General:Creating ESO: Clannfear

The original article was posted here on September 26, 2013.

Get a closer look at the creation of the clannfear, an aggressive Daedra you'll encounter in The Elder Scrolls Online.

In ESO, you'll come across creatures that will be familiar if you've played previous games in The Elder Scrolls series, like today's featured enemy: the clannfear. As with all the creatures in ESO that make appearances in earlier TES games, we've done lots of work to make the clannfear feel at home in Second Era Tamriel. Read on to learn more about how we brought this feisty Daedra into the game.

In the concept stage, we examined the previous versions of the clannfear closely. It's a saurian Daedra reminiscent of a velociraptor. Several of our concept artists created preliminary sketches for ESO’s clannfear, each putting a unique spin on the creature, and it was difficult to choose a direction from so many interesting options. In the end, ESO's clannfear features a smaller frill, plated spikes along its spine, and the dangerous tri-tipped tail you can see below.

Animation and sound were especially important for the clannfear. Though it looks a bit like a dinosaur, it's important to remember that it's not just an animal—it's a Daedra, straight from the planes of Oblivion. It's a quick, deadly enemy, and its animations reflect those qualities. Our animators researched several video sources when creating the animations, focusing especially on creating predatory and birdlike movements. Though it is brutish, we also wanted to give it a sense of intelligence and cunning; you can imagine clannfears working together to bring down tough foes.

The clannfear's audio, like its animations, features avian touches, but modified bird samples wouldn't be distinct enough for a creature from another plane. Our Audio Engineers added distorted layers of horse and other farm animal sounds to give its cries a unique texture. When the clannfear is idle, you'll hear it as it grunts and snorts, searching for its next kill.

We had lots of fun taking on the challenge of bringing the lively clannfear into ESO, and we hope you'll enjoy finding and fighting it in your adventures in Tamriel. Until then, check out this short video to get a look at the clannfear in action:

(A video is embedded in the article. The video can be viewed here.)