It was pretty unexciting, to be honest, but in the best way possible – just tossing concepts back and forth over the fence until we honed in on something that felt final. – so I just tried to adhere to those while still bringing something of my own experience to the table. They had a couple of aesthetic pillars they wanted to maintain with the character – the general colour scheme, the youthful “schoolgirl” look, etc. I had an initial chat over the phone with Irrational, and they passed over a prompt along with any research or previous concepts they had for Elizabeth. How did the creative process work – what were your main design goals and how much guidance/free reign were you given? I now own a copy of the official art book, and I’m just blown away by how much amazing (and unused!) design work went into building the world of Columbia. The artists over at Irrational are just insanely talented, so any sort of collaboration with them is a privilege more than anything. This obviously did not happen, thank god. I was dreadfully nervous about the whole thing at first, to be honest I tend to forget that I’m already a professional artist in the industry, and so every time I’d send over an art drop of my latest work I waited with bated breath for their reply… totally convinced each time that they’d see it, reject me, and move on to someone else. What was it like collaborating with the Irrational team?įantastic, absolutely no complaints on my end. I’m not sure what my job title was, since I was working freelance, but probably something generic along the lines of ‘artist’ or ‘concept artist’. Seemed like fate that they’d want to bring me on board in a more official capacity! Coincidentally – I don’t think I’ve even mentioned this to Jorge and his team, now that I think about it – I had been working on some more historically accurate designs of Elizabeth in my free time when they first contacted me. I’m a huge fan of the franchise and count the original BioShock among my favourite games of all time, so when Jorge Lacera (lead concept artist at Irrational) contacted me via email it took me a few beats to realize what was happening… aaaand to realize that I wasn’t being pranked. They actually reached out to me first, which completely caught me off guard. How did you become involved with Irrational Studios and BioShock Infinite? What was your job title whilst working with them? I’m also spoiled with some seriously hilarious, talented, and thoughtful co-workers – I would definitely miss these guys if I ever left the team. As I mentioned, it’s just such a pleasure to work on several projects simultaneously you don’t get the satisfaction of seeing something through over the course of several years, I suppose, but I feel like I’ve gotten a ton of experience over a relatively short amount of time. Microsoft courted me as I graduating from RISD – along with Colin Foran, one of my crazy talented classmates – so it was a hell of a gig to get right out of college. It’s actually pretty fantastic, especially as a relatively young artist in the industry. What’s it like working at Microsoft Studios? I still get to do a lot of the visual development and production art that gets me up in the morning, but now it’s in step with a lot of art direction and feedback as well. I’m still with Central Media, but now I have more ownership and creative control over the projects I’m involved with – definitely a satisfying change of pace. I’ve since evolved into my current role as an associate production designer, which has been my title for about a year now. I wouldn’t say that we’re jacks of all trades, but we do have to be pretty adaptable – we would find ourselves working on a variety of art for different games, on different platforms, in different styles, and it takes a weird sort of headspace to be able to jump back and forth like that during the course of a day. Because my team is (predictably) a central hub within Microsoft Studios Publishing, we get to touch a ton of projects at any given time. That I am! So, I started out at Microsoft almost five years ago, as a concept artist for the Central Media team. You are currently working as an illustrator and visual development artist for Microsoft Studios – what does this role involve? I think I’m primarily known for my historical interpretations of Disney princesses, though my work for BioShock Infinite is coming in hot as a close second. My name’s Claire Hummel, obviously – I grew up in LA drawing dinosaurs and ancient Egypt, went to school at the Rhode Island School of Design where I drew dinosaurs and ancient Egypt, and now I live in Seattle, WA with my two snakes, Xocoyotzin and Rodney… where I continue to draw dinosaurs and ancient Egypt. Thanks so much for reaching out to me! Really excited to chat.Ĭan you tell our readers a little bit about yourself please? Hello Claire, thank you for your time and welcome to AMO!
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