Inside Star Citizen: Dev Diary: Gavin Rothery

Summary

The video script features an interview with Gavin Rothery, a prolific concept artist behind over 20 Star Citizen spacecraft. Rothery discusses his creative process, the importance of teamwork, and adaptability in game design. He shares insights into his 3D and 2D design pipeline, the 'rule of cool' in finalizing ship aesthetics, and his favorite Star Citizen ships. The script highlights Rothery's passion for his work, his unique home studio environment, and the excitement of contributing to the ambitious Star Citizen universe.

Takeaways

• 🚀 Star Citizen is a highly ambitious game aiming to create a first-person universe with varied experiences across multiple star systems, with spaceships at its core.
• 🎨 The process of spaceship design in Star Citizen involves concept artists who start with a technical brief and develop vehicle concepts that fit the game's universe.
• 🐕 Working as a concept artist allows for flexibility, such as working from home with pets around, which is highlighted by the speaker's fondness for his dogs.
• 🛸 Gavin Rothery, a prolific concept artist, has contributed more than 20 vehicles to Star Citizen, helping define and refine the styles of various manufacturers.
• 💡 The concept artist's role involves transforming a brief into a visually appealing design, often working in isolation but with regular touchpoints with art directors.
• 🔄 Star Citizen's design process requires a cohesive approach where the exterior and interior of ships must fit together and adhere to strict metrics.
• 🛠 The design pipeline for a ship in Star Citizen typically involves initial exterior and interior drafts, followed by second passes to refine the design based on interior constraints.
• 🎨 The 'Rule of Cool' in Star Citizen refers to the final 20% of design work, which focuses on enhancing the brand and making the ship look appealing beyond its functional requirements.
• 🖌️ Keyshot is used for rendering promotional artwork, allowing concept artists to quickly apply materials and create high-quality visuals of the spaceships.
• 🌟 Gavin Rothery's favorite brand in Star Citizen is Crusader, with the Aries being one of his favorite ships due to its classic black and white sci-fi aesthetic.
• 🌌 Rothery's all-time favorite ship is the Gladius, which he felt a great sense of accomplishment seeing in the Squadron videos and admired by Mark Hamill.

Q & A

What is Star Citizen known for in terms of its game design?

Star Citizen is known for its ambitious design of a first-person universe with varied experiences across multiple star systems, primarily centered around spaceships.

How many Star Citizen spacecraft has Gavin Rothery contributed to so far?

Gavin Rothery has contributed to the design of more than 20 Star Citizen spacecraft so far.

What is the role of a concept artist in the game development process?

A concept artist works at the start of a project, interpreting a technical brief and creating visual concepts that fulfill the brief and contribute to the game's design.

How does Gavin Rothery describe his typical work environment as a concept artist?

Gavin Rothery describes his work environment as one where he often works in isolation from home, with regular touch-ins with art directors, and enjoys having his dogs around him all day.

What is the significance of the 'rule of cool' in Star Citizen's design process?

The 'rule of cool' in Star Citizen is a term used to describe the final 20% of the design process, where the focus is on enhancing the brand and ensuring the design looks cool and cohesive.

What is the typical workflow for designing a new ship in Star Citizen?

The workflow involves an initial week of creating multiple design options, followed by refining the chosen direction, and then going through stages of exterior and interior design passes to ensure everything fits cohesively.

What software does Gavin Rothery use for 3D modeling and rendering?

Gavin Rothery uses Maya for 3D modeling and KeyShot for rendering, and finalizes the artwork in Photoshop.

What are some of the challenges Gavin Rothery faces when designing ships for Star Citizen?

Some challenges include ensuring that the interior and exterior of the ships fit cohesively, considering various functional requirements, and adapting to changes during the development process.

What is the importance of the promo artwork stage in the ship design process?

The promo artwork stage is crucial as it is when the ship receives proper setup, time, and attention to detail, resulting in promotional pieces that showcase the final design.

Which ship design is Gavin Rothery most proud of and why?

Gavin Rothery is most proud of the Gladius design because it was the first one he worked on, and he felt a sense of accomplishment seeing it featured prominently in Squadron videos.

How does Gavin Rothery manage the balance between work and personal life as a concept artist?

Gavin Rothery enjoys the flexibility of working from home, being able to set his own schedule, and spending time with his dogs, which helps him maintain a balance between work and personal life.

Outlines

00:00

🚀 The Art of Spaceship Design in Star Citizen

This paragraph introduces the ambitious scope of Star Citizen, a game aiming to create a vast, first-person universe with a focus on spaceships. It highlights the importance of concept artists in the game's development, mentioning renowned contributors from various franchises. The narrative centers on Gavin Rothery, a prolific artist responsible for over 20 Star Citizen vehicles, who has significantly influenced the game's diverse ship designs. Rothery discusses his work process, emphasizing the collaborative yet solitary nature of concept art, and the need for flexibility and creativity within the dynamic environment of game development.

05:00

🎨 The Creative Process Behind Star Citizen's Spaceships

The second paragraph delves into the detailed process of designing spaceships for Star Citizen. It describes the initial phase of creating exterior options, the artist's preference for working in 3D to conceptualize shapes and volumes, and the iterative design process involving multiple passes of exterior and interior design. The 'rule of cool' is introduced as a guiding principle for the final 20% of design, ensuring that the ship not only meets functional requirements but also pushes the brand forward aesthetically. The paragraph also touches on the use of keyshot for rendering and Photoshop for final promotional artwork, with a special mention of Rothery's fondness for the Crusader brand and the Aries ship.

10:03

🌟 Celebrating the Legacy of Star Citizen's Spacecraft Design

The final paragraph reflects on the impact of Gavin Rothery's work on Star Citizen, celebrating his ability to create iconic spaceships that resonate with fans. It discusses the personal satisfaction Rothery derives from his role, the freedom it offers, and the joy of seeing his designs come to life in the game. The narrative concludes with an acknowledgment of Rothery's favorite ships, the Gladius and the Argo, and a look forward to his future contributions to the game. The paragraph also provides a broader perspective on the collaborative and creative journey of developing Star Citizen's expansive universe.

Keywords

💡Star Citizen

Star Citizen is an ambitious video game project aiming to create a vast, immersive, first-person universe with multiple star systems and varied experiences. It is the central theme of the video, highlighting the game's development process and the role of concept artists in its creation. The script mentions Star Citizen's unique requirements and the challenges faced by its designers.

💡Concept Artist

A concept artist is a professional who works at the beginning of a project to transform a technical brief into visual concepts. In the context of the video, concept artists like Gavin Rothery are crucial in designing the spaceships for Star Citizen, working both in isolation and in collaboration with art directors to realize the game's vision.

💡Spaceship Design

Spaceship design is a key aspect of the video, focusing on the creative process behind crafting the vehicles in Star Citizen. The script discusses the artist's approach to designing spaceships, from initial sketches to final renders, and the importance of cohesive exterior and interior design.

💡Technical Brief

A technical brief is a document that outlines the requirements and specifications for a project. In the video, concept artists receive technical briefs for Star Citizen spaceships, which they must interpret and transform into visually appealing and functional designs.

💡3D Modeling

3D modeling is the process of creating three-dimensional shapes and objects using specialized software. The video script describes how the concept artist works in 3D, starting with rough shapes to form the basis of the spaceship design, which is essential for visualizing the form and function of the vehicles in Star Citizen.

💡Exterior and Interior Design

Exterior and interior design refers to the process of designing both the outside and inside of a spaceship. The script emphasizes the importance of ensuring that the exterior and interior of Star Citizen's ships are cohesive and fit well together, which is a unique challenge in the game's development.

💡Promo Artwork

Promo artwork is the final stage of the design process where the spaceships are given a polished and professional presentation. The video mentions that after the design work is completed, the concept artist creates promotional artwork using software like KeyShot to showcase the final design to the public.

💡Rule of Cool

The 'Rule of Cool' is a term used in the video to describe the final 20% of the design process, where the focus is on adding unique and visually appealing elements to the spaceships. It is about pushing the design beyond functional requirements to make it stand out within the Star Citizen universe.

💡KeyShot

KeyShot is a 3D rendering software used for product visualization. In the context of the video, the concept artist uses KeyShot to create high-quality renders of the spaceships, which are essential for promotional materials and to give a better indication of the final design.

💡Gavin Rothery

Gavin Rothery is a prolific concept artist who has contributed significantly to the design of Star Citizen's spaceships. The video script highlights his work and his unique ability to span the styles of various manufacturers within the game, showcasing his talent and dedication to the project.

💡CIG Legends

CIG Legends refers to the dedicated and talented individuals at Cloud Imperium Games, the developer of Star Citizen. The script mentions Paul Jones and Alberto Petronio as examples of CIG Legends, indicating the collective effort and expertise that goes into creating the game's universe.

Highlights

Star Citizen is an ambitious game aiming to create a first-person universe with varied experiences across multiple star systems.

The spaceship and its creation process is central to Star Citizen, beginning with concept artists.

Many renowned artists have contributed to Star Citizen's vehicle legacy, including names from Star Wars and Star Trek.

Gavin Rothery, with over 20 vehicles designed, has significantly influenced Star Citizen's ship styles.

Concept artists work remotely, often in isolation, to realize technical briefs into visual concepts.

The role requires the ability to work well with others and adapt to changes in development.

Star Citizen has unique requirements for ship design, with both exterior and interior needing to fit cohesively.

Rothery's design process involves initial quick options, followed by refining and finalizing a single direction.

The design process includes four stages: first pass exterior, first pass interior, second pass exterior, and second pass interior.

The 'rule of cool' is used in Star Citizen to enhance the final 20% of design, pushing the brand forward.

Keyshot is used for product presentation, specializing in beauty renders of the spaceships.

Rothery's favorite brand in Star Citizen is Crusader, with the Aries being a favorite ship for its classic sci-fi look.

The Gladius is Rothery's all-time favorite ship, with a memorable moment seeing Mark Hamill interact with it.

Concept artists have the freedom to manage their own time, often working from home with their pets.

Despite sometimes working late nights, designing spaceships for Star Citizen is an awesome job that Rothery loves.

The showcase celebrates the contributions of artists like Rothery, who have created many fan-favorite spacecraft.

Star Citizen's development process is shared with the community, highlighting the people and processes behind the game.

Transcripts

it's no secret that Star Citizen is an

ambitious game trying to build a

firstperson universe of varied

experiences across multiple star systems

but at its core will always be the

spaceship and the process of making a

spaceship always begins with the concept

artist and we've had no shortage of

greats contribute to our Legacy of

vehicles from Star Wars Superstars like

Ryan church and David hobbins to Star

Trek luminaries like Jim Martin from the

art Departments of Godzilla Matrix Blade

Runner and dune like Emanuel shwe and

George Hull to the dedicated cig Legends

like Paul Jones and Alberto petronio and

a whole host of folks in between two

numerous Dimension the origin of our

spacecraft are as numerous as their

manufacturers but there's one person

who's participated in the birth of more

Star Citizen spacecraft than any other

with more than 20 vehicles to his name

so far he Bridges the gaps between

manufacturers and has helped to define

or refine many of their Styles over the

years and in this year special ship

Showdown showcase we brought the

prolific Gavin rothery into our office

for your chance to meet the man and

celebrate just a fraction of his

contribution to this project and because

I just think he's neat let's

go got toothpast got you toothpaste FL I

think working as a concept artist is

great I like the way I get spend time

with my dogs I really appreciate that

I've got my dogs around me all day I get

my SP ships my dogs you know and I get

to come up to Manchester and hang out

with you guys for a bit it's

awesome you going to get

it he two pair of BLS beautiful I hold

him that's right I'm an artist

[Music]

[Music]

so a concept artist is usually a

human that might change we've seen these

AIS they're coming for

us so a concept artist is an artist who

comes in at the start of a job and works

to a technical brief which is often just

writing there might be a few reference

images in there occasionally we don't

really tend to work like that we'll just

get a technical breef and you got to

come there and you just got to realize

things usually you're working in

somewhat in isolation there's base

touching with like art directors and

such but like a lot of my job is me just

working at home in my studio just kind

of getting on with things having like

regular Touchin and uh that sounds weird

touching Basse

frequently and just uh pushing the

design forward basically so I'm given a

brief and a deadline and I'm expected to

metamorph oriz that brief into something

that can fulfill that brief and look

really cool on the

[Music]

clock there's a few things that make a

good concept artist really you've got to

be able to get along with people and

like fit into a team that's first and

foremost cuz it's more remote so it can

take longer to get relationships going

with people so that stuff becomes more

important

[Music]

a game project particularly there's lots

of things changing in development so

you've got to be able to approach your

work with a mindset of like not being

too precious about it you can do a bunch

of work on things and it can all be

beautiful and that could just completely

change and you have to do something else

which is beautiful and you've got to

just be able to wake up every morning

and kind of deliver

that whenever you see a good concept

artist you'll be looking at somebody

that is able to do that and figured it

out in their

[Music]

life so star isn't is a a very unique

Beast I've been in the games industry

for a long time I've worked in movies is

I've you know I've been around the block

I've done stuff Star Citizen is one of

those projects that's got such

definitively harsh metrics that you need

to fit that I've never worked on another

project like

it you can look at the Millennium Falcon

you know it looks pretty on the outside

it looks pretty on the inside those two

things don't go together so with sism

everything has to fit and I remember

when I first started on doing some of

the bigger ships like many years ago

that was a new thing to me because other

projects don't really consider that

they'll have once you're inside a ship

you're basically inside a magic little

universe and you know things can be

completely different scales and people

generally don't worry about that stuff

too much with star C is and it's all

cohesive and it all has to fit and so

when we're designing it we'll start with

the

exterior we always do options for things

so the first week of a new ship design

is me doing like just blasting out

options as quickly as I can when I'm

designing a ship I work in 3D and 2D so

my actual pipeline is I do all my 3D in

mayor so get the brief and I go straight

into 3D and just start blocking out

shapes and basically sketching in 3D

I've been doing this for a long time as

a concept artist and I found that

working in shapes and volume it's just

it's just a very natural way to work

it's a sculptural medium I always just

get straight into 3D and I don't really

work from one angle to start off with I

literally work with the 3D shape and

just work all around it to begin so I

work my way in from blocking 3D shapes

so this is all done in mayor and I like

to put four or five options together so

that we can all have a good sit down and

choose there'll be a range of things in

there try and make them all quite

different quite often you'll have a

favorite but that doesn't really matter

because that might not be the way the

ship ends up going and then ultimately

whichever way it ends up going that

becomes your favorite because you work

on it more and it it comes to life and

then once we have a that kind of

feedback after the first week we'll have

more of a direction and we might push

forwards with a couple of designs and

work a couple up a bit more then after

another week or two we'll nail it down

to one and just keep pushing forwards

with with One

Direction we working four stages for the

actual design and then a promo stage at

the end so we'll normally go first pass

exterior first pass interior second pass

exterior second pass interior and

through those two processes we'll

establish the look of the outside

establish what the inside needs to do

make the inside fit the outside as best

we can then we usually have to have a

second pass on the outside just to

change a few things because the interior

has got hard hard limits on it and quite

often there'll be a bit sticking out and

we'll need to have a second pass over

the exterior just to finish it all up

and you know just put all the nice

little polish and sort of Spanky bits on

there and once that's done and we know

that's not going to change we can get in

there and like completely trick out the

interior and finish it

up in Star Citizen the rule of cool is a

term that we use when we're putting

things together putting the art

together it's concerned with the last

20% of the design basically so we have

so much functionality we have to put in

the design like when we're starting on a

ship we start off with a brief it's got

a whole bunch of requirements a ship

would need and first and foremost when

you're working as a concept artist

you're there to do a job and you've got

to fit in the project to make sure you

can deliver so I need to make sure that

my Concepts have got all of the things

that the build team are going to need

that the players are ultimately going to

want so I got to consider things like

components metrics Heights of handles

Heights of steps

how doors work how ramps work angles of

things I got to consider things like the

components the ship needs the facilities

the crew need to be able to live on the

ship work on the

ship there's just all kinds of things to

consider so the rule of cool is when

you've got all of that stuff done you

got it in there and you got it looking

cool it fits with the brand it looks

nice and this is where we get to use

that 20% to kind of push the brand

forwards which is where the development

in the ship comes from

as soon as I've got something that I

want to render I'll go into keyshop I'll

take my May file into keyot key shot's a

product presentation 3D package

specializing in Beauty renders so I can

just get in there with materials I've

done this for such a long time and on so

many ships now I've got all my material

librar set for the different uh Brands

and stuff so I can work really quickly

and I'll get some pretty renders some

nice light and just gives a better

indication of what the ship might look

like further down the

road so the fifth Milestone ms5 is promo

artwork so once we've done all the

design work and I I've done a ton of

rendering along the way to put updates

on the boards but it's all worky stuff

and disposable stuff and once we get to

promo that's when these ships get the

proper setup and get the proper time and

love and then that then those renders

from keyshot become promo pieces and

that's all finished in

[Music]

Photoshop so my favorite brand in sta is

in his Crusader which would make one of

my favorite ships the Aries cuz it's

just it's just I love doing that it's

got that classic black and white sci-fi

look it's just it's the beor call is

full of love music video it's that it's

that classic classic

cool but I am very partial to Argo I do

like a big orange space lump

and the mall and the raft I just think

those oh my got some ghost pumps talking

about they my children my children um I

remember when Paul Jones and I were

working on when we first did the mall we

knew we'd got some really good when we

finished them mall it's like we got the

Outlook done at the end of the job and

we're just like that's a nice

ship then when we got to do the raft and

we got to push it forwards again that

was that was a real pleasure working on

the raft

[Music]

but I've got to say my my all-time

favorite ship I got to say the Gladius

it's the first one I

did when I first saw the Squadron videos

that came out a while back and I got to

see Mark ham standing in front of that

Gladius and running his hand down it and

being all gooey over it I'm looking at

thinking that's Luke Skywalker like

running his hands all over my ship like

good job

[Music]

Life as a concept artist it can be you

can be a little bit on the fringes

sometimes and you can feel like you're a

little bit out there but um one of the

things that I really love about it the

most is being able to kind of run my own

time and there is an element of 9 to5 to

it I don't have to be at a desk at 9:00

talk every morning I don't have to

commute I get to spend all day with my

dogs I've got two little Westy friends

and you know getting those getting my

girls curled up under my desk and just

blasting some music and you know rolling

in at like 9:45 with a coffee and just

getting going you know it's it's just

nice it's just got that little bit more

chill than you kind of commute to the

office and 9:00 sit down here we go I

mean that can translate to like late

nights sometimes you know there there's

a lot of grind and crunch but when

you're doing I'm designing spaceships

for Star cities and it's awesome it's an

awesome job and I love it and it really

isn't a chore you know you get your late

nights your late nights at work you put

your music on you put the cattle on and

you just just get on with it it's

awesome time

[Music]

flies so what do we learn this week well

no doubt that many of your all-time

favorite spacecraft sprang forth from

the efforts of Gavin rothery that from

the ages Gladius to the upcoming RSI

Zeus there is no doubt that he can make

a beautiful spaceship and that with his

ability to span the styles of every

single manufacturer and Star Citizen

we're always excited to see what he's

going to do

next if that didn't get through know

that I tried for inside Star Citizen I'm

Jared Huckaby thanks for letting us

share the people and process of game

development with you and we'll see you

all here next week it's time to get our

factional fight back on in Pyro