The following are transcriptions of the artists' comments for the design gallery "The Creatures of Mass Effect: Elcor" found on the bonus content disc of Mass Effect released in 2007.
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Matt Rhodes: Well, here we're looking at the elcor. And the elcor is one of those ones I think I had the most fun with. Just in sketching things, I was trying to think of not only what the creature design would look like from a biological standpoint, but, you know, this is a video game, and there are certain things that you face in video games that you don't get in movies or comic books or anything like that. Well, one of the ideas that I was toying with was the idea of having a creature that was passive. You know, he's not your enemy. But at the same time, if you put him in a crowd, he's kind of an obstacle. They're big, they're peaceful, but they're a bit of a nuisance, just by their sheer size and, you know, slowness. So this was a quick sketch trying to think of like, you know, here's a lumbering mechanic creature who just-- you see them in a crowd and they're these big, giant, monolithic living boulders that you know are going to get in your way eventually.
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Matt Rhodes: And here's one of those things where you get inspired by stuff that you see and you don't even realize it until you've drawn it. This is kind of a modification of, if you guys have seen the Dune movie -- and since we're all nerds, I know we have -- of the Baron Harkonnen from that beautiful David Lynch classic. And so, you know, he's got these multiple eyes down the side of his head, the big collar that... It's-- you know, the fat body on the thin arms, it's just-- it amounted almost too much of a-- it amounted to too much of a... jester fetishist kind of thing in it. Again, sometimes you just know when things don't suit the IP you're trying to build.
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Matt Rhodes: This is one of those things that just comes out of spending a whole day concepting creatures for too long. Just where can you put things? I mean, if you give the viewer some anomaly, some strange biology, something that he's faced with, and he has to rationalize it himself and it's fun to toy with that because you're like, "why? Why is his face down there? Why is it down there?" And you may never know, and we all have a great laugh about it. And yeah, there you go.
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Matt Rhodes: The Cthulhu or Dungeons and Dragons fans will enjoy this. This is really just, I mean, a simple premise; just put an octopus on a man's head and it's scary. There you go. Suddenly it works. Okay. And it's-- this guy, I actually kind of wish he was in there, because there's something terrible about being faced to engage in a normal conversation with something like this.
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Matt Rhodes: And here's the big giant boulder version of this guy, just colored up a little bit, putting literal rock texture on his skin. The big plate bones on his face, that actually came from a couple other different creatures combined onto this. Again, it's a shame somebody like this didn't quite make it in the game, but I mean, I'm happy with how the final turned out.
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Matt Rhodes: This was just a night spent doodling some creature designs. You'll notice some of the little sketches actually end up getting translated into finals, but this is really just toying with the shape of these guys, seeing how far they can be pushed, what makes sense, what's almost too much to believe. Alien design is like that. It's-- you kind of push your own imagination a little farther and then try to hop over that line, and then hopefully you find something that works.
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Matt Rhodes: Now there in the bottom right was a sketch. That direction I really liked. And, so you'll see some further development there. Top left is the beginning of the octopus head. It's actually amazing. This sketching process, just doing these little doodles here on the napkin, how much stuff you can actually get. It can take you really far. And so it's something that I hope I continue to do.
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Matt Rhodes: And here's one of those drawings that you don't know is a big deal until you've taken the creature to final. This is pretty much as close as you could get. It was just a matter of developing this direction a little further.
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Matt Rhodes: We have the painted version of the napkin sketch. So, this is our elcor, minus a few addi-- changes to the face. There was, again, once you see a face like that, you expect it to be animated. And so there was a suggestion that we would take away its mouth so that you're not disappointed when it doesn't move. It was, again, just some of the technical constraints, the memory, and just the sheer amount of time to animate a whole new face.
| Mass Effect Bonus Content Disc | |
|---|---|
| Documentaries | Inside Mass Effect • Inside BioWare • The Vision of Mass Effect • The Making of Mass Effect • Interactive Storytelling • Sci vs. Fi: Mass Effect • Making Bring Down the Sky • Beyond the Game • The Future of Mass Effect |
| Galleries: Creatures | Asari • Creatures • Elcor • Geth • Hanar • Humans • Keepers • Krogan • Quarians • Rachni • Salarians • The Thorian • Turians • Unrealized Concepts • Volus |
| Galleries: Environments | Caleston • Citadel • Early Concepts • Eden Prime • Feros • Ilos • Noveria • Virmire |
| Galleries: Technology | Geth Weapons • Human Furniture • Human Helmets • Human Items • Human Weapons • Ground Vehicles • Mass Relays • Space Vehicles - Geth • Space Vehicles - Human • Space Vehicles - Other Races • Space Vehicles - Turian • Normandy - 1st Floor • Normandy - 2nd Floor • Normandy - 3rd Floor • Normandy - Exterior |