STUDIO SECRETS FOR STUNNING GAME ART TECHNIQUES
03
STYLE DEVELOPMENT
While working on the scenario and thinking about characters, we were
deciding about the overall feeling at the same time. We were gathering visual
references for the project; we set the key features and key moments. The
important thing was to keep close with the game style, but still bring something
fresh. The game itself is pretty dark and dirty, but also looks like it was drawn with
charcoal and pencil and we liked that. At the end we simply combined the raw and
dirty sketches style and drawing vision of the game world.05
3D STAGE
Concept art is a base – it helps to create a model of everything, but it’s
much more complicated than it sounds. The modeling process starts with a very
simple sculpture, but finishes with the most complicated part, such as face and its
mimic (this is a fun part because we often reflect ourselves). It involves a lot of
technology and complex processing to achieve what we see in the final image so
we may need another article to describe the details.07
SUMMING UP
To deliver the highest quality product – a game trailer in this case –
we need creative and open-minded people willing to work together.
Regardless of the role the artists have, the contribution of each of them has a
huge influence on the final delivery. The conflict-free approach and clear
communication significantly increases the efficiency. What’s most important is
the common commitment builds a success of all. To sum everything up we
created a video based on hand-drawn style, making the trailer fit both the
atmosphere of the game as well as the feeling of a child’s world.04
CONCEPT ART
Having the final style vision of the story and character description
and first sketches we could create concepts. We don’t actually have a stiff
pipeline for concept artists, they create very individually and what matters to
us is a final effect. This is actually one the most important stages of the
production – concept artists transfer the design vision into clear graphics,
which are the basis for the subsequent stages.06
DETAILS
3D model is just a block, to make it look real we need to dress it up.
We need [to add] colours, factures and textures to that. As mentioned before,
we wanted a drawn, but not [a] cartoonish style and we focused on that while
preparing the elements. Concept artists and illustrators are the most creative
team members. They determine the artistic direction of the project and
visually guide every stage of the production.