Splintter

Wind's a blowing.

Change is coming.

Hey All,

To those of you who have been following me for a while this is not going to come to you as a shock, but I am notoriously bad at maintaining an online presence and I don't tend to update my journals on here more than twice a year. Also, to the Bioware Fans you'll probably have noticed that I don't really drop any tantalising hints or development nuggets until well after a project ship. I'm a terrible person that way, I know.

So! As DA:I has been announced and our E3 trailer (btw is actually not a prerender as it is all in engine footage!) www.dragonage.com/ and dev interviews are all unleashed into the wild I figure I should probably get around to updating you all on what the hell I've been up to. Most of the BW fans will know me for my work on Fenris in DA2 (I was very impressed how quickly you guys found my DeviantArt account when Jen dropped my name) and a very few of you already knew about my Mass Effect work with Kaidan and even less know about Garrus (although I'm glad the reaction to the tango was so positive XD ). As much as I've been enjoying the aura of secrecy and mystery as the "person who made the puppy eyes" I figure I should finally unleash some more details into the web.

DRAGON AGE 2

Yes, I did most of Fenris' scenes, including the puppy eyes. I also worked on Meredith in the final act. CRAZY EYES FOR EVERYONE! I loves me my crazies. 

No, I did not work on Anders (although I did do some anim work for him in Fen's scenes).

MASS EFFECT 3

Yes, I did nearly all of Kaidan's ME3 scenes with the exception of Mars and the coup. I also did all his DLC work too.

No, Kaidan was not my only character.

The total list of my major work was Grunt, Garrus, Kaidan and Jack (with some Ashley thrown in here and there). Oh! And I also worked on EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THE SEX SCENES. Why the capital letters? Because, my dear fellows there are A LOT of them.

Jack's level was a hell of a lot of fun to work with, she's one of my favorite ME characters (side note, you'll notice the ambient of the guards dragging off the kid by the foot is suspiciously familiar... >:3 ).

Garrus and his writer, John Dombrow nearly killed me with awesome ideas. "Seriously? They fly to the top of the citadel and sh... alrighty then, LET'S DO THIS!!" Actually come to think of it that's how the tango happened too...

"...and then they what?! Is that even technically possible? I don't think so... wait... Pffffft... LET'S DO THIS!!!" much love to John.

Kaidan was a challenge and a half for me, he was the only human male I really worked on (out side of the other males in the sex scenes) and those of you who know my Fenris work know I'm a sucker for facial animation. Seriously, it's one of my favorite parts of this job... it's just unfortunately very time consuming but who needs sleep anyway? His wonderful writer Cathleen Rootsaert and I spent a great deal of time going over every tiny detail of his scenes making sure we kept the spirit of Kaidan from the previous games while still letting him grow as a character. One of my favorite things about Kaidan is that we pushed really hard to show his sense of humour (you'll notice he smirks a lot... mostly because I like smirks, smirks are awesome). If you play through his dinner scene as a male shep romance you'll notice twice the smirking power! One of my best facial anim bits was on the line, "heh, YOU Kaidan." So much fun!

 Let's see... ah! Oh yes, that brings me to Grunt. I don't even know where to start with him. Grunt is my bro. We went through hell and back with his level and came out of it feeling like badasses. His writer, Jay and I with the rest of that level's pod worked really really hard (not to say the rest of the team wasn't working hard all the time on everything that goes into making games... cuz they are. Like, all the time. Go team, go!). Back when we first started work on Grunt's level I was still a relatively greenhorn game designer but I learned a few things that will stay with me forever.

#1.) Don't make multiple talking Korgan heads if you don't have to.

#2.) Don't drop buildings down a hole with Shepard still in side.

#3.) Completely ignore lessons 1 and 2.

#4.) Grunt is a badass.

Dragon Age: Inquisition

Here's the thing. I like followers/henchmen. The characters that follow you around during your adventures are the ones that really stick out to you long after you put the controller/mouse down. So my adventures stretching waaaay back to the Fenris days have set me up for the EPIC plans David Gaider and I have for DA:I. In fact I believe there is a photo Cameron Lee posted on Twitter of me holding the holy folder of DA:I romance scripts which are now well on their way merry through the development process. Although I've gotta say, directing romance Mocap is a very strange and hilarious experience.

Pretty much what I want to say with this journal post is "Thank-you" to all those out there who share my passion for storytelling and video games. I offer a very particular thank-you to all the Fenris fans. Without you guys loving him, without the talent of Mr. Gaider and Emery making my job so much fun, I wouldn't be the passionate, game-cinematic-designing-artist I am today.

Thank-you all,

Sarah Hayward

Lead Cinematic Designer, Dragon Age: Inquisition