons to the uniforms we had to make rank a much more visible element
in the uniform designs. We did this by using a progression of department
colour and the placement of it. In the image you can see (from left to
right) a Medical ensign, a Lieutenant (Jr. Grade) Engineer, a Commander
and a Lieutenant Commander Security officer. You can see that one each
of them the base uniform design is the same but the department colour
and placement of that colour goes a long way towards showing off their
rank. We still have the insignias on the chest for further clarification
of their rank but the colour placement and design allows you, the
player, to see what rank a player is in an instant.Another thing you’ll
notice is the glowing coloured mech elements on all of the uniforms.
These are the personal shielding elements that we're adding for STO and
I'll let Glen tell you all about them. Needless to say this shielding
will be upgradeable and customizable as you move through the game.
You'll notice that the Lieutenant Commander Security officer is decked
out in what appears to be a combat ready outfit, that's because she is.
This image is a great example of how we will create add-on mech / detail
for uniforms that players can earn / wear while still allowing them to
feel like Star Trek officers and that allow the rank to show through. We
want to make sure that no matter what level of customization is worn or
attained that the Federation uniform and rank still shine through. It's
not an easy task but we're really happy with where we are at right now.
L-CARS:
As I mentioned above in regards to the uniforms, L-CARs are another one
of the most identifiable elements of the Star Trek franchise. We knew we
wanted to evolve their look but we also knew how important it was to get
that evolution right. So we decided to go to the source and brought Mike
Okuda on to help us explore where we could go. Mike has done a great job
of creating, what we all feel, is an evolution of the L-CARS. We
determined that they still had to "feel" like Star Trek, be recognizable
on that level but show an evolution. We decided to really pay-off on the
promise of L-CARs in a way that the film and television properties, as
of yet, haven't. That is to say, to show that they are thinking and
reacting to situations; the "mind" of a Star ship as it were. To that
end we've added the background elements which show impulses coursing
across data fields, we've added a more active and "alive" interface that
reshapes itself to accommodate a given user (players) needs. We have
just begun to explore this new direction but are very excited about
where we are at this point. Look for more updates in the future. There
you go, your first look. We hope you are as excited as we are. As
always, it would be great to hear your thoughts and I'll be sure to
check out the various forums to see what you're thinking. Thanks for
checking in.
Ken
...........................
Ken Henderson
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