82 replies to this topic

[InnerSphereNews]

Developer Interview 1: Alex Iglesias
MechWarrior® Online™: Can you give us brief bio?

Alex Iglesias: I’m presently living in Miami, FL. Am 27 years old, and graduated with a BFA in illustration from Ringling School of Art and Design, plus took a few courses at Gnomon school of visual arts. Previously worked at Day 1 Studios, Ignition Entertainment, and have done a bit of freelance. Links: flyingdebris.deviantart.com is where my art is at. flyingdebrisguy@yahoo.com is my email http://twitter.com/Flyingdebrisguy is my twitter

MWO: Your deviant art profile says all Mechs all the time... so how long have you been drawing Mechs?

AI: If my memory serves me correctly, it started all the way back somewhere between 1994 and 1996, so about 15-17 years.

MWO: What do you have against furries? http://flyingdebris....scraps#/d488kxr

AI: Haha, Well, for the record I don’t hate all of them. I’ve actually been friends with a few over the years. It’s mostly just the subculture as a whole that makes my brain hurt. If anything, it’s for the all the horrible eye scarring artwork it tends to fill the internet with, and how defensive it gets whenever called on it.

MWO: What is your first MechWarrior® experience? Video games or BattleTech®?

AI: Oddly enough, I believe my first experience was with the Somerset Strikers cartoon which sparked my curiosity, followed by the sega genesis game, then MechWarrior® 2 Mercs.

MWO: Did you start drawing Mechs after that or did you always draw giant robots?

AI: The Mech stuff started probably after the sega game, or MW2mercs, but became a serious habit once I started getting into the novels at around 12 or 13. However, I’ve always liked drawing exploding combat stuff as best as I can recall, the earliest art I remember making were crazy looking crayon doodles of stick figure airplanes and tanks blowing each other up when I was 4.

MWO: How did you get involved with Catalyst Game Labs™?

AI: By pure luck. Around late 2007, Mike Vaillancourt contacted me because he wanted a few illustrations for one of the Cthulhutech books. Afterwards, throughout most of 2008 he kept asking if I was going to go to Gencon that August and hang out at the booth. I was consistently unsure, and pretty much at the last minute decided, “Why not? sure.” What I had not realized was that 2 weeks prior, his company had partnered with Catalyst Game Labs™, and that we were going to be at their booth. Additionally, I also did not know at the time that Catalyst was comprised almost entirely of ex FASA writers and staff. Imagining that I might be at the booth for hours I brought my crappy laptop and a wacom tablet with me to kill time. When I actually got to the booth, Mike began introducing me to people, when I started recognizing names from the credits or covers of BT books from years prior. After my barely controlled mental regression to being suddenly 15 again, I guess I sensed it was a good time to start drawing Mech stuff right then and there. It apparently impressed their art director, Brent Evans, and a few months later I’m getting assignments to do book covers.

file://static.mwomercs.com/img/media/atlas_concept_01.jpg
MWO: What was your reaction after seeing the first reboot trailer that Piranha Games did back in 2009?

AI: At the time, I was working up in Chicago. The day the trailer hit the net, I seem to recall cheering, there were probably yells of “YES, FINALLY,” “YEAH! MECHS ARE BACK!” as well as jealous grumbles of “damn, why am I not working on that?!”

MWO: How do you feel about redesigning these iconic Mechs?

AI: It’s a lot of fun and sometimes very challenging. With certain Mechs it’s a small matter of adjusting some proportions, or making certain fixes so that the art matches the specs/gameplay, with others, it’s nearly a complete overhaul of the design. In both cases though, I always try to emphasize the aspects of the original design that make it interesting and immediately recognizable, add certain minor doodads here and there, and downplay or replace the elements that either I’m not too fond of or don’t work well for the game. Through all of this, I also try to respect the years worth of art for those designs that came before mine.

file://static.mwomercs.com/img/media/atlas_concept_02.jpg
MWO: What do you think about the fan reaction?

AI: Pleasantly surprised, people seem to be talking MechWarrior® again, sharing their past experiences, rebuilding old clans of players, and to my understanding, it seems even the 50 year old guys are coming out of the woodwork to organize their favourite factions again. I’m especially pleased to see the old mpbt3025 beta players popping up.

MWO: How would you describe the style you have applied to the Mechs to reboot them?

AI: For the most part, it’s trying to give the impractical the semblance of practicality with a little bit of real world military stylistic elements mixed in.

MWO: Are there any Mechs that you are scared of rebooting?

AI: Probably the Timberwolf, I know that if I mess that one up, I will never hear the end of it, and will probably have to try to outrun a few pitchfork wielding mobs.

file://static.mwomercs.com/img/media/atlas_concept_03.jpg
MWO: Are there any Mechs you can't wait to redesign? Why?

AI: I really want to redesign the Mechs with bizarre legs that seem to defy physics in some sense, like the Stalker or Black Python, in order to fix the problem. Aside from that, basically any historically awkward or generic looking Mech that has usually been overlooked in favour of the cool looking ones, I’d love to polish them up, and bring out the cool factor for them.

MWO: You have allot of fans in the community and It didn't take them long to identify your style on the ISN twitter feed have you received allot of questions about the product?

AI: I did have a few emails and messages from people asking about my involvement, and a few people on the websites I frequent trying to call me out to get me talking, had to pretty much lay low with my mouth shut for all of October.

MWO: Was that ISN puzzle thing fun to watch?

AI: It was fun, especially since I really had no idea which pieces were going to be released or when. But yeah, I still have no clue how some people were seeing an Archer in the Atlas fragments.

MWO: Being a fan of MechWarrior® and a creator of MechWarrior® how do you retain your inner {Noble MechWarrior} when this is your job?

AI: Mostly it’s just a matter of channelling that {Noble MechWarrior} energy directly into my job. Sure, I am drawing for MechWarrior® because It pays my bills (damn art school loans), but also because it’s something that I love, and really want to eventually play. So that inner {Noble MechWarrior} isn’t in danger of going away any time soon, it’s too busy being the creative power supply in my head.

[Vincent Vascaul]

Sweet interview, I am really digging this format for releasing info.

[Ghost]

Thumbs up to flyingdebris for the interview.

For those not in the know, the 'furry' question is a bit of an in-joke--it's his take on an older image that depicted various humanoid critters getting fried by an Atlas. I believe someone turned it into a flash animation as well.

[Frantic Pryde]

Dude!? Your from Miami? Awesome! Miami is finally contributing to something I care about lol. If your ever looking for a TT game feel free to swing by sunshine adventure gaming some time

Love your stuff btw. I really want a mini of your hunchback.

[Silent]

Very awesome Atlas concepts.

[Adam Steiner]

Love Alex's work. So glad he's apart of this project.

[Atlas3060]

Worried about messing up the Timber Wolf? Don't worry, I've seen what you have done with my namesake 'Mech and whatever you do will not cause me to take up a pitchfork.

Those concept pics are just beautiful!

Quote

For those not in the know, the 'furry' question is a bit of an in-joke--it's his take on an older image that depicted various humanoid critters getting fried by an Atlas. I believe someone turned it into a flash animation as well.

That one and the Firestarter bursting through antrocon make me giggle.

[DingleBerry]

Been waiting all day for this! Thanks Alex for being apart of this great game we call MechWarrior!

[CoffiNail]

Wicked to know such a fantastic artist is doing the concept, makes me know we are going to have an amazing looking game!! FD if your concept art of that mech cockpit is anything like you are designing for this... *drools* I think i will get too distracted looking at my cockpit in battle it will look so amazing!

Glad for this interview, and great to see you are the first one! That Atlas looks fantasticly mean and deadly, i think i will **** bricks when i run around a corner in anything but an assault and that Atlas is staring back at me!

This is a going to be THE MECHWARRIOR!

Edited by CoffiNail, 09 November 2011 - 10:24 AM.

[Pariah Devalis]

Oh wow, another Miamian. And he's actually working on the game! Finally Miami brings something to the table beyond chongas and lines of cocaine.

[Ra-ul]

Well deserved job, I love those concepts and can´t wait to see more Mechs being redesigned for the reboot. Keep rocking the house.

[derhammer]

Awesome Interview !

When i first saw the Trailer back then, i wished PG would ask YOU for the artwork on this project, and yes it happend !!!!

Great concepts on the Atlas, love your final design for it.
Would also love to have a Mini or a larger scale Model of it, to get it painted with all my skills though

keep up that good work, and may the fanboyism be with you, its strong in you !

Edited by derhammer, 09 November 2011 - 10:28 AM.

[Halfinax]

Can't wait to see what he does with those many ugly duckling 'Mechs.

[Frantic Pryde]

Pariah Devalis, on 09 November 2011 - 10:23 AM, said:

Oh wow, another Miamian. And he's actually working on the game! Finally Miami brings something to the table beyond chongas and lines of cocaine.

Right? Lol...

I extend my invite to you also, and anyone else wants to play the tabletop in Miami. We can always use more players

[SquareSphere]

I wish they would have gone over how much of the concept art design will be traveling over to the modeling of the in game mechs. But got to love some FD art.

Ironically, I've only known him as the "Concept art contributor" for MWLL. No idea he was so famous in the BT community.

[Pariah Devalis]

frantic pryde, on 09 November 2011 - 10:39 AM, said:

Right? Lol...

I extend my invite to you also, and anyone else wants to play the tabletop in Miami. We can always use more players

Oh, I would, but all I have is a star some place, forgot where exactly. No clue where my rulebooks went, either. Never got too into the TTG since the rules, though logical, were extremely convoluted. Used to go to Sunshine Gamers for 40k a few years ago, though.

[Phytochrome]

Really liking these concepts. It's interesting to see so many variations of the Atlas' "death's-head". The changes in stance and general bulkiness are also cool to observe.

It'd be nice if we could get a steady stream of concept art coming with the Wednesday updates!

[Taliesin]

The Atlas has never looked so good! Still looks like a bloke in a suit though. Totally kills the scale. That's the trouble with humanoid mechs.No getting away from it, I suppose. Anyway, looks like the mechs are in very good hands. I look forward to seeing future releases.

[Aidan]

Flying Debris your Atlas concepts are very good. Your experience shines through here. It will be fun to watch your artistic concepts make their way through the 3D model, rigging/animation, UV unwrap/texture, weaponry, and audio production channel.

Oh and those art school loans are not necessarily a bad thing. Some of the great artists in history were motivated by the ever present bottom line of survival. "Necessity is the Mother of invention!"

Vaya con Dios, my friend. Stay thirsty!

[Alistair Steiner]

Awesome stuff, guys. Almost forgot about Wednesday being the big day now. Still, the forum is getting it done, and (at least as far as I can tell), keeping important information right at the top where we can see it.

I will say I'm not terribly concerned with what happens art-wise. By that, I mean that I know no matter what this awesome artist does, I'll be happy with it. Realistically, all 'Mechs would go through some basic redesign, even if it's just a result of repairs/repainting. MWLL changed a lot of stuff around, but my only complaint is the lack of the skull-face for the Atlas, as the limited engine they're working with requires a clear cockpit for the pilot to literally look out, rather than the holographic projections described in the novels. So the Atlas in MWLL has a "fishbowl" head, though it's been remedied somewhat.

For example, I only know the Catapult from MW4. His Catapult looks significantly more awesome.

And I'm okay with that.

Also, unsure what sort of programming issues will be with quad 'Mechs, but... well he made at least one look good:

It's all gonna burn indeed. Anyway, check out his DA account for those of you who haven't. Hope I didn't spam the board with his pics too bad. Later, guys!