GDC19 Flash Forward: Illustrating Tamriel: Creating Key Art for The Elder Scrolls Online

The Elder Scrolls Online releases four content updates per year. Each update is accompanied by a highlydetailed key art illustration, produced inhouse and used as a focal point of the corresponding marketing campaign. In this session, Lucas Slominski discusses compositional strategies for crafting a compelling narrative within a single image, and details the charactercentric visual storytelling techniques he employs to enhance dramatic tension and expand the emotional resonance of key art. Using a recent illustration as a case study, the artist summarizes his meticulous approach for creating these images within the various constraints imposed by competing stakeholders. He also outlines parameters used to select approved compositions, and shows how forces external to the artist often influence the final result of key art.