Except for a few additional functionsThe power armor from the Fallout series is extremely closely based on its prototype from the games. However, it could have looked completely different — according to production designer Howard Cummings, Bethesda never insisted on maintaining an exact resemblance to the games.
«They didn’t say: «You have to play the game». They never said that. They said: «Show us how you think it should be».
Cummings didn’t know much about the Fallout games when he started working on the series, but after reading the script and studying the series, he just loved it and the team decided to recreate everything as accurately as possible.
«It was very early on, Bethesda didn’t know what we were doing yet, so they didn’t share assets with me». When they later showed Todd Howard and the other producers what they were working on, the response was: «Oh, you’re making a game».
Working with Bethesda was the opposite of his experience in production, when the owner of the source material insisted on approving every detail. «I started talking to them, not the other way around,» says Cummings, who knew that game fans would be very picky.
The power armor was initially modeled by concept artist Thang Le, and the designs were sent to a company called Legacy Effects, which has produced many famous sets of on-screen armor, including Iron Man’s costumes for Marvel movies.
Howard Cummings also explained the changes in the use and structure of the Pip Boy, a device worn by characters in the Fallout games and series. According to him, it was necessary to reduce the size of these devices compared to how big they are in the games.
«So I talked to Todd Howard about it, I said: «You know we’re shrinking the Pip-Boy?» And he said: «The Pip-Boy is big in the game because you have to play with its screen. Pip-Boy should be smaller». And then we had Ella Purnell, a frail girl with tiny wrists».
Bethesda wanted Pip-Boy to actually work. So the set designers attached a phone to him.
«So when they use it, you see it, it’s not replaced in post-production, we actually did all that».
Sources: PC Gamer, GamesRadar