Art Of Flaptraps

Moody (Via)

Flaptraps (Aka Richard Anderson) recently left Arenanet following 8 years of working on the Guild Wars franchise. As an artist, he progressed from environment artist into concept, ultimately ending up in the cinematics department responsible for the beautiful, painterly trailers that Arenanet has been putting up, like the one below.



I'd like to mention that there are a few different schools of thought for conceptual art, including artists that emphasize functionality (Like thinking about how every piece of armor fits together) versus those that prefer capturing a feel or mood more. Flaptraps falls into the latter, with pieces that emphasize mood, texture and color rather than focusing on the details. Depending on the project there's really room for both approaches, although I've found myself arguing with people who are very one track minded in that regard. Since leaving Arenanet, Richard has immersed himself in the movie industry and is currently working at Framestore, Europe's largest VFX/animation studio.

Check out more of Richard's painterly work after the break!