Bonus Content Disc/Creatures: Humans

The following are transcriptions of the artists' comments for the design gallery "The Creatures of Mass Effect: Humans" found on the bonus content disc of Mass Effect released in 2007.

Image 1

Matt Rhodes: In the very early, early, early days of the Mass Effect universe, one of the big questions was: we need space armor. If we're going to have a space adventure, we need space armor. We need stuff to collect, stuff to look cool. So this is one of the very first drawings, actually, of armor that I did when I joined the project. It's still got some stuff that I liked. Some of this translated to the final, but again, just toying around, just seeing what's possible. Because again, if you're building this universe from the ground up, every question is unanswered, so... might as well try something. I still actually really like this guy's helmet, and I think in a lot of ways that helmet look ended up translating fairly close to some of the final designs. Not quite, this is still pretty simple, but... yeah, it's funny what sticks and what doesn't.

Image 2

Matt Rhodes: This is a slightly cleaned up female version of the armor. Again, because all armor have to be on men and women, it's always good to see what it looks like both ways. And you find differences when translating it. This, I still kind of like. It was still really trying to hold true to sort of the eighties classics that we were kind of thinking about in those early days.

Image 3

Matt Rhodes: Here's a different direction, trying to come up with just different looks, different feels. Again, trying to stick to sort of the eighties palette, tan and white. Certain things just scream certain time periods, and that was what we were sticking with. And then, you see one of Derek's sketches of a helmet in the background there between the two heads, and trying to articulate it in a way. How do we build this? What does it look like from different angles? That translation process always gives you something different, so that's something that we like to do.

Image 4

Matt Rhodes: Oof, yikes, looking at these drawings is always fun. The very, very early stuff. This was, when thinking about environment for very, very hazardous places, armor that almost looks as dangerous as the environments you might have to go into. So the big heavy pipes, the copper wiring, just very-- this is ultra-industrial. And actually, in some ways this informed some of our later industrial clothing.

Image 5

Matt Rhodes: Now here again, just trying to put the armor in a little bit of context with the glowy Tron lines and the screen on the helmet and all of that. And just... toying with different styles, different looks. Again, this is sort of the armor plating looks. And in some ways, you know, it works. Some things don't work. But you don't know until you've drawn it.

Image 6

Matt Rhodes: Now here we have the female armor, and this is some of the... yeah, this is the closest-- well, no, this is it. This is-- it's funny, you just sort of draw it and it works and everyone agrees and it works. The white and red was always a favorite of mine. I'm still glad that's in there. It's, you know, that was originally how it was designed to be, the white and red. But in so many ways, as an iconic piece of armor, there's already the Stormtrooper white armor. There's so many different precedences that need to be respected. So yeah, I like how this turned out.

Image 7

Matt Rhodes: Now here's the iconic shot. This is the armor with the red and white stripes, the N7 logo, a little darker, a little more intimidating.

Image 8

Matt Rhodes: Here we have the human male medium armor. This is-- again, we started with the lowest layer and then built it up in pieces, so added a little bit more to the shoulders, a little bit more thickness to the legs and all of that. It was a good process.

Image 9

Matt Rhodes: Trying to think of how this stuff would work in the battlefield, what the requirements would be. And again, this is so far in the future that, you know, who knows what technological advances they've made. So one of the things we tried to do was keep it fairly close to the body, tighter than, say, what ended up being a Gears of War style of look. This is, you know, the efficient, sleek sort of look.

Image 10

Matt Rhodes: Crowd characters were always fun. Trying to design the look of the street, the... You know, this is the galactic economy right here. It's like, what do people buy? What do people think looks good? Really, you know, it's a chance to use some old traditions, use things that we still think is attractive now, and then really just, you know, give them that extra twist that says "hey, you know what? Who knows, you might like this stuff." People a few hundred years ago, if they saw what you're wearing now, they'd probably think it was ridiculous. So, why not give you that same experience?

Image 11

Matt Rhodes: Here we have sort of the Han Solo-ish mercenary kind of outfit. Again, you know, just trying to think of-- there are certain things that are just practical. Some things people have been wearing for 500 years and 1,000 years, and they're still wearing them. Shirts, pants, straps: awesome. He's even got his little space boots. And... it's just one of those things where how much is too much, how much is too close to modern... And, again, you don't know it until you've drawn it.

Image 12

Matt Rhodes: This is one of my favorites, actually. This is, of all things-- this sketch is one of the best. I was watching Outland with Sean Connery, and one of the mercenaries--and this is out in space when there's a mining station on Pluto--one of the mercenaries is wearing one of those big puffy orange vests, and I just thought "that is hilarious. That is eighties science-fiction right there." So I tried to fight for the orange vest as much as possible, and it did actually end up getting in the game, though not like this. So, yeah, fight for what you believe in.

Image 13

Matt Rhodes: Here we're just trying out some more ridiculous future costumes. Some of these got a little Fifth Element, which is good because, you know, they did an amazing work on that. Jean-Paul Gaultier did most of the designs on there, and it just, you know, gives the future a very fashionist, frightening sort of appeal. We had a medical suit on the left here, something orange and flashy, and then this is kind of a space vampire costume for the space goths.

Image 14

Matt Rhodes: Some mechanic outfits for future mechanics. You know, just trying to ask the questions of like, what do they need to do? What are the requirements of their space station mechanical requirements? So, you know, sleeves and guards, all the protection and equipment that might be necessary.

Image 15

Matt Rhodes: This was a costume I really liked. This was actually sort of based on one of the couches that Syd Mead designed, I think. Kind of some of his look, the look of it was Neo-Tokyo kind of thing. This is something that you'd expect either a sophisticated woman of the future, maybe a business lady, or even something more-- almost more evening wear, you might wear in the future.

Image 16

Matt Rhodes: Here we had the hazard gear, just for the people working in very hazardous conditions. I really enjoyed how the helmet on this ended up turning out. It's very ant-like, so that when you see these people walking around, it's-- you know, you get that sort of insect impression right away.

Image 17

Matt Rhodes: And here we have one of the favorite costumes of the Mass Effect experience. This is sort of the dress with a few areas exposed that are, you know, in 200 years, maybe that'll be the norm. I love the texture on the shirt, sort of the copper sheet, flexible copper, and then with the rough material on the dress, I thought it made a good contrast.

Image 18

Matt Rhodes: And here's the full spectrum of medical officers, right from the head of the emergency department, all the way down to some of the nitty-gritty field commando medics. You know, I love the idea of the black hood with just the face exposed, that's just cheesy enough to work. The guys on the left ended up being closer to what we went with, and the simple shape lended itself well to a lot of material variations. We were able to get a lot of play from that.

Image 19

Matt Rhodes: Designing military uniforms from the future is kind of an interesting design lesson. It's one of those things where you can't go too far away from what exists now before it becomes almost unrecognizable. So what we found was by sticking very close to what exists, but just making a few changes, a few shapes, that we were able to still get the same read, get the proper read from the player, but still make them up for ourselves. This is just an array of female military costumes just to see what would be appropriate, what's too far, what is not nearly far enough.

Image 20

Matt Rhodes: And here again, just simple, utilitarian, trying to think, you know, what new things are people going to try in the future when it comes to their fashion. So we've got the black elements added on top, straps to connect the jacket together, connecting the jacket to the sort of chaps there. Again, this is a really fun experience, and it's fun to paint over the human form and try to come up with new shapes.

Image 21

Matt Rhodes: And this is one of my personal favorite costumes just because it's so dramatic. You get the black cloak with the one red strap, the red slash on the front, and, you know, red on the back. And I actually like the final because the red, I believe, goes all the way to the floor, so it's even more dramatic. But, you know, trying to think of human dignitaries and the people who are in positions of power in the future, and again, trying to explain what they think of as being, you know, important, imperial. Who are the decision makers?

Image 22

Matt Rhodes: All right, now that orange vest that I loved, this was, again, trying to reintroduce it, make sure that it didn't get left by the wayside. So this is one of those sketches where-- here we have some of the underlings or the less-than-opulent, the less-than-wealthy in the future. And there's just something about that vest that just says "yes, I live on a space station."

Image 23

Matt Rhodes: Now these are some early just tests and experiments for some of our characters. This was, what's the name of-- ...Anderson, yeah. And so, you know, just in listening to some of the voices that we knew, or some of the voice acting that we had gotten in and trying to come up with a look that reflected that voice, that reflected that character. And this is just, you know, helps in searching for the actors that we know we're going to choose or trying to find those facial features that really help sell a character.

Image 24

Matt Rhodes: These are some of the Ashley sketches and, you know, taking some of the features from different actresses that we all agreed had the right look, and some of them-- combining a few of them. And this is really just a lot of it, trying to find what mix of elements is necessary to sell a particular character.

Image 25

Matt Rhodes: These are some Kaidan shots and there was... So much of this is about the mood too and what expression is he going to give. There's some expressions will... You know, a lifetime of keeping a certain expression on your face is definitely going to change your face and that will tell a lot about someone. You know, laugh lines, worry lines, the whole shebang and then even hairstyles. So, again, trying to figure out like, who is this guy? What is he about?

Image 26

Matt Rhodes: And this was an early model's face that we were using as our lead, as our Commander Shepard. Just, you know, testing it out, putting him on the arm or seeing like, "does this actually work?" "Does he," you know, "does he have the right look?" "How does it fit?" We changed the expression a little bit. There's a whole series of these where we, you know, painted scars on them and beards and shit, gave him different haircuts and stuff like that. But, you know, this went through so many different eyes and everyone sort of was able to have a look. And at one point this guy, we thought was pretty good. He was... This was probably going to be our Shepard.

Image 27

Matt Rhodes: After testing out all sorts of different faces, Mark Vanderloo's face ended up being one that everyone could agree on. This is a face that we can explore the galaxy with. So, you know, drew him up, tested it out and, you know, now that's Commander Shepard. You can see him in magazines every now and then and say, "hey, he's got hair!" And he's Commander Shepard in a suit. But, you know, this, being able to see it like this, and go through so many different heads and faces just helped everyone really rest assured that we had made the right choice.