The web team for the Lord of the Rings Online has published another developer diary; this entry details the creation of some pivotal environmental objects in Middle-earth. Dan Haard, an environment artist on the team, takes you through the process of crafting the storied mountains of Ered Luin. A snippet is below:

When tasked with creating environment assets for Ered Luin, I first stepped back and looked at the overall ambiance the team wanted to achieve in this area. My goal as an environment artist is to create world assets that not only work consistently with each other, but unify to give the place a distinct visual meaning; a story that even the rocks will tell. In the case of the highlands of Ered Luin, we wanted to tell a story of a frozen wild; a place set apart, as the natural boundary it is, from the rest of Middle-earth.

Click here for the entire entry.