A Graphical Wizard Speaks

From the very early beginning (1980) Denis Loubet has created some great works of art for the Ultima series. He created the coverart for every Ultima from I to VIII (except for The Black Gate), many of the illustrations for the books that came with the games, and, for the later Ultimas, he designed many of the 3D models and other artwork within the games themselves. He worked for Origin for a total of ten years. We're very proud that he wanted to do this interview for this first issue of The Trinsic Telegraph.

Q: What kind of training/education did you follow? (I'm referring to artistic training mostly.)

Denis: I received no real formal training at any art college or anything, I'm pretty much self-taught. I did have the advantage of my mother being art consultant for our school district, my Grandmother being a professional portrait painter and art teacher, and my father being able to wield a mean brush when he wanted to. As a result, I was never at a loss for encouragement to pursue my art. I would study the artwork of artists I liked, and see how they solved the problems they came up against. That was my "training". How I got better was doing art 8 hours a day.

Q: When did you start to create art on the computer?

Denis: Aside from a little messing around with an early Apple, and a DEC 10 at college, I first used the computer for art when Richard Garriott (aka Lord British) brought a copy of Ultima 1 to Steve Jackson Games to show Steve what he was working on. When Richard saw the work I was doing for Steve, he had me do the start-up screen.

Years later I was able to doodle around with a Mac, using MacPaint, in black and white. That was pretty much the extent of my computer graphics knowledge when I joined on, years later, with Origin.

Q: When did you start to create 3D art?

Denis: I messed around with a Mac program, called something like Super 3D, off and on during my freelance career, but nothing serious came of it. My first serious professional experience with 3D graphics occurred when I was working on Wing Commander II at Origin. Against my judgement, Chris Roberts purchased a copy of 3D Studio version 1 to create the spaceships for the game. I was of the opinion that the program was more of a CAD tool than an artistic tool. (It didn't even do ray-tracing!) But I was soon convinced that Chris was right, and that I had been in error, and so I happily support Kinetix/Autodesk products, among others.

Q: How did you, as an artist, get started working in the computer gaming industry?

Denis: My friends took me to an event hosted by the Society for Creative Anachronism and had me show a painting I had done to the local Baron. The Baron happened to be Steve Jackson, and he wanted the painting for the cover of his magazine, The Space Gamer. That was my first professional sale. While working for Steve Jackson, I met Richard Garriott while he was working on Ultima 1, and Richard liked my stuff. Richard continued to use my traditional media work, off and on, in a freelance capacity, for several years before he moved an Origin office to Austin and hired me full-time.

Q: When did you first meet Richard Garriott and how did your work for the Ultima series start?

Denis: Well, as I said, I met Richard at Steve Jackson Games while Richard was working on Ultima 1. Richard had me do the Start-up screen using an old Apple II graphics tablet. It was a crude metal monstrosity with a wire leading to a stylus that rattled and threatened to fall apart at any moment. You could see line noise and power-spikes affecting your lines as you drew them, but I managed to create a heraldic lion that satisfied Richard. That was my first piece of professional computer graphics, and was my introduction to the Ultima series. It was years later before I was to do any more computer graphics for him, but acrylic paintings I did aplenty.

Q: You created the coverart for the boxes of the early Ultimas (including Akalabeth). Which techniques did you use to create them? Were they paintings, or did you already work on the computer?

Denis: I did not actually create the original cover to Akalabeth, that award goes to, if I remember correctly, Richard's Mother. When Akalabeth was re-printed, Richard replaced the old cover with the demon cover. That illustration, by the way, was the painting that I showed Steve Jackson at the SCA event, and that he bought for his magazine. (The original title for that piece was "Wrong Number")

All the Ultima covers up to 6, and excluding 2, were paintings done in acrylics, as was Savage Empire and Martian Dreams. There was some use of Doc Martin dyes and colored pencil, as well as the use of Herculene drafting film instead of canvas or illustration board. But they were all traditional media. The cover to Ultima 7 was a high-concept piece that was not done by me, but the cover to Ultima 7 part 2 (Serpent Isle) was an acrylic painting. The cover to Ultima 8 was done entirely on the computer, using 3D Studio for the title and pentagram, and Fractal Design's Painter for the flame background. The Ultima Underworld cover with the warrior at the top of the stairs was an acrylic painting. The cover with the wizard in the ice cavern was done entirely in Painter.