Concept Art Collection 2023

"Fafnesbane" is my graduation project for the final year at New3dge Concept Art. As a mythology and folklore enthusiast, I wanted to return to the source material but give it a darker and eldritch twist. It it also from this legend that my name, Regin, stems from.

Below, you can see the carving on which this whole project is based. It is one of the most famous dragon-slaying legends across Scandinavia and Germany—the story of Sigurðr Fafnesbane.

"Sigurðr embarks on a quest assigned by his mentor Reginn to slay the fearsome dragon Fafner and claim his treasure. As he slays the dragon, Sigurðr tastes it’s blood, gaining the ability to understand the language of birds, who warn him of Reginn's treachery. In a twist of fate, Sigurðr kills Reginn and takes possession of Fafner's cursed hoard."

Sigurðr, Fafnesbane

Sigurðr is the character you play as in the game. In the beginning of the story he earns the title of "Fafnesbane" by defeating the dragon Fafner and claiming its treasure. However, the possession of this valuable hoard sets in motion a series of trials and tribulations formed by the presence of the cursed gold, leading to Sigurðr's inevitable downfall.

It should be clear that Sigurðr is, in a way, just a man. He doesn't have any supernatural healing and when he takes a beating he has to fight to get back up again. Therefore I thought it could be interesting to have a mechanic to show his healing process.

Reginn, The Kingsmith

Reginn is the brother of Fafner and it was important to establish a visual connection between the two characters to hint at their relationship. To achieve this, I fixed a consistent design language for the dvergr (dwarves) from the beginning. This created a clear and identifiable connection between Reginn and Fafner, underscoring their shared ancestry.

In the original source books it is mentioned that the dvergr had pitch-black skin, created from the maggots that crawled through the flesh of the giant Ymer. There also isn't a clear distinction between elves and dwarves.

Fafner, The Golden Son

Blinded by greed, Fafner kills his and Reginn's father and takes possession of the cursed gold of Nibelungen. To keep the gold safe he transforms himself into a dragon and hid in the darkest parts of Gnitahed. Only leaving his golden den to drink water from the nearby lake.

Illustration

Highlighting Sigurðr's primary strategy of hiding was crucial in his battle against Fafner. In the legend, he dug two pits—one for his concealment and another to divert the dragon's blood. However, directly implementing this in gameplay wouldn't be engaging enough. To address this, I opted to enhance Fafner's design by making him blind, "blind with greed". This adjustment adds a higher level of challenge for players, as they must carefully navigate the environment and avoid anything that might attract the dragon's attention.

Massive thanks to Simon Tosovsky and Choro Choi for being Art Consultants, and Nils Carstens for being the Art Director on this project. This project wouldn't have been the same without your feedback.

Below are the concept art I've created for The City of Karnak, one of the yearly project at New3dge, laying the foundation for the Game Art and CGI students, whose works are showcased in the subsequent slider presentation, bringing the initial concepts to life.

The story revolves around Haythem and Ahmer as they venture into the tomb of Saadah II, the Forsaken King.

My responsibility was to design the enemies you encounter in the depths of the sandy tomb and create the project's poster. The challenge was to create distinct adversaries that went beyond typical mummies or generic undead skeletons, while still capturing the essence of these themes.

Concept Art Team:

Jérôme Bianchi - Anne Fichet - Céline Cariou - Noel Martins - Regin Wellander

Game Art Team:

Vincent D'Andrea - Moheb Naguib - Jean-Jacques Dumas - Ludivine Bellot - Armande Lecointre - Maxime Leroy -  Estelle Panel - Benjamin Kretschmann

VFX Team:

Alex Mazire - Guoliang Qin - Hugo Trenoras - Enguerrand Plouviez - Crystal de Benedetti - Iona Goncalves - Julien Doyen - Manel Allali

Art Consultants: Jens Claessens - Mike Azevedo

Art Director: Timo Peter

Creative Director: Aurélien Fournier   

Tower 42 is another game project I worked on here at New3dge. After the initial concept art phase was over I was approached by the game art team to design an alien for a specific scene that hadn't originally been planned, and I gladly accepted.

In this project we follow a group of firefighters battling to safeguard humanity's survival on the volcanic planet Agni.

The real challenge was to develop a fauna that would fit with the flora that had already been developed. I figured that the best way to go about it was researching gastropods and other more basic lifeforms that already survive some of the harshest conditions on Earth.

Concept Art Team: 

Sara Hermellin - Axel Roux - Samuel Lauro - Unai Lodi - Regin Wellander

Game Art Team: 

Valentin Lefèvre - Hippolyte Gely - Yohan Houel - Antoine Josephine - Oscar Chalaux - Mathis Boumedjmadjen - Walid Miled

Art Director: Timo Peter

Creative Director: Aurélien Fournier   

                 Personal Portfolio

We got tasked by Wouter Gort to create a new version of Titanfall where we had to keep similar game mechanics but remade in our style as well as genre of choice. 

I'm a massive fan the Witcher books and games, so when we had a course on this subject with Sean Vo I was ecstatic. The task was to create a keyframe for a version of The Witcher that took place in another culture. 

                                        SPECIAL THANKS

First and foremost, I want to express my sincere appreciation to Aurélien Fournier and Fabien Roumazeilles for creating this incredible program and for giving me the opportunity to join two years ago. Aurélien's dedication to these courses is truly admirable. I also want to thank the entire New3dge team for their support.

I would like to extend a special thank you to all the instructors and speakers who have been instrumental in developing our artistic skills over the past two years. Their guidance has been invaluable.

I'm extremely grateful for all the wonderful artists I've had the honor of calling my classmates these past years. The friendships we've built together is something I'll cherish for the rest of my life! 

Last of all I want to give special thanks to my dad Carl Wellander for inspiring me to who has inspired me to pursue art from a young age. Without him I would never have discovered my love for fantasy and art. 

Thanks for your time!

Artstation: https://www.artstation.com/reginwellander

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/regin-w-a67bb0141/ 

Email: [email protected]