In order to give the readers some inside information on Chirs‘work, Spellborn sat down and asked some questions about Graphic Artist Chris Evenhuis‘s work.

Together with Romano Molenaar Chris Evenhuis is responsible for designing the world of The Chronicles of Spellborn and all it‘s inhabitants. Chris is an all round graphic artist specialized in creature design and concept, texture and promo art. To give you some inside information on Chris‘ work, we sat down with him and asked him some questions.

Chris, can you tell us a bit more about yourself and your background?
Hi, I am Chris Evenhuis, 27 years old and a major in Environment science and Biology. I have a background in design, illustrations and comic art. My comics are mostly horror/fantasy oriented and contain psychological elements. My last published comic was The Darkness: Resurrection, published in 2004 by Top Cow Productions.

What is your part in the Chronicles of Spellborn project?
I mainly design human characters, creatures, monsters, animals, armor and clothing. Sometimes I do world design, but most of that was finished when I joined the project. I take part in the ongoing discussions of fitting the design elements in the overall Spellborn world since those decisions have a lot of effect on the final design of those elements. Also a lot of technical stuff is involved in my work since my sketches need to be build in 3D by the modelers and I need to work within the 3D software to finalize the textures on the models since I do a lot of texture design too.

What is your vision on the graphics designed for The Chronicles of Spellborn?
What I liked most about the Spellborn graphics is the appeal of the characters and their surrounding world. It�s not easy to explain this, but I instantly notice in other games when graphics work or not. Things don�t have to look realistic in order to look real. Take character design for instance. A character just works when you can immediately see that the character has a live, a story and a history. All those things can be achieved with designing the right graphics. This is very important when designing for a game like Spellborn in which the world�s history has a profound impact on the world and the characters living in it. The same of course also goes for the world and item design.

What do you find important when designing graphics for The Chronicles of Spellborn?
I think I can partly answer this one by pointing you towards my answer on the earlier question. But furthermore I always try to give my designs a sort of natural female elegance. Even when designing the monsters. This is something I miss in a lot of other games. When I design the final textures I always try to stay very close to the original artwork because the artwork contains the style and atmosphere that the creature or object was mend to have. This luckily is made very easy since most of the time I get to texture the objects build based on my own original artwork. Last but not least, I really like the fact that I get to produce a massive amount of different armor and cloths so no player has to meet his twin brother or sister when playing the game.

What keeps your job challenging and do you feel that you are still learning thing?
The real challenge for me is that I get to design things that I prior to working for Spellborn never had the time for. I used to professionally draw mostly people in a fairly realistic environment and when I had some spare time I did some fantasy critters. But since I work on the Spellborn project I designed more monsters and other evil beings then I ever made before in my life as an artist. Come to think of it, I almost only made �bad guys� for The Chronicles of Spellborn.

What part of your work are you most proud of?
Well, first of all, it is amazing to be part of a small but very talented group of people. So many times I am astounded by the work those people are able to conjure up from their machines. But on a more personal level I am very proud of �having� my own end-boss. I think of all creatures inhabiting the world of Spellborn, this end-boss is a real Chris-thing and very recognizable for those who know my work. So keep your eyes on the lookout!