Welcome to our 3rd issue of the Intrepid Informer!
As indicated in our last issue, Gilbert Martinez is back to tell us more about the floating fortress that some of you may have already seen on the North American Beta server or the European Training Room. Indeed, if you have participated in one of our Issue 20 Beta sessions, you would have been able to head over to Independence Port to talk to Admiral Sutter of the U.S. Navy in order to investigate an intriguing inter-dimensional rift signature originating off the coast of Paragon City in the Atlantic Ocean.
Before you launch yourselves into yet another mysterious investigation, make sure you delve further into how the flotilla came to existence to better appreciate this brand new environment from our amazing art team!
The Floating Fortress Art Process: Part 2 by Gilbert Martinez
Hi folks,
Last time I talked about how the Floating Fortress exterior art for Issue 20 translated from a 2D design idea into the final 3D location you see in the game. This week I'd like to focus on the phases the interior ship map went through to become final art.
The image below is a three-quarter, top-down view of Senior Environment Artist Ryan Roth's "greybox" layout for the two-level ship interior required by this mission. A greybox is like a 3D sketch, a fairly simple mockup of a gameplay space created in a 3D modeling package that allows artists to iterate quickly with the design team on the size of areas and placement of key components such as doorways , stairways, and hallways. They were able to run around in it in game and make sure the spaces were big enough, all the elements needed were represented, and navigation would make sense for players. Ryan gathered photo reference of military ship interiors to help guide the look and feel of these areas so that players will feel like they are running around inside a military ship. When the Art and Design teams felt like the greybox met the criteria for a fun and exciting mission space it was locked down so that Ryan could move onto the next step.
Ryan's next step was to replace the 3D greybox with more refined geometry and add all the details you would expect to find on a ship such as overhanging pipes, railings, doors, and support columns. The image below is the final geometry pass for the ship interior. You can also see that he placed lights in the game editor to create areas of light and shadow
After Ryan completed all of the modeling work his next step was to paint all of the textures and finalize the lighting. This is the part of 3D art that requires the most time and skill since this is when artists adds all of the detail work to the game assets. You can see the final results below. You'll note the subtle pattern on the ground which takes advantage of normal maps that make it look bumpy. You'll also notice the effects of our screen-based ambient occlusion technology that adds subtle darkening wherever two surfaces meet. It is especially noticeable on the ceiling. It adds that extra little bit of realism without artists having to paint it in by hand. A big shout-out goes to our talented rendering engineers for adding this feature to our game.
And that concludes part two of the Floating Fortress art process from our end of things. At this point, it's up to you as players to go in and provide the finishing step: Have fun! Thanks for reading.
Welcome to our 3rd issue of the Intrepid Informer!
As indicated in our last issue, Gilbert Martinez is back to tell us more about the floating fortress that some of you may have already seen on the North American Beta server or the European Training Room. Indeed, if you have participated in one of our Issue 20 Beta sessions, you would have been able to head over to Independence Port to talk to Admiral Sutter of the U.S. Navy in order to investigate an intriguing inter-dimensional rift signature originating off the coast of Paragon City in the Atlantic Ocean.
Before you launch yourselves into yet another mysterious investigation, make sure you delve further into how the flotilla came to existence to better appreciate this brand new environment from our amazing art team!
The Floating Fortress Art Process: Part 2
by Gilbert Martinez
Hi folks,
Last time I talked about how the Floating Fortress exterior art for Issue 20 translated from a 2D design idea into the final 3D location you see in the game. This week I'd like to focus on the phases the interior ship map went through to become final art.
The image below is a three-quarter, top-down view of Senior Environment Artist Ryan Roth's "greybox" layout for the two-level ship interior required by this mission. A greybox is like a 3D sketch, a fairly simple mockup of a gameplay space created in a 3D modeling package that allows artists to iterate quickly with the design team on the size of areas and placement of key components such as doorways , stairways, and hallways. They were able to run around in it in game and make sure the spaces were big enough, all the elements needed were represented, and navigation would make sense for players. Ryan gathered photo reference of military ship interiors to help guide the look and feel of these areas so that players will feel like they are running around inside a military ship. When the Art and Design teams felt like the greybox met the criteria for a fun and exciting mission space it was locked down so that Ryan could move onto the next step.
Ryan's next step was to replace the 3D greybox with more refined geometry and add all the details you would expect to find on a ship such as overhanging pipes, railings, doors, and support columns. The image below is the final geometry pass for the ship interior. You can also see that he placed lights in the game editor to create areas of light and shadow
After Ryan completed all of the modeling work his next step was to paint all of the textures and finalize the lighting. This is the part of 3D art that requires the most time and skill since this is when artists adds all of the detail work to the game assets. You can see the final results below. You'll note the subtle pattern on the ground which takes advantage of normal maps that make it look bumpy. You'll also notice the effects of our screen-based ambient occlusion technology that adds subtle darkening wherever two surfaces meet. It is especially noticeable on the ceiling. It adds that extra little bit of realism without artists having to paint it in by hand. A big shout-out goes to our talented rendering engineers for adding this feature to our game.
And that concludes part two of the Floating Fortress art process from our end of things. At this point, it's up to you as players to go in and provide the finishing step: Have fun! Thanks for reading.
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