New Lifestones, courtesy of Nuhmudira
Original Link (now dead) - http://acdm.turbinegames.com/featuredarticles/?action=view&article_id=192
New Lifestones, courtesy of Nuhmudira
By Alicia Brown
Nuhmudira's students have been sending players on quests for some months now to assist the students in their research effort on lifestones. Beginning with the Holiday Quest Box quest, introduced in December 2002, and then the Crystal Minds, Shattered Souls quest in January 2003, players have been finding and turning in crystals to the students.
Concept Art
The concept here shows the brackets around the sphere spinning in different directions. Also shown here, one of the large "arms" that would hold the lifestone (it was understood that the final model would have more than one).
Well, now these efforts have finally paid off.
What an accomplishment for an Isparian - to be able to duplicate the Empyrean craft of creating a lifestone! No doubt those who've been following the lore are just nodding their heads and thinking, But that's Nuhmudira!
It all started with the team's desire to "plug the gaps" in areas around the world where there were no lifestones or where additional ones might be needed. Marae Lassel is a glaring example ? an island with no lifestone. The timing happened to coincide nicely with the landscape spawns' redistribution: the team discovered regions like Olthoi North, which needed lifestones but had none.
Normally, the content designer (in this case, Zontar) would request new art in a specification document for the lifestone, which the artist on the team, Gbro, would schedule into his workload, time permitting. In this case, Zontar had assumed that Gbro's time was too full and therefore did not formally request it. Gbro, however, learned about the lifestone quests and was inspired to do something totally different from the lifestones that are currently in game - and thus managed to squeeze it into his already tight schedule.
Final Model
The arms spin vertically and horizontally around the sphere until activated by a player; then the arms spin in the opposite direction for a few turns before returning to the original animation.
Gbro began with a small concept of the lifestone showing how the brackets around the sphere would animate.
"Conceptualizing for the team is a great way to show them art ideas, without spending hours making an animation," explains Gbro. "You don't want to find out, after all that work, that you've got to go back to the drawing board because it's against Asheron's Call lore, it isn't needed or someone has a new and/or better idea."
After conceptualizing, Gbro begins modeling, and as can be seen clearly in the images here, the final model changed considerably after it was first conceived.
"The whole team offered up some great ideas, which contributed to the final lifestone model and texture," Gbro proudly relates, "including the barely noticeable symbol at the base of the lifestone, which originated from about 12 concept symbols."
So the last finishing touch is in and now Nuhmudira's signature symbol graces the new lifestones, forever marking one of her greatest accomplishments.
To see an animated version of the new lifestones, click on the thumbnail image below.