DoW III: Farseer Macha Spotlight
Dawn of War III shows off some behind the scenes footage of Farseer Macha and her evolution from the early days.
via Dawn of War III
Art Director Matt Kuzminski walks us through the process of redesigning Macha from the ground up. Take it away, Matt!
We last saw Farseer Macha over ten years ago, in the first Dawn of War. Not only has Eldar design evolved since 2004, but the character herself has grown. The events of Dawn of War challenged a lot of Macha’s perceptions, maturing her into a more thoughtful and objective leader.
Macha’s model from Dawn of War (2004)
One of the central pillars the art team follows is to design for gameplay first. Quick digital sketches are great because they tell us right away if the general shapes and vibe are going to work at a distance while still capturing the essence of the character. Detail and subtlety are difficult to convey in the gameplay camera view, so overworking the concept in the 2D stage doesn’t guarantee it’ll translate seamlessly to 3D.
Early Character Designs
One of the biggest changes for Macha was the removal of her helmet. Despite being a big fan of Eldar Farseer helmet designs (and having modelled more than a few myself), the story we want to tell in Dawn of War III requires us to see her face. In this initial concept exploration, you can see me playing with the idea of a Greek Hoplite-inspired look and incorporating a helmet that doesn’t obscure her features.
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An early 2D concept
Another early 2D concept
Earlier I mentioned that overworking the concept can work against us. The nature of the camera in an RTS means the player spends most of their time looking at our characters from a distance. How the details of the character compress into a few pixels on the screen while conveying sophistication close up is something that is best worked out in 3D. In other words, 2D concept art can only take us so far when it comes finalizing the character in-engine. Details that look amazing in a 2D concept can look confusing, noisy, or unrecognizable in the game’s camera view.
Blocking out the Shapes in 3D
Macha with more Details in 3D
Macha Up-Close
I want to make a quick shout out to the passion our artists have; our character modeller Lee Salo was so pumped about Macha that he started sculpting her face in his free time before we had fully settled on a direction. And once he’d seen my “weird little sketch” of Macha, he turned it from an interesting exploration into an epic, fully realized design.
Here we’re getting close to finalizing the design, although we hadn’t solidified the colour palette. The Biel-Tan white of her robes just felt a little off, and we ended up finding that a red cape met our goals much more effectively. Turning red into the primary colour had the added benefit of helping her stand out more prominently on the battlefield. In this stage, we also tweaked the materials for the different parts of her armour – making sure the cloth reads as cloth in stark contrast to the Wraithbone.
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Macha’s in-game portrait for Dawn of War III
I couldn’t be more excited to share this new take on Macha – wiser, deadlier, and more sophisticated than ever. And I can’t wait for you guys to see the role that Macha has to play in Dawn of War III. To see her in action, head over to the Eldar faction page!
Thanks goes to Art Director Matt Kuzminski for all that great behind-the-scenes info about the evolution of Macha. If you want to read more about the process from Matt then be sure to read the full article right here. If you haven’t check out there homepage in awhile you may want to pop over and poke around. Where else are you going to see the awesome animation like this Wraithknight in action:
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