Wing Commander Art: Blood, Sweat and Patience (August 25, 2011)

[Bandit LOAF]

How were the early Wing Commander's impressive graphics created?
Some years back, we asked Origin artist Dennis Loubet! He said:

I can tell you the cockpits and talking heads were done in DeluxePaint, and the ships you fired at were sprites rendered in early 3D modeling packages like the old DOS 3D Studio version 1. (That was used for WC2, WC1 utilized an early Amiga program I can't remember the name of.) Hope this helps.

Just imagining working with 3D models in DOS on a 286 feels like nails on a chalkboard to me. Those early artists had some patience! One thing we can announce is that we discovered the names of the outside contractors who did the Wing Commander I Amiga models during the Austin trip--we're trying to track them down now!

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Original update published on August 25, 2011

 

[hardwired]

How were the early Wing Commander's impressive graphics created?
Some years back, we asked Origin artist Dennis Loubet! He said:

Just imagining working with 3D models in DOS on a 286 feels like nails on a chalkboard to me. Those early artists had some patience! One thing we can announce is that we discovered the names of the outside contractors who did the Wing Commander I Amiga models during the Austin trip--we're trying to track them down now!

--
Original update published on August 25, 2011

Great...

It would be a great story to tell...
Maybe the original models could be used. If sculpt 3D or similar was used there are a number of utilities to convert the file format to a more modern alternative...
But the best part would be to have the original bitmap renders 1:1 as we never see them except distorted in some form...

 

[Youngblood]

I remember Deluxe Paint on my amiga (which just happens to be the platform that i first found WC on.) I never could get the hand of it, im suprised to hear about it being used.

 

[ELTEE]

Have to admire the effort - the results speak for themselves.