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#1 Feb 22, 2008 1:47 AM
- Razz
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Questions for Oliver Wade
I'm back in touch with Oliver Wade (though the AD/HD and work exhaustion conspired to avoid this ) and he's said that if anyone has any questions for him, he would be happy to answer them.
Oliver worked for Insomniac during the making of RR/GtG and YotD as well as for much of the time they were making Ratchet and Clank. He is a freelance artist and animator at present. His work for Insomniac included designing most of the characters we've come to love in the Spyro community (Elora, Bentley, Sheila, Sgt. Byrd...pretty much all of the secondary and random characters in RR and YotD ).
So, if anyone has a question for him, I will be happy to pass it along.
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#2 Feb 22, 2008 2:07 AM
- TB
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Re: Questions for Oliver Wade
What character did you have the most fun working on?
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#3 Feb 22, 2008 2:26 AM
- BlueSpirit94
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Re: Questions for Oliver Wade
If he has any origional scetches of Hunter?
Thanks to Stormy for the banner
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#4 Feb 22, 2008 2:31 AM
- bmah
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Re: Questions for Oliver Wade
I'm not sure how much Mr. Wade will know about this question since he's a character designer, but here goes:
I really like the artistic style of the Spyro games, especially the architecture of buildings and the general landscape of each level. What ideas did designers have in mind when creating beautiful castles and endless horizons of the sky? Fantasy? Realism? Visually, it's eye candy.
On a side note, I've also noticed that (especially in the first game) many levels have a certain "worldly" theme. The Beast Makers world in Spyro 1 seemed to have a Central African theme (huts, marshes, etc.); the Desert Ruins stage in Spyro 3 had a Mediterranean flavor; etc. Did the designers used experiences from their holiday vacations to help create some of these levels?!
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#5 Feb 22, 2008 3:48 AM
- RaidonMakoto
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Re: Questions for Oliver Wade
Hi, Mr. Wade!
My favorite Spyro Character happens to be Sgt. Byrd. Would you happen to have any leftover concept art of him?
Thanks,
RaidonMakoto
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#6 Feb 22, 2008 1:24 PM
- Razz
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Re: Questions for Oliver Wade
He's actually answered that question already.
"The only one I remember doing a lot of revisions on was Sgt. Byrd. I reaaaaally wanted it to be a Pig with a jetpack but Ted was insistent on the penguin.
"I don't have a sketch of the pig anymore. I tended to only keep the ones that were used. I really only have the main characters and a few of the in-level guys. Here, however, is the original sketch of Sgt. Byrd"
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#7 Feb 22, 2008 9:14 PM
- RaidonMakoto
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Re: Questions for Oliver Wade
He's actually answered that question already.
"The only one I remember doing a lot of revisions on was Sgt. Byrd. I reaaaaally wanted it to be a Pig with a jetpack but Ted was insistent on the penguin.
"I don't have a sketch of the pig anymore. I tended to only keep the ones that were used. I really only have the main characters and a few of the in-level guys. Here, however, is the original sketch of Sgt. Byrd"
Thank you very much, Razz and Mr. Wade.
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#8 Feb 22, 2008 9:55 PM
- pur
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Re: Questions for Oliver Wade
How long would it have taken for a character to get from concept art stage to final 3D modelling? Did the designs have to be approved or were you allowed to do anything within reason?
Mass mental scarring, AWWAAAYY!!
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#9 Feb 23, 2008 8:54 AM
- Spyro_Loves_Me
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Re: Questions for Oliver Wade
After all the work was done and the games were completed, what were you most proud of?
What did you like and dislike the most when working?
Thanks!
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#10 Feb 24, 2008 4:01 AM
- Razz
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Re: Questions for Oliver Wade
I will be sending the next batch of questions on to Oliver soon, but in the meantime, here is his reply to the last e-mail I sent him:
"Hi,
"I'll try my best to answer these. Some of them are a little out of my area since I was only concerned with animation and character design but I did sit in on a lot of the meetings so I'll tell you what I know.
'How did you end up working for Insomniac?'
Just before Insomniac I was working as an Animation Director at Disney Interactive. I worked with a fellow named John Fiorito. He left Disney to go work for Insomniac. One weekend we happened to be at the party of a mutual friend and John asked if I was happy at Disney. I told him I was always interested in hearing about other ideas so he told me that Insomniac was looking for an animator.
The next week I went in to Insomniac and talked to Ted Price. They were nearing the end of production on Spyro 1 and needed someone to come in fast and do the animation for the crystal dragons. I did a quick animation test that weekend and was given an offer the next Monday. I left Disney, went to Insomniac as their 12th employee and stayed there for 6 years until they had well over 100 people. I left as they were in production on Resistance and Ratchet:Deadlocked.
'Was there any reason we never saw any other fauns like Elora in Ripto's Rage? I remember two other kinds of fauns, but Elora was the only fox-tailed faun in the game.'
No real reason in particular. The thing about the Spyro games is that each level contained unique enemies and a lot of the time they were added after the level design was done so that they would compliment the gameplay and level design. No real thought was given to the "big picture" of how all of these characters related to each other. The in-level characters were just there to serve the gameplay. For example: The designers would asked for a large character that Spyro had to flame to defeat. The level had a rock quarry theme so the enemies turned out to be big rock creatures with pick-axes. Not much more thought was given to it than that.
Elora was originally going to be a centaur but after looking at the design it was determined that she would be cuter as a faun and that four legs are harder to animate than two. The other fauns were added as in-level enemies much later and we never really thought about the two co-existing.
'TB would like to know what character you had the most fun working on?'
I was always partial to the Professor. I loved the simple shape of his body and his absent-minded nature. One of our favorite lines to say around the office was "Just a few more adjustments to these orbs..." We would say that whenever we were working on something and it wasn't turning out quite right. Another line we quoted all the time was a Hunter line "Maybe this isn't such a good idea". We mostly quoted that one because Ted Price did the temp voice and it sounded really goofy. So we mostly said it to make fun of his voice.
'BlueSpirit94 wants to know if you have any original art of Hunter?'
Unfortunately, Hunters original drawing is lost to the sands of time. I poked around in my old box of drawings and couldn't find the one I did of Hunter. I think I may have given him to someone who visited the studio long ago. I do however have this...
That is the original sketch of the Professor. I think that might even be Hunters shoe at the edge of the picture. The original drawing had Hunter, Professor and Moneybags in it. I cut them up to make my portfolio at one point and have lost the Hunter and Moneybags portions. Sorry.
'I'm not sure how much Mr. Wade will know about this question since he's a character designer, but here goes:
'I really like the artistic style of the Spyro games, especially the architecture of buildings and the general landscape of each level. What ideas did designers have in mind when creating beautiful castles and endless horizons of the sky? Fantasy? Realism? Visually, it's eye candy."
'On a side note, I've also noticed that (especially in the first game) many levels have a certain "worldly" theme. The Beast Makers world in Spyro 1 seemed to have a Central African theme (huts, marshes, etc.); the Desert Ruins stage in Spyro 3 had a Mediterranean flavor; etc. Did the designers used experiences from their holiday vacations to help create some of these levels?'
The person I mentioned in an earlier question, John Fiorito, did almost all of the original architecture sketches. He is still at insomniac as the Production Manager. I think the main idea was to have each area be unique in both design and color so that when the player went from place to place they knew they were in a different world.
It even got to the point where we had done so many different levels that we were just throwing out two different names and mixing them together to try to come up with something unique. For example: Underwater Fortress, Forest Castle, Desert Volcano. Any two different themes would just be thrown together to see if we'd done that before. When you get to the third game and have done 40 or so levels it gets tough to come up with something new.
In general they did try to give each area a theme but it was done more out of trying to keep things unique and less based on vacations or whatnot.
One interesting story I can tell in about a level in, I think, Year of the Dragon. It was supposed to be a forest. I designed some pretty wacky stuff like little elves with candy canes and flying beavers. When they finally went to put all the characters in, nobody had told me that they changed the whole level to crystals. So we did some quick texture swaps and that's why that level has Crystal Bears and other oddities. That kinda stuff happens when everyone is racing to meat a deadline.
Hopefully these answers are what folks are looking for. This was fun! Let me know if you have any others.
Sorry in advance for any typos. I'm not the most accurate typist.
Oliver"
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#11 Feb 24, 2008 4:20 AM
- Antr the Rolf
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Re: Questions for Oliver Wade
Hey Razz sorry about this but I ve been busy but I'll get that banner done.
Ayumi...well will miss you dearly..a...changer..in my life..Ayumi..the Demon wolf...best friend,and bro to me.One of the Great 7.
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#12 Feb 24, 2008 8:23 AM
- bmah
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Re: Questions for Oliver Wade
I'd just like to say thanks to Mr. Wade for taking the time to respond to these questions.
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#13 Feb 24, 2008 8:37 AM
- Antr the Rolf
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Re: Questions for Oliver Wade
I'm glad too.:thumbs up:
Ayumi...well will miss you dearly..a...changer..in my life..Ayumi..the Demon wolf...best friend,and bro to me.One of the Great 7.
DeviantArtAntr X Shiva
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#14 Feb 24, 2008 2:13 PM
- dark52
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Re: Questions for Oliver Wade
One interesting story I can tell in about a level in, I think, Year of the Dragon. It was supposed to be a forest. I designed some pretty wacky stuff like little elves with candy canes and flying beavers. When they finally went to put all the characters in, nobody had told me that they changed the whole level to crystals. So we did some quick texture swaps and that's why that level has Crystal Bears and other oddities. That kinda stuff happens when everyone is racing to meat a deadline.
Heh, I always wondered why there were flying beavers in that level.
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#15 Feb 27, 2008 7:53 AM
- Dragran
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Re: Questions for Oliver Wade
Dear Mr. Wade:
Are you familiar with the Legend of Spyro series? If so, can you tell us what you like and dislike about the plot and characters of the Legend of Spyro series?
How do you feel about Hunter and " Avalar " being mentioned in the Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night?
~ Dragran
...
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