Lord Of The Rings Online: Rick Schmitz - Various Valuable and Unlabelled Things

Rick Schmitz takes a moment to discuss the little things (and no I don't mean Hobbits).

Hello there! Rick "October" Schmitz here!

I'm the Lead Content Support Artist on The Lord of the Rings Online™: Shadows of Angmar™ (LOTRO). You may be wondering, "What the heck kind of title is that?" Well, it's the sort of title you get when you're crazy enough to work with Content folks and Artists.

While the majority of the LOTRO Art team is toiling away on all sorts of things you might expect to find in a game based on J.R.R. Tolkien's amazing books (like Orcs, Dwarves, Rivendell, hobbit holes and so on), the Content Support team makes some of the unexpected items that the Content folks dream up along the way. Though Tolkien may not have expressly mentioned many of these things, they're just the sort of items needed to make our Middle-earth feel realistic and believable. They are often things you would take for granted and only notice in their collective absence.

These objects range from the mundane to the grand, from writing quills to ancient stone doorways, from broken pots of another era to elaborate monster armor. The typical request list could have just about anything on it. Our World Builders also get into the act by making requests of us for decorative assets they've thought up along the way. One of the great joys of working on this sort of game is that I can sit down with some World Builders and in 10 minutes hammer out a set of objects that would make their job easier or an area in the game more appealing.

Just the other day we worked together on some banners to add some extra color to the Shire. It was a terrific collaboration and we came up with some assets that we wouldn't have thought up on our own. Some folks might not think that things like banners are glamorous objects to work on, but as far as I'm concerned it's pretty cool to think that thousands of people will be tromping through the Shire and seeing some of our handiwork. The work isn't always the most high-profile (I'll leave the limelight to Floon... he's much hunkier than me), but we are making a large impact on the overall Middle-earth feel of the game.

In many ways, the Content Support team is like having a live art team within the regular Production art team. I worked on the Asheron's Call 2 live team before moving over to LOTRO and I worked on EverQuest 2 before that, so I have a lot of experience with all sorts of nutty content requests. In fact, one of the best parts of my job is getting to work on such a wide variety of stuff. One day I might be making a new monster and the next I might be making a Kingsfoil bush for a quest. On AC2 we had some very odd requests, such as trying to come up with a variety of dreaded Drudge weapons. For those of you who don't know, the only weapon a Drudge is good at making is a board with a nail in it. We came up with a bunch of boards with nails... board with big nail, board with many nails, board with even more nails, etc. And then there were the Drudge dance animations... ahhh, good times! I'd like to tell you about some of the stranger requests from the LOTRO Content team ("ball of yarn", for example), but I would probably spoil a bunch of quests if I did.

When I'm not actually working on assets for LOTRO, I'm in meetings with the Content team to lend a (small) hand in developing the seven initial regions of the game. I also wear a Concept Artist hat from time to time when needed; among the sketches I've done are some Shire buildings like the ones below. You can see why things never get boring!

The entire LOTRO team works together like that, filling in wherever there's a need. Content Support also occasionally lends a hand to Production Art. For example, an outstanding Content Support team member did some really wonderful pinch-hitting for the regular production team by working on our Elven buildings. It was a huge job, but he stepped up to the plate and knocked it out of the park! Wait until you see them!

Everyone on the LOTRO team has great respect for Tolkien's works, and take great pride in the work we're doing bringing it to life in the game. Oh yeah, and the game is really fun, too! We can't wait for the day when you folks will be playing in the splendid world we are creating!

Now, back to my Shire banners...

-Rick

Sidebar: Identifying a Game Artist in its natural habitat.

1. They typically mark their territory with small fetishes of their favorite pop culture icons.
2. Streamlined forehead, a sign of advanced maturity. Senility is not uncommon.
3. They often have failing eyesight from staring into computer monitors for too long.
4. Caffeinated beverage... it is said they can survive for weeks on just this and pizza.
5. Normally in this spot you would find a t-shirt from the last game the dev worked on, but here the artist decided to plug his alma mater instead.
6. Reference materials to remind the artist what various real world items look like.
7. Pictures of the artist's family to remind the artist of what they look like... very helpful for their periodic reunions.
8. Bagel day bagel. Game Artists believe that free food is the best tasting. They can often be found lurking outside noontime meetings in the hopes of scoring leftovers.
9. A donut container carcass. This is the typical location of such an artifact... it is very rare to find them occupied as they are emptied almost immediately upon sighting.

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Rick was born in LA and raised in Santa Barbara, California. Leaving the beach and nice weather to others, he spent most of his time indoors drawing and watching WAY too much TV. He made his way though school and ultimately received a degree in Studio Art from UCSB.

From there he went to seek his fortune in San Diego. There he worked on educational software, Genesis games, and finally as an animator and concept artist on the original version of Everquest, many of its expansion packs, and EQ2. After that he moved on to Turbine to work on the AC2 live team and now as a lead artist on LOTRO. Rick has 3 brilliant children, a wonderful wife and a whiny old cat...and likes to talk about himself in the 3rd person.