A recent illustration graduate from California State University, Guild Wars fan Changinghand has created many unique works of art while patiently awaiting the launch of Guild Wars 2. Check out his DeviantArt page to see more of his work. Note: The piece below is animated in the Guild Wars 2 style, so please do follow this link to see it after you’ve read up on this amazing artist! 

About Changinghand:

I’m currently looking for work and hope to scrape a living as an artist, because that’s how I choose to live my life.

What first interested you in Guild Wars/Guild Wars 2? 

It was the concept art featured on the loading screens of the first GW that got me interested in the game(s). I was never really into MMO’s before, but the art and lore of the series really pulled me in. 

I see that you work in both traditional and digital media. Do you prefer one over the other? Why? 

Both have their pros and cons, though I prefer working digitally. The medium allows me to be pretty expressive and experimental – cost and storage is also a really big bonus too. On the other hand, you sacrifice the surface textures and finish you get with traditional mediums.

Tell me about the process behind Incinerating Heat. What was challenging to you? What was natural?

This piece was mainly taking a finished image that I had painted in layers, and animating them individually to create a mock “skill” animation. 

Once everything was animated, custom sounds were made through layering 5-6 pre-recorded SFX (BBC and Video Copilot sound packs) that had been edited in pitch & tempo by myself. This was to add my own personal touch to the sounds and make them as original and unrecognizable from their source files as possible. More importantly, I also wanted a level of quality in the audio to match that of the animation – something I can’t do since I don’t have proper recording equipment. 

The most challenging part was probably creating the SFX. I had a good idea of how everything would sound, but no studio to put it together. So it was tricky taking individual sounds like rocks crumbling, a church bell, a metal pan hit, and a bassy punch; warping them individually in tempo and speed, and then mixing them together to get sounds like the staff slamming into the rocks. 

The most natural part was probably the animation itself. I had worked with After Effects before, so this was more of a time investment and making sure everything matched up.

What aspect of Guild Wars 2 are you most looking forward to?

The customization of characters. Looking forward to working out the stats and gear of my characters, so I can go rampaging through the world and storyline.