Interview with Daniel Dociu

interview with the chief art director for anet, nothing special just thought id give you guys a heads up

Link here

Some of the concept on there(and Daniel's Flickr set) are things I don't remember seeing before. But at least the additional explanations for them are nice.

I love this guy. He actually inspired me to return to college for my art degree. I had the honor of speaking with him for a phone interview as a part of my technical writing class. He's got some very good advice for artists. I regret I had not been more prepared; I could have learned alot more.

One of the biggest points I took from my talk with him was this:

People are curious. They want to know what you're thinking. If you only show them what they want to see, they aren't getting anything from it. They aren't learning anything. Do your own thing, the public with respond.

/Agree . People don't want the same old junk ( some people do... :O ) , we want something brand new... E.G We don't want a new game called : World of Virtaul Reality ( Sorry for terrible name ) that looks and plays exactly like WoW. We want a new game... thats even better.

I love his works; he's amazing.

I found it ironic that in the business of architecture, it would be unimaginative to create structures in real life that similar to the ones in the game; I would call that impractical, not unimaginative. Also, that Daniel comes up with ideas before taking action, as opposed to taking action to develop ideas. He must be very inspired to do that. Clearly, he sees art as a way to express and capture emotion.

Very, very impressive work. I'm still trying to figure out where some of those came from, though.

Probably one of the most skills artisans I have seen in a long time.

Daniel Dociu is awesome, I have a folder of his works which I look at whenever I need inspiration. You can look at his paintings over and over again and always find something new.

That man is a legend.

Daniel Dociu's art is part of the reason why Guild Wars capture my interest. without his art i suppose Guild Wars would not be as interesting as it is.

Daniel Dociu = Genius in making Game Arts and I adore it! and we want more!

I love his work, he's extremely gifted. I can't picture him not being a part of Guild Wars, so I hope he stays for like, EVER! :P

His artwork is simply stunning, one reason why I'm wanting to get all collector editions with their art books

Very talented artist. I used his shrine of balthazar in an Art 101 class as an art that I had to explain. Got an A on that paper . I'm by no means an artist per say, but I know what I like, and I like Daniel Dociu's art!

Amazing work. I'm still finding/discovering some of these places in GW, and hope to see some of those concepts fully realized in GW2--new engine, new level of detail. And vertical environments such as "Skybridge" (Andes) may soon be possible (think I just found a new wallpaper). Even "Pagodas" would be simply amazing as an in-game experience, full poly-count, completely explorable, or as housing (instanced). . though I'd have to plant some garden terraces and draping vines as a wanton waste of water and decadence.

"Snow castle 2", and "Crescent Island" are just begging to be explored. Both are also begging for a proper name to fill out the fantasy. . . crosses fingers. And "Mausoleum". . every image tells an amazing story. No element of art and entertainment should be without a transparent, translucent, or uncover-able story, as was commented in an above post.


. . .can't say I've ever seen such strong and engaging concept art from a game company, not that there isn't some out there.

I wonder if any of this work is new to the GW universe???

Interesting read and a very talented artist! It's good they just give him the project needed and no deadline stated ~ allowing him to create and not do a rush job to meet a given date.

You know he won in the Spectrum competition yet again this year. He won the Silver Medal for "Carnival Season" (I can't seem to find this image online... can anyone else?).

And... he won the Gold Medal for "Defeated Dragon"