Asherons Call: WarCry Interviews Scenario, Lead Artist for ACLive

Like many of the people at Turbine, Scenario hails from the north - claiming New Hampshire as home. Throughout his childhood, he accelerated in athletics, fine arts and honors courses. During high school, the desire to make video games hit Scenario - thanks in part to encouragement from his art and science teachers - and a little game called Final Fantasy 7. When he first played the fantasy title, all he could think was "Wow, I want to make stuff like this when I grow up."

Scenario went on to college at the Art Institute of Philadelphia, where he earned a degree in Computer Animation and Media. The curriculum included courses in digital arts and animation, as well as traditional cell animation (the latter of which was immensely tedious and greatly less enjoyable for him than the digital kind). While in school, he became involved in several online mod communities, ranging from Thief: The Dark Project, to Half-Life, and then on to Quake 3. Scenario also managed fan sites and tried his hand at level design.

With college behind him, the search for a career began. Scenario returned to New Hampshire and sent out resumes and portfolios. Shortly, around the holidays, he received one of the best Christmas presents he could ever imagine: a letter from leading MMP developer Turbine Entertainment Software inviting him to accept an internship with the company. A whirlwind two weeks later, he was in his new desk at Turbine, learning new things about software and the Massively multiplayer video game industry.

Soon after his internship began, Turbine offered scenario an opportunity to join the Asheron's Call Live team and train up to become Art Lead. He accepted the role, and in June 2003 Scenario officially became the Lead Artist for ACLive - and professes that it has been nothing but fun ever since!

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WarCry: At what age did you realize you had a talent for drawing? What was the first thing you drew? (if you have an OLD piece of art you'd like to
include that would be great)

Scenario: I started getting into comic book art when I was about 8. My mother had bought my brother and I some reprint comic books to keep us quiet while waiting to get our hair cut. As much as it pains me to remember it, my first experiences with drawing were "improving" the covers of the comics with my choice of markers and ball point pens.

WarCry: At what age did you realize you wanted to animate? That's an unusual step to take...

Scenario: Probably around 14 or 15. Near when Final Fantasy VII was released. Final Fantasy VII was my biggest motivation as far as animation goes. The cutscenes in that game blew me away.

WarCry:When presenting one's family with the proposal that you want to animate "games" for a living the response is generally not positive. How did your family react? What do they think of your success?

Scenario: Any good parent wants what is best for their children. In my case, I was lucky enough to get two opinions of what was best. My father felt what was best for me was a job in engineering and a good deal of head butting ensued with my post-college educational decisions (he was fairly adamant that a career in art was not a good choice). My mother always told me that I should try to find something that made me happy while still making a living. I was fortunate enough to have found just that.

I think now that I have proven it is possible, both my parents are happy for me (though I wouldn't put it past my Dad to start sneaking C++ manuals into my backpack when I visit them :P)

WarCry: What was the most surprising aspect of the "behind the scenes" world of Dereth that you found when you started at Turbine Entertainment Software?

Scenario: I had some idea of how the Live Team and the rest of Turbine in general was before being hired on, as I had visited on a few occasions and interviewed twice before I started working here. What I wasn't prepared for was the company meetings! Every month we have a newb initiation, which usually consists of some sort of embarrassment.

Mine? A limbo competition (that wasn't nearly as bad as what Zyrca had to suffer for her first company meeting :P).

WarCry: Who won the Limbo Contest?

Scenario: Unfortunately, I had the honor of winning. I am sure there are no hard feelings floating around amongst the rest of the people in the line up.

WarCry: What's it like to suddenly become "famous" to a hoarde of gaming geeks and nerds?

Scenario: When I first joined the team, few people knew who I was. As far as many were concerned, Sean Huxter was still the lead artist, even though he had joined another team in the fall. To everyone else, GrogBro was the art lead.

Now that I am art lead, while I'm hardly fearful of the gamer paparazzi (if such a thing even exists), I am taking every opportunity to soak in the feedback I am getting. I love hearing the discussion about my work, it only helps me to improve.

WarCry: What has been your favorite OBVIOUS change/addition to the world of Dereth?

Scenario: The Flying Olthoi. They were a lot of fun to create and animate and the positive fan reaction to them was honestly much more than I was expecting.

WarCry: What has been your favorite subtle addition to the world of Dereth?

Scendario: Since joining the team, most of what I have done has been far from hidden or subtle. However, there was one addition that I made in the September prop that never ceases to make me smile when I see it.

If you are really quiet and don't bother them, the Flying Olthoi will occasionally do an Olthoi version of the Drudge Dance.

WarCry: How many polygons and textures are in a typical old-style AC monster (a shreth) vs. a more up to date one (a flying olthoi)?

Scenario: The older creature models are very low poly in comparison to artwork from even a year ago.

As per your example, a current Shreth model runs a little under 250 polygons. The Flying Olthoi weighs in at ~ 425 polygons however the bulk of its poly-count is in the numerous legs it has.

As far as textures go, the number of textures is not terribly important as long as they all fit in the same palette (otherwise we won't be able to shift their colors). The Shreth is comprised of four texture maps and the Flying Olthoi has 8 (there were fewer texture maps for the Olthoi
Flyer, but I broke them down into more pieces to make it easier for me to palettize the images.)

WarCry: Okay, time to get you into trouble: what's the oddest thing that you've seen one of your co-workers do?

Scenario: There is certainly a lot to narrow down, heh.

The random real-life Nerf Batting that goes on sometimes ranks right up there. Then there are the people on scooters that zing down the hallways just to get to the kitchen 10 feet away.

WarCry: How much do you play the game as a player?

While I don't have as much free time to play as I did while I was in school, I try to play for at least an hour a day, usually in the late evening. I am proud to say that after over three years of playing I have yet to breach the level 100 bar on any of my characters :)

Warcry: Assuming with the deadlines that being a member of the AC Live team actually allow you for some free time, what's your favorite game that you're playing now? Of all time?

Scenario: Outside of Asheron's Call, I have been playing a lot of the newer action games. I would have to say my favorite recent games are Splinter
Cell, Tron 2.0, and Jedi Outcast/Jedi Academy. My favorite game of all time is hands-down the Thief series.

WarCry: How cool is Optim Shi (check all that apply)

[b]Scenario: There seem to be a few options missing from that poll...