Bethesda concept artist Adam Adamowicz passed away

As an industry that prides itself on visuals, we put heavy burdens on concept artists everyday. Sadly, one of the best in the industry, Bethesda's own Adam Adamowicz, has passed away.

You may not recognize the name, but you have definitely seen his work. Adamowicz has been one of the masterminds behind the Fallout series, creating vast, gorgeous landscapes to run around in. He has not only accomplished this, but as also opened doors and been an influencial person for other concept artists alike. Awesome-Robo.com wrote an outstanding, heart-wrenching farwell, which includes this quote from Adamowicz in his Fallout dev diary:

"Visualizing all of the aspects of a make believe world is quite an educational experience. On any given day I could be simultaneously learning about multiple topics, from motorcycle engines to 50’s fashion design. It’s kind of like writing and filming a National Geographic documentary film for an actual sci-fi world. For this job, I think the more you read on a wide variety of subjects, the better equipped you are to create depth and realism, especially for a fantasy setting. The fantastic that’s grounded in real world elements and then elaborated and exaggerated upon, seem to work the best, and create a solid jumping off point. This often creates fertile ground for generating additional story elements that can influence costumes, machines, and even motives for the various personalities inhabiting a made up world.

Seeing Syd Mead lecture in SF was an incredibly profound lesson on design. During the Q&A I asked him how far he went on a design to make it technically believable. His advice was ‘to design with the story in mind and stay consistent with it’. Hence I learned that the Sulacco from Aliens is essentially a massive gun in space with a big nuclear reactor at one end which beautifully fits the theme of space marines exploring a planet infested with deadly hostile aliens. That answer freed me obsessing over minutiae that diverges story-wise, and focus on the broad strokes that propel the story. The addition of ensuing consistent minutiae would give it richness."

Source: [Awesome-Robo.com]