Skuther [Cry3]

[Neolight]

Hey level artists!

Haven't posted here in almost a year. After wrapping up my previous project, I went off to Insomniac Games for the summer and actually got to contribute a bunch of art to Ratchet and Clank. In short, it was an awesome experience. Now i'm back in school and facing down my last semester which ends in may. After that, I'm kicked out into the world for good. I think this is the perfect reason for this next environment project to be the big one.

The Challenge:

Use Cry engine to create a cinematic wide shot of some fantastical world. Elements in the scene should be tied together by a sense of narrative and composed to invoke vastness and depth. I also wanna hit some dramatic lighting (something like golden hour early morning) and implement it accurately. I've already got a head start on previs and painted/drew up some stuff you can find below.

Concept Art / Flavor Text:

We enter the world of Galestorm, the setting of a high flying, hack-n-slash, Open-World RPG with a lot of platforming elements. The basic aesthetic theme of the world is that the sky is the ocean. Towns and cities are built on tall sky scrapers of rock and give off a coastal feel. The world's flora is derived from martime shape language (coral reefs), and airships are the main form of transportation.

See Large Version


In particular we've just journeyed to this town called Skuther, once ruthless barbarian territory now tamed by the loss of their powerful warleader - Ragnar. The settlement and it's allied neighbors have hung up the swords and shields of their plundering days for the harvest and trade of their most valuable rescoruce, Skyfish. It's been three years since they've turned docile and as naieve foreign traders grant them wealth a cold revenge is planned in secret. The time for vengeance is near.



The town itself is influenced by How to Train your Dragon's norse architecture and Final Fantasy 4's airship filled ambience. I'm running with architecture mostly described in the bottom row of this next sheet.



Here's some of the other compositions that I visited before painting the final shot above.



And finally, a mood sheet to keep everything in check.



I'm not experienced in cry engine at all, so this should be a real interesting battle. I'll have a blockout in engine and posted today or tommorow. Any thoughts on design or ideas are really appreciated. You guys were an awesome rescource to me last year, I'm looking forward to this one.

So again, let's do it.

[WarrenM]

Um ... fuck yes? This looks AMAZING. Love the concepts and the scene as a whole. That warm lighting is just such a happy thing. Go go go!

[AlexG]

Yes. This will be awesome.

[DevinSherry]

Hey Neolight,

At your time at Insomniac Games, what were some of the things that you learned about their processes when creating game levels? Do you know what they look for when hiring level designers or world builders by any chance? I really love Insomniac Games and have been a huge fan of the Ratchet and Clank series; knowing how they work would be very educational. Thanks in advance!

[White Paper Games]

Hey, I'm artist but these images look very sweet indeed. You seem to have nailed a very distinct, unique visual style. After your work experience you'll be well set for the game industry. Good luck to you

[Neolight]

Hail level designers!

It's been a few weeks since I opened the thread (school started up again) so I couldn't do the cool "update every few days thing"
But here I am, updaitng you now, with the first in-engine screen grabs.

I'll type forum responses below the images.



Here's the breakdown of the house as of now.



DevinSherry > Hmm, this is definetly a pretty big question. From my experience, level design process at insomniac is extremely iterative (no surprise there) and their efforts would start pretty much in unison with level artists. I forget exactly what the order was, but I think the art team starting making these little movies of each level to refine and define art style while the designers blocked out their concepts with primitives.

When I was tasked with a level, I was handed a very sparse world file with plain rectangular platforms etc. No art. The gameplay was largely figured out at that time though and it was possible to play through it. I built my level ontop of these primitive guides while the level designers would continue to make adjustments in their own layers.

Where an adjustment was made, I would have to follow in my art layer. Often times environment artists would be in the office the longest out of anyone on the art staff, constantly following along with the game designer's iterations... but this was largely due to the fact that Ratchet and Clank all 4 one's camera was on a pre-set track, and a small change to the level / camera often meant that things needed to be re-framed in order to look good. Near the end of the summer the lead environment guy passed out on his lawn - the dude was working nonstop. That's Dedication!

Snakos > Thanks! Go forth and create something!

White Paper > Thanks alot man!

AlexG > Thanks dude, I'll make sure it is!

Warren > Hey again sir! This shit needs to be done in march so no time to screw around! Gogogogogogo

[Neolight]

quick rock mesh added to get a rough sense of composition and what other kinds of modular rocks I might need to make the scene cozy.

[macattackk]

very cool. its nice to see a more stylized piece in cryengine rather than the typical realistic outdoor scene youd normally see. reminding me of wind waker a little bit.

[Duruk]

Fantastic art style. The environment reminds me of Thousand Needles from World of Warcraft

[sarge mat]

Yeah love this it looks great!

[Neolight]

The next update:

[Neolight]

Getting closer

[sarge mat]

Cry dev just posted about this on their facebook page

[xpldrox]

fantastic work from the concept to production, congrats (:

[keithgarry]

Awesome Neolight. Every entree of yours is exceptional and outstanding


PS. To newcomers: Dont forget to checkout the challenge contest going on as well!
http://worldofleveldesign.com/catego...final-work.php