YES!! I get to make Stormtroopers and Wookies and DARTH VADER!!! That was my first reaction when I started working on Star Wars Battlefront. It was a fanboy's dream come true. Hi, my name is Dean Betton and I am the Lead Artist for the above mentioned game. Together with Co-Lead Matt Palmer, we work together to direct the art team in creating a vast array of exotic worlds and characters that have appeared in the Star Wars universe.

Matt and I use a proprietary world editor that allows us to create the actual world that the game takes place in. With the editor we start off with a flat plane grid. Then we use the terrain manipulation tools to create the various heights to get the desired height map of the landscape. Once we have done this we can then start to lay down the terrain textures. We can use several textures in the editor but for memory issues we try to not go over five. However, the editor allows us to blend and overlay these to give us quite a bit of variation.

Once we are happy with the landscape we can then start to populate the worlds with various models that have been created from our art team. What we put in the world depends on the world that we are working on. For instance, Endor is a forest world so the level is mainly made up of trees of various shapes and sizes and the only other main objects are the Ewok village and the Imperial Bunker. Yet other levels can be made up of a larger number of different objects like Bespin's Cloud City or Tatooine's Mos Eisley Space port. These worlds are made up of a large number of different buildings and lots of smaller props to make the world look very populated and more like a dense city.

We use Softimage XSI to create these models. It's not commonly used throughout the gaming world but it's an underestimated program. Its modeling tools are very versatile and easy to create in game geometry. So Pandemic has used this for several years now with much success.

Once we start to get the models from our modeling team we then start to place them according to an initial level layout that has been provided to us by the design team. Once this initial layout is roughly placed we then pass this on to the designers so that they can test it out for game play and decide whether certain elements work or not. Then changes are made according to their instructions until the best layout is achieved. From here we then start to add the bells and whistles that make the level come alive such as lighting effects, cloud layers, foliage layers etc. The end result is a series of worlds that look as realistic and as dynamic as their movie counterparts.

We have created vehicles for Star Wars Battlefront that people are going to love to play such as the AT-ST and AT-AT walkers and the speederbike. Although we were able to delve into the Lucas archives to draw upon their vast reference libraries, some vehicles have never been seen in three dimensions before. In these situations, we had to call upon the talents of our concept art team to create drawings to use as reference when creating ships such as the CIS MAF or the Rebel Walker.

The best part of the job for me has without a doubt been the opportunity to create all the characters that will be available for the game. There is such a wide variety available that the player is really going to be spoiled with who they want to play. I have been able to scour the Lucas archives for reference for all our characters and it's been a fun process in creating them.

First off, I take as much reference as possible whether it is photos, concepts or even the old Star Wars toys. Then from here I start to model it out in XSI. Because of the large number of characters in the game (over 20 and growing including the secret hero characters) I have created a base mesh that can then be sculpted and shaped in XSI to fit the character that I am making.

Although the model is complete, the character is still just a flat shaded mesh. So I then texture it, which means applying an image created in an art package called Photoshop. I start by getting together all the photo reference I can and start to build up a texture that I can apply to the mesh. Usually a texture is built up using a mixture of photo reference and hand painted work but no matter how it is created it has to fit on to the mesh seamlessly and look as life-like as possible. This can take quite a bit of time, painting a bit, applying it to the mesh, checking the position, tweaking the UV's (the model's texture coordinates that line the mesh up with the texture) and then going back and forth in this manner until everything is seamless. The end result is a finished character everyone knows and loves straight from the movies.

Once the modeling and texturing is done then the character is passed on to our animation team to get 'skinned and rigged' but you have already heard about this process in a previous diary from our Lead Animator Juan Sanchez.

So there you have it, a look into the artistic process on our game. I hope this has been an interesting read for you and has given you a little insight into how the art team works here with the Star Wars Battlefront team at Pandemic Studios. I hope that when you load the game up you have as much fun playing the game as we have had creating it for you.

All the best and Cheers from DEAN BETTON.