also in charge of concept art. Both Ueda, a series veteran who had worked on Zwei and Saga, and Iwade created dragon designs which were rejected by Mukaiyama as too similar to dragons from earlier games. This resulted in Nakayama being brought in, and tensions developed between Iwade and Mukaiyama over the rejected proposals. Yoshida's directive from Mukaiyama was to "make a great picture", managing to work with Iwade to bring the art design back on track. Yoshida noted that the Xbox's improved hardware meant the hand-tailored design forced by the Saturn's limitations became unnecessary; this, together with the increased team size for Orta, had changed the graphics development process enough that some of the series' original atmosphere was lost. In a separate interview, Mukaiyama said the team wasn't overly concerned with preserving that continuity, viewing Orta as a fresh start for the series; the new hardware allowed for previously impossible things, such as rendering real-time sandstorms. There was a prolonged trial-and-error period when creating character models, particularly with Orta and how her clothing and hair moved. Maquettes were created for the dragons, both during their early design phases and for their final designs. The maquettes gave the modeling and movie teams a solid reference for character models. The graphics, handled by Atsu and Iwade, were designed to be cutting edge for the time. Autodesk 3ds Max was used to configure real-time textures, a decision informed by its ease of use and the team being familiar with it from earlier Dreamcast and Xbox projects. The animation was created using Softimage 3D. Orta's model was created in Metasequoia, while all the other characters and creatures used 3ds Max and Softimage 3D. Rather than using motion capture, the models were animated by hand based on each character and creature's appearance. Several programs were created by Smilebit for managing the graphics: an event editor handled story cutscenes, a particle editor managed in-game special effects such as dragon fire and explosions, a motion design application to calculate and manage model movement, and an after-effects tool to manage and layer effects. Multiple layers for in-game texture maps and lighting were made possible using the Xbox software, with particular care taken to make the sky domes appear realistic. The CGI opening and story cutscenes, together with CGI promotional materials, were created by Buildup Entertainment. The opening cinematic, showing the dragon attack that frees Orta, was the