Star Wars: The Old Republic Media and Concept Art Demonstration

In addition to some new “Hope” wallpapers and forum avatars, the official Star Wars: The Old Republic website is featuring a step-by-step demonstration taking us through how a piece of concept art is created for the sci-fi MMORPG. Senior concept artist Ryan Dening provides the text to go with the images:

The Republic Capitol ship shown in this concept art was originally going to be smaller, but we realized in the sketch phase that we needed something that could go up against our Star Destroyers. We already had a design for the Sith Empire’s Capitol ship so we wanted something that contrasted it in silhouette and design language.

Our classic Republic style is similar to what we see in the trilogy, except that we try to make sure there are rounded elements that stand apart from our angular Imperial designs.

When creating this design, my major inspiration was drawn from the medical frigate and rebel transport; those ships are some of the coolest looking because of their odd shapes and ‘greebles’. I tried exploring some ideas based on these, but incorporated smooth, cleaner looking shells that related to other ships we’d already designed. I also wanted to make sure this ship felt somewhat tied to the Endar Spire from KOTOR.

In the end, I think we got something that hits the notes we were going for and looks really cool modeled in the game.