Tonight was the opening night of Ghosts in the Machine, an exhibit of Concept Art from Bungie hosted at the [url=http://www.ltdartgallery.com/]LTD Art Gallery[/url] in Seattle. I came south from Western Washington University for the night to attend the Artist Reception and meet the Bungie Artists who created the 33 pieces of Concept Art on display. Some of the artwork were pieces we've seen before on Bungie.net, some of the Concept Art wasn't even from Destiny and represented personal projects or potential forrays into games that could be. But at least 18 of those pieces were new and never before seen artwork, including a first look at a new enemy race or creature, the Asaru.
I spent at least an hour slowly traversing the gallery, notebook and pen in hand, taking a total of seven pages of notes on what I saw and some of the more interesting pieces I heard. I'm certain that pictures of each of these concepts will find their way on the internet in due time (I believe I heard that the gallery would be posting a ton of pictures to their facebook by the weekend), but there are details there that cameras cannot capture, and that's where I come in.
I'd like to take a moment to thank Jesse Van Dijk, Darren Bacon, Joe Cross, Isaac Hannaford, Adrian Majkrzak, Jaime Jones, Ryan Demita, Frank Capezzuto, Kekai Kotaki, Dorje Bellbrook, and all the other artists at Bungie who came to the event or contributed artwork. You guys are awesome, and I have so much respect for your abillity to create a vision for the entire team at Bungie. The folks at the LTD Gallery are also awesome for helping to host this event. Thanks also goes out to my Family who had to pull a lot of strings to help get me to the event, and to the community members who thought to bring really nice cameras to take pictures with, any images of yours that I use I will credit at the bottom of the [url=http://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post?id=62370976&path=1]final post[/url].
I've updated the thread with descriptions of the 33 pieces of artwork, and I will link the pictures to the descriptions as they become availible on the internet. This will take me some time, so I ask for your patience while I update the thread. I hope you enjoy my descriptions as much as I enjoyed the event, and if you have questions feel free to ask! I'll try to do my best to fill you in.
If you live in the Seattle area, the exhibit will be open till November 3rd, and if you are a fan of Bungie and Destiny you definitely won't want to miss this!
[quote][b][u][url=http://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post?id=62370976&path=1]CLICK HERE AND START FROM THE TOP TO SEE ALL 33 DESCRIPTIONS![/url][/b][/u][/quote][quote][url=http://destiny.bungie.org/forum/index.php?id=16840]Overview Pictures of the many Bungie Artists and people attending the event by Beorn from Destiny.Bungie.Org![/url][/quote][quote][url=http://www.ltdartgallery.com/category/current-exhibition?page=2][b]UPDATE: PICTURES ARE UP ON THE LTD WEBSITE![/b][/url][/quote]
[quote][url=http://images.cdn.bigcartel.com/bigcartel/product_images/126484161/max_h-1000+max_w-1000/DESTINY_Bridge_of_Bone_Ghosts_in_the_Machine_Darren_Bacon.jpg]1) Destiny: Bridge of Bone by Darren Bacon[/url][/quote]
This was an ink concept of a skeletalized metal bridge spanning across a chasm in an indistinct setting. Seemed like more of a piece that was trying to nail down the architectural style of a particular area. Lots of exposed beams and worn down plates and steps, it looked great.
[quote][url=https://d3v1qqxkrxwllf.cloudfront.net/00652dca24440304c3560a47dcbe96cb/9570f21791dd5109f71fd23e0a95ee4c/1024T]2) After the Breaking of the World by Jesse Van Dijk[/url][/quote]
This was my most favorite non-Destiny piece of the exhibit (All Destiny Pieces begin with "Destiny:"). Apparently from what I understand, this was a personal project of Jesse's that was created in some very special fashion (like it was printing onto glass or something, I'm not entirely sure).
This extra wide piece of artwork showed a medieval society trying to rebuild after a global calamity. The settlement was comprised of two multi-tiered round castles, sorta stacked like cakes, with the better houses at the higher levels going down to more commoner style houses near the base. The aforemention calamity must have been some sort of monster earthquake, because the earth had split across the entire countryside, creating a massive chasm that split part of one of the cities into two pieces. Work had begun to construct a stonebridge across the chasm to the neighboring city stack, with plenty of detail being put into the framework, cranes, and workers constructing this arched bridge. Down in the slums, lines had been strung across the chasm to provide transportation and access to the slums. It's not Destiny, but you could write an entire story around this one bit of artwork of a world trying to rebuild and collect themselves after this event, it was so freaking good and I hope someone got an amazing shot of it so I can use it as wallpaper.
[quote][url=http://static01.bungie.net/pubassets/615/pike_desktop.jpg?cv=3983590686&av=1129280554]3) Destiny: Pike by Joe Cross[/url][/quote]
This is the pike picture we've seen since the reveal of Destiny on Bungie.net. I chose not to focus my notes too heavily on concept art we have readily availible, not because it isn't good, but because there was so much more to be seen that we don't have readily availible.
[quote][url=https://d3v1qqxkrxwllf.cloudfront.net/00652dca24440304c3560a47dcbe96cb/2f18358413e815576c79bf09f85d4fb9/1024T]4) Destiny: Reinforcements Arrive by Isaac Hannaford[/url][/quote]
This was concept art of the human ship from the E3 Demo that the Hunter arrived in. It was fully decked out in the Forces of the City logo and symbols, and it had jump jet engines and seemed like it was lightly armed. It's coloration was a mixture of blacks, whites, and oranges.
[quote][url=https://d3v1qqxkrxwllf.cloudfront.net/00652dca24440304c3560a47dcbe96cb/2f06d58d37a09ff116a78527fa494bd9/1024T]5) Destiny: Flight by Isaac Hannaford[/url][/quote]
This was another concept for a space ship in orbit above the planet. The sharp angles and the jet-blackness of the ship reminded me of a B2 Bomber, but the sihouette is very different, much more like a T. I looked for faction symbols like Dead Orbit to see if I could figure out who had manufactured it, but those details weren't present.
[quote][url=http://images.cdn.bigcartel.com/bigcartel/product_images/126488808/max_h-1000+max_w-1000/DESTINY_Storm_Breaker_Ghosts_in_the_Machine_Adrian_Majkrzak.jpg]6) Stormbreaker by Adrian Majkrzak[/url][/quote]
This is another not-Destiny piece, and it features a bunch of orange suited construction workers with white masked helmets working on some sort of ocean-side dock. Waves crashed against the edge of the bronze platform as workers welded a simillarly colored crane and others were moving around on the dock. A bulky and blocky mech, also of the same color, stood in the lapping surf.
[quote][url=http://static01.bungie.net/pubassets/725/captain_desktop.jpg?cv=3983590686&av=1129280554]7) Destiny: Winterthrone by Jaime Jones[/url][/quote]
This is the concept art of the Captain holding a sphere that's been up on Bungie.net since the second mailsack or so after Destiny was revealed. It was displayed under a different name than it had on the website though.
[quote][url=https://d3v1qqxkrxwllf.cloudfront.net/00652dca24440304c3560a47dcbe96cb/85adbe1d92bda17687e47ecc0f1e8c94/1024T]8) Destiny: Cadet by Ryan Demita[/url][/quote]
This was concept art of a female hunter mid-stride, shes wering a bright red cloak and wielding a bright red gun. It made me think of new monarchy, but the trapezoid symbols on the cloak and the disjointed squares on the guns were definitely not new monarchy symbols, perhaps this is a very early piece of concept art?
[quote][url=http://images.cdn.bigcartel.com/bigcartel/product_images/126488631/max_h-1000+max_w-1000/DESTINY_The_Wall_Ghosts_in_the_Machine_Jesse_Van_Dijk.jpg]9) Destiny: The Wall by Jesse Van Dijk[/url][/quote]
This is Concept Art of the interior of the Wall in Old Russia, seen in the E3 Demo. Unlike many other gaming studios, these sort of structures were fleshed out in 3d by the concept artist team and painted over by the concept art team (as opposed to the Last of Us, where the level design team would make the 3d model), or so Isaac Hannaford was trying to explain to me. It was interesting to compare this look at the wall to what we saw in the E3 demo, this one was much closer to the "ground" and had some pretty interesting rust on the railing and beams. One of the red diagonal cross beams read "Nordenstahl", not sure if we saw that in the E3 Demo.
[quote][url=http://i.imgur.com/s9lBpqB.png]10) Destiny: Exotic Cloaks by Joe Cross[/url][/quote]
This is concept art we saw from the GDC presentation by Joe Staten and Chris Barett, detailing designs for some really cool gear hunters might find.
[quote][url=http://images.cdn.bigcartel.com/bigcartel/product_images/126483516/max_h-1000+max_w-1000/Untitled_Ghosts_in_the_Machine_Ryan_DeMita_1.jpg]11) Untitled by Ryan Demita[/url][/quote]
This was a pretty odd piece. Three non-Destiny characters were concepted out. The first was a female with an oversized white helmet, cradling a ball of magic she was forming between her hands. The middle figure was the most interesting, it was a tall man in black robes that glittered with some sort of mysterious golden shimmer, he had a long green visor covering his face and his arms were bare and grey except for golden bands covering his left arm. The third person was a woman with a Katana slung behind her back, with a blue blocky tattoo covering her left arm and belly, a Japan flag tank top, and a long headband tied across her hair.
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Edited by Hylebos: 10/27/2013 3:35:08 PM[quote][url=https://d3v1qqxkrxwllf.cloudfront.net/00652dca24440304c3560a47dcbe96cb/3b48021481b8a7840b8917bc36ef77d9/1024T]12) Destiny: Asaru by Ryan Demita[/url][/quote] Again, there's no guarantee that any of this concept art will make it into a Destiny game ever, but this appears to be a new enemy creature or faction onto itself. The concept art featured a bipedial armored creature beneath the words "ASARU" in red. It's not clear if it is a singular entity or if there is more of them. His armor is a sort of monotone blanched grey, with spikes poking out sparsely around the arms. His lower body wasn't nearly as detailed as his helmet, which was clearly the focus of the piece. The helmet had three horns, two swept back in the back like ears, and one thicker rounded one that came out of the front. The Asaru had no eyes, but he did have a mouth piece, the helmet sorta twisted around into jagged pieces that formed what seemed like a metal toothy maw, big teeth, it looked really sick and my words do not do it justice. Metal isn't quite a good word for it, because the armor almost seemed organic and almost clay like in places. The most interesting part about the Asaru besides their helmet is the massive amounts of white-blue pipes that extend from his back and sides, which contrasted with his armor in both color and form. I talked very briefly with Ryan about the artwork, and he said that the Asaru was hooked up to a machine (which I presume is keeping it alive), and also I believe he said it was a pilot (the Asaru was not armed with any weapons, but then again concept art that is focusing on form wouldn't want weapons to confuse things). [quote][url=http://images.cdn.bigcartel.com/bigcartel/product_images/126485286/max_h-1000+max_w-1000/DESTINY_Dark_Embers_Ghosts_in_the_Machine_Frank_Capezzuto.jpg]13) Destiny: Dark Embers by Frank Capezzuto[/url][/quote] This was concept art for what was labeled as "Hive Sticklight V2", it's not clear if it was a grenade or a melee weapon or a torch, but it looked like it could knock someone out for sure. Imagine a cross between a crystaline torch and a Spike Grenade, but more gothic and mace like. One end had a rounded spike, the other end had these yellow crystals that eminated light, surrounded by a cradle of black gothic blades, like some sort of mace. [quote][url=https://d3v1qqxkrxwllf.cloudfront.net/00652dca24440304c3560a47dcbe96cb/a257e2e3c3088957a8bba1171752ef68/1024T]14) Destiny: Twins by Frank Capezzuto[/url][/quote] More Destiny weapon concept art, this one showed twin snipers that were largely the same save for a few shapes and their colorization: one was jet black with red markings, the other was white with red stripes. No obvious faction or manufacturing logos, and I don't know enough gun terminology to describe their form or attachments, sorry :( [quote][url=http://static01.bungie.net/pubassets/615/fireteam_desktop.jpg?cv=3983590686&av=1129280554]15) Destiny: Fireteam by Kekai Kotaki[/url][/quote] This is the Fireteam Concept Art that's been on Bungie.net since release, it depicts a fireteam with each class represented fighting against the Hive. [quote][url=http://i.imgur.com/TSRKlLu.jpg]16) Destiny: Exo by Jaime Jones[/url][/quote] This is the postcard for the Exo that we saw in the GDC presentation. My brother bought a print of this, it's very nice, I'm very curious to see how the Exo turn out because they could end up being REALLY cool. [quote][url=http://static01.bungie.net/pubassets/4328/accelerator_desktop.jpg?cv=3983590686&av=1129280554]17) Destiny: First Light by Dorje Bellbrook[/url][/quote] This is concept art of the Moonbase that was recently featured in the Weekly Update's focus that part of the world of Destiny. [quote][url=http://static.squarespace.com/static/51232371e4b0cbd2cf2d7ee5/t/5220260ee4b036b2ad7ca9f8/1377838609636/1500_destiny_wall_jessevandijk.jpg?format=1500w]18) Destiny: Cosmodrome by Jesse Van Dijk[/url][/quote] This is concept art of the outside of the Wall in old russia, you can see the same shuttle towers in the background as you do in the E3 Demo, and they have all the rusted and broken down cars, but they are somewhat overgrown with grass. It's interesting to see how it transitioned to the E3 Demo, it looks a bit different in the more recent version. [quote][url=http://i.imgur.com/1U6EKMW.jpg]19) Destiny: Price for a Fallen God by Dorje Bellbrook[/url][/quote] This is an early concept art for the Last City on Earth from the GDC presentation, back when they were trying to theme it as a space station. It's slightly recolored in the version hanging in the gallery, the core is green instead of yellow. [quote][url=http://static01.bungie.net/pubassets/615/dark_patrol_desktop.jpg?cv=3983590686&av=1129280554]20) Destiny: Dark Patrol by Kekai Kotaki[/url][/quote] This is more concept art we've seen since the reveal of Destiny. I've always loved it because there are details there that many people don't think about, like "why are there both cabal and fallen", "why are they glowing green inwardly, have no weapons, have decaying smoke and all of that mysterious jazz". Bungie loves hiding stuff in plain sight it seems, the jerks. [quote][url=http://static01.bungie.net/pubassets/4333/hive_battle_desktop.jpg?cv=3983590686&av=1129280554]21) Destiny: Pit of Chains by Jaime Jones[/url][/quote] More concept art that we've seen thanks to the most recent Weekly Update, detailing a battle with Phogoth. I made an amusing joke to Isaac Hannaford about how we could tell how early this was in Destiny's development by comparing the number of wolves on the Gjallerhorn (or however it's spelled) to the number of wolves on the most recent in game version we've seen, he seemed to like that approach. [quote][url=http://media.beorn.me/photos/2013.10.24-Bungie-GitM/Bungie_GitM_003.jpg]22) Destiny: Clovis Bray Signage by Joe Cross[/url][/quote] This concept art detailed signage that would appear around Clovis Bray Exoscience, apparently a company in the Destiny Universe. The signage had a bunch of warning symbols, reference to differently numbered bays, and a warning sign for a restricted area for high radiation. On the sign for the high radiation though I noticed three dates that you would never have seen unless you were looking at the picture in person. They are: 07/05/3021, 4/10/3025, and 09/02/3309. Below each date is a bunch of random measurements in mg / L, probably doses of some chemical or something pertaining to the radiation? The dates are definitely more interesting, and were the sort of thing I was hoping to gleem from this experience, it's by no means an official "THIS IS WHEN DESTINY TAKES PLACE" style confirmation, but it gives us a general idea of when Destiny might be set, which is better than nothing :D [quote][url=http://images.cdn.bigcartel.com/bigcartel/product_images/126488061/max_h-1000+max_w-1000/DESTINY_The_Crypt_Ghosts_in_the_Machine_Darren_Bacon.jpg]23) Destiny: The Crypt by Darren Bacon[/url][/quote] This is more concept art of Hive Architecture. Isaac was explaining to me that this wasn't so much to flesh out the artistic direction and style of the hive because they had already figured out the architecture, but more so to see how things come together and fit together. There was more of the yellow crystal stuff that was seen on the Hive Sticklight that was lighting the room, and the wall was covered with these circular rivet holes that seemed perfect for climbing on. Everything was worn, there were round spots everywhere showing the wear of the area. [quote][url=http://static01.bungie.net/pubassets/4337/_moonbase_concept_dorje.jpg?cv=3983590686&av=1129280554]24) Destiny: Moonbase by Dorje Bellbrook[/url][/quote] This is Concept Art of the Moonbase and one of the first pieces made of that space. Everything is heavily modularized, and you can see some of the designs and shapes reused in the Ishtar Sink (number 33). [quote][url=http://images.cdn.bigcartel.com/bigcartel/product_images/126485553/max_h-1000+max_w-1000/DESTINY_Exclusion_Zone_Ghosts_in_the_Machine_Issac_Hannaford.jpg]25) Destiny: Exclusion Zone by Isaac Hannaford[/url][/quote] This is artwork of a Cabal standing on Mars in front of a landed Cabal Dropship. The Cabal is wielding the standard Cabal style bulky short Rifle we've seen them wield, though this one has a scope and a bayonette attached to it. The dropship is rather bulky with lots of armor but minimal weapons. There's a Cabal symbol on the side of the Dropship that appeared in #28 Command as well, suggesting that they belong to the same subfaction of Cabal.
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Amazing rich lore. Bungie <3
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All Pictures should be linked in now!
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Edited by Hylebos: 10/27/2013 3:27:55 PM[url=http://www.ltdartgallery.com/category/current-exhibition][b]UPDATE: PICTURES ARE UP ON THE LTD WEBSITE![/b][/url] I'll begin linking them in.
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Sup Hykebos.
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Thanks for doing this man! I was severely disappointed I wouldn't be able to attend.
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Edited by Kafuu Chino: 10/26/2013 7:19:20 PM[url=https://d3v1qqxkrxwllf.cloudfront.net/00652dca24440304c3560a47dcbe96cb/2f06d58d37a09ff116a78527fa494bd9/1024T]Number 5[/url] reminds me of the ADFX-01 Morgan from Ace Combat Zero. I like it.
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Great stuff, really enjoyed the read.
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Great work, Hylebos. A sneak peak for those of us that wouldn't otherwise get a glimpse!
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Thanks for the writeup, Hylebos! It was great to meet you at the show! I did a quick photo set of my own over at DBO: http://destiny.bungie.org/forum/index.php?id=16840 if you'd like to check them out!
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Thanks for all your hard work. I want to know more about those Asaru, though I suspect its an early concept for the Fallen
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12) Destiny: Asaru by Ryan DeMita
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Awesome work,thanks...."taking a total of seven pages of notes" i see what you did there lol
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Great read. Thank you for the time you put into this. It's much appreciated.
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30) Destiny: Last Voyage by Jesse Van Dijk
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Edited by r3myauxiliary: 10/25/2013 6:37:22 PM26) Destiny: Last Stand by Dorje Bellbrook
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These are the only photos I could find that have been leaked. Not much new, it doesn't look like, but the ship on the upper right is interesting. Perhaps it is a new enemy class ship. Or maybe it is a show of a customized player ship.
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You're an absolute saint. I greatly appreciate the effort and time that you've put into this post. Good job an the supplementary exposition and analysis too. Really fleshes out the images. Thanks.
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I almost think that Asaru pic should have "Tom Morello" scribbled on the bottom, so blurry! But then, I'm guessing you guys were prohibited from taking any pics.
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Dude that's awesome! Thanks for making this! I look forward to the rest :D
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Great stuff, thanks for the hard work Hylebos.
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Good stuff!
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Very nice, I'll be keeping my eye on this when i wake up
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Done for the night, going to finish up tomorrow, see you guys then!
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Nice! The illusive 5th race shall be revealed!
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Up till November 3rd.. I know what I'm doing my next day off. Thanks for the read, I'm excited to go check it out.