Jonah Lobe | The World's First Look at Arvak, Ever! @JonahLobeDraws | Uploaded 5 years ago | Updated 1 hour ago
After we finished Skyrim, as the game reviews were just pouring in (and we were beginning to realize that maybe, against our wildest expectations, we'd created a game that was actually GOOD), the entire team took one week off their normal schedule for the first-ever Bethesda Game Studios "Game Jam!"
The idea here was to just go crazy and create whatever we wanted for the game, without worrying how it would fit or where. I spent a day or so making the Hulking Draugr, and then I turned to the task that interested me far more: the creation of Arvak.
Arvak did not yet have a name, nor did he have a place all carved out in Tamriel for him... but I'd seen a sketch by our concept artist Ray Lederer of a burning black horse skeleton and I said to myself "That. That's what I want to see in Skyrim!"
So I spent that week modeling horse bones, giving them a good obsidian polish, and then heating them up until they caught flame. I experimented with a fire mane and tale, glowing sparks for eyes, and a burning trail for the horse to leave as it ran.
With the help of my friend Sal, who is a video editor at Bethesda, I showed this video at the big team meeting at the end of that week. This was the first anyone had ever seen of the horse that would later become Arvak.
I moved on to Fallout 4 right after the Game Jam, so I wasn't actually involved in putting him into the expansion. His colors were changed to a ghostly blue/purple, which I admit I wasn't much of a fan of, but I was just grateful to get him into the game at all. I hope you enjoyed him, at least!
After we finished Skyrim, as the game reviews were just pouring in (and we were beginning to realize that maybe, against our wildest expectations, we'd created a game that was actually GOOD), the entire team took one week off their normal schedule for the first-ever Bethesda Game Studios "Game Jam!"
The idea here was to just go crazy and create whatever we wanted for the game, without worrying how it would fit or where. I spent a day or so making the Hulking Draugr, and then I turned to the task that interested me far more: the creation of Arvak.
Arvak did not yet have a name, nor did he have a place all carved out in Tamriel for him... but I'd seen a sketch by our concept artist Ray Lederer of a burning black horse skeleton and I said to myself "That. That's what I want to see in Skyrim!"
So I spent that week modeling horse bones, giving them a good obsidian polish, and then heating them up until they caught flame. I experimented with a fire mane and tale, glowing sparks for eyes, and a burning trail for the horse to leave as it ran.
With the help of my friend Sal, who is a video editor at Bethesda, I showed this video at the big team meeting at the end of that week. This was the first anyone had ever seen of the horse that would later become Arvak.
I moved on to Fallout 4 right after the Game Jam, so I wasn't actually involved in putting him into the expansion. His colors were changed to a ghostly blue/purple, which I admit I wasn't much of a fan of, but I was just grateful to get him into the game at all. I hope you enjoyed him, at least!
