Hello everyone, my name is Mike - I'm the art director and managing partner at HighCraft Miniatures. Today I'd like to tell you a little bit about our work process, and how we’ve created our GROGS in particular :)

Grogs Invasion

I've always believed that the best beginning to any story is a conflict, a situation that needs to be resolved. Talking about Grogs creation, I wanted to start with a race that everyone knows and loves and create their archenemy. We all love the Dwarves in HighCraft: of course, I wish they had a worthy opponent! As everyone knows - the worst enemy is always the closest neighbor :)

That's how the idea of the two sides of the mountain came about, a neverending story about two eternal opponents, Dwarves and Grogs, who fight above and below the ground for the precious resources in its depths. It seems to me that the best LORE is a retelling of a simple and understandable story, territory wars have been around since the dawn of time.

At HighCraft we always start our first concept sketches with a naked figure. Why? Because we need to have an understanding of what sort of physique the characters have, how they are built, what poses they will be able to assume. Also, if the idea becomes popular, perhaps someone will want to buy the rights to this character, use them for a book (or a whole universe for example). In this case, it's a good idea to already have a prepared set of basic elements that can be documented and sold (sketches, T-pose, concept art of armor and environment, assets, which can immediately tell where and how the character exists). This will increase the value of your character to the potential buyer.

My main goal with any character design is to make it so that even in the most static, basic pose you can feel the life and nature of the character. In the case of Grogs, it is, of course, aggression and a willingness to engage in conflict. A character with confidence, broad shouldered, tightly built figure.

Once this stage is ready, I move on to personality traits, armor and weapon types. It is important to decide who they are going to be, their roles in the future squad, what they used to do before the conflict and how it affected them. It is important to be able to tell from a glance who you’re looking at without any comments or hints: a sentry guarding the borders or a warrior who is ready to fight in the heat of battle.

The next few weeks were all about creating these types and polishing work in Zbrush. We create a story for these little warriors, assign professions, virtues, character traits. It is important that anyone should be able to identify the character not only by details and elements, but also simply by the silhouette. Of course, I would like characters to tell their own story: this is why we’re picking the most interesting and characteristic poses.

After the work is finished the next stage is no less important - presentation! We try to present the characters using by the classic lighting standard to museum pieces and works of art: no haze or special effects, no distracting textures or decor. Maximum emphasis on the character and the story they’re telling! The final touch to the set is a unique custom-made clan identity: we want to give all our clients the feeling of a finished product and a finished story!

There's a special Early Bird offer going on right now where you can get 20 miniatures for just $9.

If you like Grogs or want to check out other characters we create at HighCraft we invite you to join our Patreon: HighCraft Miniatures. Feel free to shoot your questions and comments, I’ll be happy to answer!

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