WARCRAFT

For the dwarven city of Ironforge, I started with a very rough blockout that outlined the overall layout of the environment. From there, I worked closely with the environment supervisor to refine the space and shape it around the needs of our shots. The visuals took a lot of cues from the Ironforge in World of Warcraft , which I’m pretty familiar with, so that helped guide the design.

Once the layout was approved, I put together a list of assets—distant dwarven houses, props, rock formations, and various architectural pieces—for the team to build. I handled the main scene assembly and coordinated with the rest of the environment artists while also contributing to asset creation and shot finalization. The practical set covered only a small area around the bridge and the large anvil, so everything beyond that had to be digitally built out.

In the end, the full 360 degree environment came together really well and felt like a believable, lived-in dwarf city. As a small easter egg, I added the Auction House and central griffin's roost in the distance—easy to miss, but they are in there...a nice fan touch :)

Original retranslated plate to give an idea of the extension work, along with the original inspiration .

This sequence was a lot of fun to work on, as it involved creating the on-screen version of Goldshire—focusing especially on the exterior of the Lion’s Pride Inn and the nearby buildings. The production had built a small practical façade of the inn, which I extended up through the roofline and integrated into a fully CG recreation of the surrounding forest. Toward the end of the sequence, the main characters fly over the treetops on a griffin at night, and I animated the tree canopy to react naturally to the wing beats as they pass overhead.

And for fans of the game, a careful look will reveal the blacksmith’s building right across from the inn, just like in World of Warcraft .

The film’s finale features a large-scale confrontation between the humans and orcs, set in a ravine bordered by dense jungle. In contrast, the area surrounding the orc encampment is barren and scorched, emphasizing their harsh presence in the environment. I led the environment team for this sequence and contributed directly to several shots that ultimately appeared in the trailer. It was a massive undertaking—with a large number of shots and an expansive environment—but the final result really captured the spirit and atmosphere of the classic Warcraft RTS games.