Vanguard: Interview with Sigil Artist Jack Turner

1.Tell us your name and your position at Sigil.
Jack Turner, and I’m an Artist

2. What are you responsible for in Vanguard?
I am responsible for the final appearance of the characters in Vanguard. I make sure that the models, bump maps, color maps, and tinting systems all work correctly for the creatures, PCs and NPCs in the game. I’m also the ‘clothing wrangler’; I color all the player outfits and organize them for easy reference. This is, to those that know me, truly ironic; normally, I have the fashion sense of your average gamer. I’ve had to learn a LOT about fashion in the past few months.

3. What is the average day like for you?
Usually there is an informal meeting in the morning where the character team talks about new characters and problems with existing characters, so we can learn what is coming down the pipeline. Then I check out the new armor and clothing sets that Chris Chamberlain makes, and make color selections for them, and then organize those sets so the designers can access them.

When those are done, I review the new creatures and make sure they are functioning properly. Occasionally, I’ll get a special request for a certain type of clothing or animal or tool, and I’ll either modify existing assets to suit the design team’s needs, or I’ll make a new mesh and texture.

4. How have the graphics for Vanguard evolved since you first joined Sigil?
Evolved is the right word for it. It has changed both gradually and profoundly. When I first met the Sigil team, it was to show them some of the pipeline of the Unreal Warfare Engine. Back then, of course, it was strictly the base engine from Epic, similar to what you would see in Unreal Tournament 2003 or 2004 – all skyboxes, no HDRI, all very plain.

Over the years, our programmers have added on so many features to increase realism that the Vanguard engine has slowly become its own entity. It’s often so realistic it’s almost frightening. The clouds in the sky are actual particles and can be disturbed by large objects like mountains or flying creatures. The light bloom effects are so similar to real life that you start to want to find shade on a really bright day. We actually have weather! Looking back on the base engine, there is just no comparison! The torture we put our programmers through has really paid off.

5. What sort of changes will be made artistically between now and release?
Well we are always improving and refining, artistically. Right now, we are working toward fleshing out all the content of our Arabian continent, Qalia. Cities, NPCs, quests, and animals will all be added to enrich the gamer’s experience.

6. What sort of artistic style are you trying to use in Vanguard and how are you trying to achieve it?
As a company, most of our artistic vision comes from the artwork Keith Parkinson laid out for us at the beginning of our project. It’s a rather down-to-earth, relatively realistic high fantasy style. It is like an oil painting that has come to life. You wouldn’t necessarily notice you were in a fantasy world until you saw a magical creature scurry past. We use historical reference to make the world familiar to the players.

My personal style is all about detail. I am a recovering biologist, so I tend to make very ‘crunchy’ art. I base it very firmly in examples from the real world, and back it up with a lot of research before I add a fantasy twist to it.

7. What has been your greatest challenge during the course of the project?
Getting used to the sheer SIZE of the project. We are making an entire world in there, starting with ecosystems, and moving all the way up to cultures. You simply don’t have the time to tweak and experiment like you do in a single-player game. Everything has to be right the first time, because there is always another armor set, animal or continent that needs building.

8. What is your favorite thing that you’ve created? What is it like?
The favorite thing that I created would have to be the “dhow”. It’s a kind of Arabic sailboat, and it was the piece that secured my job as an artist at Sigil. Keith Parkinson actually saw it and said it should go into the game. That was a proud moment for me. I used many curved lines in the bow and mast, and it had fun lateen sails. The lead artists decided not to use it in the game as it was; still, many of its design elements can be seen in all of the Qalian ships.

9. Tell us one interesting thing about working at Sigil we may not have known.
When we work late at night, Dave Gilbertson, our boss, forces us to play this brutal hackey-sack variation called NightHack. How the Sigil culture managed to take a noncompetitive hippy activity and twist it into such a bloodthirsty fight for survival, I’ll never know. The details are too long to into here; suffice it to say that the main point of the game is to minimize the pain you feel during the ritual humiliation you undergo if you lose. :D