DEV DIARIES
Darkwatch - Environments - 09/21/05
My name is Ivan Kaplow, and I'm a 3d artist working on environments. During the development of our environments for the game we've got a few different responsibilities. I'm mainly an artist, but I also have to spend a lot of time solving problems and making optimizations as they relate to art to assure that our game can run fast and still keep its visual quality. During the first phase of level production the concept artists will generate a series of drawings, and paintings that can range from a general mood and color scheme, to very detailed blueprints of architectural elements within a scene. This helps me in my job because it establishes the goals of what I need to achieve when I translate their work into 3d. The other department I work closely with in the beginning and throughout the entire production of an environment is the game design team. In the early stages, I will usually be given low res geometry that has been laid out and thoroughly tested with our A.I. to assure that the game play is fun and ready to go. Once I've gotten these hand offs from concept and game design, its time for me to get to work.
So... my job is to tutn the concept art into 3d spaces without compromising the game design or the art direction. Since much of what I do involves the environment of the game, my job is to create the terrain, architecture for both interior and exterior spaces, foliage, trees, and basically anything else that I would need to 'dress the set', so to speak. I make sure that the dirt looks like dirt, metal like metal, wood like wood, glass like glass and so on. Once the environment is fleshed out there's a lot of going back and forth from Maya where our assets are created, and then looking at the art in the actual game. I'm constantly working closely with the design team and concept team as we'll sometimes find that what may have worked in the initial paintings or drawings may not translate to good game play. This is when I'll usually need to come up with creative solutions that maintain the vision laid out by the art direction, and also satisfy the playable experience. Another important thing is adding detail to the level. Once I'm in the interactive space, I'll always find things that need to be touched on to make the players experience in the space more believable. Aside from creating architectural structures, and interior spaces we'll need, I'll also go through and add puddles, cracks, dirt, grass, and whatever other little obscurities I can think of to make the space more believable. When the space is modeled out and everything is textured, I'll set up some lighting and fog to enhance the mood of the space. I enjoy this part the most, because I think the lighting is probably one of the most important things in bringing the space to life. It can make or break the final product, as it has an effect on the artistic vision as well as the playable experience. Finally, once the art is set, we'll run through it and see where optimizations might need to be made to enhance performance and fix any bugs that may have come up along the way.
In summary, I'd have to say that a day in the life of a 3d environment artist consists of about 50% art and 50% problem solving. But I like to think of it as making shapes and coloring them in.
Ivan Kaplow
Artist
High Moon Studios
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Darkwatch - Environments - 09/21/05
My name is Ivan Kaplow, and I'm a 3d artist working on environments. During the development of our environments for the game we've got a few different responsibilities. I'm mainly an artist, but I also have to spend a lot of time solving problems and making optimizations as they relate to art to assure that our game can run fast and still keep its visual quality. During the first phase of level production the concept artists will generate a series of drawings, and paintings that can range from a general mood and color scheme, to very detailed blueprints of architectural elements within a scene. This helps me in my job because it establishes the goals of what I need to achieve when I translate their work into 3d. The other department I work closely with in the beginning and throughout the entire production of an environment is the game design team. In the early stages, I will usually be given low res geometry that has been laid out and thoroughly tested with our A.I. to assure that the game play is fun and ready to go. Once I've gotten these hand offs from concept and game design, its time for me to get to work.
So... my job is to tutn the concept art into 3d spaces without compromising the game design or the art direction. Since much of what I do involves the environment of the game, my job is to create the terrain, architecture for both interior and exterior spaces, foliage, trees, and basically anything else that I would need to 'dress the set', so to speak. I make sure that the dirt looks like dirt, metal like metal, wood like wood, glass like glass and so on. Once the environment is fleshed out there's a lot of going back and forth from Maya where our assets are created, and then looking at the art in the actual game. I'm constantly working closely with the design team and concept team as we'll sometimes find that what may have worked in the initial paintings or drawings may not translate to good game play. This is when I'll usually need to come up with creative solutions that maintain the vision laid out by the art direction, and also satisfy the playable experience. Another important thing is adding detail to the level. Once I'm in the interactive space, I'll always find things that need to be touched on to make the players experience in the space more believable. Aside from creating architectural structures, and interior spaces we'll need, I'll also go through and add puddles, cracks, dirt, grass, and whatever other little obscurities I can think of to make the space more believable. When the space is modeled out and everything is textured, I'll set up some lighting and fog to enhance the mood of the space. I enjoy this part the most, because I think the lighting is probably one of the most important things in bringing the space to life. It can make or break the final product, as it has an effect on the artistic vision as well as the playable experience. Finally, once the art is set, we'll run through it and see where optimizations might need to be made to enhance performance and fix any bugs that may have come up along the way.
In summary, I'd have to say that a day in the life of a 3d environment artist consists of about 50% art and 50% problem solving. But I like to think of it as making shapes and coloring them in.
Ivan Kaplow
Artist
High Moon Studios
Back to Dev Diaries