Didrik Tollefsen
Award winning art director, digital artist, and
conceptual designer; his many projects include:
Age of Conan: Rise of the Godslayer; Age of Conan:
Hyborian Adventures; Dreamfall: The Longest
Journey; Anarchy Online: Shadowlands; and
Anarchy Online: The Notum Wars
Biography
Didrik Tollefsen was born in Oslo, Norway
on a hot midsummer's eve in 1971. He
grew up in a little village on the
countryside, with easy access to vast
forests, lakes and fjords. As a child, he
often explored this wilderness on
impossible quests, either butt naked in
mossy pine jungles, or up to his ears in
snow.
He also
appreciated many
hours of solitude
in his room;
daydreaming
about integrating
mythical
creatures, freaky
monsters and
mutated
abominations into
the wilds of his
environment.
The directional choices of Didrik's education
were greatly influenced by his parents. His
father (an art director and illustrator for a
Norwegian publisher) encouraged young
Didrik and his brother to draw and use his
drawing equipment.
"I think both my father and mother at some point
hated games, simply because of my total addiction.
Yet, they supported my dreams and thereby played an
important role in my choice of a career. They also
taught me about esthetics in art and design, and the
shallowness of pure inhibited regurgitation within trash
culture. Hence, bringing esthetics into the art of
creating games is incredibly important to me."
Didrik's formal art education focused on the
classical drawing techniques of rendering
shape and colors, combined with several
years of traditional sketching and drawing in
the style of realism. From there, he began
experimenting with various digital art
programs including Photoshop, which
significantly enhanced his understanding of
light and shadow, texture, design, and color.
"Doing a Conan game has been a dream since I
was a teenager and read the comics for the first
time. I've gotten to know some fantastic, extremely
talented people. And we are all doing our part in
something that is more than a massive multiplayer
online game - it's a living breathing, parallel
universe! Always changing - never the same - a
unique project."
Professional Experience
Didrik began his seventeen-year career
with Funcom in the early nineties, and his
current professional undertakings include
digital painting, designing, and art
directing. In 2003, he was presented with
the Outstanding Achievement in Art
Direction award for the Shadowlands
expansion to Anarchy Online.
Funcom is an award-winning developer of
electronic entertainment; in addition their
team also works with international
companies (such as Disney and Sony
Computer Entertainment) to develop
games (including Pocahontas, Casper, and
Speed Freaks).
"As an artist, I've very much enjoyed being a part of the digital revolution and seeing the birth of
so many great new tools and mediums, opening up endless new possibilities for human
creativity!
I've helped develop big and
small games on all kinds of
platforms over the years, but
most of the focus recently
has been on massive
multiplayer online games -
virtual worlds where
thousands of people can
meet up and go on
adventures together.
It's all been very exciting and I've had enough challenges for a lifetime!"
Read Didrik's full bio (PDF format).