Inside the Vault - Jonah Lobe

[Brother None]

Next up for Inside the Vault is character artist Jonah Lobe, aka KamikazeKangaroo. Since they're not asking about Fallout anymore, let's dig up an old Bethesda forum quote in which he answers this.<blockquote>How long have you been playing Fallout, and how would you describe your feelings towards the franchise?
It's been a while since I've played Fallout, but God what a game. I rarely think that excessive gore and violence are great things - there's enough of that in the world - man, it really had it's place, and the game probably would have been far lamer if they hadn't executed it the way they did.</blockquote>So anyway...<blockquote>Any other hobbies and interests? What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?
I’ve recently joined the army of wannabie script-writers, and I’m trying to learn digital painting. My girlfriend and I rockclimb, I play pickup soccer, I hang out with my friends and see my little brother, who’s nine and definitely not old enough for Fallout.

I just participated in the Dominance War, which is a 3D character competition… for those interested in seeing some of my work — since my only Fallout-related work that has seen the light of day was one screenshot of the feral ghoul — and seeing the workflow of a 3D artist, you can check out my progress here.</blockquote>Link: Inside the Vault - Jonah Lobe.

 

[Eyenixon]

I just participated in the Dominance War, which is a 3D character competition… for those interested in seeing some of my work — since my only Fallout-related work that has seen the light of day was one screenshot of the feral ghoul

Aha! So he's the culprit behind the zombified look!

 

[Brother None]

Aha! So he's the culprit behind the zombified look!

No he's not:

What’s your job at Bethesda?
I’m a character artist and at the moment most of my work involves modeling and texturing Fallout’s bestiary. Basically, once a creature concept is fully realized by Adam, our insanely talented concept artist, I take the reins and do my best to translate his ideas into three dimensions. I’m essentially taking a sketch and using that to generate a fully realized digital sculpture, constructing the anatomy in a way most conducive to smooth and easy animation. From there I pass it on to an animator, who rigs and animates it

He just goes with what Adam Adamowicz gives him, so it would most like be Adam, the "insanely talented concept artist".

(these guys must have been to a lot of corporate bonding seminars, they keep calling each other genius or insanely talented. You're not fooling anyone other than yourself, buddy)

Lobe is actually kinda sorta cool.

 

[Morbus]

Aha! So he's the culprit behind the zombified look!

The culprit is that one guy that never ever played fallout and said so on an "inside the vault" and the fans complained so much that they never asked anyone about playing the thing again. I forget his name.

 

[Brother None]

The culprit is that one guy that never ever played fallout and said so on an "inside the vault" and the fans complained so much that they never asked anyone about playing the thing again. I forget his name.

Josh Jones

And no, not really, Josh Jones is responsible for the character art, not for the character concepts. There's a difference. The very basic concepts probably come from talks between the design leads, art leads and concept artists.

 

[pnutz]

What previous projects have you worked on at Bethesda and elsewhere?
Previous projects... none, really. I came straight from an art major at a college in upstate NY, came back down to DC (where I'm from), worked at home to brush up on my computer animation skills (before that I was a pen-and-ink artist), and eventually - after applying to Bethesda three times over two years - managed to land an interview and bum-rush my way in.

Does anyone in this office have any experience? It seems like nothing but greenhorns. Are the old timers the devs whose first title was Oblivion?

 

[Brother None]

There's a few, pnutz, but they mostly get budged up to producer position. But guys like Todd Howard, Steve Meister, Istvan Pely, Ashley Cheng...they've all been around for quite some time.

But yeah, Bethesda does employ a lot of new people, which is fairly natural since they have grown a lot since Morrowind.

Although oddly enough, they never had space to hire one of the original Fallout developers. Very odd, that.

 

[pnutz]

I wasn't referring to the producers or leads. Yes they've grown and continue to grow and employ new people, but they employ brand spankin' new people. They haven't cut their teeth in the industry in any way and are by a large strait out of school and into Bethesda.

I'm not just pissing here, don't you think a creative company misses out on quite a bit of perspective and talent when they do nothing but hire entry level and just train on the job? It's just perplexing see this from a company with Bethesda's resources (then again, look at the effort they put into voice work beyond 1 or 2 recognizable actors).

 

[ToastMan]

This guy is one hack of an artist! Just went over his Dominance War character and its simply amazing. I'm actually very glad that a guy like him is working as a character artist for Fallout 3.

 

[Morbus]

Didn't Leo Boyarsky apply for the job? Kind of stupid to prefer anyone over him...

 

[Ravager69]

Maybe at least we'll have some decent looking characters and mobs. Too bad they'll be good only for shooting at.

 

[Xavierblazer]

By the way, In my humble and honest opinion, I believe a man can not grok the true essence of Fallout(Not the game, but the soul, the soul of Fallout, which lives on in the hearts and imaginations of we whom experience!!!) without having played...No. Not played. One does not Play fallout. One Enjoys it. One Lives it. One can only experience that immortal field which is the wonderful creation that is the great and mighty Fallout from Existing, as one, with the Fallout. It is impossible to get this experience from looking at some pictures, or from watching some movies, one can only feel the emotions and feelings one feels while experiencing Fallout by experiencing Fallout.

This is like when those people made the new Star Treks without even watching the old ones. It fills my heart with sorrow that...For example, there are many books in existence about schizophrenia, but the majority of those books were written by psychologists who have never experienced schizophrenia firsthand. It would seem, then, that, having experienced schizophrenia, one could not put those feelings into words that adequately express the feeling that is Fallou...er, schizophrenia.

Yeah, and stuff.

 

[Daimyo]

This guy is one hack of an artist! Just went over his Dominance War character and its simply amazing. I'm actually very glad that a guy like him is working as a character artist for Fallout 3.

I would have to agree - his DW character looks great.

Too bad someone gave him flawed info on the feral ghoul

 

[Forhekset]

This guy is one hack of an artist!

That's an unfortunate typo.

Gizmo_Iz_Slug, I agree. If someone came to me and asked me to create Fallout 3 and I had never played the previous games, my first priority would be to play them - multiple times - in order to really understand the storylines, the setting, the games' sense of style & humor, and so forth. Quite a few of the staff have played the Fallout games, and some are big fans...but I almost feel personally insulted when someone hasn't played the previous games, and they don't seem to think it matters, either. Thankfully, Jonah is not one of these people.

I'm reminded of an interview with Ian McKellen that I read several years ago, where he was discussing the fact that he was really not familiar with Lord of the Rings before signing up to play Gandalf. The first thing he did in preparing for the role was buy copies of the books and read them as soon as possible so he could better understand what LOTR is all about. I suppose it's not necessary for every single Bethesda staff member to have played the games - but it should be mandatory for those people who are determining the look and feel and the direction of the game.

Also, why do so many people, when asked if they've played Fallout, immediately mention the over-the-top violence? I know it's there...I enjoy it too. But is "excessive gore" really the first thing that comes to mind when someone says "Fallout"?

 

[Xavierblazer]

Also, why do so many people, when asked if they've played Fallout, immediately mention the over-the-top violence? I know it's there...I enjoy it too. But is "excessive gore" really the first thing that comes to mind when someone says "Fallout"?

Those are the same people who mention "prostitute" when you ask them about GTA