The story of a dog. Creating a character for the new game "Evolution: Battle for Utopia"
Each game, whether it is a small indie project or a global AAA class game, begins with pre-production. This, if you did not know, is a troubled time, when developers are trying to understand what kind of game they are going to do. Being an artist, I really love this stage of development, since it was during this period that the process had not yet gotten into track, there was no exhausting routine, and you could be creative from the heart.
Most of the pre-idea ideas are sent to the basket, but even in the midst of this stream, you can sometimes catch something valuable that eventually ends up in the project and comes to life in the game. Actually, this is the case in this article. I divided it into several chronological stages so that you understand that the development process is “smeared out” in time and some tasks do not have a clear time frame.
So…
Postapocalypse Pets
')
Since I was appointed as the lead artist on the Evolution project, in July 2012 I was given the task to draw the very first promoart for a future game - a quality poster, usually with game characters. Here you need to understand that the pictures taken during the pre-production (when it’s still not at all clear what the game will be about) are usually just a search for some general ideas in terms of the visual embodiment of the game - design, atmosphere, some basic things that would allow a better idea of ​​what the game should be in the end. Therefore, at the very first promoart it was necessary to portray a few simple things:
There were no frames and restrictions at that time, and I was free to draw everything that came into my head. But it was necessary to do everything quickly and efficiently, while guided by those few points that I listed above.
Creation of characters is an interesting process in itself, and it’s really fun to create heroes for a new project. The result was this picture:
Since I am self-taught, for me, every picture is a way not only to make an interesting art, but also, as they say, “to pump skills”. In this picture, I was mastering new photoshop brushes to paint all kinds of greenery - trees, bushes, leaves, flowers, bindweed, etc.
I will not describe in detail the process of drawing (this is a separate and very extensive topic). I will tell you about only one element of this picture - about the dog.
The dog came out of nowhere. Tasks for it was not. But I knew that we would have pets in the game. In order to dilute the brutality of the heroes and the general gloom of the post-apocalypse, I decided to add some “nyashny” and “mimimish” element to the picture. Therefore, I immediately planned that I would draw some small robot.
Another thing is that you could draw a million robots, of any shapes and proportions. I was inclined to make a pet based on a real animal, since players usually perceive “unknown crap” badly. So, thinking about the future design of the pet, I turned to my girlfriend:
- Here it is necessary to draw a pet. Whom do you think?
“The dog,” she answered without thinking.
Why not a cat - I do not know. Seals at that time were very popular on the Internet. Perhaps my girlfriend is a “dog person” (a person who loves dogs more than cats). I liked the idea, and I decided to design a little dog. Mentally, I christened her Claudi, in honor of my own dog.
So, I started designing a new, “fun” character. Since, in the story of the game, technology of earthlings who arrived on Utopia must be advanced, it was necessary to make the dog high-tech. By the way, in the game "Territory-2", on which I once worked, there was also a robo-dog, but, frankly, it was not very pleasant:
I quickly sketched a couple of concepts, not bothering with the technique and quality of rendering, just to understand which way to go. It was obvious that it was necessary to make streamlined shapes and light elements, because now it is an archetypical sign of high technology.
When you make up a character, you need to think not only about the overall design, but also about some kind of basic functionality, so that you can believe in your imagination. Therefore, while working, I try to think about what works and how (although, without going into details, since the time for game artists is always limited). For example, I immediately decided to make a little dog on my head a screen for eyes and nose. It is the screen, and not, say, stationary eyepiece-lenses. Why? Because I wanted to on the screen, Claudy could show some kind of emotion. Plus, by the time the idea to make her two basic state - rest and aggression. Their indicator was two colors - blue (peace) and red (aggression).
I developed a general design very quickly, trying to make it as simple as possible and closer to natural forms. There was only one problem - the dog must shoot, because it is still a fighting pet. Without thinking twice, I chose the easiest way to solve the problem: mini-machine guns embedded in the body, which simply appear from the back during the fighting. This decision is due to the fact that it was necessary to preserve the “elegant” design of the pet, without making it heavier (which would certainly have happened if I hung on a doggun rocket launcher-machine gun). And even in combat, the pet looked quite ergonomic.
I added the light elements on the chest only to support the design of the main characters' armor. The irony is that the design of the armor did not end up in the game, but the robo-dog entered almost unchanged (like the terraformer, by the way).
When the character design is ready, it is sent for approval. Usually, the art director deals with the design approval, but we did not have this position on the project, and all the art went to the project manager for approval. Sometimes the design is accepted immediately, sometimes you can draw 10-20 sketches, or even more, until, finally, you will not “grind” the desired one. Fortunately, this time there were no problems with the agreement.
The head approved the dog and gave the task to make a run-in of the pet for the modelers so that they could make a 3D model without any problems. What I did:
After some time, I received such a short video clip in which the dog, named Fido (no, not the network, but Sharik in English), appeared in all its three-dimensional glory.
I was delighted. One of the happiest moments in the life of a 2D artist is to see how the fruit of your imagination acquires "flesh", and even without any distortions.
Animated evolution
In December 2012, I was given the task to draw the character avatar of Fido. Since the dates were minimal and there was no time to draw from scratch, I requested a render to do an overprint.
It works like this. I draw a quick sketch in Photoshop to mark the pose of the doggie and send it to the modeling department. They put the 3D model at the right angle for me. It's simple, and looks like this:
The resulting picture-render has to be refined. The result of such processing can be seen, for example, here:
After receiving the render, I suddenly saw that my original design was slightly modified. I expressed my bewilderment in a picture with the eloquent name “wtfdog”, which I sent to the modeling department.
It turned out that the design was changed because of the animations. Since I have nothing to do with animations, I took the word, especially since the edits were not critical, and I was ready to put up with them.
In general, it is very rare that the final 3D model fully complies with the original concept. First, the development of the game is a team work, and each participant tries to bring something different into the game. Modelers are also creative people, and often add something from themselves to the character's image. Secondly, there are some technical problems associated with the development. For example, sometimes the character's design simply needs to be changed in order for the model to work normally (including animation) in the game. Usually we try to find a compromise, especially when the arguments of one of the parties are valid.
War for the dog's skin
The next task is to draw a loading screen for the game. The pattern was repeated. I drew a quick sketch (the dog was sitting on the box with its head tilted to the side) and requested a render. I got this picture here:
About ____ about
To say that I was in shock means to say nothing. My high-tech, brilliant, elegant dog turned into something dirty, green, pokotsannoe and collected from the garbage in the nearest garbage. As a result, I achieved that the old render obtained in December was used for the loading screen. For comparison - here is the final version of the boot screen:
Despite the fact that I performed the current task, I had no moral right to tolerate the presence of this greenish-dirty nightmare in the game. The fact is that all this untidiness and punctuality may have looked good in the entourage of the “Evolution” post-apocalyptic world, but it went against the history of the game. Fido CAN'T look like the image I received.
Therefore, I did not leave it and continued to bludgeon. On the classic confrontation "Conceptter VS Modeler" and the return of the previous type of dog took a month. As a result, Fido made a new texture. It was already too late to edit the geometry of the model, there was a hope that the design of the dog could be “pulled out” with a little blood.
Taking the current model and "pulling" a new clean "skin" on it, we got what we wanted. Fido found the original look:
With this, my work on the dog is over, and I switched to other tasks. I am very glad that in the end the character has retained the very appearance that was born on the promoart. As I have already mentioned, earthlings have advanced devices, and Fido is literally the personification of this technological progress, therefore, there could be no talk of any kind of talk. Fortunately, my efforts were not in vain, and the little dog appeared in “ Evolution ” just the way I had conceived it.
Roman Papsuev, leading artist of the project "Evolution: Battle for Utopia"
Most of the pre-idea ideas are sent to the basket, but even in the midst of this stream, you can sometimes catch something valuable that eventually ends up in the project and comes to life in the game. Actually, this is the case in this article. I divided it into several chronological stages so that you understand that the development process is “smeared out” in time and some tasks do not have a clear time frame.
So…
Postapocalypse Pets
')
Since I was appointed as the lead artist on the Evolution project, in July 2012 I was given the task to draw the very first promoart for a future game - a quality poster, usually with game characters. Here you need to understand that the pictures taken during the pre-production (when it’s still not at all clear what the game will be about) are usually just a search for some general ideas in terms of the visual embodiment of the game - design, atmosphere, some basic things that would allow a better idea of ​​what the game should be in the end. Therefore, at the very first promoart it was necessary to portray a few simple things:
- show the main character in heavy armor;
- show the terraformer and the terraforming process itself (since then we already knew that there would be landscaping of the occupied territories in the game);
- Well, in general - to draw cool art.
There were no frames and restrictions at that time, and I was free to draw everything that came into my head. But it was necessary to do everything quickly and efficiently, while guided by those few points that I listed above.
Creation of characters is an interesting process in itself, and it’s really fun to create heroes for a new project. The result was this picture:
Since I am self-taught, for me, every picture is a way not only to make an interesting art, but also, as they say, “to pump skills”. In this picture, I was mastering new photoshop brushes to paint all kinds of greenery - trees, bushes, leaves, flowers, bindweed, etc.
I will not describe in detail the process of drawing (this is a separate and very extensive topic). I will tell you about only one element of this picture - about the dog.
The dog came out of nowhere. Tasks for it was not. But I knew that we would have pets in the game. In order to dilute the brutality of the heroes and the general gloom of the post-apocalypse, I decided to add some “nyashny” and “mimimish” element to the picture. Therefore, I immediately planned that I would draw some small robot.
Another thing is that you could draw a million robots, of any shapes and proportions. I was inclined to make a pet based on a real animal, since players usually perceive “unknown crap” badly. So, thinking about the future design of the pet, I turned to my girlfriend:
- Here it is necessary to draw a pet. Whom do you think?
“The dog,” she answered without thinking.
Why not a cat - I do not know. Seals at that time were very popular on the Internet. Perhaps my girlfriend is a “dog person” (a person who loves dogs more than cats). I liked the idea, and I decided to design a little dog. Mentally, I christened her Claudi, in honor of my own dog.
So, I started designing a new, “fun” character. Since, in the story of the game, technology of earthlings who arrived on Utopia must be advanced, it was necessary to make the dog high-tech. By the way, in the game "Territory-2", on which I once worked, there was also a robo-dog, but, frankly, it was not very pleasant:
I quickly sketched a couple of concepts, not bothering with the technique and quality of rendering, just to understand which way to go. It was obvious that it was necessary to make streamlined shapes and light elements, because now it is an archetypical sign of high technology.
When you make up a character, you need to think not only about the overall design, but also about some kind of basic functionality, so that you can believe in your imagination. Therefore, while working, I try to think about what works and how (although, without going into details, since the time for game artists is always limited). For example, I immediately decided to make a little dog on my head a screen for eyes and nose. It is the screen, and not, say, stationary eyepiece-lenses. Why? Because I wanted to on the screen, Claudy could show some kind of emotion. Plus, by the time the idea to make her two basic state - rest and aggression. Their indicator was two colors - blue (peace) and red (aggression).
I developed a general design very quickly, trying to make it as simple as possible and closer to natural forms. There was only one problem - the dog must shoot, because it is still a fighting pet. Without thinking twice, I chose the easiest way to solve the problem: mini-machine guns embedded in the body, which simply appear from the back during the fighting. This decision is due to the fact that it was necessary to preserve the “elegant” design of the pet, without making it heavier (which would certainly have happened if I hung on a doggun rocket launcher-machine gun). And even in combat, the pet looked quite ergonomic.
I added the light elements on the chest only to support the design of the main characters' armor. The irony is that the design of the armor did not end up in the game, but the robo-dog entered almost unchanged (like the terraformer, by the way).
When the character design is ready, it is sent for approval. Usually, the art director deals with the design approval, but we did not have this position on the project, and all the art went to the project manager for approval. Sometimes the design is accepted immediately, sometimes you can draw 10-20 sketches, or even more, until, finally, you will not “grind” the desired one. Fortunately, this time there were no problems with the agreement.
The head approved the dog and gave the task to make a run-in of the pet for the modelers so that they could make a 3D model without any problems. What I did:
After some time, I received such a short video clip in which the dog, named Fido (no, not the network, but Sharik in English), appeared in all its three-dimensional glory.
I was delighted. One of the happiest moments in the life of a 2D artist is to see how the fruit of your imagination acquires "flesh", and even without any distortions.
Animated evolution
In December 2012, I was given the task to draw the character avatar of Fido. Since the dates were minimal and there was no time to draw from scratch, I requested a render to do an overprint.
It works like this. I draw a quick sketch in Photoshop to mark the pose of the doggie and send it to the modeling department. They put the 3D model at the right angle for me. It's simple, and looks like this:
The resulting picture-render has to be refined. The result of such processing can be seen, for example, here:
After receiving the render, I suddenly saw that my original design was slightly modified. I expressed my bewilderment in a picture with the eloquent name “wtfdog”, which I sent to the modeling department.
It turned out that the design was changed because of the animations. Since I have nothing to do with animations, I took the word, especially since the edits were not critical, and I was ready to put up with them.
In general, it is very rare that the final 3D model fully complies with the original concept. First, the development of the game is a team work, and each participant tries to bring something different into the game. Modelers are also creative people, and often add something from themselves to the character's image. Secondly, there are some technical problems associated with the development. For example, sometimes the character's design simply needs to be changed in order for the model to work normally (including animation) in the game. Usually we try to find a compromise, especially when the arguments of one of the parties are valid.
War for the dog's skin
The next task is to draw a loading screen for the game. The pattern was repeated. I drew a quick sketch (the dog was sitting on the box with its head tilted to the side) and requested a render. I got this picture here:
About ____ about
To say that I was in shock means to say nothing. My high-tech, brilliant, elegant dog turned into something dirty, green, pokotsannoe and collected from the garbage in the nearest garbage. As a result, I achieved that the old render obtained in December was used for the loading screen. For comparison - here is the final version of the boot screen:
Despite the fact that I performed the current task, I had no moral right to tolerate the presence of this greenish-dirty nightmare in the game. The fact is that all this untidiness and punctuality may have looked good in the entourage of the “Evolution” post-apocalyptic world, but it went against the history of the game. Fido CAN'T look like the image I received.
Therefore, I did not leave it and continued to bludgeon. On the classic confrontation "Conceptter VS Modeler" and the return of the previous type of dog took a month. As a result, Fido made a new texture. It was already too late to edit the geometry of the model, there was a hope that the design of the dog could be “pulled out” with a little blood.
Taking the current model and "pulling" a new clean "skin" on it, we got what we wanted. Fido found the original look:
With this, my work on the dog is over, and I switched to other tasks. I am very glad that in the end the character has retained the very appearance that was born on the promoart. As I have already mentioned, earthlings have advanced devices, and Fido is literally the personification of this technological progress, therefore, there could be no talk of any kind of talk. Fortunately, my efforts were not in vain, and the little dog appeared in “ Evolution ” just the way I had conceived it.
Roman Papsuev, leading artist of the project "Evolution: Battle for Utopia"
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/210960/
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