Dragon Age 3: Inquisition concept art shown off

At the Bradford Animation Festival, BioWare art and animation director Neil Thompson showed off some new concept artwork for Dragon Age 3, which he used to explain how video game art has progressed over time.

“That is Dragon Age: Inquisition,” he said (via Eurogamer). “It's the first time anyone has seen a frame of it outside BioWare studios.”

Eurogamer had originally called the image a screenshot from the game, but on the forums, BioWare's Chris Priestly confirmed it's just concept art. When asked if he had a hi-res image of the artwork, Priestly said only Neil had the power to release it.

At the event, however, Thompson praised the Frostbite engine, which is being used for Dragon Age 3.

“Obviously Frostbite is the Battlefield engine built by DICE. It's a beautiful, beautiful engine. And what we've found is an improvement with DA3, is the artists who were really battling with the Eclipse engine have just embraced Frostbite. The work they're doing now is stunning," he said.

“I think the screenshot I showed earlier is pretty stunning. That's unusual for pre-production. Usually you don't get to that kind of quality until a week before gold master.”

He concluded: “It makes my job easier because then it's all about discussing the aesthetic and what you want to achieve. When you're a character artist or an environment artist you're focusing on a small aspect of the greater whole of the game. As an art director you're concerned about the whole, the frame and everything it contains and how everything sits and the consistency. An engine like Frostbite allows you to focus more on that rather than the technological challenges of just getting the damn thing to run.”

Dragon Age 3: Inquisition was officially announced in September and is expected to release in 2013; however, the platforms have not yet been announced.