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Interview With Matt Carofano
Lead Artist on Morrowind
Thanks a lot for agreeing to do this interview, and thanks for Pete and Todd for putting it together.
Q: Why not start off by introducing yourself and justifying your existence
(tell us what your job and overall responsibilities are :)
Matt C: My name is Matthew Carofano, I am the lead artist on Morrowind. I am responsible for keeping the overall look of the game consistent. I work to come up with the look of a great portion of the game. This can vary from creating architectural styles to defining the different landscape regions or even how cluttered a merchant's shop should be.
Q: Morrowind is a large project, obviously. As a lead artist, what qualifications, previous experience, and motivations do you bring to the project to ensure that it is going to meet fan expectations?
Matt C: I have been a big fan of the Elder Scrolls series for a long time. I can't tell you how many hours I spent playing Daggerfall while in school. Having said that I know that Morrowind needs to be as amazing for the players as Daggerfall was for me. I graduated from JMU with a degree in Fine Arts and started at Bethesda when Morrowind began. I worked on all the initial concept building stuff for Gnisis and Vivec (the stuff in the very first screenshots).
Q: What task are you concentrating on at the moment? (and hey, give us some detail darnit!) :)
Matt C: Currently I am finishing up the town of Balmora. It is one of the largest towns in the game and the center of house Hlaalu. I created the architectural style and town layout for this area and am now adding clutter and fine tuning the textures. Once this area is finished I will be moving on to finishing the city of Vivec. It is the largest city in the game and quite an undertaking. I want to make sure that the player feels completely surrounded by the size of the city, while still maintaining a unique look for the different areas.
Q: About how complex in terms of polygon count, texture size, # of meshes, etc. is the average character in Morrowind?
Matt C: The characters in Morrowind are extremely detailed. As with the other art for the game we add a lot of detail with the polygons themselves, rather than just using a texture. An NPC ranges from 3,000 to 6,000 polygons…depending on the amount of clothing or armor that is worn.
Q: Anyone who's seen the screenshots can attest to the outlandish look of a lot of the game. Where are some places that you're drawing inspiration from to come up with your designs? What do you do to ensure an original look for each style?
Matt C: I've been inspired by a variety of sources and it is difficult to say exactly how the look of the game developed. Michael Kirkbride created a lot of the concept designs and I use those as a starting point. When I come to an area that hasn't been illustrated I try to blend together elements from reality with the existing look of the game. I based some of the Hlaalu architecture on Mediterranean houses and combined that with some existing elements in the game to create a unique style. There are several cultures represented in the game with the primary focus being the Dark Elves. All of these groups have a unique look and they are so varied that it is easy to keep them separate. The difficult part is coming up with the look of a certain style.
Q: Take us through the process of creating a creature or location in Morrowind from designing a piece of concept art to the finished model. About how long does it take generally? Do you always start off with pencil/pen sketches? What programs are primarily used?
Matt C: The process I use for creating artwork is generally the same. I'll use the manor district in Ald-ruhn as an example. I knew that there was a giant crab shell section of the town in which the nobles lived. I started with an early concept sketch of the exterior and drew out how it should look inside and out. I had to take into account how many people would be living inside the area as well as where it would be placed in the town. Once I was satisfied with the design of the shell I made a couple test models in 3DSMax. I used these to determine scale and polygon counts. From there I refined the model and began testing textures on it using Photoshop. Once the model was completed I placed it into the game and made some final revisions after playing through it.
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