Kevin Manning (Lead Character Artist on Dead Money)

NF: Can you explain what your responsibilities were as lead character artist on Dead Money? Did these change from your time on the Fallout New Vegas base game? At what point did you join the Dead Money team, was this during the final months of Fallout: New Vegas’ development or after its completion?

KM: If I remember correctly we were still wrapping up NV as Dead Money began. As the lead character artist my job was to create character assets, communicate with other departments on the needs, intentions and requirements of those assets, and ensure that the collective vision (across all disciplines) were met/exceeded for the project. This was very similar to my role on F:NV as a whole.

NF: What were your hours like during the project? Were there ever periods where those hours changed? That can apply for the entirety of the development of the Fallout New Vegas DLC expansions given how long ago it was.

KM: Oh geez. A lot of work went into NV and the DLCs and I can honestly say the extra effort was voluntary. I don't remember there being a "crunch", and the development schedule was aggressive but manageable. Passion driven development has always been Obsidians MO. The teams love what they do and it shows.

NF: What was an average day of production like? What did meetings look like? What did the art pipeline look like?

KM: An average day was morning meetings followed by long stretches of work, then into reviews, then playtests. Our meetings were mostly preplanning for upcoming milestones or groups getting together on the fly to address issues. The art pipeline was a bit of a nightmare especially where characters came into play. Because of the character creation system (created for Fallout 3), modern character development (model, texture, rig and animate) was limited. Facegen (their system for faces and bodies) was a constant battle. The character art team mostly focused on companions, creatures and outfits.

NF: From my research I found that there were a few films that were used as inspiration for the project such as Battle Royale, Cube, Lifeboat and most importantly The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. What influences did you take from these films specifically in terms of the designs of the characters you designed?

KM: I honestly can't remember. I feel like some of those films were chatted about quite openly but that would be a better question for one of the concept artists.

NF: What were the influences you took from when designing the characters you were responsible for? Such as real life counterparts like in the case of Dean Domino, were musicians like Dean Martin used as inspiration?

KM: Same as above. Good question for a concept artist. Character artists work with concept art to bring those ideas into reality. While we do need to understand the motivation and inspiration it is not something we are responsible for.

NF: How many different passes did each character receive, did one vary wildly throughout the process till the productions end?

KM: It really depended on the character. Some characters like the Securitrons for FNV were done in a single pass and we were all super happy with them while the Ghosts were remodeled at least three times.

NF: How did you as a lead character artist work with other departments to bring the characters of Dead Money to life?

KM: Dead money was an interesting one because of how many "unique" technical challenges we took on. Christine was the first head replacement we did on a character that didn't use the native FaceGen system of Fallout3 and NV. The ghosts were a brand new class with unique animations, interactions, etc. and the holograms were something we hadn't attempted before. There was a lot of back and forth with animation and engineering to get everything to play well together.

NF: What fundamentals did you have when creating these characters' appearance and style? More specifically, were there ideas that would be out of place for Dead Money or the Fallout Setting in general?

KM: The Fallout universe certainly has its own style which is not very difficult to hit with references dating back to the original in 97. The designers and concept artists spent a lot of time making sure the worlds felt cohesive.

NF: Which character was your favorite to work on? Was one more difficult to get right than the others?

KM: For Dead Money specifically I would have to say the holograms were the most fun and Christine was the hardest to get right.

NF: How did you feel about the critical and public reception of Dead Money?

KM: With generally mixed reviews (if I remember correctly) I feel like it did its job well. For the fans it gave them a new experience to explore which contrasted the open world sandbox which I believe is the point of a DLC. (Give them something new not more of the same)

NF: Are there any stories you wanted to share from the production of Dead Money?

KM: It has been so long it is hard to think of any. Mostly It just makes me remember the team, many of whom I still talk to. F:NV and the expansions team was a big family of passionate, driven and massively talented people. Ah the good ol days. Thanks for the trip down memory lane.