I worked on Starfield for 6 years and left Bethesda over a year before the game was done. I was the Lead Character Artist for the project until my departure in early 2022. My main endeavor was to help guide key art pipelines for the project – the customizable character system and layered material system.
The goal with the character creation tool was to deliver the same level of customization that our players were used to but with far better animation quality. Most character creation tools face a choice: Allow the players to distort the face and break the animation rig in the process, or limit the degree to which faces can be modified and deliver better animation. I think we did a great job of delivering on both fronts although it does not fully come through in game. Bethesda’s bespoke rendering engine is optimized for large open worlds, not characters.
Near the beginning of the project I took some time building up the studio’s 3D scanning pipeline. I led a environment scanning trip through Utah and designed a full head scanning rig for the studio. Sadly we did not go down the head scanning route in-house, but I learned a ton about asset scanning in the process.
All of these projects meant I spent less time on making art than I had in the past, but I still contributed some work to the game. I spent a few iterations on the Constellation Spacesuit. One of my early models made it into the game as the “Mark 1” Spacesuit. The helmet is a different one here but the rest is my model polished by the awesome character art team at BGS.
Here’s my concept art for the back of the suit from around 2017:
This design didn’t get approved at the time so I kept at it. I always liked this next version that came along later, but I think the rendering in the concept was too flat to achieve executive approval
The art direction was to keep pushing the bulk of the character farther, and we ended up with this look:
Next I designed on top of some of the work that Ray Lederer and Jay Clark had done on the Crimson Fleet, Starfield’s space pirates. The goal was to give the suits a reptilian feel.
My take on hodgepodge spaceship design did not stick, but was a fun exploration.
Finally, I designed the Constellation logo, which featured heavily in the promotional material for the game.
Starfield was a long, difficult project, and it was strange to see it finished without me around after so many years at Bethesda. I was very happy to see the good reviews on release.
