Meet the Team #4: Selena Frost-King (Visual Effects Artist)
Welcome to the 4th Meet the Team interview. Visual effects play a massive role in making a game feel truly dynamic and we’re blessed at Frontier to have a fantastic team of visual effects artists working on Elite: Dangerous. Whilst little of their work has been shared with you so far, it seems there is no better time than the present to introduce you to one such VFX artist that is working on the project, Selena Frost-King. I started by asking how long Selena has been working at Frontier and what projects she has been involved with in that time.
Given that VFX is a very specific field, where do you get your inspiration from; nature, movies or other games, or art?
How challenging is it giving Elite: Dangerous its own distinctive style, with so much Science Fiction already out there?
Thanks again, Ashley
Welcome to the 4th Meet the Team interview. Visual effects play a massive role in making a game feel truly dynamic and we’re blessed at Frontier to have a fantastic team of visual effects artists working on Elite: Dangerous. Whilst little of their work has been shared with you so far, it seems there is no better time than the present to introduce you to one such VFX artist that is working on the project, Selena Frost-King. I started by asking how long Selena has been working at Frontier and what projects she has been involved with in that time.
I’ve been at Frontier for 2 years; I joined during crunch-time for Kinect Disneyland Adventures fresh out of university. Elite will be the second announced project that I’ve worked on in my career.
Many people may not be familiar with what a Visual Effects Artist does, how would you describe your role?
A VFX artist is someone who makes environments come to life and who provides the finishing touches to visuals. An epic space battle wouldn’t be the same without explosions! It is also someone who occasionally blurts out expletives when something crashes before they can save it!
How did you get into visual effects and what advice would you have to anyone else planning to pursue a similar career?
I did a degree at Anglia Ruskin University here in Cambridge, which focused on teaching us how to create art and visual effects for computer games. For me; university and a degree were only some of the elements involved with stepping into the games industry. In my experience, the best way to get into the industry is hard work and commitment, expanding skill-sets and trying to get as much experience as possible. Art-based roles are generally very competitive so I would say to anyone looking to go into visual effects, to learn a variety of software packages and put together a stand-out show-reel.
Can you talk us through a normal day for you, and tell us a little about what tools you use for your work?
A normal day usually starts with sitting in rush hour traffic for the first 45 minutes of the morning. I arrive at my desk with a mug of green tea and begin by checking my emails before grabbing any new updates and a fresh build of Elite. I then usually start by continuing what I was working on from the previous day, check any notes I made or start on a new effect. At lunch time I like to escape the office for some fresh air and vitamin D, we have a nice lake on the Science Park which is great for a lunchtime walk around. The afternoon is usually a repeat of the morning.
I’m currently just using Frontier’s in-house particle editor to create my effects, along with Photoshop to create textures. I shall also be using 3DS Max to create 3D meshes to be incorporated into the effects.
What is generally more challenging to create; a reactionary effect such as an explosion, or something more persistent that might be a permanent fixture, such as thrusters?I’m currently just using Frontier’s in-house particle editor to create my effects, along with Photoshop to create textures. I shall also be using 3DS Max to create 3D meshes to be incorporated into the effects.
Both types of effects have their challenges but I would probably say that continuous effects are generally the trickiest. With continuous effects I need to think about more factors such as whether the effect is moving or is stationary, how they move and how they exist or ‘live’ over a duration of time. Continuous effects tend to be quite memory heavy as more particles are needed so it can often be tricky to make an effect look convincing whilst not using too many particles at once. Explosions are one of my favourite types of effects to make because I can layer up the textures to create lots of variations and I can use more particles at a time as their ‘life’ is much shorter.
What kind of artistic freedom do you have in your day to day job? Do you do all: From Artistic impression, prototype, functional design to final product or are you limited to certain parts of the design?
It’s different depending on whether there is actually a concept already set out for me to follow. Sometimes, art direction will already have an idea of what they want an effect to look like and I will try to create that vision, other times I’m left to my own devises unless someone tells me otherwise! Generally we have established a set of chosen artistic styles that we will follow along with a colour palette whilst in the early stages. I can then create my effects based on the styles that have already been decided. This helps to give the effects a consistent feel and I’m not tempted to make some of the explosions bright green!
What approach do you use when creating a visual effect from scratch?
I generally start with an idea in my mind of what the final effect might look like, there will of course be limitations in terms of what can be created but I will normally work around issues as I get to them. I begin by creating a ‘place holder’ (a simple effect) to go into the game so that I know where it’s positioned, I then start by adding all of the necessary elements to the effect. For example, to create an explosion I will add (in no particular order) the fiery explosion part, the smoke, the impact or shockwave, any sparks debris or trails and so on. I then look at the effect in game and correct the colours and scale to fit. I will then work on things like timings and interactions and continue to tweak the effect until it’s close to what I’d visualised.
What are the biggest challenges that the visual effects team are currently working through at the moment?
At the moment we are trying to keep to a certain amount of realism with our effects, which is proving challenging as there is much less reference material for things like how explosions and smoke look in space. We are trying to add as much of a realistic element to the visual effects as we can, whilst still keeping a hint of those sci-fi styles. Hopefully, the effects we create will be something different from other games set in space and will be suitably stylised.
What are your favourite game genres and which games outside of Frontier's own projects inspire you?
Action/adventure, shooters and role-playing games are my favourites. Most of my favourite games to take inspiration from are generally the artier or stylised ones. Generally though I will take inspiration from every game I play, whether it’s big titles such as Gears of War, Mass Effect, Bioshock and Assassin’s Creed, or indie titles such as Dear Esther, Journey, Lucius and Ilomilo. I can generally be found pausing and checking out the particle effects in most games!
There's been some fuss on the forums about getting enough women playing Elite, and in general being inclusive. Do you have any valuable perspective on this from your own experiences in gaming?
I don’t think I can offer much insight on an issue like this, in my mind, if someone enjoys gaming then they will do so regardless of whether they’re a man or a woman. I have personally never felt excluded from gaming due to being female and have forever wondered why more women don’t get involved with gaming. Perhaps it’s simply a case of gender roles and how we have been brought up in a society that says its ok for men to play games but women should be doing other things. I could list many things as the reason why but I know there is no definitive answer. I don’t know how a game could even be marketed to appeal to a greater female audience; neither do I know what it is that appeals to women to start gaming. All I know is that the ratio of female to male gamers is increasing and that can only be a good thing.
Did you have any experience with any of the previous elite games prior to working for frontier?
Unfortunately no, the original Elite was released 4 years before I was born and I hadn’t actually heard of the any of the Elite games until I was in University, which is probably quite shameful!
Is ED the most complex project you’ve worked on in your career and what are you working on right now?
Yes, so far! I’m currently working on some of the engine trails for the ships, balancing colours and brightness. I’ll then move onto some new ambient damage effects. Other things include damage and impact effects, fire, smoke, missiles and ambient effects. I have been working on lots of different elements so far, as Elite is such a vast game; we need a lot of effects!
Given that VFX is a very specific field, where do you get your inspiration from; nature, movies or other games, or art?
Inspiration comes from just about everything, whether that is something in the real world or something from a game or film. I try to look at as much real life inspiration as possible, even simple every-day things like the way clouds move across the sky or the way in which smoke twists and how water splashes, it’s something which I then find myself thinking; ‘I wonder how I would translate that into VFX?’. I’m also constantly looking at how other artists have made their VFX in other games to look at different approaches and styles.
How challenging is it giving Elite: Dangerous its own distinctive style, with so much Science Fiction already out there?
It is a challenge, the particle team tends to look a lot at what other games or films have done with their effects and take some influence from them. We also try to look for as much scientific evidence (videos of fire in zero gravity for instance) as we can to build our ideas from before we then attempt to create something unique. The effects need to be somewhat realistic whilst at the same time being obvious as to what they are to the player. We are working quite closely with art direction to develop an overall style and colour palette for the effects so that we are all producing visuals that work with each other stylistically.
Thanks for taking the time to read this interview and to Selena for taking part. Next time I will be interviewing Elite: Dangerous designer and Design Decision Forum-frequenter Mike Evans. If you have any questions for Mike or feedback on this particular interview then let me know below!
Thanks again, Ashley
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