TREKCORE > GAMING > STAR TREK ONLINE > 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
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Ken Henderson