First panel focuses on Diablo IV art. Personally I really like the new Diablo for its blend of realistic and stylised features (also called 'the Blizzard touch'). I'd like to apply these principles especially to my creature project, but also a tiny bit to my character as it's not fully realistic or stylised judging from the concept I'm working from.
Here are some of my outakes:
- When sculpting, start adding wear and tear from the edges.
The way artist worked in Zbrush seemed like he started from the edges to establish the final feel of the subtool he was working on at the time. What I liked about this workflow was how easy it was to tell materials apart with just its surface. For example, all leather assets had uniform polished edge that looked like worn out leather which sold it for me.
-Tell a story with sculpt details.
Artist showed a goblin that has went through some things and added scars that looked as if he was whipped in the past. I'll keep this advice in mind when adding "character" to my helmet character and my creature.
- Even if game is fairly realistic (New Diablo) there has to be the "Blizzard" style touch. For me, my assets are fairly realistic and I even plan on using hair cards but I want to keep my shapes flowy and loose (e.g. on the jacket) to keep the original painterly look of the concept.
- Colour coding for Substance Painter & Designer to promote non-destructive workflow.
- Well organised UV's.
In the feedback I received I've been criticized for my UV layout so seeing how it is done in a professional setting was very informative. I noticed that tiling was used as there were UV's overlapping outside of the texturing work space which is very efficient.
- No right or wrong ideas, but seek feedback on them
- Colour palettes are established by leads & directors
- Material break up should be emphasised
After this I reflected on my previous work and noticed there could be a lot of improvement made in terms of material break up. What I mean is keeping shape language in mind and choosing
- Start lighting with 3 point lighting - Standard advice but sometimes overlooked
- Emphasize material that is mostly visible throughout the game, to find out which one is it test the blockout with in-game camera and lighting
- There's more resolution in the mesh elements mostly seen in the game in the low poly model
- Leave small details for texturing since they won't be visible in game if sculpted. Also, testing small details is not destructable if done in Substance
- When painting, use shadow to outline forms first
- Establish lighting early on
- Practice painting on primitive shapes
- Embracing legacy of Diablo 2 while introducing a fresher, sleeker look for the game
- Respect the main design - Don't overdo new design
- Tons of research - Research everything in depth, small details matter
- Preparation work - very important
- To design a new ability animation artists lock down character poses and angles (vertical vs horizontal abilities) for certain character classes
- Very loose linework as it's not going to be visible in final concept
- A lot of iteration - A lot of going back and forth, often needs clarification for 3d team
- Concept is rarely final, there's a lot of collaboration and going back and forth
- A lot of focus on shapes, lighting, values and colour
- Play of dark and light should create a nice contrast so that shapes are readible especially since game is seen from isometric view
Second panel was prepared by the Overwatch art team
- Blockout takes about a day or two, main goal is to get the model in the game asap
- Next steps include making a rough high poly sculpt, polishing it, retopo with animators in mind
- Characters use same or very similar rig
- When working on hair sculpt aim for S curves and keep silhouette in mind
- New skins should use the same rig and read very similarly
- There are 4 different LODs in Overwatch (4k 3k 2k 1k )
- Visual effects also have LOD's (Interesting fact, for underperforming machines, glowing effects are removed)
- Blizzard has its own tool team, but artists also are capable of making their own tools for software of their choice. This gave me an idea of a few scripts I could write for e.g. 3ds max or zbrush
- Baking floaters - a less destructive way of baking normal map detail - needs to be researched
- 3/4 uv maps per character
- Some artists that don't care about the technical aspects when sculpting tend to use mudbox and not zbrush
Third panel was on evolution of Overwatch Art
- Retain values of strong silhouettes in Overwatch 2
- Retain iconic bright colour palette
- Fresh look
- Kept spirit
- Inspired by story, a lot of design decisions were made by reflecting on characters back story and overall lore, this is important and helps with immersion especially since Overwatch 2 is going to be more PvE & story based
- Moving away from retro design, move towards a sleeker techy look
- More diverse environment theming in terms of colour palette, lighting and shapes
- New shaders for skin, hair, the goal was to get closer to the look characters in Overwatch cinematics have
Then there was a talk about designers of World of Warcraft worlds and overall art of the game
- Design is strong if someone can recreate it
- Think of thumbnails as something a kid should be able to draw
- Concept first > 3ds max/maya >Photoshop/3d Coat/ Substance
- Enter contests and make props specific to games u apply for
- Wide range of assets aimed at position you want
- Do not replicate, make something new that could go into the game
- Study game artbooks (Mentioned Lumis, Dynamic Hands, Roughwork)
- It was very interesting to see artists working in Blizzard's own WoW engine and new tools they have that make world creation this much easier. Almost made me want to make environments. Almost.
And even more on Hearthstone and Diablo IV
- I really really like the direction Diablo took and for the first time I see myself making assets for this game, I will definitely experiment with this soon. The main inspiration were reneissance paintings I adore so it was breathtaking to see these masterful digital art pieces
- Show passion for game you want to work for
- They can teach tech, but train eye and traditional skills
Phew, that's a lot to take in at once! But to not let this knowledge get lost I'll be going back to this post and referring to it when deciding on my creature project concept, during production and of course during my Final Major Project.
I cerainly see how much I still have to learn and am grateful for being able to receive so much pro advice ^^
No comments:
Post a Comment