This year's BlizzCon StarCraft II Art panel (also known as The Making of ModCraft II: The Tinkering) featured an army of StarCraft II artists, including Senior Art Director Samwise Didier, Lead Artist Allen Dilling, and Senior 3D Artists Jay Hathaway and Brian Sousa. The panelists presented audience members with over 70 pieces of art, delving into their design philosophies and highlighting several unit models, concept illustrations, character animations, portraits, and environments featured in Blizzard Entertainment's upcoming custom maps: Aiur Chef, Left 2 Die, and Blizzard DOTA.

Below are just a few examples of what the team showcased:


Left 2 Die

 

Examples of a "zombiefied" Baneling and Brutalisk. Many of these units were rebuilt from the ground up just for this custom map.


Blizzard DOTA



Two variants of an Abomination in themed armor.

 

Meet the Marauder King. This unit is based on the Mountain King from Warcraft III and the Marauder from StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty.

 

 

Like the Marauder King, the Blademaster in Blizzard DOTA draws upon themes from Warcraft III and StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty.

 

Sylvanas Windrunner vs. Sylvanas, the Banshee Queen.

 

 

Blademaster, Abomination, and Murky Hero Portraits.

 

Aiur Chef



Zealot and cooking utensils.

 

Aiur Chef props and doodads.

 

Powerful chefs deserve powerful cooking devices.

Public Service Announcement



Brian Sousa is not Dustin Browder.

 

After the presentation portion of the panel, it moved on to an open Q&A session before ending on a special note, with the revelation of several pieces of concept art from the upcoming StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm expansion (which we'll keep under wraps for now).